Sunday, June 2
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – Solemnity
Roman Ordinary calendar
Book of Exodus 24,3-8.
When Moses came to the people and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the LORD has told us.”
Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and, rising early the next day, he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD,
Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls; the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.”
Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.”
Psalms 116(115),12-13.15-16.17-18.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant; the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Letter to the Hebrews 9,11-15.
Brothers and sisters: when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,
he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.
For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 14,12-16.22-26.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”‘
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”
The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274)
Franciscan, Doctor of the Church
Bonaventure on the Eucharist, Discussion 8
This prodigious mystery of the Eucharist
When you approach the table of the heavenly banquet, “examine yourself,” according to the advice of the Apostle (1 Cor 11:28). Consider carefully with what faith you approach. (…) First see what faith you must have in the truth and nature of this Sacrament of the Eucharist. You must believe firmly and without doubt what the Catholic faith teaches and proclaims: at the moment when the words of Christ are pronounced, the material and visible bread in some way pays homage to the Creator and makes way, under the visible appearance accidents, to the living Bread which comes down from heaven for the minister and sacramental service. Material bread ceases to exist and, at the same moment, beneath its accidents, several things truly exist in a prodigious and ineffable way.
First the very pure flesh and the sacred body of Christ, which were generated by the operation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the glorious Virgin Mary, suspended on the cross, deposited in the sepulcher and glorified in heaven. Since the flesh does not live deprived of blood, this precious blood, which flowed on the cross for the salvation of the world, is also necessarily present there. And as there is no true man without a reasonable soul, the glorious soul of Jesus Christ, who surpasses in grace and glory all virtue, all glory and all power, in whom “rest all the treasures of divine wisdom” (Col 2:3), is itself present. Finally, since Christ is true man and true God, God is there in the glory of his majesty.
Together and distinguished from each other, these four realities are found whole and perfectly contained under the species of bread and wine; both in the chalice and in the host and no less in one than in the other, so that nothing is lacking in one which must be supplied in the other, and everything is found in each of the two by a mystery “about which we would have many things to say” (cf. Heb 5:11). But it is enough to believe that each species contains the true God and Man, surrounded by the help of Angels and the presence of Saints.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
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