Having celebrated the special Solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity and the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ these past two weekends, this Sunday we return to the Ordinary Time Sundays for the remainder of our Church’s Liturgical Year, which ends on November 20th with the celebration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. “Ordinary Time” gets its name both from the fact that there are no special or particular liturgical celebrations or seasons for the remainder of the year, and because we count these weeks with “ordinal” numbers. Our liturgical color for our vestments is green – a color that dominates our landscape through summer into fall. Click the title for more.

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (also known by its Latin name: Corpus Christi). This feast was introduced into the Church in the Thirteenth Century during a time when the legitimacy of the doctrine of the Real Presence (that Jesus is truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist) was being questioned. A priest traveling from Prague on a pilgrimage to had stopped in the town of Bolsena, Italy to celebrate Mass. As he was elevating the host during the consecration, the host suddenly appeared in a visible way as true flesh, sprinkled with red blood. This Eucharistic miracle inspired Pope Urban IV, who investigated and approved its legitimacy, to institute the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264, commissioning Thomas Aquinas to compose prayers and music to celebrate the feast. The hymns, Tantum Ergo and O Salutaris that we use even today for Eucharistic Adoration, are among the fruits of Aquinas’ work in response to the Pope’s request. Click the title to read more.

Last weekend, Pentecost marked the end of the Easter Season, returning us to the liturgical season known as “Ordinary Time.” (See the column elsewhere in the bulletin that explains this more fully). Yet these next two Sundays, which follow Pentecost, are not simply Sundays of Ordinary Time, but have special significance as Solemnities of the Lord.

What is the meaning and purpose behind the Pentecost Sequence that follows the Second Reading? Sequences were chants in the form of liturgical poems used as hymns of joy following the final note of the Alleluia. At one time in our church’s liturgical history there were over 5,000 in existence. Most were abolished at the Council of Trent, and in our post-Vatican II Liturgy only four survive. Two are optional: for Corpus Christi (Lauda Sion) and Our Lady of Sorrows (Stabat Mater – the text of which is still used in the traditional song for Stations of the Cross); and two remain obligatory: the Easter Sequence (Victimae Paschali Laudes) and the Pentecost Sequence (Veni, Sancte Spiritus) which we hear in today’s Mass. They also now precede the Alleluia instead of concluding it. Click the title to read more.