Ave Maria!

Once a year, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate take the Good News to the streets, literally as it were, as they process Our Blessed Lord through New Bedford, Massachusetts, on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The procession begins downtown at Our Lady’s Chapel and winds through the city to 3 different churches before finishing again at the friar’s chapel. This year we had wonderful weather and a wonderful turnout of approximately 275 faithful souls.

This video condenses the 3+ hour procession down to 17 minutes and features beautiful music of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration (Mother Angelica’s nuns), the Northern RI Sancte Ceciliae (a homeschool family from Rhode Island), and songs of benediction from the various churches we and Our Lord visited on our journey.

Ave Maria!

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Homily #080525 ( 21min) Play – On the Solemnity of Corpus Christi Fr. Angelo Geiger preaches on the need to give thanks to Christ for having made the sacrifice of His body for our Redemption and for His real presence in the true Bread from Heaven. Father outlines the place this Eucharistic feast holds in the History of the Church and in the Liturgical Calander of each year, which he then relates to the life-long, spiritual development of each individual Christian and finally in the the context of each an every Mass and so places the Eucharist at the very heart of human experience.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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The post May 25 – Homily – Fr Angelo: Corpus Christi first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #080530 ( 12min) Play – The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus has always been connected with the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. It is exactly in the Blessed Sacrament that we find God’s Love for us, that we find the Wounded, Victim Love of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Ave Maria! Mass readings +++

The post May 30 – Homily – Fr Angelo: The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #090611 ( 08min) Play – The Feast of Corpus Christi, or the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (as it is often called today), goes back to the 13th century, but it celebrates something far older: the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion at the Last Supper. While Holy Thursday is also a celebration of this mystery, the solemn nature of Holy Week, and the focus on Christ’s Passion on Good Friday, overshadows that aspect of Holy Thursday.

Thus, in 1246, Bishop Robert de Thorete of the Belgina diocese of Liège, at the suggestion of St. Juliana of Mont Cornillon (also in Belgium), convened a synod and instituted the celebration of the feast. From Liège, the celebration began to spread, and, on September 8, 1264, Pope Urban IV issued the papal bull “Transiturus,” which established the Feast of Corpus Christi as a universal feast of the Church, to be celebrated on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday.

At the request of Pope Urban IV, St. Thomas Aquinas composed the office (the official prayers of the Church) for the feast. This office is widely considered one of the most beautiful in the traditional Roman Breviary (the official prayer book of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours), and it is the source of the famous Eucharistic hymns “Pange Lingua Gloriosi” and “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum.”

For centuries after the celebration was extended to the universal Church, the feast was also celebrated with a eucharistic procession, in which the Sacred Host was carried throughout the town, accompanied by hymns and litanies. The faithful would venerate the Body of Christ as the procession passed by. In recent years, this practice has almost disappeared, though some parishes still hold a brief procession around the outside of the parish church. -Scott P. Richert

Ave Maria!

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The post Jun 11 – Homily – Fr Ignatius: Corpus Christi first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #090614 ( 21min) Play – On this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, Fr. Angelo Geiger explains how much we should give thanks to God for the Eucharist which re-presents to us His bodily sacrifice on Calvary. This sacrifice is the greatest thing ever done by God including all His works of creation and His miracles.
Ave Maria! Mass readings

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The post Jun 14 – Homily – Fr Angelo: Corpus Christi, Let us Give Thanks first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Homily #090614t ( 10min) Play – Corpus Christi 2009 Let us be less consumed with ourselves and this material world, and more consumed with Him.

Ave Maria! Mass readings

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The post Fi-News – Corpus Christi Procession New Bedford first appeared on AirMaria.com.

My Jesus, I long ardently
For you to come to me this day;
Without you life is misery.
Come to me soon, I pray.

Without the fervor that you bring,
O Love, I languish night and day;
And do you not desire my love?
Inflame my heart, I pray.

Good Shepherd, bear your lost sheep home
Within your arms, when e’er I stray;
From ravening wolves that round me roam
O keep me safe, I pray.

O Bread of Life, for you I sigh,
Give me yourself without delay;
For otherwise my soul must die.
Give me to eat, I pray.

O fount of living waters clear,
How long and weary is the way;
Refresh my soul which thirsts for you.
Give me to drink, I pray.

O loving Lord, my soul is chilled
By icy winds that round me play;
O fire of love, let me be filled
With warmth from you, I pray.

Like the blind man who cried to you:
Have mercy on me, Lord, I say,
O Mary’s son, that I may see;
Increase my faith, I pray.

Lord, I am sick beyond all cure,
But with a word you can display
Your power; without you death is sure.
O heal me, Lord, I pray.

My Lord, I knock upon your door;
Your favors I can ne’er repay,
Yet in my want I beg for more.
Fulfill my needs, I pray.

I am not worthy, Lord, that you
Should come into my house today
As heavenly food; say but the word
And heal my soul, I pray.

Lord, you alone are my true friend,
My treasure which can ne’er decay;
All earthly joys do you transcend.
Do visit me this day

St. Louis Marie de Montfort

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