The 11th of June, 2023, Sunday is this year’s celebration day for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The Holy Bible verses for the Corpus Christi mass readings for this day came from the Liturgical Calendar Year 2023.
Reading 1: DT 8:2-3, 14B-16A
The first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy.
You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know, that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.
And you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know.
Responsorial Psalm: PS 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
Response: Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem!
Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem! Praise your God, Zion!
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He has blessed your children within you.
R: Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem!
He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
He sends out his commandment to the earth. His word runs very swiftly.
R: Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem!
He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his ordinances. Praise Yah!
R: Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem!
Reading 2: 1 COR 10:16-17
The second reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.
The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ?
Because there is one loaf of bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf of bread.
Sequence: "Lauda Sion"
Part 1:
Laud, O Sion, thy salvation,
Laud with hymns of exultation
Christ, thy King and Shepherd true:
Spend thyself, his honour raising,
Who surpasseth all thy praising;
Never canst thou reach his due.
Sing today, the mystery showing
Of the living, life-bestowing
Bread from heaven before thee set;
E’en the same of old provided,
Where the Twelve, divinely guided.
At the holy Table met.
Full and clear ring out thy chanting,
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting
To thy heart and soul today;
When we gather up the measure
Of that Supper and its treasure,
Keeping feast in glad array.
Lo, the new King’s Table gracing,
This new Passover of blessing
Hath fulfilled the elder rite:
Now the new the old effaceth,
Truth revealed the shadow chaseth,
Day is breaking on the night.
What he did at Supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
His memorial ne’er to cease:
And, his word for guidance taking,
Bread and wine we hallow, making
Thus our Sacrifice of peace.
This the truth to Christians given –
Bread becomes his Flesh from heaven.
Wine becomes his holy Blood.
Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Yet by faith, thy sight transcending,
Wondrous things are understood.
Yea, beneath these signs are hidden
Glorious things to sight forbidden:
Look not on the outward sign.
Wine is poured and Bread is broken,
But in either sacred token
Christ is here by power divine.
Whoso of this Food partaketh,
Christ divideth not nor breaketh:
He is whole to all that taste.
Thousands are, as one, receivers,
One, as thousands of believers,
Takes the Food that cannot waste.
Good and evil men are sharing
One repast, a oom preparing
Varied as the heart of man;
Doom of life or death awarded,
As their days shall be recorded
Which from one beginning ran.
Part 2:
When the Sacrament is broken,
Doubt not in each severed token,
Hallowed by the word once spoken,
Resteth all the true content:
Nought the precious Gift divideth,
Breaking but the sign betideth,
He himself the same abideth,
Nothing of his fullness spent.
Lo! the Angel’s Food is given
To the pilgrim who hath striven:
See the children’s Bread from heaven,
Which to dogs may not be cast;
Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its life-blood spilling.
Manna sent in ages past.
Part 3:
O true Bread, good Shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of thy love befriend us,
Thou refresh us, thou defend us,
Thine eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see;
Thou who all things canst and knowest,
Who on earth such Food bestowest,
Grant us with thy Saints, though lowest,
Where the heavenly Feast thou showest,
Fellow-heirs and guests to be.
Amen. Alleluya.
Gospel of the Day: JN 6:51-58
From the gospel scripture according to John.
“I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will also live because of me.
This is the bread which came down out of heaven-not as our fathers ate the manna and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
