A few weeks back I had asked for prayers for a retreat I was leading on “praying with poetry.” Thank you, thank you! It was wonderful… Lovely group of about thirty - mostly women, so kudos to the men participating here!
It was a gift and blessing to prepare the material - similar to what this Substack is offering, in a structured format that progressed throughout the day. (We’re three days into summer and prepping for a long camping weekend so I don’t have the bandwidth…but will plan to share some of that content here).
You’ll recognize this content from our Lenten & Easter series, but it’s pertinent daily!
Mass Readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
This Sunday is one of the quintessential feasts - and such a perfect example of where faith and imagination intersect. A few weeks back we took our kids to the ordination of two of our diocesan seminarians (one from our home parish) to the transitional diaconate at the Cathedral in Superior, WI. Our 11-year-old told us numerous times how much she liked the taste of the communion host… I redirected her “taste buds” to remember that we believe it’s more than a wafer - that we’re not just eating a host, but that the “Host” is Jesus giving himself to us, His Body and Blood.
Without imaginative faith, the priest is doing nothing more than a play at the altar and what our physical senses see and taste is nothing more than something symbolic. But with imaginative faith, even though the Eucharist still looks and tastes like a wafer, I “know” it’s sooo much more!
In that light, the Catholic Mass liturgy includes another sequence before the Gospel. The original in Latin was written by St. Thomas Aquinas around the year 1264 in response to then-Pope Urban VI’s request.
The image below highlights this sacramental, Catholic imagination! (Here’s an article I wrote about the painting and the painter - with a link to a video with text her husband wrote.)
(translation used by the U.S. Bishops in the Corpus Christi liturgy)
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
Laud, O Zion, your salvation, Laud with hymns of exultation, Christ, your king and shepherd true: Bring him all the praise you know, He is more than you bestow. Never can you reach his due. Special theme for glad thanksgiving Is the quick'ning and the living Bread today before you set: From his hands of old partaken, As we know, by faith unshaken, Where the Twelve at supper met. Full and clear ring out your chanting, Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting, From your heart let praises burst: For today the feast is holden, When the institution olden Of that supper was rehearsed. Here the new law's new oblation, By the new king's revelation, Ends the form of ancient rite: Now the new the old effaces, Truth away the shadow chases, Light dispels the gloom of night. What he did at supper seated, Christ ordained to be repeated, His memorial ne'er to cease: And his rule for guidance taking, Bread and wine we hallow, making Thus our sacrifice of peace. This the truth each Christian learns, Bread into his flesh he turns, To his precious blood the wine: Sight has fail'd, nor thought conceives, But a dauntless faith believes, Resting on a pow'r divine. Here beneath these signs are hidden Priceless things to sense forbidden; Signs, not things are all we see: Blood is poured and flesh is broken, Yet in either wondrous token Christ entire we know to be. Whoso of this food partakes, Does not rend the Lord nor breaks; Christ is whole to all that taste: Thousands are, as one, receivers, One, as thousands of believers, Eats of him who cannot waste. Bad and good the feast are sharing, Of what divers dooms preparing, Endless death, or endless life. Life to these, to those damnation, See how like participation Is with unlike issues rife. When the sacrament is broken, Doubt not, but believe 'tis spoken, That each sever'd outward token doth the very whole contain. Nought the precious gift divides, Breaking but the sign betides Jesus still the same abides, still unbroken does remain. The shorter form of the sequence begins here. Lo! the angel's food is given To the pilgrim who has striven; see the children's bread from heaven, which on dogs may not be spent. Truth the ancient types fulfilling, Isaac bound, a victim willing, Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling, manna to the fathers sent. Very bread, good shepherd, tend us, Jesu, of your love befriend us, You refresh us, you defend us, Your eternal goodness send us In the land of life to see. You who all things can and know, Who on earth such food bestow, Grant us with your saints, though lowest, Where the heav'nly feast you show, Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.
There are multiple translations! And this is a great opportunity/exercise to see how many ways there can be to express the same idea… I encourage you to try a couple to see what resonates most with your spirit. You could even choose one a day until the Feast - like looking at difference facets of the same diamond.
Here’s a sung version of the translation above.
Another translation, with accompanying audio.
A third translation - by a 19th century Dominican - with audio/video.
One more! (Interesting how many translations… I hope you enjoy each as much as I did researching and collecting these.)

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