June 11, 2023
Corpus Christi Sunday
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
For the past few years, we’ve been working on building the first perpetual adoration chapel in Manhattan. We’re about to open the chapel! Cardinal Dolan will be here on July 30th to celebrate the opening blessing of the chapel. We’ll keep you informed as the date approaches. Also, we’re about to start signups for adoration slots. The hope is to have to people every hour of the day adoring our Lord. So please consider taking an hour adoration slot each week. Information about how to sign up will be coming soon.
This Friday our summer Thomistic Institute lecture series concludes. Fr. Thomas More Garrett OP will speak about workplace ethics in a talk entitled: “Moral Limbo in the workplace: How Low Can I Go?” Fr. Thomas More teaches at the business school at Providence College and practiced law before entering the Dominicans; it should be a great talk. You can register for the event through the QR code in the bulletin or on the webpage.
God Bless,
Fr. Boniface
Mass Tidbit:
The Roman Canon, or First Eucharistic Prayer, begins with a rather long sentence. The priest prays: “To you, therefore, most merciful Father, we make humble prayer and petition through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord:” This first part of that sentence declares what we’re doing: the priest is praying to God the Father through Christ the High Priest. Christ links us to the Father because He is the Father’s Son and our Lord, thus Christ is the bridge between us and God.
The priest continues: “that you accept and bless these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices”. The prayer we are making to the Father is a sacrifice of the gifts we have placed on the altar, the bread and wine that later during the Eucharistic Prayer will become Christ’s Body and Blood. The priest, while saying this part of the prayer, makes the sign of the Cross over the gifts, signifying the sacrifice of the Cross which will be present to us during the sacrifice of the Mass.
This first sentence of the prayer concludes: “which we offer you firstly for your holy catholic Church.” Thus we declare for whom we first of all are offering this sacrifice: for the Body of Christ, the Church. That includes us.
