GOSPEL MEDITATION - ENCOURAGE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SCRIPTURE
June 7, 2026
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
John 6:51-58
When I was a young altar server, I once overheard two very different comments about the Eucharist. One person asked, “Is Father distributing the bread or the wine?” Later, another asked, “Can you go get Jesus from the tabernacle?” Same parish, same Mass, but two very different ways of speaking. I pondered: So, is it bread that we pretend is Jesus? Or is Jesus a tiny white thing in a box? I was utterly confused.
This Feast of Corpus Christi is an excellent time to think about how we should speak about the Eucharist. In today’s Gospel, Jesus declares: “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:55) His words scandalized his listeners, who feared cannibalism, and even today puzzle many, who reduce them to metaphor. Both miss the truth.
The Church gives us better words that honor Jesus’ words in the Gospel. After the consecration, we do not call it “bread” or “wine.” Nor do we say, “a piece of Jesus” or even “Jesus.” We say: the Eucharist. We say: the Body and Blood of Christ. We say: the Real Presence. We say: the Most Blessed Sacrament. These words safeguard the astonishing reality that Christ himself is truly present, whole and entire, under the appearances of bread and wine.
If we speak well about the Eucharist, we will think more clearly and believe more deeply. And if we believe more deeply, we will adore more truly the One who gives himself to us — not bread, not wine, but Jesus Christ himself, whole and entire.
— Father John Muir
PRAYER – FOR EVERYDAY AND EVERYBODY
Corpus Christi Prayer
O Precious Jesus, The gift of your Body and Blood, shared with us, is unfathomable.
Like manna that satiated our hunger, fill us where we lack.
Like the bread given to Elijah in the desert, sustain us.
Grace us with a glimpse into your love for us,
now and forever, present in the Eucharist. Amen
(PRACTICING) CATHOLIC - RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
By Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman
True Food
Like most millennial women, I have a bizarre relationship with food.
I’m so busy and distracted that most days, I forget to eat — until nighttime, when I make some very questionable decisions, usually involving cake. I also came of age in a time when any woman without a visible eating disorder was labeled as “curvy” (and curvy was understood by everyone to be A Very Bad Thing). Thus, I have a deep feeling of shame whenever I do eat, even when I am hungry, and even when it’s something good for me.
I’m so messed up when it comes to food that I often wonder if I even have a good point of reference for understanding the Eucharist. What is “true food” and “true drink,” when you live in a society where bodily nourishment is so plentiful — at least for certain fortunate people like me — that we reject it out of pride, that we feel a shame for needing it, and that we use it as a balm for feelings of boredom, pain, and fear?
But I suppose there’s no better way to understand the Eucharist, when you really think about it. The Israelites survived on manna from Heaven — what they would have given for a grocery store. What they would have given for redemption.
I am given both. I appreciate neither to the extent that I should.
True food, true nourishment, true life — physical and spiritual — these are things we all desperately want. And so many of us have them. But our ability to understand what they mean — well, it’s hampered. This isn’t Eden, after all.
We are reading a book missing half its pages, singing a harmony missing half its parts. We stumble forward, knowing that the fullness can come, will come — one day.
If we keep trying.
WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS PARISH
Our Mission Statement:
We, the North American Martyrs Parish, a strong community of faith, Nourished by the Holy Eucharist, Guided by the Holy Spirit and Trusting in the grace of God, Dedicate ourselves to live God’s Word and Let the light of Christ shine through our Community. We strive to provide sound religious formation for people of all ages; To care for the spiritual, social well-being of one another With particular attention to the stranger and the poor in our midst.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ John 20:21
Recipients of The Catholic Women's Club Scholarship Fund
Ian Thompson - Colebrook Senior
Sienna Grondin - Canaan Senior
Alexis Santamaria - Colebrook Senior
Diane Little presenter
Fr Kyle Stanton and Fr Criag Cheney
Upcoming Events
MAKE PLANS TO JOIN US AT ONE OF OUR CEMETERIES ON July 1ST AT 6PM AS WE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOULS OF OUR LOST ONES.
ST ALBERT ST BRENDAN ST PIUS X
