Dear Friends,
The month of June has so many beautiful liturgical feasts: The Body and Blood of Christ, the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, and
Saints Peter and Paul. It is a month brimming with graces for the taking.
I would like to zero in on the first one, Corpus Christi. This feast does not mark an event in
the life of Christ, but a reality and tenet of our faith, the belief in the Most Holy Eucharist. As
consecrated persons the Mass is an essential part of our very being. How could we live without it?
It is the moment of deepest union with our Lord and Savior, with the one who has chosen us as
his very own.
We are called to live from Mass to Mass, that is, to make it the definition of our consecration
and mission. It encompasses all classical forms of prayer. At the
beginning and again just before receiving Communion, we express
our smallness before God as we admit we have not lived up to our
ideals. This is not a humiliating smallness but a humbling one. We
recognize we cannot fulfill our mission by ourselves.
In the readings we receive our orders for the day, so to speak,
the particular emphasis for the next 24 hours to which we say our
yes. The texts are full of petitions, formal and more informal, but
sufficient to express that we rely on God’s help in our everyday
life, for natural and supernatural needs. We place ourselves on the
paten or in the chalice to partake in our own transformation.
The Eucharistic prayer contains such beautiful expressions of
adoration and surrender, culminating in the reception of Communion when we become what we eat in the fullest sense; we
become other Christs and he relives his life in us throughout the
day. In our hearts he rules the world, he expresses compassion
through our words and deeds, he dies and resurrects in our failures
and successes. But above all, he loves the Father in us and the
Father loves his Son in us. Now that is grace!
My wish for you this summer is a greater awareness of just
how blessed we are to be children of God.
God bless you all,
Marcia Vinje
Mountaineer – Spring 2023
Dear Friends, The Gospel of John tells us: I am
