Devotion for today: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

Novena Honoring the Body and Blood of Christ

I thank You, Jesus, my Divine Redeemer, for coming upon the earth for our sake, and for instituting the adorable Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist in order to remain with us until the end of the world.

I thank You for hiding beneath the Eucharistic species Your infinite majesty and beauty, which Your Angels delight to behold, so that I might have courage to approach the throne of Your Mercy.

I thank You, most loving Jesus, for having made Yourself my food, and for uniting me to Yourself with so much love in this wonderful Sacrament that I may live in You.

I thank You, my Jesus, for giving Yourself to me in this Blessed Sacrament, and so enriching it with the treasures of Your love that You have no greater gift to give me.

I thank You not only for becoming my food but also for offering Yourself as a continual sacrifice to Your Eternal Father for my salvation.

I thank You, Divine Priest, for offering Yourself as a Sacrifice daily upon our altars in adoration and homage to the Most Blessed Trinity, and for making amends for our poor and miserable adorations.

I thank You for renewing in this daily Sacrifice the actual Sacrifice of the Cross offered on Calvary, in which You satisfy Divine justice for us poor sinners.

I thank You, dear Jesus, for having become the priceless Victim to merit for me the fullness of heavenly favors. Awaken in me such confidence in You that their fullness may descend ever more fruitfully upon my soul.

I thank You for offering Yourself in thanksgiving to God for all His benefits, spiritual and temporal, which He has bestowed upon me.

In union with Your offering of Yourself to Your Father in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, I ask for this special favor: (Mention your request). If it be Your holy Will, grant my request. Through You I also hope to receive the grace of perseverance in Your love and faithful service, a holy death, and a happy eternity with You in Heaven. Amen.

O Lord, You have given us this Sacred Banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of His Passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

You have given them bread from Heaven.
Having all sweetness within.

Let us pray. God our Father, for Your glory and our salvation You appointed Jesus Christ eternal High Priest. May the people He gained for You by His Blood come to share in the power of His Cross and Resurrection by celebrating His Memorial in this Eucharist, for He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.

O Jesus, since You have left us a remembrance of Your Passion beneath the veils of this Sacrament, grant us, we pray, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Your Body and Blood that we may always enjoy the fruits of Your Redemption, for You live and reign forever. Amen. (http://www.wf-f.org/CorpusChristi.html)



Devotion for today: the power of Christ’s blood

Scripture for meditation: I Peter 1:18
…realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct… not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a spotless, unblemished lamb.

Scripture for reflection: Exodus 12:21-23

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.  Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.  When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

St. John Chrysostom tells us: If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. Sacrifice a lamb without blemish, commanded Moses, and sprinkle its blood on your doors. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ. It you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance, and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of Baptism, and blood- of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it...Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam… As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death. Do you understand, then how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish, with his own blood, those to whom he himself has given life. (Taken from Christian Prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours)

Prayer: "PRAYER OF VICTORY IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS" by George Jerome Ume (Papua, New Guinea)

I praise the wounds and the blood of the Lamb that heals the weakness of my body, that heals the weakness of my soul, that heals the weakness of my spirit!
Praise be to the blood of the Lamb in His forgiving power, in His cleansing power, in His releasing power, in His victorious power, in His renewing power, in His protecting power.
For him who believes in the power of the blood of Jesus, nothing is impossible.
I praise the blood of the Lamb that covers all my sins so that they can no longer be seen, that cleanses me from all my sins and makes me white as snow, that has power to free me from all my bondages and chains of sin, that is stronger than my own sin-infested blood and remolds me into the image of God, that is victorious over all powers that seek to oppress me, over every power of the enemy, that protects me from all the crafty attacks of the enemy, that prepares for me the bridal garment.
I praise the blood of the Lamb that makes all things new. Hallelujah! Amen. http://www.catholic-prayer-life.com/prayer-of-victory-in-the-blood-of-jesus.html

My thoughts: As we end our reflections on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, it is important to remember that Christ referenced the Jewish belief that blood meant life. He broke the bread, the sign of his body being broken on the cross, and he gave it to them, as he gives us his body today. The blood that flowed from his side was his life and he gives us that life in the Eucharist. “Eat my body, drink my blood” means “Allow me to enter you”. As the blood of the lamb protected the Israelites from death, so too does the blood of the Lamb of God protect and deliver us from eternal death. We see in our prayer today that no evil and no sin can stand up to the blood of the Lamb. Allow yourself to believe that the Eucharist has turned your garments into the bridal garments, and you have been made new. Christ waits for you to give you life. Let Him in, and love Him in return.

Devotion for today: Peace from the Lord

Today Pope Benedict XVI explains “Peace” as one of the names of the Eucharistic Sacrament.

Scripture for meditation: Matthew 5:24

…leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

Scripture for reflection: Ephesians 2:14
Christ is our peace.

Pope Benedict XVI tells us: Grace and peace from God, our Father, and from Christ. This is the task of the priest and the bishop: to call into our age, again and again, the grace and peace of the Lord. This is in the first instance a quite human appeal, that we should be men of grace and of peace in our dealings with one another, that we should not be forever keeping account, that we should be capable of drawing a line under things, not thinking about unsettled accounts, not people who allow the poison of resentment to fester and spread within them, but who are capable of getting over things, of making a new start. The Greek word for “grace”, charis, derives from the word for “joy” and means at the same time rejoicing, joy and also beauty, pleasure, sympathy. Where all this is present – just for once setting aside what we could perhaps still demand; beginning again; generosity of the heart, which does not keep something stored up in some corner of our memory for bringing out later – there joy can grow, there beauty springs up, there goodness shines out into the world, and peace comes to be. Certainly, these human actions of ours and our human will are never in the end enough. And the priest is never merely a preacher of morality. He proclaims something we humans cannot give: the new reality that comes to us from God, in Christ, and that is more than just words and intentions. The early Church understood the mystery of the Eucharist as underlying the expression “peace”. “Peace” very quickly became one of the names for the Eucharistic Sacrament, for it is there that God does in fact come to meet us, that he sets us free, that, although we are debtors, guilty in his sight, he takes us in his arms, gives himself to us. And by leading us to himself, introducing us into the communion of his Body, by introducing us into the same sphere of his love, by feeding us with the same Bread, he also gives us to one another as brothers and sisters. The Eucharist is peace from the Lord. (God is Near Us, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Ignatius Press, 2003)

Prayer: Lord, who at Your first Eucharist didst pray
That all Your Church might be forever one,
Grant us that ev’ry Eucharist to say
With longing heart and soul, “Your will be done.”
O may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest sacrament of unity.

For all Your Church, O Lord, we intercede;
O make our sad divisions soon to cease;
Draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,
By drawing all to You, O Prince of Peace;
Thus may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest sacrament of unity.

We pray You too for wand’rers from Your fold;
O bring them back, good Shepherd of the sheep,
Back to the faith which saints believed of old,
Back to the Church which still that faith does keep;
Soon may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest sacrament of unity.

So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease,
May we be one with all Your Church above,
One with Your saints in one unbroken peace,
One with Your saints in one unbounded love;
More blessed still, in peace and love to be
One with the Trinity in Unity.

(William Turton, 1881)


My thoughts: I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend. She was telling me about many problems she had with people in her life. At the end of the conversation I asked her to simply let go of it all: to stop her record keeping of hurts, insults, perceived slights, and to just pray for people who offend her. I asked her if receiving Holy Communion helped her in her daily life, and she admitted that it didn’t help at all. It was just something she automatically did, but she didn’t expect anything to come of the reception of the host. Therein rests the sadness of Catholics today. They don’t expect to receive anything from the reception of Jesus in the Eucharist. Pope Benedict tells us very clearly that we must associate the Eucharist with peace. That means we must stop holding everyone accountable and let it all go. An empty vessel can receive much wine. A heart empty of record keeping can receive great peace. We must prepare for it and we must expect it. Then we must share it.

Devotion for today: if you lack joy, try saying “thank you”

We continue this week’s reflection on the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist by taking time for a meditation. Quiet yourself. If possible, stop into a church and place yourself before the Blessed Sacrament, or find solitude in your home or outside. Then begin.

Scripture for meditation: Jeremiah 31:3
“I have loved you with an everlasting love, and constant is my affection for you.”

Scripture for reflection: Luke 20:17
... But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘the
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?”

Psalm 118

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, For His love endures forever. Let the sons of Israel say: “His love endures forever. Let the sons of Aaron say, “His love endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say: “His love endures forever.”

 Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.

I called to the Lord in my distress; He answered and freed me. The Lord is at my side: I do not fear. What can man do against me? The Lord is at my side as my helper: I shall look down on my foes.

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in men: it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.
The nations all encompassed me; in the Lord’s name I crushed them. They compassed me, compassed me about; in the Lord’s name I crushed them. They compassed me about like bees; they blazed like a fire among thorns. In the Lord’s name I crushed them.

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.
I was hard-pressed and was falling, but the Lord came to help me. The Lord is my strength and my song; He is my savior. There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the just.

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.
The Lord’s right hand has triumphed; His right hand raised me. The Lord’s right hand has triumphed. I shall not die; I shall live and recount his deeds. I was punished, I was punished by the Lord; But not doomed to die.

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.
Open to me the gates of Holiness: I will enter and give thanks. This is the Lord’s own gate where the just may enter. I will thank you for you have answered and you are my savior. The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the work of the Lord, a marvel, in our eyes. This day was made by the Lord; we rejoice and are glad.

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.
O Lord, grant us salvation; O Lord, grant success. Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes. We bless you from the house of the Lord; the Lord God is our light.

Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.
Go forward in procession with branches even to the altar. You are my God, I thank you. My God, I praise you. Give thanks to the Lord for his is good; for his love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for He is good.

Meditation on Psalm 118: Psalm 118 begins by giving thanks to God for His goodness because “His love endures forever.” The love God has for us is infinitely greater than our minds can fathom, our hearts desire, our intellects imagine. One quality of God’s love is that it never changes. He is our unchangeable Friend. Because of our fickle nature, we sometimes think that God’ love for us is somehow different than before. So much has happened in our lives. There are too many sins to count; too many times we have disappointed Him to remember. In spite of anything and everything, His love for each of us is as strong and tender now as the day we were born, and the moment we were baptized in the innocence of His Spirit.

The prayer we pray together at the Sanctus before the consecration at Mass is taken from the end of this psalm: “Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes.” The Blessed Sacrament is the sign and the reality of God’s permanent, unchangeable love for man.

God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. God continues to so love the world that He continues to send us His Son, Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist. To see the Sacred Host is to cherish the words of God speaking to you now: “I have loved you with an everlasting love, and constant is my affection for you.”

There is nothing more Jesus could do to prove His love for us. To thank Him is to give Him great praise. He is the most appreciative Person who ever lived. His heart was deeply moved by the leper who returned to give Him thanks, as you have done today. Gratitude to God is joy to the soul. If we lack joy, it is because we forget all that He has done for us and all the love He has for us.

Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament continues to be the “stone rejected by the builders.” Many do not believe in His Eucharistic presence; others who do believe reject His appeal for love and personal devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, either through indifference or erroneous thinking.

Your belief and presence before Him today consoles His Heart for those who reject Him. For this reason it is all the more important that you come back and remain faithful to your holy hour; for one person like you who truly loves Him in the Eucharist can make up for many who reject Him.

(Come to Me in the Blessed Sacrament, Fr. Vincent Martin Lucia, Apostolate for Perpetual Adoration, Mt. Clemens, Michigan)

A Spiritual Communion by St. Pio of Pietrelcina Padre Pio celebrated Mass daily, and at various times during the day, he would pause and pray, making a spiritual communion.

My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to possess You within my soul. Since I am unable at this moment to receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as being already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen http://www.padrepiodevotions.org/pioprayers.asp

Devotion for today: Sweet Sacrament

Scripture for meditation: Isaiah 53:10-12
If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him. Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.

Scripture for reflection: Luke 22:19-

He broke the bread, gave it to them, and said, "This is my body, which is given up for you. "

St. Thomas Aquinas tells us: Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us forever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine. O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion. It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation. (Work on the Feast of Corpus Christi, found in Christian Prayer: the Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1976)

Prayer: Pange Lingua (English Translation), written by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZtnnHyOqSg&feature=related for the Latin chant)
Of the glorious Body telling,
O my tongue, its mysteries sing,
And the Blood, all price excelling,
Which the world's eternal King,
In a noble womb once dwelling
Shed for the world's ransoming.

Given for us, descending,
Of a Virgin to proceed,
Man with man in converse blending,
Scattered he the Gospel seed,
Till his sojourn drew to ending,
Which he closed in wondrous deed.

At the last great Supper lying
Circled by his brethren's band,
Meekly with the law complying,
First he finished its command
Then, immortal Food supplying,
Gave himself with his own hand.

Word made Flesh, by word he maketh
Very bread his Flesh to be;
Man in wine Christ's Blood partaketh:
And if senses fail to see,
Faith alone the true heart waketh
To behold the mystery.

Therefore we, before him bending,
This great Sacrament revere;
Types and shadows have their ending,
For the newer rite is here;
Faith, our outward sense befriending,
Makes the inward vision clear.

Glory let us give, and blessing
To the Father and the Son;
Honour, might, and praise addressing,
While eternal ages run;
Ever too his love confessing,
Who, from both, with both is one.

My thoughts: St. Thomas Aquinas so beautifully reminds us of the sweetness of the Eucharist. How many of us take the time to think of Jesus’ sweet love for us when we receive Holy Communion? Do we think about the fact that our sins “are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift”? The sweetness of the sacrament is the taste of the love and compassion Christ has for us. He left us himself, ours for the taking every single day, as a memorial to his passion, a force against evil, and a strength against our inner sinful inclinations. All we have to do is believe we are receiving Christ, foretold in the Old Testament as the one who would justify many by bearing their guilt.  As St. Thomas tells us in the beautiful hymn above, “And if senses fail to see, Faith alone the true heart wakens, to behold the mystery.” Have a little faith, and the Eucharist becomes the only food really necessary for “life”.

Devotion for today: Holy Fire

This week we will prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate the great feast of Corpus Christi on Sunday. We begin with a reflection from St. Faustina.

Scripture for meditation: John 6:48-51

“I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

St. Faustina tells us: “All the good in me is due to Holy Communion. I owe everything to it. I feel that this holy fire has transformed me completely. Oh, how happy I am to be a dwelling place for You, O Lord! My heart is a temple in which You dwell continually…” “All the strength of my soul flows from the Blessed Sacrament. I spend all my free moments in conversation with Him. He is my Master.” “O Lamb of God, I do not know what to admire in You first: Your gentleness, Your hidden life, the emptying of Yourself for the sake of man, or the constant miracle of Your mercy [the Eucharist], which transforms souls and raises them up to eternal life.” (Diary of St. Faustina, 1392, 1404, 1584)

Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti comments: The Church has always believed in and defended the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper and later commissioned his apostles to continue his ministry by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). In turn, the apostles ordained and commissioned bishops to continue Christ’s mission. This very same process of commissioning and ordaining has continued uninterrupted and will continue until the end of time. That unbroken connection between the apostles and today’s ordained priests is called “apostolic succession.” To priests is given the gift of consecrating ordinary bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Apostolic succession assures us that the Eucharist we receive truly is the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ – body, blood, soul and divinity. Today and every day, Jesus invites us to follow St. Faustina’s example and receive strength to lead sanctified lives from our reception of the Eucharist. Faustina wrote in her diary that if she did not receive our Lord in the Eucharist, she would “fall continually.” Just as she received all her “comfort” from Holy Communion, we can too, and we can declare along with her, “Jesus concealed in the Host is everything to me. From the tabernacle I draw strength, power, courage, and light. I would not know how to give glory to God if I did not have the Eucharist in my heart.”(Diary, 1037) (Praying with Faustina, the Word Among Us Press, 2008)

Prayer: Jesus, my Lord, my God, my all!
How can I love Thee as I ought?
And how revere this wondrous gift,
So far surpassing hope or thought?

Refrain:
Sweet Sacrament, we Thee adore!
Oh, make us love Thee more and more.
Oh, make us love Thee more and more.

2. Had I but Mary's sinless heart
With which to love Thee, dearest King,
Oh, with what ever fervent praise,
Thy goodness, Jesus, would I sing!
Refrain
3. Thy Body, Soul and Godhead, all!
O mystery of love divine!
I cannot compass all I have,
For all Thou hast and art is mine!
Refrain
4. Sound, then, His praises higher still,
And come, ye angels, to our aid;
For this is God, the very God
Who hath both men and angels made!
Refrain

My thoughts: We have so many thoughts to ponder today as we prepare for the great feast of Corpus Christi. St. Faustina reminds us that receiving Holy Communion is receiving the Holy Fire of God. As Jesus truly enters our bodies, He fills us with His passion and love for all mankind. We are to take the gift we have just received and become vessels of that fire, that passion, that love. If we are not transformed by the Eucharist, we are not fully aware of what it is we have just received. God has entered into us. Anything that God touches can never be the same. So it is with us. We must also remember today to pray for our priests, and especially, for our newly ordained priests. They must always have the Holy Fire to consecrate with reverence and passion, and to pass that fire of belief onto others. We must pray that our priests maintain their zeal and love for the Eucharist. They are the tradition and hope left to us by Christ through the Apostles. Finally, do we honestly view ourselves as “…a temple in which you dwell constantly”? Just as the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, so must we, too, be transformed into His body and blood. We must work on our ability to say to God, now that He dwells within us, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Our prayer to God: Today let us work on truly believing that although we may look the same on the outside, just as the host does, we are totally transformed by receiving Christ in the Eucharist, just as the host is transformed by the consecration of the priest. We can no longer play in the world’s playground as though we were “ordinary”. We are extraordinary – we are filled with Holy Fire!

A Hymn to the Holy Trinity

To thee, O gracious Father, we lift our loving hearts;
to us the Bread of Heaven eternal life imparts.
We thank thee for thy favor that marks us as thine own;
Lord, keep us ever faithful, who come before thy throne.
What love thou hast bestowed on us, a love which makes us free!
It cleanses us from ev'ry sin, and keeps us close to thee.

  To thee, O Christ our Savior, we come for saving grace;
we see how tender love is, by looking on thy face.
Keep us from all things hurtful by the power of thy Cross;
and help us to remember our gain comes from thy loss.
What heav'nly Food is ours, Lord, this Food which makes us free!
It fills our hearts and makes us whole, and keeps us close to thee.

To thee, O Holy Spirit, we whisper our desire;
our lives are empty vessels: Lord, fill them with thy fire.
Make us thy faithful people who seek to do thy will;
give us thy gifts of power, our empty hearts to fill.
What peace that passes ev'ry thought, that peace which makes us free!
It banishes each doubt and fear, and keeps us close to thee.

From thee, O Triune Godhead, salvation is come down;
Atonement now is given, mankind receives his crown.
In Sacrament tremendous we touch eternity;
we love thee, God our Savior: thou art our destiny.
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, our faith shall never cease!
In thee we have eternal life, and never-ending peace.

Text: Fr. Christopher G. Phillips, 1990http://www.theanglocatholic.com/2010/05/a-hymn-to-the-holy-trinity/