Corpus Christi

This weekend is Saturday the 13th of June, the feast of St Anthony of Padua and Sunday 14th of June, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, beginning the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time.  

The Convivium Singers, conducted by Eamonn Dougan sing The Real Presence. Lord present in the wine and bread, stay with me Lord when I am fed.  

Today’s reading is from the Book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16

Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good.

This reading describes how God guided his people in difficult times, leading them from slavery to freedom, not by an easy route, but through wilderness and hunger and danger.  When you look back on your life, can you see how God may have done the same for you? - leading you in the right direction, but in ways that may not have been pleasant or easy?    

"One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." - When has the word of God been food for you?  Can you think of some particular time when God had something to say to you, in the scriptures or in some other way, that was feeding and nourishing for you?

As you hear the reading again, imagine that this is your own life being recounted here.  When it speaks of you hungering, of the wilderness, of the snakes and scorpions, and of God giving you food and water, what images from your memory come to mind?  

Speak to God now about where you have experienced his guidance and loving care in your life.  You might want to give thanks for that. You might want to ask his help to see more clearly how and where he is leading you now.