Today we celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. The Church has ordered the feast days following Easter - after we celebrate the Resurrection, the Ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, we have Corpus Christi. As the Lord ascended He declared He would be with us always, even to the end of the age, and the Eucharist is how He remains with us. Our Lord Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. At every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass He keeps His promise to stay with us always. As the Holy Father said in his address today, the Eucharist is proof that God is love. The simple explanation I have for why we attend daily Mass is this: if Our Lord Jesus is willing to come to us every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, how can we not go and receive Him?
We had a beautiful Eucharistic procession after Mass today - traffic halted, passersby stopped to watch, people came out of doorways, and rose petals were strewn on the pathway as Our Lord was carried through the streets, followed by the faithful. Josiah has put up a lovely video compilation of highlights of the procession on his blog.
O God, who under a wonderful sacrament hast left us a memorial of Thy passion, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within us the fruit of Thy redemption.
(From the Collect)