Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ
Call to worship
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. God’s promise to love us has lasted since the beginning of time. Jesus became our nourishment and our healing so that we could learn how to give ourselves to others.
- To the point: “Eat the Passover.” Jesus clearly gives us his Body and Blood to eat and drink in the context of his ultimate passing over from death to life. His gift of the Eucharist is an ongoing expression of this total gift of self. We who partake of his Body and Blood also participate in his Passover. In the Eucharist we both give over our lives and receive back fullness of Life.
- Connecting the Gospel (Mark 14:12-26) to the second reading: Once the people hear the words, understand them and commit themselves to the covenant, Moses sprinkles them with “the blood of the covenant.” This ritual gesture suggests that any violation of the covenant brings death; it is also a reminder that all life is in God’s hands.
- Connecting the Gospel to experience: When a couple offers one another the gift of self-expressed love in marriage vows, they pass over together into a new way of relating and being. Old ways must die. New life is experienced. Eucharist is Jesus’ ongoing gift of self to us, through which we continually pass over from old ways of being to new life.
Centering prayers
The Gospel
(Luke 9: 11b-17)
They all ate and were satisfied.
Christ, you come to us, and because we are all broken,
you were broken. You bless us (and our brokenness)
beyond all telling. You do not leave us.
You stay, and you sustain us with vital food.
Grace becomes like loaves and fishes.
You lavish love prodigally on us
each time you come to us.
You make us one, since you are
our very food and drink. Let us
give your love to each other.
The First Reading
(Genesis 14: 18-20)
In those days, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
Melchizedek carried bread and wine to Abram.
Jesus, you bring your body and blood,
in the shape of bread and wine, to our table.
Loaves and fishes, body and blood.
You are love in abundance.
The Second Reading
(I Corinthians 11: 23-26)
This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
Jesus, what is “this” in “Do ‘this’ in memory of me?”
Should we recall your infinite love
when we break the bread and drink the wine?
And your laying down your life for us?
Would you have us lay down
our lives with you for each other? Lord, show us.
Copyright © 2022, Anne M. Osdieck
Music for reflection