DAILY LITURGY

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GOSPEL and Reflections for the days below

Friday, June 4:
Ninth Friday in Ordinary Time
FIRST FRIDAY

Green vestments

First Reading: Tobit 11: 5-17
Psalms: Psalm 146: 2, 7-10
Gospel Reading: Mark 12: 35-37

First Saturday, June 5:
Feast of Saint Boniface,Bishop, Religious and Martyr
FIRST SATURDAY

Red vestments

First Reading: Tobit 12: 1, 5-15, 20
Psalms: Tobit 13: 1-2, 6
Gospel Reading: Mark 12: 38-44

      Known as the "Apostle of Germany," Saint Boniface was born in the 670's in Wessex, England. He became a Benedictine and became a missionary at the approval of Pope Gregory II who ordained him a bishop in 722 and placed him ecclesiastically in charge of Germany. His zeal and perseverance paid off in converting most of this land, producing many saintly monks and nuns. One account tells of him chopping down a huge oak tree which had been dedicated to the god Jupiter. Boniface then proceeded to use the wood from this tree to build a church dedicated to St. Peter. Pope Gregory III saw the fruits and added Bavaria and what is today Austria to Boniface's charge, making the saint an archbishop. Boniface founded numerous dioceses establishing monasteries and abbeys in each. On a trip to Holland, while waiting to confirm 52 newly-Baptized Dutch Catholics, he was murdered by a hostile troop of heathens on June 5, 755. His body was buried at the now-famous abbey in Fulda which Boniface had not only founded, but had managed to receive pontifical exemption for the monastery, a first in the history of the Church. Fulda is the site where the bishops of western Germany still convene today for synods.

June 6: SUNDAY
SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI - The Body and Blood of Jesus

White vestments

First Reading: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3, 14-16
Psalms: Psalms 147: 12-15, 19-20
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17
Gospel Reading: John 6: 51-58

      Jesus says in John 6: 48, "I am the Bread of Life." The Feast of Corpus Christi which means "The Body of Christ" is intended to glorify the Blessed Sacrament in which Jesus is present Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. For centuries the custom was to exclaim this publicly by processing through the church and often into the streets on this feast with the celebrant holding the Eucharist aloft in the sacred Monstrance for all to see and worship. Many times the procession would stop at smaller altars, especially in Europe where side altars were the norm, to offer Benediction with the final Benediction and blessing given at the main altar. This special feast was first established in 1246 by Bishop Robert de Thorote of Liege through the encouragement of Saint Juliana of Mont Cornilon and less than 20 years later in 1264 this feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Urban IV at the urging of Saint Thomas Aquinas whose deep love for the Blessed Sacrament is legendary. Thomas wrote the original office of this feast including the Sequence sung at the Mass Pange Lingua. In recent times the Feast of Corpus Christi has officially been called the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ and celebrated on the Sunday following the Feast of the Holy Trinity.

Monday, June 7:
Tenth Monday in Ordinary Time

Green vestments

First Reading: 2 Corinthians 1: 1-7
Psalms: Psalm 34: 2-9
Gospel Reading: Matthew 5: 1-12