Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Divine Body will be celebrated at Saint Ann on Thursday, June 3^rd @ 5:30 p.m.

The Feast of the Divine Body was inspired by the Latin Church’s Feast of Corpus Christi, which was itself established by Pope Urban IV in the year 1264. It became popular among the Melkites, particularly in the eighteenth century at the time of Patriarch Maximos II Hakeem. Patriarch Maximos III Mazloum later added it to the Pentecostarion in the 1840s.  

In this feast we honor our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and his giving us his Body and Blood for the remission of our sins and eternal life.

The beautiful Troparion of the Feast recalls the mystery of our dear Lord’s sacrifice and his gift of the Eucharist which he instituted at the Last Supper:

Christ, having loved his own, loved them until the end and gave then his body and his blood as food and drink. Therefore, let us offer them our own adoration and say with fear: “Glory to your presence, O Christ! Glory to your compassion! Glory to your condescension, for you alone are the Lover of Mankind!

“Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross and in this chalice what flowed from His side…”  

St. Augustine

“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body”‘

Matthew 26:26

“By celebrating the Last Supper with his Apostles in the course of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning. Jesus’ passing over to his Father by his Death and Resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church in the glory of the Kingdom”.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1340