My LORD’s BibleThe Roman Missal: Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi (English) 2
1[The Solemnity of Corpus Christi.]
3Prayer. Deus qui nobis. O God, who in this wonderful sacrament has left us a memorial of thy passion, grant us, we beseech thee, so to reverence the sacred mysteries of thy body and blood, that we may ever perceive within us the fruit of thy redemption. Who livest, &c.
4Epistle. 1 Cor. xi. 23—29. Brethren, I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, brake and said, Take ye and eat; this is my body which shall be delivered for you; this do for the commemoration of me. In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying, This chalice is the new testament in my blood; this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me. For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink this chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord until he come. Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink of the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself; and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.
5Gradual. The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord, and thou givest them meat in due season. Thou openest thy hand, and fillest every living creature with thy blessing. Alleluia, alleluia. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed: he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.
6[Sequence.]
8All words of thine but feebly tell / Thy God's transcendant worth; / Yet let thy loud rejoicings swell, / And reach the ends of earth.
9A glorious theme of endless praise, / True and life-giving bread / To ravished souls this day displays, / And calls them to be fed.
10That bread which he who came to save, / To his assembled few / At that blest table fondly gave / Before his last adieu.
11Let holy joy proclaim us blest, / Let every heart rejoice; / And be our minds' delight expressed, / With loud and grateful voice.
13This table of our heavenly King, / And pasch of his new law, / An end to former things shall bring, / Which ancient fathers saw.
15What Christ that night at table did, / The same he bid us do; / That we, in sweet remembrance hid, / His love might ever view:
16Taught by that ordinance of love, / Religion's holiest rite, / The victim given us from above / We offer in his sight.
18Thou dost not see, nor understand, / But God's high word is sure, / On his firm promise and command / Thy faith shall build secure.
19Beneath each outward form and sign / A nobler substance lies / Than mortal wisdom could divine, / Concealed from human eyes:
20His flesh is meat, and drink his blood, / And Christ is found entire / Beneath each symbol for our food, / To fill the heart's desire.
21When faithful souls their God receive, / He is not bruised nor slain: / Entire and perfect we believe / His body to remain.
22He is not broken when we break / The outward form of bread, / Nor less if thousands shall partake, / Than when but one is fed.
23The virtuous and the reprobate / Receive his food below; / But how unlike their future fate / Of endless life or wo!
24Though one on earth appears their course, / Till they resign their breath, / The good here find life's purest source, / The wicked find their death.
25When broken is the outward sign, / Firm let thy faith remain, / For all thy Saviour's flesh divine / Each part will still contain:
26The substance is unbroken still, / The sign alone we part; / And Christ beneath each fragment will / Come perfect to thy heart.
27Behold the bread of angels made / The pilgrims' pure repast: / The children's bread, for them displayed, / Must not to dogs be cast.
31Gospel. St John vi. 56—59. At that time, Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth this bread shall live for ever.
32[Credo.]
33Offertory. The priests of the Lord offer incense and loaves to God, and therefore they shall be holy to their God, and shall not defile his name. Alleluia.
34Secret. We beseech thee, O Lord, favourably grant to thy Church the gifts of unity and peace, which are mystically designed beneath the gifts we offer. Through our Lord, &c.
35[Preface, Quia per incarnati, page 15, which is said throughout the Octave.]
36Communion. As often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew forth the death of the Lord, until he come: therefore whosoever shall eat this bread or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Alleluia.
37Postcom. Fac nos. Grant us, we beseech thee, O Lord, to be filled with the everlasting enjoyment of thy divinity, which is prefigured by the temporal reception of thy precious body and blood. Who livest, &c.
38[When this Mass is repeated during the Octave, the Second Prayer is of the B. Virgin, Concede nos; as page LXXIII: and the Third, Ecclesiæ tuæ, or Deus omnium, as page 39.]