This weekend we celebrate our founding fathers, Saints Peter and Paul. It is through them that Jesus gave the Church the foundations that will help us to eternal salvation. The origins of a liturgy honoring both Peter and Paul dates back to mid-sixth century Rome. The prayers we use today are based on the same ones used in that early Mass. Peter and Paul were unique in the role they were called to play in the foundation of the Church, but they did not keep their formula for greatness a secret. The Lord invites all of us to the same greatness, whatever the specifics of our mission here on earth may be and to let go of ourselves and let Jesus live in us.

Today we honor St. Peter and St. Paul.

Both are apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, but both came up in very different ways. St. Peter was a fisherman, most likely tough as nails, stubborn, profane, a gripe, and struggled with faith. St. Paul was a persecutor of Christians, proudly assailing them and dragging them off to prison. Both were Jewish, but St. Paul was a Hellenistic Jew raised in Greek culture. St. Peter personally knew Jesus, sat with Him at table, walked with Him and talked with Him. St. Peter demonstrated some of the most disappointing sides of human nature with his struggles with faith, trusting in Jesus, spirit of anger, complaining, and if that was not enough, he denied Jesus.

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi celebrates the gift of the Eucharist. It reminds us of God’s love and the unity of the Church through the Body and Blood of Christ. Corpus Christi is not merely a celebration of bread and wine. It is a proclamation that Christ has not left us hungry. He has chosen to remain with us, not as a symbol alone, but as a real presence. In every Eucharist, heaven reaches down to us as God places himself into our hands. Like those seated on the grass long ago, we too are fed by His generosity. The bread we receive is not just nourishment for the journey; it is love made touchable, a divine life shared freely.

Today marks the second of two Catechetical Sundays that occur on the tails of the Easter Season. Corpus Christi Sunday brings into focus the awe of the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, or Holy Communion. Trinity Sunday last week, solidified the awe of the presence of God among His people through the Most Holy Trinity, as three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Corpus Christi Sunday brings to focus our love of the Lord present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. It’s interesting to note that the Church places these catechetical days within the calendar because it’s important to see the Holy Mass as an opportunity to unpack the rich meaning of our faith as it pertains to some of our most profound mysteries and treasures.

Coming off the heels of the Easter Season that culminated with Pentecost Sunday, the Church now gives us the first of two consecutive catechetical Sundays to instill in us a deeper love of our faith and the teachings of the Church. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity speaks to us at the heart of God, in knowing Him at His foundation given in the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Throughout the centuries great debates have taken place over God as Three Persons, and the reality that the Sacred Trinity is a mystery and has been a mystery since the Church began to articulate it.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity which is a mystery difficult to comprehend. 5 In the readings for Trinity Sunday, Wisdom is described as being with God right from the beginning. This means that God’s wisdom was part of creating everything. God planned everything with great care and understanding and He even found delight in the human race. We can experience God’s joy by living according to His ways and enjoying what He has created because God wants us to be happy and find joy in life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY…..have you wished your fellow parishioners or people from other Catholic Parishes a happy birthday? Today is the Birthday of Our Catholic Faith.

This is Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles as tongues of fire and this event marked the birth of the Church and empowered the apostles to preach. During Pentecost, the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke in diverse languages, astonishing a multinational crowd in Jerusalem as each heard God’s words in their own tongue.

Pentecost Sunday is the culmination of the Easter Season, when our fifty-day observance comes to an end, yet we still live out our inner essence as Easter People. This aspect of the Christian faith is the core of what we believe, as we have cherished the hope, the joy, and the promise of eternal life.

Let us pray that as the Holy Spirit falls upon us this Pentecost, as we prepare our inner dwelling to be the place of welcome, to take on the inner disposition required for the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and make us holier, more faithful, and desiring of the converted life.

Traditionally the Ascension of Our Lord was held 40 days after Easter, falling on a Thursday. However in most dioceses in the United States, the observance of the Solemnity of the Ascension is moved to the following Sunday, superseding the 7th Sunday of Easter. The Ascension of the Lord celebrates Jesus’ return to heaven after His resurrection. It highlights the completion of His mission on earth and the promise of His return.

The fifty days of Easter are dedicated to the contemplation of the profound meaning of the Paschal Mystery, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In these days we commemorate with vivid meaning the “pasche” derived from Greek and Hebrew the combined mystery of the Pache or Easter event in Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, which celebrates true freedom from the bonds of slavery, as the Jews were liberated and how Christians are freed from attachment to sin and death. It’s a victory celebration really of epic proportions that moves us toward the promise of eternal life.