The eight days that follow the Corpus Christi party are dedicated by Christians to continue the party. Here is a text for each day of the octave. The texts collect truths that faith affirms regarding the Eucharist.
BEFORE FOUR PREVIOUS IDEAS
1. If you can, try to do this time of prayer in front of a Tabernacle these eight days.
2. The text of each day is fragmented into three parts by capital letters. They are there for you to stop reading and talk to God about what you have read. And so every time.
3. Don’t forget that the important thing is that you talk to him. And that you listen to him.
4. You can start each day with the initial prayer, and end by praying the final prayer.
OPENING PRAYER
Lord, I hope in You; I adore you, I love you, increase my faith. I want you to be my support in everything: without you I can’t do anything. You have remained in the Eucharist, defenseless.
I want you to feel loved by me: for this, I will try to take care of you, accompany you, have details with you, adore you, thank you, value this madness of yours more and more…
And I want to feel loved by You: that I am happy to have you so close, that I feel accompanied, safe, loved, strengthened, understood, listened to, fed,…; Give me that gift especially these days and whenever I eat you.
CLOSING PRAYER
Choose one of these:
1. Remember the words that you directed to your servant: Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood, remains in Me and I in him. You in me and I in You! How much love! You in me, who am a poor sinner, and I in You, who are my God! One thing, and only this I seek: live in You, rest in You and never separate from You.
Inspired by Cardinal Bona
2. Love! You are very strong but at the same time I see you as very weak. Very strong, because no one can oppose you; and very weak, since a miserable creature like me defeats you, he surpasses you by calling you Love.
Sta, M. Magdalena
3. Lord, who makes us participate in the miracle of the Eucharist: we ask you not to hide, to live with us, to see you, to touch you, to feel you, to want to always be with you, to be the King of our lives and our jobs.
My Lord Jesus: make me feel, that I second your grace in such a way, that it empties my heart… so that You can fill it, my Friend, my Brother, my King, my God, my Love!
Saint Joseph Mary Escriv
4. My God, I believe, adore, hope and love you, I ask your forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you. Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore you deeply and I offer you the precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is present in all the Tabernacles of the earth, and I offer it to you, my God in reparation for the abuses, sacrileges and indifferences with which he is offended. Amen.
Prayer of the angel to the shepherds of Fatima
DAY 1 THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI
“This is my Body” (Mt 26,26)
0 octave? What is that? At parties I have a good time, I’m happy What does Corpus Christi have to do with my happiness? Today is party; Yes, a great festival for Christians. Today we pay more attention to the Sacred Host, where Jesus is. And we are celebrating because it is lucky, a gift from God to have Jesus Christ really so close, by our side; and it is lucky, a gift to see how much God loves us: to the point of remaining really and physically, under the accidents of bread and wine. God who makes bread!… to be close to me! and to feed me!
We all like, when possible, to extend the holidays. That is why, for a long time, Christians have extended this feast for eight days, hence the “Eighth” in which we strive to thank him, adore him, treat him better in the Eucharist.
One summer day while an Augustinian priest was celebrating Mass, a fly flutters around the chalice, which is uncovered. Although the priest brushes the fly away with his hand, it returns again and again to the chalice, landing on it from time to time. The fly is so insistent that it ends up distracting everyone. When the Mass ends, the priest addresses the assistants: perhaps you have been distracted, but I thought that all of us should be like that fly; seek the Blood of Christ, your closeness, over and over again, with insistence.
Tell the Lord that during these days you want to be like that fly: hover around him. And although the activities of the day take you away from him physically, may he help you bring your head towards the tabernacles many times each day. Look for him!, look for him many times in the tabernacle during these days.
Thank you, my God, for loving me so much. It is logical that you love me because I am your son. But… that you have done the madness of making yourself Bread! And how do we men treat you? how do i treat you During these eight days I will try to treat you well; Seriously, Lord, I want to visit you, adore you more,… And forgive me if until now I haven’t listened to you as I should. Thank you.
If you want, you can stay with him in communion these eight days, or attend the blessing during the eighth, or pray for a while next to a tabernacle. And of course, if it is possible for you today to accompany him in a procession… you will give him joy.
DAY 2 THE INSTITUTION.
“While they were dining, Jesus took bread and, pronouncing the blessing, broke it and, giving it to his disciples, said: Take and eat, this is my Body. And, taking the Chalice and having given thanks, he gave it to them saying: Drink all of him; for this is my blood of the new covenant” (Mt 26, 26-28).
Saint John Bosco had a special devotion to Mary Help of Christians. On the day of his party, he organized a Mass with the kids he knew with enthusiasm and a lot of effort. The Church was full of boys: six hundred, who were going to receive Communion. A large ciborium full of Hosts was prepared, which Don Bosco was going to consecrate at Mass. But the sacristan forgot to take him to the altar. Having already passed the moment of consecration, it is when he realizes that he has not taken it. Now, his distraction is hopeless. What is going to happen, sir? What disappointment will those hundreds of boys have who were squeezing in the central aisle going to receive Communion? They don’t know anything and they are arriving at the communion rail; Don Bosco doesn’t know either. He opens the tabernacle and only finds a small ciborium with a few Hosts. He looks well in the Tabernacle but he already sees that there is nothing else. Immediately he understands that his sacristan has forgotten to bring them. He raises his eyes to heaven, and says so to the Virgin:
– Madam, are you going to let your children come back without Communion?
Take the cup, and begin to give communion. And those few Hosts Multiply. The sacristan, astonished, attends the prodigy: his eyes bulged out of his sockets. When the Mass ends, he shows Don Bosco the ciborium that had been forgotten in the sacristy:
– How have you been able to give communion to everyone, with so few Hosts? It is a miracle, Mr. Don Bosco! A miracle that you have done!
-Bah! says Don Bosco indifferently. Together with the miracle of transubstantiation, which the priest works when consecrating, that of the multiplication of the Hosts is insignificant… Furthermore, Mary Help of Christians has done it.
It is true: the miracle that occurs every day in the consecration is greater than that of the multiplication of Don Bosco’s Hosts. Jesus Christ left no doubt: THIS IS MY BODY; this, which continues to look like bread, is no longer bread: it is my Body.
Transubstantiation is the miracle that occurs in the consecration: the bread ceases to be bread even though it continues to look like bread; only the substance changes, what is and is not seen.
– And how can the priest do that miracle every day? Because Jesus commanded the Apostles “Do this in memory of me” he commanded them to repeat that sacred action. And since he does not command the impossible, he gave them the power to change the bread and wine into his Body and Blood. And the Apostles conferred that priestly power on other men, and so generation after generation until today’s priests.
I believe, Jesus Christ, but help me to believe more. I want to attend Mass, starting today, with a much greater faith. Grant it to me, T. And let you know that the times I have attended with indifference, with little attention or affection, with routine hurt me. All my sins hurt me. I beg your pardon now. (You can make the resolution to look fixedly at the Body of Christ at Mass, every time the priest shows it to the assistants, especially when he raises it at the Consecration).
DAY 3 MYSTERY OF FAITH
“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in Me and I in him (..) However, there are some who do not believe (..) That is why I have told you that no one can come to Me if it were not given to you by the Father” (Jn 6, 56, 64-65)
“Hey, I don’t have faith,” a boy told me worried and upset. When asked about the cause of that unexpected statement, he replied: – Because when I’m in front of the tabernacle I don’t feel anything and I don’t just see Jesus Christ there.
No. That is not faith. Faith is not FEELING, it is NODDING to say with your head that you believe that! Faith is a gift from God by which I affirm with my head (even if I don’t see it and don’t understand it) that what God says is true; How can it not be true if he has done everything?
“The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, under such small dimensions and in so many places at the same time, seems to pose two apparent difficulties: How can a human body be present in such a small space?, and how can a human body be in several places? places at once? These difficulties, of course, are only apparent. God does it, therefore it can be done. It must be remembered that God is the author of nature, the Lord and Master of creation. The physical laws of the universe were established by God, and he can suspend his action if he wishes, without costing his infinite power an effort” (Jess Martínez, “Let’s talk about faith).
If you have done the Camino de Santiago on foot or by bicycle, when you leave the province of León and go up the port of Poio, you pass by the Chapel of Cebreiro, where a very strong tradition, corroborated by historical and archaeological sources, maintains what follows. A monk was celebrating Mass on a day of great storm: rain, wind, cold.
And a countryman from Baxamaior, a small town at the foot of that mountain, goes up the pass to hear Mass. The celebrant monk, of little faith, belittles the peasant’s sacrifice, as if thinking: how exaggerated! with time he does… and he comes to Mass from below! At the moment of consecration, the monk perceives how the Host becomes sensitive flesh in sight, and the wine from the Chalice into blood, which boils and stains the corporal with blood.
Give me, my God; a great faith I will eat the Flesh of Christ with love and frequency so that you remain and grow in me. But You give me greater faith: that you are convinced that it is worth making any effort on my part to be able to be with you physically next to the Tabernacle, or receive you. I want to visit you every day for a moment. And when I pass by a Church I always want to greet you, at least with my heart, from outside, saying “Hello”.
My guardian angel, remind me of you, please.
DAY 4 REAL PRESENCE
“The Jews argued: how can he give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood…