The Cause of the Canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman

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A Meditation for Corpus Christi: the eyes of all hope in Thee

Categorised as Featured and published Friday, June 12th, 2009
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Sassetta, Institution of the Eucharist, Siena

The Solemnity of Corpus et Sanguis Christi is in some places celebrated on 11 June and in others on the following Sunday. We publish here part of a prayer from Newman’s ‘Meditations on Christian Doctrine’:

“In Thee, O Lord [God], all things live, and Thou dost give them their food. Oculi omnium in Te sperant—”the eyes of all hope in Thee.” [Psalm 145: 15] To the beasts of the field Thou givest meat and drink. They live on day by day, because Thou dost give them day by day to live. And, if Thou givest not, they feel their misery at once. Nature witnesses to this great truth, for they are visited at once with great agony, and they cry out and wildly wander about, seeking what they need.

But, as to us Thy children, Thou feedest us with another food. Thou knowest, O my God, who madest us, that nothing can satisfy us but Thyself, and therefore Thou hast caused Thy own self to be meat and drink to us. O most adorable mystery! O most stupendous of mercies! Thou most Glorious, and Beautiful, and Strong, and Sweet, Thou didst know well that nothing else would support our immortal natures, our frail hearts, but Thyself; and so Thou didst take a human flesh and blood, that they, as being the flesh and blood of God, might be our life.

From Meditations and Devotions (1893) Click here for the full text (leaves site)