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On this solemnity of Corpus Christi, we renew our devotion to our Eucharistic Lord. We believe in the real presence of Christ in the sacred host. This is a solemn dogma taught by Christ Himself, proclaimed by His Church down through the centuries and fostered by the popes and saints from time immemorial. The dogma is found in Saint John's Gospel chapter six. When the Lord stated unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you will not have life in you. The Greek word for life used here was Zoe, which means spiritual life as distinct to physical life bios. And when the Jews complained about such a teaching, Christ further insisted that this bread, the consecrated host, is real flesh, not once, but three times. Although it is a divine mystery that God hides Himself under the appearance of the host so as to feed our souls, that does not infer that it is contrary to reason. There's many things I just don't understand, but I acknowledge their existence. For example, I don't know how Wi-Fi works, but it exists on my phone and Bluetooth and all these other things. The feast itself, Corpus Christi, dates back to the thirteenth century, when God worked a Eucharistic miracle at Bolsena near Orvieto in Italy. At Mass during the consecration, Father Peter from Prague witnessed that the host bled onto the altar linen, which inspired Pope Urban, who was nearby, to institute today's feast. Saint Thomas Aquinas was asked to write the hymns and mass, and to present an explanation of the dogma in his doctrine on transubstantiation. Of recent times our millennial saint Carlo Acutis provides us with a splendid cartoon explanation for teens of this teaching on his website. What we believe is that during the Eucharistic prayer, in particular at the Anaphora, a consecration, which relives the suffering and death of the Lord, the words said by the priest over the bread and wine by God's divine power change them into his body and blood, though the appearances of bread and wine remain. For that reason we don't say, as do Protestants, that we receive bread at Holy Communion, but the host, meaning offered victim, because it is really the substance of Christ and not bread. Some Eucharistic miracles containing blood and tissue of recent times have been examined by forensic medicine and found that it was human heart tissue that bore signs of distress. A comprehensive book called Reasons to Hope provides fascinating reading on this topic. Lastly, the discipline, because we have dogma, doctrine and discipline, the discipline is the application of this divine mystery of the real presence to our lives. The Church thus stipulates three conditions to receive holy communion one that the recipient be a believing Catholic two that one be free of mortal sin, that is, in the state of grace or sanctifying grace, so as to receive the author of grace. Three, that one prepares their soul with a one hour fast beforehand. This last point, this discipline can change over time. For example, in the fifties the fast was from midnight from all food and water to receive communion, and the church reduces down to only one hour. So today on this solemnity of Corpus Christi, let us show great love towards our God in our Eucharistic procession after Mass, who humbles himself to feed our souls and prepare us for life eternal.