Prayer for Corpus Christi

Lord Jesus Christ, truly present — Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity — in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar:

We adore You.

Not a symbol. Not a memory. Not a spiritual presence in some vague and untouchable sense. You — the Word who became flesh, who walked the roads of Galilee, who touched the lepers, who wept at Lazarus's tomb, who sweat blood in Gethsemane, who died on the cross and rose — You are here.

"This is my body, which will be given for you. Do this in memory of me." (Luke 22:19)

We confess that we have not always received You with the reverence You deserve. We have received You distracted, irreverent, or worse — sometimes in the state of sin. Forgive us. Make us worthy.

For it is possible to receive You physically and miss You entirely. Lord, do not let that happen to us. Let every reception of the Eucharist transform us further into You — that the Christ within us might recognize the Christ on the altar, and bow.

Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote of You: "O Lord, our hearts must needs be filled with faith, hope and love. For under a lowly form, You are here concealed."

Concealed — and yet wholly present. Hidden — and yet wholly given. Teach us to see with the eyes of faith what our physical eyes cannot perceive.

Amen.