Sunday, June 10, 2012
The Bread of Life
Dear Friends,
A reading from the Gospel of St. John (6:43a,45b-59):
Jesus answered and said to them, “. . . Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. It is the feast of the great gift that Jesus gave us, namely the Holy Eucharist, where He is present and alive once the priest has pronounced the consecration.
(Below you will find the message of Our Lord and Redeemer given to Father Melvin. Jesus spoke to him these words.)
“I bless you, My priest brother Melvin, and all My brothers and sisters scattered all over the world. For today’s feast, I desire that all of you offer all the priests to Me and ask Me to bless them all. Without priests you would not be able to have the Eucharist. Pray then that My Church will have many holy priests who will work untiringly to bring the people to Me and put them on the way to their heavenly home. I gave you the Eucharist, this gift of Myself, to all those who believe in Me and follow Me. What is the Eucharist? It is the great sacrament in which I am truly present with My body and blood. Yes, I am alive in the Eucharist as I live now in heaven. Through the Eucharist you receive eternal life for I come to live in your heart and I will change you all into examples of Me. There is no greater gift I could give you than My very self in the Eucharist. You can come to receive Me every day if you so wish. Those who eat this bread will live forever in heaven. Believe that I am truly present under the species of bread and wine and receive the Eucharist with great devotion. I wish to transform you all into great saints and to receive you with joy in heaven one day. I love you all.”
Father Melvin