Today is Father’s Day, which is celebrated every year on the third Sunday of June.

Its the day when we specially honor all the fathers in this world. One cannot shut his eyes against the hardships they undertake to keep their family safe and happy. Father’s Day complements Mother’s Day, the celebration honoring mothers.

The Father’s Day is a day of commemoration and celebration of Dad -the special man in our life. We often forget the sacrifice of our fathers and the roles they have played in shaping our lives. Father’s Day gives us the opportunity to show and express our love and care to this man, who deserves our support most.

Father’s Day is the most appropriate platform to make us look beyond ‘our own’ family and honor the man who brought us joy and happiness. it is a day to honor not only your father, but all men who have acted as a father figure in your life – whether as Stepfathers, Uncles, Grandfathers, or “Big Brothers.”

The word ‘Father’ is often used to honor spiritual leaders, inventors and originator of an idea, product, service or person. It is so, that fathers have always been associated with guidance and protection, as the person who can be loved, respected and looked up to.

Let’s use the Father’s Day to let these special men know what place they have in our lives and what influence they have on us. Don’t forget to make this day special day more special!

Father’s Day is a time of burnt toast and breakfast in bed, family gatherings, and crayon scribbled “I Love You Dad” and, of course, that lovely new tie!

Also read these poems – Dads Are Special and What makes a Dad.

Today, 19 days after Pentecost, we celebrate The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Sacred Heart is a religious devotion to Jesus’s physical heart as the representation of divine love for humanity. It stresses the central Christian concept of loving and adoring Jesus.

The Sacred Heart is often depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, surrounded by a crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross and bleeding. Sometimes the image is over Jesus’ body with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of His death, while the fire represents the transformative power of love.

“I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment” – (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary).

Prayer:-

Father, we rejoice in the gifts of love we have received from the heart of Jesus your Son. Open our hearts to share his life and continue to bless us with his love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today we celebrate Corpus Christi feast. It is held on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.

Corpus Christi (Latin for “Body of Christ”) is a Western Catholic feast. Its purpose is to honour the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, and as such it does not commemorate a particular event in Jesus’ life.

Its celebration on a Thursday is meant to associate it with Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper, commemorated on Maundy Thursday. The feast is officially known as the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. At the end of the Mass, it is customary to have a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament (often outdoors), followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

This way of being present corresponds perfectly to the sacramental celebration of the Eucharist. Jesus Christ gives himself to us in a form that employs the symbolism inherent in eating bread and drinking wine. Furthermore, being present under the appearances of bread and wine, Christ gives himself to us in a form that is appropriate for human eating and drinking. Also, this kind of presence corresponds to the virtue of faith, for the presence of the Body and Blood of Christ cannot be detected or discerned by any way other than faith.

That is why St. Bonaventure affirmed: “There is no difficulty over Christ’s being present in the sacrament as in a sign; the great difficulty is in the fact that He is really in the sacrament, as He is in heaven. And so believing this is especially meritorious”.

By his Real Presence in the Eucharist, Christ fulfils his promise to be with us “always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “It is the law of friendship that friends should live together. Christ has not left us without his bodily presence in this our pilgrimage, but he joins us to himself in this sacrament in the reality of his body and blood”.

With this gift of Christ’s presence in our midst, the Church is truly blessed. As Jesus told his disciples, referring to his presence among them, “Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Mt 13:17). In the Eucharist the Church both receives the gift of Jesus Christ and gives grateful thanks to God for such a blessing. This thanksgiving is the only proper response, for through this gift of himself in the celebration of the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine Christ gives us the gift of eternal life.

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Many questions will arise on this topic. Some of them are

1. Why does Jesus give himself to us as food and drink?

2. Why is the Eucharist not only a meal but also a sacrifice?

3. When the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, why do they still look and taste like bread and wine?

4. Does the bread cease to be bread and the wine cease to be wine?

5. Is it fitting that Christ’s Body and Blood become present in the Eucharist under the appearances of bread and wine?

6. Are the consecrated bread and wine “merely symbols”?

7. Do the consecrated bread and wine cease to be the Body and Blood of Christ when the Mass is over?

8. Why are some of the consecrated hosts reserved after the Mass?

9. What are appropriate signs of reverence with respect to the Body and Blood of Christ?

10. If someone without faith eats and drinks the consecrated bread and wine, does he or she still receive the Body and Blood of Christ?

11. If a believer who is conscious of having committed a mortal sin eats and drinks the consecrated bread and wine, does he or she still receive the Body and Blood of Christ?

12. Does one receive the whole Christ if one receives Holy Communion under a single form?

13. Is Christ present during the celebration of the Eucharist in other ways in addition to his Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament?

14. Why do we speak of the “Body of Christ” in more than one sense?

15. Why do we call the presence of Christ in the Eucharist a “mystery”?

Go to Answers Explained to get answers to all the above questions , explained in detail.