Corpus Christi

Today on this great Feast, we are launching a new project:

The Christ, The Son of God

This is a life of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ based on the original French text by the Abbé Constant Fouard.

It will be posted on our sister website: The Life of Christ Our Lord.

Fr Fouard (1837-1903) was a remarkable scholar known for his mastery of Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Personally familiar with the geography of the Holy Land, he was a man of deep faith and it was only fitting that his work should receive recognition at the highest levels. In 1881, for example, Pope Leo XIII conferred his Apostolic Benediction on Fouard and the Theologian's congratulations. Fouard himself was to write: (as quoted in Cardinal Manning's Introduction to the 1905 edition):

"This Life of Jesus is an act of faith."

I have used the English translation by George FX Griffith (1890). Fouard used Bossuet's French text for Scriptural excerpts and Griffith translated these excerpts into English rather than incorporating an official English version of the Sacred text.

I have added notes and a number of illustrations to the work. For those able to read French, you will find Fouard's original text here:

La Vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ.

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From today's Mass comes first a prayer which immediately recalls the voice of Fr Henry Dodd, pa holy and learned priest at Corpus Christi church in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden in the 1980s.

Deus, qui nobis sub Sacraménto mirábili passiónis tuæ memóriam reliquísti: tríbue, quǽsumus, ita nos Córporis et Sánguinis tui sacra mystéria venerári; ut redemptiónis tuæ fructum in nobis iúgiter sentiámus:
Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre, in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.
R. Amen. 

Collect
Let us pray.O God, You Who in this wondrous sacrament have left us a memorial of Your passion, grant us, we beseech You, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Your Body and Blood that we may ever experience within us the effect of Your redemption.Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.R. Amen

Henry Dodd : Requiescat In Pace

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Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam in vitame aeternam. Amen.J-J Tissot

Next comes the Sequence, in Latin with an English translation of each verse, followed by a second translation from the 1962 Missal.

It was written by St. Thomas Aquinas around 1264, at the request of Pope Urban IV for the new Mass of this feast, along with Pange lingua, Sacris solemniis, Adoro te devote and Verbum supernum prodiens, which are used in the Divine Office.

Lauda, Sion, Salvatórem,

lauda ducem et pastórem

in hymnis et cánticis.

Sion, lift up thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Savior and thy King,
Praise with hymns thy shepherd true.

Quantum potes, tantum aude:

quia maior omni laude,

nec laudáre súfficis.

All thou canst, do thou endeavour:
Yet thy praise can equal never
Such as merits thy great King.

Laudis thema speciális,

panis vivus et vitális

hódie propónitur.

See today before us laid
The living and life-giving Bread,
Theme for praise and joy profound.

Quem in sacræ mensa cenæ

turbæ fratrum duodénæ

datum non ambígitur.

The same which at the sacred board
Was, by our incarnate Lord,
Giv'n to His Apostles round.

Sit laus plena, sit sonóra,

sit iucúnda, sit decóra

mentis iubilátio.

Let the praise be loud and high:
Sweet and tranquil be the joy
Felt today in every breast.

Dies enim sollémnis agitur,

in qua mensæ prima recólitur

huius institútio.

On this festival divine
Which records the origin
Of the glorious Eucharist.

In hac mensa novi Regis,

novum Pascha novæ legis

Phase vetus términat.

On this table of the King,
Our new Paschal offering
Brings to end the olden rite.

Vetustátem nóvitas,

umbram fugat véritas,

noctem lux elíminat.

Here, for empty shadows fled,
Is reality instead,
Here, instead of darkness, light.

Quod in cœna Christus gessit,

faciéndum hoc expréssit

in sui memóriam.

His own act, at supper seated
Christ ordain'd to be repeated
In His memory divine;

Docti sacris institútis,

panem, vinum in salútis

consecrámus hóstiam.

Wherefore now, with adoration,
We, the host of our salvation,
Consecrate from bread and wine.

Dogma datur Christiánis,

quod in carnem transit panis

et vinum in sánguinem.

Hear, what holy Church maintaineth,
That the bread its substance changeth
Into Flesh, the wine to Blood.

Quod non capis, quod non vides,

animosa fírmat fides,

præter rerum órdinem.

Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Faith, the law of sight transcending
Leaps to things not understood.

Sub divérsis speciébus,

signis tantum, et non rebus,

latent res exímiæ.

Here beneath these signs are hidden
Priceless things, to sense forbidden,
Signs, not things, are all we see.

Caro cibus, sanguis potus:

manet tamen Christus totus

sub utráque spécie.

Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine,
Yet is Christ in either sign,
All entire, confessed to be.

A suménte non concísus,

non confráctus, non divísus:

ínteger accípitur.

They, who of Him here partake,
Sever not, nor rend, nor break:
But, entire, their Lord receive.

Sumit unus, sumunt mille:

quantum isti, tantum ille:

nec sumptus consúmitur.

Whether one or thousands eat:
All receive the self-same meat:
Nor the less for others leave.

Sumunt boni, sumunt mali

sorte tamen inæquáli,

vitæ vel intéritus.

Both the wicked and the good
Eat of this celestial Food:
But with ends how opposite!

Mors est malis, vita bonis:

vide, paris sumptiónis

quam sit dispar éxitus.

Here 't is life: and there 't is death:
The same, yet issuing to each
In a difference infinite.

Fracto demum sacraménto,

ne vacílles, sed meménto,

tantum esse sub fragménto,

quantum toto tégitur.

Nor a single doubt retain,
When they break the Host in twain,
But that in each part remains
What was in the whole before.

Nulla rei fit scissúra:

signi tantum fit fractúra:

qua nec status nec statúra

signáti minúitur.

Since the simple sign alone
Suffers change in state or form:
The signified remaining one
And the same for evermore.

Ecce panis Angelórum,

factus cibus viatórum:

vere panis filiórum,

non mitténdus cánibus.

Behold the Bread of Angels,
For us pilgrims food, and token
Of the promise by Christ spoken,
Children's meat, to dogs denied.

In figúris præsignátur,

cum Isaac immolátur:

agnus paschæ deputátur:

datur manna pátribus.

Shewn in Isaac's dedication,
In the manna's preparation:
In the Paschal immolation,
In old types pre-signified.

Bone pastor, panis vere,

Iesu, nostri miserére:

tu nos pasce, nos tuére:

tu nos bona fac vidére

in terra vivéntium.

Jesu, shepherd of the sheep:
Thou thy flock in safety keep,
Living bread, thy life supply:
Strengthen us, or else we die,
Fill us with celestial grace.

Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales:

qui nos pascis hic mortáles:

tuos ibi commensáles,

coherédes et sodáles

fac sanctórum cívium.

Amen. Allelúia.

Thou, who feedest us below:
Source of all we have or know:
Grant that with Thy Saints above,
Sitting at the feast of love,
We may see Thee face to face.
Amen. Alleluia.

Sequentia

O Sion, thy Redeemer praising,

Songs of joy to Him upraising,

Laud thy Pastor and thy Guide:

Swell thy notes most high and daring;

For His praise is past declaring,

And thy loftiest powers beside.

‘Tis a theme with praise that gloweth,

For the bread that life bestoweth

Goes this day before us out;

Which, His holy supper taking,

To the brethren twelve His breaking

None hath ever called in doubt.

Full, then, be our praise and sounding,

Modest and with joy abounding

Be our mind’s triumphant state;

For the festal’s prosecution,

When the first blest institution

Of this feast we celebrate.

In the new King’s new libation,

In the new law’s new oblation,

Ends the ancient Paschal rite;

Ancient forms new substance chaseth,

Typic shadows truth displaceth,

Day dispels the gloom of night.

When He did at supper seated,

Christ enjoined to be repeated,

When His love we celebrate:

Thus obeying His dictation,

Blood and wine of our salvation,

We the victim consecrate.

‘Tis for Christian faith asserted,

Bread is into flesh converted,

Into blood the holy wine:

Sight and intellect transcending,

Nature’s laws to marvel bending,

‘Tis confirmed by faith divine.

Under either kind remaining,

Form, not substance, still retaining,

Wondrous things our spirit sees:

Flesh and blood thy palate staining,

Yet still Christ entire remaining,

Under either species.

All untorn for eating given,

Undivided and unriven,

Whole He’s taken and unrent;

Be there one, or crowds surrounding,

He is equally abounding,

Nor, though eaten, ever spent.

Both to good and bad ‘tis broken,

But on each a different token

or of life, or death attends:

Life to good, to bad damnation;

Lo, of one same manducation

How dissimilar the ends.

When the priest the victim breaketh,

See thy faith in no wise shaketh,

Know that every fragment taketh

All that ‘neath the whole there lies:

This in Him no fracture maketh,

‘Tis the figure only breaketh,

Form, or state, no change there taketh

Place in what it signifies.

Bread, that angels eat in heaven,

Now becomes the pilgrim’s leaven,

Bread in truth to children given,

That must ne’er to dogs be thrown.

He, in ancient types disguised,

Was the Isaac sacrificed,

For the feast a lamb devised,

Manna to the Fathers shown.

Bread, whose shepherd-care doth tend us,

Jesu Christ, Thy mercy send us,

Do Thou feed us, Thou defend us,

Lead us where true joys attend us,

In the land where life is given:

Thou all ken and might possessing,

Mercies aye to us largessing,

Make us share Thy cup of blessing,

Heritage and love’s caressing

With the denizens of heaven.

Amen. Alleluia.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam