Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,
In the early 1970’s I remember watching a made-for-television movie called Catholics. It was based on a book of the same name by Brian Moore.  It was about a small monastery in remote Ireland that was still celebrating the Latin Mass.  This book was set in the future and it was about the Catholic Church following the Fourth Vatican Council.
There was a priest sent by the Vatican to correct the renegade monks who were threatening the Church’s unity.  In this future Church, the changes included married clergy, the banning of clerical dress and title, and of course, Mass in the vernacular, or the language of the people.
One of the most chilling moments of the movie (and very telling from the fact that I remember it over forty years later!) was the conversation between the Vatican-sent priest and the abbot of the monastery.  The priest asks the abbot if he realizes that the Church no longer requires people to believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist.  This is perhaps one of the most horrifying predictions of the future of the Church that I have ever heard.
The belief that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Jesus is the heart and soul of the Church.  It is our most important doctrine.  A Truth upon which all the other Truths of our religion are based.
I take great comfort in knowing that Christ is physically present in every tabernacle in every Catholic Church in the world.  Of all the things that make us different, it is our belief in the Eucharist that unites all Catholics the world over.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, or the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast reminds us of the mystery of the Body and Blood of Jesus contained in Holy Communion.
Even when Jesus said, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you cannot have life within you,” some of His followers grumbled, questioned, and eventually walked away because they could not accept this teaching.
Today as we reflect on the mystery of the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion let us stand firm in our Faith that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, and that as we come forward to receive Him that we can welcome Him into our hearts and into our lives.
The Body and Blood of Jesus is the food that gives us the strength that we need to complete the pilgrimage through this earthly life to our Heavenly homeland.

Msgr. Cox