Yesterday was the glorious Feast of Corpus Christi!  As part of the tradition of our Order, this is one of the Feasts that we celebrate with special solemnity.

This year was our first Procession here at Our Lady of Solitude Chapel. We want to share  a video of our little Procession. It was such a GREAT joy – every last minute of the it! Enjoy the photos and our thanks to Fr. Kline, John, Zach, and all who participated in the Procession!
In Pope Benedict’s homily for the Solemnity, he offered the following words:

Communion and contemplation cannot be separated, they go together. To really communicate with another person I must know him, I must be able to be in silence close to him, to hear him and to look at him with love. True love and true friendship always live of the reciprocity of looks, of intense, eloquent silences full of respect and veneration, so that the encounter is lived profoundly, in a personal not a superficial way. And, unfortunately, if this dimension is lacking, even sacramental communion itself can become, on our part, a superficial gesture.

I love this thought of linking communion with contemplation.  There is a common misconception that ‘contemplation’ is an empty void.  But we know that this is not the case at all!  True contemplation is communion.  Granted, this communion is not noisy or ‘crowded’.  But, nor is it emptiness!  True contemplation is union with the God Who loves us first and best.  The Holy Father is inviting us to break through the facades and enter into the true reality of deep communion with Our Lord – and what better way to do so than by Eucharistic Adoration!

“A RECIPROCITY of looks, of intense eloquent silences full of respect and veneration”   
YES, that’s it!!  

Godhead here in hiding, Whom I do adore.  Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more.  See Lord at Thy service, low lies here a heart…lost all lost in wonder at the God Thou art. (from the Adoro Te Devote, St. Thomas Aquinas)