In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read:
The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life." The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.
The wisdom of that statement reminds us that The Eucharist we celebrate is God’s gift to nourish and strengthen us, to teach us who and whose we really are, and to challenge us to live lives that reflect this love from God.
Because the Eucharist is so important to us it is no surprise that it was one hundred years ago on the feast of The Body and Blood of Christ that our church building was consecrated for our use as our place of worship. In 1918 that Feast Day fell on May 30th, and this year it just happens to fall close to that day.
The proper name for a church building is “The House of the Church”, since we the people are the Church, the family of Faith, and this building is our house. What is truly amazing is that this building was the third church building built by that original St. Benedict family of faith because they were growing so quickly. That means it was the third building built in just 15 years to house us in worship!
The building clearly reflects in many beautiful ways the German community who founded this parish placed under the care of St. Benedict. The many stunning architectural features, the stained-glass windows imported from Munich, and the hand carved wooden Stations of the Cross brought in from Oberammergau all point to the strong and vibrant faith of our German-American founders. Although over the years the building has been remodeled to reflect the changing tastes of a different era, and our spiritual family has come to reflect the more diverse community that now calls St. Benedict Church building its spiritual home, it is still the Eucharist celebrated here that unites us and invites us on our mission with Christ.
This weekend as we celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of our Church building we pray that just like our founders we will find strength and courage, comfort and peace, and challenge and vision to keep Christ in the Eucharist as the source and summit of our lives. We pray too that just like our founders, our faith will be so vibrant, and make such a difference to others in our community, that people will be attracted to our family of faith and want to know more about Jesus who is our life.

Fr. Steve Kanonik, Pastor

Sunday Sharing: Corpus Christi