We have failed to understand that children and young people are not God-lovers until the Spirit changes them. They are dead to God. Our attempts at getting these young people to “pray the prayer” when they were small have not necessarily made them children of God. Their behavior belies the true state of their hearts. God has said that the only hope for them, therefore, is the regenerating work of the Spirit in the context of the preaching of the Word (James 1:18). However, our inadequate view of depravity and the inability of man has led us to resort instead to a greater confidence in entertainment to reach them and a minimizing of the use of the Word. If God has ordained that the Word and the Spirit are the only hope for these kids, then we should not avoid the means God has promised to bless.
Jim Elliff

Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI

BASIC R.C. BELIEF Means “Body of Christ”; a Roman Catholic feast celebrated yearly to commemorate the institution of Holy Eucharist. In many parishes, processions with the elevated Host, the Body of Christ, go forth among the people who worship the Host.

POST VATICAN II In the Vatican II document EUCHARISITICUM MYSTERIUM (5/27/67) we read: “In processions in which the Blessed Sacrament is solemnly carried through the streets to hymn-singing, especially on the feast of Corpus Christi, the Christian people give public witness to their faith and devotion toward this sacrament. However, it is for the local ordinary to decide whether such processions are opportune in present-day circumstances. He will determine the place and form of such processions, so that they may be conducted with dignity and without detriment to the reverence due this sacrament.”