Year C

June 22, 2025

On this page you will find:

The readings for Mass, the Mass leaflet with the choice of hymns
A sample universal prayer available for download , in PDF and editable Word formats.
A meditation on the Sunday Gospel , a spiritual text and a commentary by Marie-Noëlle Thabut

Blessed Sacrament

of the body and blood of Christ

Solemnity

I am the living bread

who came down from heaven, says the Lord;

if anyone eats this bread,

He will live forever.

John 6:51

Readings from the Mass

https://www.aelf.org/2025-06-22/romain/messe

Mass leaflet

Universal Prayer

Lectio Divina
Consult this page for a prayerful preparation for the liturgy and then read the meditations below.

MEDITATION

Today, in Italy and other countries, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi. The Gospel recounts the episode of the miracle of the loaves (cf. Lk 9:11-17), which takes place on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is speaking to thousands of people and performing healings. When evening comes, the disciples approach the Lord and say, “Send the crowds away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and food” (v. 12). Even the disciples were tired. They were in a remote area, and to buy food, people had to walk and go to the villages. Jesus sees this and says, “Give them something to eat” (v. 13). These words astonish the disciples. They did not understand, they may even have become angry, and they replied: "We only have five loaves of bread and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people ourselves" (ibid.).

In contrast, Jesus invites his disciples to undergo a true conversion from the logic of "every man for himself" to that of sharing, starting with the little that Providence provides. And he immediately shows that he knows clearly what he wants to do. He tells them, "Have the people sit down in groups of about fifty" (v. 14). Then he takes the five loaves and two fish in his hands, addresses the Heavenly Father, and says the prayer of blessing. Then he begins to break the loaves, divide the fish, and give them to the disciples, who distribute them to the crowd. And this food does not run out until everyone has had enough.

This miracle—so important that it was recounted by all the evangelists—manifests the power of the Messiah and, at the same time, his compassion: Jesus has compassion for people. This prodigious act remains not only one of the great signs of Jesus' public life, but it also anticipates what will later become, at the end, the memorial of his sacrifice, namely the Eucharist, the sacrament of his Body and Blood given for the salvation of the world.

The Eucharist is the synthesis of Jesus' entire life, which was a single act of love for the Father and his brothers and sisters. There, too, as in the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus took the bread in his hands, offered a prayer of blessing to the Father, broke the bread, and gave it to the disciples; and he did the same with the cup of wine. But at that moment, on the eve of his Passion, he wished to leave in this gesture the Testament of the new and eternal Covenant, a perpetual memorial of his Passover of death and resurrection. Each year, the feast of Corpus Christi invites us to renew our wonder and joy for this marvelous gift of the Lord, the Eucharist. Let us receive it with gratitude, not passively or routinely. We must not become accustomed to the Eucharist or go to Communion out of habit: no! Each time we approach the altar to receive the Eucharist, we must truly renew our "Amen" to the Body of Christ. When the priest says "the Body of Christ," we say "Amen," but let it be an "Amen" that comes from the heart, a convinced one. It is Jesus, it is Jesus who saved me, it is Jesus who comes to give me the strength to live. It is Jesus, the living Jesus. But we must not become accustomed to it: each time should be as if it were our first communion.

An expression of the Eucharistic faith of God's holy people is the procession of the Blessed Sacrament that takes place throughout the Catholic Church on this solemnity. This evening, I too will celebrate Mass in the Casal Bertone neighborhood of Rome , which will be followed by a procession. I invite everyone to participate, even spiritually, through radio and television. May the Virgin Mary help us to follow with faith and love Jesus whom we adore in the Eucharist.

POPE FRANCIS

ANGELUS

Saint Peter's Square

Sunday, June 23, 2019

The Little Way of the Gospel

Interview with Bernadette Dumont

for Magnificat

(I highly recommend subscribing: here )

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” says the Lord; “if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”

◗ With the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the Church invites us, in a way, to celebrate the anniversary of our first communion!

Absolutely, this feast is an invitation to rediscover the grace of our First Communion. It's a time for us, and for the children we accompany, to deepen our understanding of the Eucharist and its place in our lives. This Sunday, the liturgy invites us to do so by offering us the Gospel reading of the multiplication of the loaves.

This account begins by saying: Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God…

As with every Sunday at Mass, the meal to which Jesus invites us begins by nourishing us with his word. To appreciate the "bread of heaven" that we are about to take and eat, we must first recognize that "man does not live on material bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4).

◗ Then, to the disciples who were worried about feeding the crowd, Jesus abruptly replied: "You give them something to eat!"

We have a vital need to commune with Jesus, but Jesus wants to need us. He wants his real presence, which he shares with us, to continue and radiate in us and through us until he comes again (2nd reading). This is why Jesus, who gave his life out of love, comes to us through communion, so that we too, as active members of his body given up in love, may give our lives for others.

◗ But the disciples acknowledge that they are quite unable to feed the crowd: "We have no more than five loaves and two fish!" they say.

Of course, we only have five loaves and two fish—and sometimes even less—to give… But precisely, at Mass, our purpose is to recognize the presence of Christ manifested and revealed in the shared bread and wine, and to commune with this real presence so that we, in turn, may be the loving presence of Christ for all those whom the Father's providence places on the path of our lives. Saint Leo the Great says that our participation in the body and blood of Christ aims at nothing other than becoming for others what we receive.

◗ This is what this sentence foreshadows: He pronounced the blessing over them, broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the crowd?

Yes. Let us be fully aware that in the Eucharist, it is Jesus himself who gives himself abundantly to us, so that we may then distribute him to everyone, by giving ourselves!

Catechist and author of children's books, Bernadette Dumont is a mother and grandmother.

Better understanding the Gospel
with Marie-Noëlle Thabut

Better understanding the Gospel

with Marie-Noëlle Thabut

GOSPEL - according to Saint Luke 9:11b-17

At that time,

11 Jesus spoke to the crowds about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed it.

12 The day was beginning to end. Then the Twelve came to him and said, “Send this crowd away so that they may go to the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and food, because we are in a deserted place.”

13 But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have no more than five loaves of bread and two fish. Unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people ourselves.”

14 There were about five thousand men.

Jesus said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty."

15 They carried out this request and had everyone sit down.

16 Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he pronounced the blessing over them, broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the crowd.

17 They ate and were all satisfied; then they gathered up the leftover pieces, which amounted to twelve baskets.

"FEED THEM YOURSELF"

For the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we read a story of a miracle, more precisely of the multiplication of the loaves: this choice may surprise us; Body and Blood of Christ, we immediately think of the Eucharist... and, at first glance, what link is there between the Eucharist and a miracle of the multiplication of the loaves?

Saint Luke himself, however, most certainly wanted to emphasize this link, for he describes Jesus' actions using the very terms of the Eucharistic liturgy: "Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, broke them, and gave them to his disciples."

Let's return to the text, simply following it: the first sentence, "Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God and healed those who needed healing." He announces the kingdom of God through his words and deeds. The multiplication of the loaves comes immediately afterward: it is therefore part of this context: the multiplication of the loaves, too, represents the kingdom of God in action; feeding the hungry brings about the kingdom of God. (We know how much Luke likes to emphasize the necessary consistency between words and deeds.)

"The day was beginning to end": the disciples were concerned about these people who would be caught by nightfall; very wisely they suggested the solution: this crowd must be dispersed, everyone sent away; each person can take care of their own accommodation and food; what is needed will surely be found in the surrounding area... apparently, according to Luke's text, this was conceivable.

But Jesus does not accept this solution of dispersion: one might ask why? Perhaps the Kingdom of God he proclaims is incompatible with solutions of dispersion? The Kingdom of God is a mystery of gathering, we know that; it does not accommodate "every man for himself".

And Jesus offered his own solution: “You give them something to eat.” The disciples must have been a little surprised! His solution was easy to say, but how could they do it? They were realistic: “We have no more than five loaves of bread and two fish.” That might be enough for a family, perhaps, but for five thousand men, it was ridiculous. They were right, a hundred times right… from a human perspective.

But yet, if Jesus says this rather surprising phrase to them, it is not to embarrass them; Jesus never seeks to embarrass anyone: they know this well; if he tells them to feed the crowd themselves, it is because they have the means to do so.

So they come up with a second idea: we could "go and buy food for all these people ourselves." This is already much better; it's not a solution of dispersal; the disciples are ready to act as stewards, to serve this crowd. But apparently, this still isn't suitable: Jesus doesn't let them go shopping. Clearly, he has another solution; he doesn't rebuke them, he simply tells them: "Have them sit down in groups of fifty." He therefore chooses the solution of gathering; we can note, however, that if the Kingdom of God is a gathering, it is not an indistinct crowd, it is an organized gathering; a community of communities, a gathering of distinct communities, if you prefer.

Stewards of God's Gifts

He "blesses" the loaves: this is not a magical rite performed on the bread; it is recognizing the bread as a gift from God and asking Him to use it to serve the hungry. Recognizing the bread as a gift from God is a whole program in itself; it is precisely the meaning of the process of preparing the gifts at Mass: what was formerly called the offertory; if the liturgical reform undertaken at the Second Vatican Council replaced the word "offrety" with this expression "Preparation of the Gifts," it is to help us better understand what it is about: it is not we who are giving something.

In the phrase "Preparation of the Gifts," we must understand "Preparation of God's gifts." When we bring bread and wine to the altar, symbolizing the entire cosmos and all of humanity's work, we acknowledge that everything is a gift from God: that we are not the owners of everything He has given us (whether our material possessions or our riches of any kind—physical, intellectual, spiritual, etc.); we are not the owners, we are the stewards. And this gesture, repeated at every Eucharist, will gradually transform us, making us truly stewards of our riches for the good of all. It is perhaps in this act of relinquishing control that we can find the audacity of miracles: by saying to his disciples, "You give them something to eat," Jesus wanted them to discover that they possess unsuspected resources... but only on the condition that they recognize everything as a gift from God. Once again, when Jesus says, “You give them something to eat,” it’s not to embarrass them: they are capable, but they don’t know it, or they don’t dare to believe it. If this text is offered to us today, in our turn, it’s because Jesus, before the hungry of the whole world, says to us today: “You give them something to eat.” And we too, like the disciples, have resources we are unaware of. Provided we recognize our riches of every kind as a gift from God and consider ourselves as mere stewards. We must also remember one thing, as we saw earlier: by rejecting the solution of dispersing the crowd imagined by the disciples, Jesus shows us that the Kingdom of God does not accommodate “every man for himself.”

Then the link between this multiplication of the loaves and the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ becomes clear; it is the Gospel of John that gives us the key: while the three Synoptic Gospels report the institution of the Eucharist on the evening of Holy Thursday, with, in Luke, the Lord's order "You will do this in remembrance of me", Saint John, for his part, recounts the washing of the feet and Jesus' recommendation: "What I have done for you, you also should do."

This means that there are two inseparable ways to celebrate the memorial of Jesus Christ: not only sharing the Eucharist but also putting ourselves at the service of others (service symbolized by the washing of feet), that is to say, very concretely, multiplying the riches of the world to share them with all men.

Homily of Pope Francis

The Word of God helps us today to rediscover two simple verbs, two essential verbs for everyday life: to say and to give.

Saying. Melchizedek, in the first reading, says: “Blessed be Abram by the Most High God, and blessed be the Most High God” (Gen 14:19-20). Melchizedek’s saying is to bless. He blesses Abraham, the one in whom all the families of the earth will be blessed (cf. Gen 12:3; Gal 3:8). Everything begins with blessing: good words bring about a good story. The same thing happens in the Gospel: before multiplying the loaves, Jesus blesses them: “He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them and gave them to his disciples” (Lk 9:16). The blessing makes the five loaves food for a multitude: it causes a cascade of goodness to spring forth.

Why does blessing feel good? Because it transforms words into gifts. When we bless, we are not doing something for ourselves, but for others. Blessing is not about saying pretty words, it is not about using words appropriate to the occasion: no; it is about speaking well, speaking with love. Melchizedek did this, spontaneously speaking well of Abraham, without Abraham having said or done anything for him. This is what Jesus did, showing the meaning of blessing with the free distribution of bread. How many times have we, too, been blessed, in church or in our homes, how many times have we received words that have comforted us, or the sign of the cross on our foreheads… We were blessed on the day of our Baptism, and at the end of every Mass we are blessed. The Eucharist is a school of blessing. God speaks well of us, his beloved children, and thus he encourages us to move forward. And we bless God in our assemblies (cf. Ps 68:27), rediscovering the joy of praise that liberates and heals the heart. We come to Mass with the certainty of being blessed by the Lord, and we leave to bless in turn, to be channels of goodness in the world.

For us too: it is important that we, the pastors, remember to bless God's people. Dear priests, do not be afraid to bless, to bless God's people; dear priests, go forth with the blessing: the Lord desires to speak well of his people, he is happy to make his love for us felt. And only as the blessed can we bless others with the same anointing of love. It is sad, however, to see how easily today we do the opposite: we curse, we despise, we insult. Caught up in too much frenzy, we cannot restrain ourselves and we pour out our anger on everything and everyone. Often, unfortunately, the one who shouts the loudest, the one who is the angriest, seems to be right and to create a consensus. Let us not be contaminated by arrogance, let us not be invaded by bitterness, we who eat the Bread that carries within it all sweetness. God's people love praise; they do not live on complaints; they are made for blessings, not lamentations. Before the Eucharist, Jesus who became Bread, this humble Bread that contains the whole of the Church, let us learn to bless what we have, to praise God, to bless and not curse our past, and to offer kind words to others.

The second verb is to give. “Saying” is followed by “giving,” like Abraham who, blessed by Melchizedek, “gave him a tenth of everything” (Genesis 14:20). Like Jesus who, after reciting the blessing, gave the bread to be distributed, thus revealing its most beautiful meaning: bread is not merely a commodity, it is a means of sharing. In fact, surprisingly, the story of the multiplication of the loaves never speaks of multiplying. On the contrary, the verbs used are: “break, give, distribute” (cf. Luke 9:16). In short, the emphasis is not on multiplication, but on sharing. This is important: Jesus does not perform magic; he does not transform the five loaves into five thousand and then say, “Now distribute them.” No. Jesus prays, blesses these five loaves, and begins to break them, entrusting himself to the Father. And these five loaves never end. This is not magic, it is faith in God and his providence.

In the world, we are always striving to increase profits, to inflate bills… Yes, but to what end? Is it about giving or having? Sharing or accumulating? The “economy” of the Gospel multiplies by sharing, nourishes by distributing, does not satisfy the greed of a few, but gives life to the world (cf. Jn 6:33). It is not about having, but about giving, the word of Jesus.

His request to his disciples is peremptory: “You give them something to eat” (Lk 9:13). Let us try to imagine the reasoning the disciples must have gone through: “We have no bread for ourselves, and yet we must think of others? Why should we give them food if they have come to listen to our Master? If they haven’t brought anything to eat, let them go home, that’s their problem, or let them give us money and we will buy some.” These are not flawed arguments, but they are not those of Jesus, who refuses to listen: you give them something to eat. What we have bears fruit if we give it away—that is what Jesus wants to tell us—and it matters little or much. The Lord does great things with our insignificance, as with the five loaves. He doesn't perform miracles through spectacular actions; he doesn't have a magic wand, but he acts with humble things. God is a humble omnipotence, made only of love. And love does great things with small things. The Eucharist teaches us this: there, God is contained in a piece of bread. Simple, essential, broken and shared bread, the Eucharist we receive transmits to us God's way of thinking. And it leads us to give ourselves to others. It is the antidote to "I like it, but it's none of my business," to "I don't have time, I can't, it's not my concern." To turning a blind eye.

In our city, starved for love and attention, suffering from decay and neglect, faced with so many lonely elderly people, struggling families, and young people who have trouble earning a living and nurturing their dreams, the Lord says to you: “Give them something to eat yourself.” And you might reply: “I have little, I’m not capable of that kind of thing.” That’s not true. Your little is much in the eyes of Jesus, if you don’t keep it to yourself, if you put it at risk. You too, put yourself at risk. And you are not alone: you have the Eucharist, the Bread of the journey, the Bread of Jesus. Even this evening we will be nourished by his given Body. If we receive it with our hearts, this Bread will unleash within us the power of love: we will feel blessed and loved, and we will want to bless and love, beginning here, with our city, with the streets we will walk this evening. The Lord comes to our streets to speak well of us, to speak well of us, and to give us courage. He asks us to be a blessing and a gift.

MASS AND EUCHARISTIC PROCESSION

IN THE SOLEMNITY OF THE BLOOD AND BODY OF CHRIST

MASS

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS

Sunday, June 23, 2019