LIVE | Pope Leo XIV’s Holy Mass on Corpus Christi Mass and Eucharistic Procession | June 22, 2025
Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – Holy Mass, Procession and Eucharistic Blessing
Holy Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV on the steps of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
After the celebration, the Holy Father will lead the solemn Corpus Christi Eucharistic Procession to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where he will impart the Eucharistic Blessing.
A moment of deep faith and public worship of the Eucharist, the living heart of the Church.
SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST [THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI]: Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the Feast of Corpus Christi. The feast of the Eucharist is a day when we honor Jesus Christ, Really, Truly, and Substantially Present under the appearances of bread and wine and we give thanks for the gift of the Eucharist, through which the Lord is present among us in a very special way. We commemorate the real presence of the body (corpus) of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, which we partake and consume during every celebration of the Holy Mass. As Christians, we all firmly believe that the Eucharist we partake and receive in the Holy Mass is none other than the Most Holy and Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Himself. This Presence happens through the change which the Church calls transubstantiation (“change of substance”) when at the Consecration of the Mass, the priest says the words which Christ Himself pronounced over bread and wine, “This is My Body,” “This is the chalice of My Blood,” “Do this in remembrance of Me.”
The Feast of Corpus Christi, is celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday in honor of the institution of the Holy Eucharist (it is a movable observance that is transferred to the following Sunday in some countries and U.S. dioceses). The celebration on Sunday after Trinity Sunday is then considered its proper day in the calendar. The Mass includes an option of singing or reciting the Sequence Laud, O Zion, or Lauda Sion before the Alleluia. This sequence is optional. There are only two other feasts (Easter and Pentecost) with Sequences. The feast of Corpus Christi is a holy day of obligation in many countries.
The Feast of Corpus Christi originated in 1246 when Robert de Torote, bishop of Liège, ordered the festival celebrated in his diocese. He was persuaded to initiate the feast by St. Juliana, prioress of Mont Cornillon near Liège (1222–58), a Belgian nun deeply devoted to the Holy Eucharist, who had experienced a vision, Jesus appeared requesting a feast in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. St. Juliana shared this vision with the Church hierarchy. It did not spread until 1261 when Jacques Pantaléon, formerly archdeacon of Liège, became pope as Urban IV, after decades of opposition. In 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of Corpus Christi for the universal Church. At the time there was a formal dispute among theologians on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist—that is, Christ’s actual Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—for the first time in Church history. In response to this heresy and in support of the authenticity of St. Juliana’s visions, a Eucharistic Miracle took place in Orvieto, Italy which proved the truth of the literal interpretation of Christ’s doctrine handed down from the Apostles. The Holy Father, Pope Urban IV requested that the liturgy for the feast be composed by St. Thomas Aquinas in the year 1264, now one of the Church’s most sublimely poetic liturgies. It is unquestionably a classic piece of liturgical work, wholly in accord with the best liturgical traditions. . . It is a perfect work of art. Pope Urban’s order was confirmed by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne in 1311–12. By the mid-14th century the festival was generally accepted, and in the 15th century it became, in effect, one of the principal feasts of the church.
The feast of Corpus Christi calls us to focus on two manifestations of the Body of Christ, the Holy Eucharist and the Church. The primary purpose of this feast is to focus our attention on the Eucharist. The opening prayer at Mass calls our attention to Jesus’ suffering and death and our worship of Him, especially in the Eucharist. At every Mass our attention is called to the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Christ in it. The secondary focus of this feast is upon the Body of Christ as it is present in the Church. The Church is called the Body of Christ because of the intimate communion which Jesus shares with His disciples. He expresses this in the gospels by using the metaphor of a body in which He is the head. This image helps keep in focus both the unity and the diversity of the Church. The Feast of Corpus Christi is traditionally accompanied with Eucharistic large and elaborate public processions, most notably by the Holy Father in Rome. The public Eucharistic processions serves as a sign of common faith and adoration. Our worship of Jesus in His Body and Blood calls us to offer to God our Father a pledge of undivided love and an offering of ourselves to the service of others.
“For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” ~ John 6:55
PRAYER: O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption. Who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. Save Us, Savior of the World. 🙏🏽
Daily Reflections with Philomena | https://dailyreflectionswithphilomena.com/