Ordinary Time: June 22nd

MASS READINGS

June 22, 2025 (Readings on USCCB website)

PROPERS [Show]

Mass Propers for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi:

Entrance Antiphon, Cf. Ps 81(80):17: He fed them with the finest wheat and satisfied them with money from the rock.

Sequence: Laud, O Zion (Lauda Sion)

Alleluia Verse, John 6:51: I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.

Preface II of the Most Holy Eucharist
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.

For at the Last Supper with his Apostles, establishing for the ages to come the saving memorial of the Cross, he offered himself to you as the unblemished Lamb, the acceptable gift of perfect praise.

Nourishing your faithful by this sacred mystery, you make them holy so that the human race, bounded by one world, may be enlightened by one faith and united by one bond of charity.

And so, we approach the table of this wondrous Sacrament, so that, bathed in the sweetness of your grace, we may pass over to the heavenly realities here foreshadowed.

Therefore, all creatures of heaven and earth sing a new song in adoration, and we, with all the host of Angels, cry out, and without end we acclaim:

Communion Antiphon, Jn 6:57: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him, says the Lord.

COLLECT PRAYER

Solemnity of Corpus Christi: 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, on God, for ever and ever.

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Recipes (2)

• Lebkuchen I
• Pizzelles

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Activities (13)

• Corpus Christi Hymns
• Corpus Christi Processions
• Customs for the Feast of Corpus Christi
• Eucharist Hymn: Adoro Te Devote - Hidden God
• Eucharist Hymn: Ave Verum Corpus
• Eucharist Hymn: Pange Lingua
• Eucharist Hymn: Sacris Solemniis - At This Our Solemn Feast
• Eucharist Hymn: Tantum Ergo - Down in Adoration Falling
• Eucharist Hymn: Verbum Supernum - The Word of God
• History of Corpus Christi Processions
• Religion in the Home for Elementary School: June
• Religion in the Home for Preschool: June
• Stitching Feast-Day Symbols

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Prayers (11)

• Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter (1st Plan)
• Litany of the Most Blessed Sacrament
• Chaplet of the Blessed Sacrament
• Novena Honoring the Body and Blood of Christ
• A Prayer to Jesus in the Tabernacle
• Adoration Prayer
• Eucharistic Procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi
• Novena for Corpus Christi
• Novena to the Sacred Heart
• A Prayer for the Wheat (Feast of Corpus Christi)
• Sequence: Laud, O Zion (Lauda Sion)

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Library (3)

• Saint Juliana of Cornillon | Pope Benedict XVI
• The Eucharist: To Be Loved and To Be Lived | Bishop Thomas J. Tobin
• The Sacrament of the Eucharist | Rev. G. D. Smith D.D., Ph.D.

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Blog & Podcasts (9)

• Breaking Bread throughout the Liturgical Year
• Feastday Highlights: Solemnity of Corpus Christi
• Forty Hours’ Devotion
• Our Summer Plans and Work in Ordinary Time
• Preparing for a Shift in the Liturgical Year
• Reading the Fine Print for the Liturgical Calendar (Part 1)
• Remembering the Sacraments: Our Family Life in Christ
• Return to “Tempus Per Annum” or Ordinary Time
• Solemnity of Corpus Christi: Remembering

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

"While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, 'Take it; this is my body.' Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.'"

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is observed on the Thursday following on the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity. Where the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is not observed as a Holy Day of obligation on Thursday, it is assigned to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday, which 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.

This feast is both a doctrinal and cultic response to heretical teaching on the mystery of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the apogee of an ardent devotional movement concentrated on the Sacrament of the Altar. It was extended to the entire Latin Church by Urban IV in 1264 —Dir. on Popular Piety & the Liturgy, 160).

Please see Catholic Culture's special section on The Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

Today's usual Optional Memorials of St. Paulinus of Nola; Sts. John Fisher & Thomas More which are superseded by the Sunday Liturgy.

Religious Freedom Week, June 22-29 begins today.

Commentary on the Sunday Mass Readings for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Cycle C:
The First Reading is Genesis 14:18-20. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. And he blessed Abram, who gave him a tenth of everything.

This incident in the life of Abraham has been chosen for our first reading on the Feast of Corpus Christi, because of the reference to the offering of bread and wine. Abraham was returning victoriously from a battle against four invading kings from the east who had raided eastern Canaan and taken off much booty. He met Melchizedek, the King and chief Priest of Salem, a pagan city at that time (it was later called Jerusalem, and became the capital of Israel), who came out to meet and congratulate him.

The Second Reading is from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 11:23-26. ST. Paul had preached the doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist to his Corinthian converts. The custom of the early Church was the imitate the Last Supper, during which our Lord had his last meal with his disciples, and then instituted the Eucharist. The Christians used to have a community meal (the Agape, meal of love and unity) after which they received the Holy Eucharist. Some abuses concerning the community meal cropped up in Corinth--lack of true charity among the congregation; the rich had abundance, they did not share with the poor; some went so far as to drink too much wine at the community meal and made themselves unworthy of receiving the Lord. Paul corrects these abuses in this letter and then goes on to emphasize once more what the Eucharist really is.

The Gospel is from Luke 9:11-17. Jesus miraculously feeds over five thousand people. It should not surprise us that Jesus, who miraculously fed over five thousand people out of sheer generosity, to prevent them feeling any pangs of hunger on their return journey home, could and would find a miraculous way to feed his faithful followers on their way to heaven. Many, if not most, of that five thousand had little or no interest in his teaching (he said so next day: see Jn 6:26), but were ready to take all the earthly benefits he would give them. Yet he wanted to prevent them from suffering any undue hardship.

We, his followers, have learned and appreciated his teaching and the supernatural future life which he has earned for us and promised us. We are trying to live Christian lives according to the rules he gave us. We are struggling along towards heaven, each in his own way, fervent at times, careless or cold often, perhaps, but still most anxious not to miss the glorious future he has prepared for us. With this proof of his kindness and generosity in helping this more or less indifferent multitude in the matter of earthly food, it is much easier for us to see him provide generously for the spiritual nourishment of his followers on their journey to their true and lasting home.

That he did so we have the certainty of the centuries-long tradition of generations of Christians, based on his own words recorded in the inspired writings. Christ has arranged to remain with us under the form of food for our spiritual sustenance in the sacred sacrifice of the Mass, in which we can partake of his sacred body and blood, soul and divinity. This is, we can receive the Incarnate Son of God in the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

How could he do that is only a small mystery for our finite minds. He was God as well as man. But why he should do this for us unworthy creatures is the greater mystery by far. Infinite love, greater mystery by far. Infinite love, which we finite beings cannot even begin to understand, is the answer and the explanation. Instead, then, of wasting any time on trying to solve this mystery, which we know to be a fact, let us try to thank him for it and use this gift of his love as often as possible. This will be the greatest proof that we appreciate this divine gift. We know that we are not worthy to receive our divine Lord "under our roof." Perhaps, we are even more unworthy than the pagan Centurion who was first to use these words. But we also know that Jesus can and will make us worthy if we ask him in all sincerity: "to say but the word" and we shall be healed."

"It is not the healthy who need the doctor but the sick," Christ said when accused of being too friendly with sinners (Mt 9:12). We Christians are more often spiritually sick and dead than healthy. However, we have our doctor and he cares for us. It is only by following his advice, and by using the spiritual medical nourishment he prescribes for us, that we can overcome our illnesses and weaknesses and keep on the straight and narrow road to heaven.
—Excerpted from The Sunday Readings, Cycle C, Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

Corpus Christi Sunday
Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) is a Eucharistic solemnity, or better, the solemn commemoration of the institution of that sacrament. It is, moreover, the Church's official act of homage and gratitude to Christ, who by instituting the Holy Eucharist gave to the Church her greatest treasure. Holy Thursday, assuredly, marks the anniversary of the institution, but the commemoration of the Lord's passion that very night suppresses the rejoicing proper to the occasion. Today's observance, therefore, accents the joyous aspect of Holy Thursday.

The Mass and the Office for the feast was edited or composed by St. Thomas Aquinas upon the request of Pope Urban IV in the year 1264. It is unquestionably a classic piece of liturgical work, wholly in accord with the best liturgical traditions. . . It is a perfect work of art.
—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

In the words of St. Thomas:

"How inestimable a dignity, beloved brethren, divine bounty has bestowed upon us Christians from the treasury of its infinite goodness! For there neither is nor ever has been a people to whom the gods were so nigh as our Lord and God is nigh unto us.

"Desirous that we be made partakers of His divinity, the only-begotten Son of God has taken to Himself our nature so that having become man, He would be enabled to make men gods. Whatever He assumed of our nature He wrought unto our salvation. For on the altar of the Cross He immolated to the Father His own Body as victim for our reconciliation and shed His blood both for our ransom and for our regeneration. Moreover, in order that a remembrance of so great benefits may always be with us, He has left us His Body as food and His Blood as drink under appearances of bread and wine.

"O banquet most precious! O banquet most admirable! O banquet overflowing with every spiritual delicacy! Can anything be more excellent than this repast, in which not the flesh of goats and heifers, as of old, but Christ the true God is given us for nourishment? What more wondrous than this holy sacrament! In it bread and wine are changed substantially, and under the appearance of a little bread and wine is had Christ Jesus, God and perfect Man. In this sacrament sins are purged away, virtues are increased, the soul is satiated with an abundance of every spiritual gift. No other sacrament is so beneficial. Since it was instituted unto the salvation of all, it is offered by Holy Church for the living and for the dead, that all may share in its treasures.

"My dearly beloved, is it not beyond human power to express the ineffable delicacy of this sacrament in which spiritual sweetness is tasted in its very source, in which is brought to mind the remembrance of that all-excelling charity which Christ showed in His sacred passion? Surely it was to impress more profoundly upon the hearts of the faithful the immensity of this charity that our loving Savior instituted this sacrament at the last supper when, having celebrated the Pasch with His disciples. He was about to leave the world and return to the Father. It was to serve as an unending remembrance of His passion, as the fulfillment of ancient types — this the greatest of His miracles. To those who sorrow over His departure He has given a unique solace."

Symbols and Representation: The usual symbol for the Holy Eucharist is a chalice, with a host rising out of it.

The chalice is shown with a hexagonal base, as a rule, symbolizing the Six Attributes of the Deity (power, wisdom, majesty, mercy, justice and love), and with a richly wrought stem of gold, studded with precious stones. The host is shown as the typical circular wafer, upon which may be imprinted the letters I. N. R. I. or I.H.S., from which proceed rays of light, symbolical of the Real Presence, the substantial presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine.

An altar, upon which is set a cross, two or more candles in their tall candlesticks, a chalice and a ciborium, is another symbol often seen.

Highlights and Things to Do:

• The Directory on Popular Piety explains Eucharistic devotion and Eucharistic adoration.
• Encourage your pastor to have a Eucharist Procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi.
• Freshly baked bread would be a key dish at your celebratory Sunday dinner, as bread has always been symbolic for life giving and nourishment, as is the Eucharist. We have also highlighted a Christmas cookie recipe called Lebkuchen (life cake), which is rich in symbolism.
• Two newer church documents to read:
  • The fourteenth encyclical letter of Pope St. John Paul II Ecclesia de Eucharistia (On the Eucharist in Its Relationship to the Church) released on Holy Thursday, April 17, 2003. The focus of the papal encyclical is the celebration of the Eucharist; the Pope reminds us that the Eucharist is the center of Catholic spiritual life.
  • Redemptionis Sacramentum (On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist), an Instruction released by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on March 25, 2004.