‘The Sunday Eucharist is indispensable to the Christian life,’ Pope tells pilgrims
April 12, 2026
Pope Leo XIV emphasized today in his Regina Caeli address (video) that “the Sunday Eucharist is indispensable to the Christian life.”
During his address, delivered at noon today to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo reflected on the Gospel at reading at Mass (John 20:19-31).
“Thomas met Jesus on the eighth day, in the gathered community, and recognized him in the signs of his sacrifice,” the Pope said. “His profession of faith, the highest in the entire Fourth Gospel, emerged from this experience: ‘My Lord and my God!’“
“Of course, it is not always easy to believe,” he continued. “It was not easy for Thomas, and it is not easy for us either. Faith needs to be nourished and sustained. For this reason, on the ‘eighth day’—that is, every Sunday—the Church invites us to do as the first disciples did: gather together and celebrate the Eucharist.”
Pope Leo added:
The Sunday Eucharist is indispensable to the Christian life. Tomorrow I will depart for my Apostolic Journey to Africa. Some of the martyrs of the early African Church, particularly the Martyrs of Abitene, have left us a beautiful testimony in this regard.
When offered the chance to save their lives by renouncing the celebration of the Eucharist, they replied that they could not live without celebrating the Lord’s Day. It is there that our faith is grows and is strengthened. It is there that our efforts, though limited, are united by God’s grace to the actions of the members of a single body—the Body of Christ—for the accomplishment of a single great plan of salvation that embraces all humanity.
It is through the Eucharist that our hands become “the hands of the Risen One,” giving witness to his presence, mercy and peace. The signs of work, sacrifice, illness and the passing of the years are often etched into our hands, just as they are in the tenderness of a caress, a handshake, or a gesture of charity.
“Dear brothers and sisters, in a world that is in such great need of peace, this calls on us more than ever to be steadfast and faithful in our Eucharistic encounter with the risen Lord, so that we may go forth as witnesses of charity and messengers of reconciliation,” the Pontiff concluded. “May the Virgin Mary help us to do this, she who is blessed because she was the first to believe without seeing.”
Pope Leo then recited, in Latin, the Regina Caeli, the Minor Doxology (three times), and the prayer for the faithful departed, before imparting his blessing.
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