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Solemnity of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ), Year C, 19 June 2022 Note: Homilies & Angelus / Regina Caeli of Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis I had been compiled for you after the Mass Readings below. Happy Reading! Liturgical Colour: White.
Mass Readings from EWTN, USCCB, Universalis. See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-251 & 252. 8-) First Reading: Genesis 14:18-20, Responsorial: Psalms 110:1-4, 2nd Reading:1 Corinthians 11:23-26 & Gospel: Luke 9:11-17, Gospel Video.
Others: Disney RELAXING PIANO Collection.
Acknowledgment: We thank the Publisher for allowing us to publish the Mass Readings to be used as reference for Homilies & Angelus / Regina Caeli of Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis I as a source of God’s encouragements to all of us around the World.
COVID-19 Protection in Singapore. New!
1. Criminal Investigation Department, Singapore Police Force harassed Law-abiding Citizen. Latest! https://twitter.com/Michael65413248/status/1510086218851270658 (2 April 2022) #Singapore Police Force harassing the same law abiding business owner again from 92298844, 97397514, 83487591, 96645914, 63914706, 82825465, 97378102, 90360045, 92981234! They can’t perform to contain COVID, so they bully to appear busy? Shameless? You decide! 2. See another Police case to frame against the Innocent! Please spread the News to help them who commit no crime. Many Thanks. Till this day, the harassment continues and there is no apology from the Rulers and no compensation paid for damages inflicted. 3. See the Bloggers went MISSING before / after the Singapore General Election on 10 July 2020. Please pray for their safety as we search for them actively. Many Thanks. 4. Please pray for this elderly Catholic Lady who has been victimised & harassed by her sister (also a Catholic) & her sister’s husband. Many Thanks.
Homilies, Angelus / Regina Caeli Read the Homilies & Angelus of Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Year B .
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-252. 8-)
1. Today the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, better known by its Latin name, Corpus Christi, is being celebrated in many countries, including Italy.
Every Sunday the ecclesial community gathers round the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice instituted at the Last Supper. But the Christian people’s devotion to this central mystery of the faith felt the need, about seven centuries ago, for a specific celebration in which they could give full expression to their adoration of the Body and Blood of our Lord, the source and summit of the Church’s life.
Processions with the Blessed Sacrament are a favourite, traditional expression of popular Eucharistic piety and take place in local Churches all over the world on today’s solemnity. They are a particularly eloquent sign that the Lord Jesus, who died and rose again, continues to walk the paths of the world and, with his itinerant presence, guides the way of Christian generations: he nourishes their faith, hope and love; he comforts them in their trials and sustains them in their commitment to justice and peace.
2. How can we not rejoice today at God’s wonderful solidarity with humanity? As he did with the disciples at Emmaus, in the Eucharist Jesus stands by us as pilgrims in history, in cities and villages, in the North and South of the world, in traditionally Christian countries and in those being evangelized for the first time.
Everywhere Christ spreads the same message: “Love one another as I have loved you”, and in the Eucharist he offers himself as the spiritual strength for putting this commandment into practice and for building the civilization of love.
Today, I like to think of the journey towards the Jubilee of the Year 2000 as a great Corpus Christi processison that will culminate in the World Eucharistic Congress, scheduled to take place in Rome in June of the Holy Year. Therefore, I urge all the faithful, especially sacred ministers, to strengthen and deepen their spiritual bond with the Eucharist, in which the full saving power of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is present and active.
3. The first Corpus Christi procession occurred in a certain sense when Mary, bearing the newly conceived Jesus in her womb, left Nazareth to visit her cousin Elizabeth. In contemplating this Gospel icon, may the Church hasten her steps towards contemporary man and proclaim to him with renewed love the Good News of salvation. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 14 June 1998)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-253. 8-)
1. I still have a vivid memory of the devout celebration of the Eucharist at which I presided last Thursday at St John Lateran for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, and of the subsequent solemn procession to St Mary Major. For pastoral reasons, this beautiful and traditional feast is celebrated today, Sunday, in Italy and in many other countries. The ecclesial Community gathers in adoration around the most precious treasure that Christ the Lord left it in heritage: the sacrament of the Eucharist, the perpetual memorial of his redemptive sacrifice.
Corpus Christi has become a popular celebration, thanks to the lovely custom of carrying the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of our cities and towns. It is a feast in which we rejoice over the extraordinary gift of the Bread of life which, as Christ promised, guarantees eternal life the Bread that is really his flesh, his humanity, through which God sanctifies hearts, people, communities, nations and the whole cosmos.
The Eucharist thus becomes the principle of the new humanity and the renewed world, whose complete manifestation will take place at the end of history. Already now it is growing as the seed and leaven of the kingdom of God.
2. The distinctive feature of the new humanity redeemed by Christ is the fullness of fraternal love. Actually the Eucharist is the Sacrament of love par excellence, understood as the gift of self. Without the spiritual nourishment that the Body and Blood of Christ gives us, human love is always tainted by selfishness. On the other hand, Communion with the Bread of heaven converts hearts and instils in them the capacity to love as Jesus loved us.
"Communion": the name that we often give to the Eucharist, is especially significant in this regard. Those who receive the Body of Christ with faith are closely united to him and, through him, to God the Father, in the love of the Holy Spirit. God in man, man in God. And this becomes the true foundation of communion in the Church. As the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians: "Because there is one bread, we ... are one body" (I Corinthians 10,17).
3. Jesus, Bread of eternal life, descended from heaven, thanks to the faith of the Blessed Virgin. After bearing him within her with ineffable love, she faithfully followed the incarnate Word to the Cross and the Resurrection. Let us ask Mary to help us rediscover the centrality of the Eucharist, especially on the Lord's Day, in order to live fraternal communion to the full. We also ask her to lead us towards true unity. I would like to entrust to Mary in a very special way the upcoming pilgrimage I shall be making in Ukraine, starting next Saturday. May this apostolic journey be another milestone on the desired way towards the unity of all Christians. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 17 June 2001)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-253. 8-)
1. Today, Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, is being celebrated in Italy and in other countries. It is the feast of the Eucharist, the sacrament in which Jesus left us the living memorial of his Pasch, a central event in the history of humanity.
It is beautiful that on this day the faithful cluster round the Blessed Sacrament to adore it, accompany it in procession through the streets and, with many signs of devotion, express their faith in the living Christ and their joy in his presence.
2. Last Thursday, precisely when I was celebrating Corpus Christi with the Diocese of Rome, I announced that to coincide with the International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, a special "Year of the Eucharist" will begin this October, which will end in October 2005 with the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Its theme will be: "The Eucharist, source and summit of the life and mission of the Church".
The "Year of the Eucharist" fits into the context of the pastoral project that I pointed out in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, in which I invited the faithful to "start afresh from Christ" (n. 29ff.). By contemplating with greater perseverance the Face of the Incarnate Word, truly present in the Sacrament, they will train themselves in the art of prayer (cf. n. 32) and undertake that high standard of Christian living (cf. n. 31), an indispensable condition for effectively developing the new evangelization.
The Eucharist is the centre of the Church's life. In it Christ offers himself to the Father for our sake, making us sharers in his own sacrifice, and gives himself to us as the bread of life for our journey on the highways of the world.
3. From this moment I entrust to the Virgin Mary, "Woman of the Eucharist" (cf. Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, nn. 53-58), this new initiative. May the one who in the Year of the Rosary helped us to contemplate Christ with her eyes and her heart (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae, nn. 10-17), enable every community in the Year of the Eucharist to grow in faith and love for the mystery of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Pope Saint John Paul II (Angelus, 13 June 2004)
Today we reaffirm with great joy our faith in the Eucharist, the Mystery that constitutes the heart of the Church. In the recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis I recalled that the Eucharistic Mystery "is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus revealing to us God's infinite love for every man and woman" (n. 1).
Corpus Christi, therefore, is a unique feast and constitutes an important encounter of faith and praise for every Christian community. This feast originated in a specific historical and cultural context: it was born for the very precise purpose of openly reaffirming the faith of the People of God in Jesus Christ, alive and truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It is a feast that was established in order to publicly adore, praise and thank the Lord, who continues "to love us "to the end', even to offering us his body and his blood" (Sacramentum Caritatis, n. 1).
The Eucharistic celebration this evening takes us back to the spiritual atmosphere of Holy Thursday, the day on which in the Upper Room, on the eve of his Passion, Christ instituted the Most Holy Eucharist.
Corpus Christi is thus a renewal of the mystery of Holy Thursday, as it were, in obedience to Jesus' invitation to proclaim from "the housetops" what he told us in secret (cf. Matthew 10: 27). It was the Apostles who received the gift of the Eucharist from the Lord in the intimacy of the Last Supper, but it was destined for all, for the whole world. This is why it should be proclaimed and exposed to view: so that each one may encounter "Jesus who passes" as happened on the roads of Galilee, Samaria and Judea; in order that each one, in receiving it, may be healed and renewed by the power of his love. Dear friends, this is the perpetual and living heritage that Jesus has bequeathed to us in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood. It is an inheritance that demands to be constantly rethought and relived so that, as venerable Pope Paul VI said, its "inexhaustible effectiveness may be impressed upon all the days of our mortal life" (cf. Insegnamenti, 25 May 1967, p. 779).
Also in the Post-Synodal Exhortation, commenting on the exclamation of the priest after the consecration: "Let us proclaim the mystery of faith!", I observed: with these words he "proclaims the mystery being celebrated and expresses his wonder before the substantial change of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus, a reality which surpasses all human understanding" (n. 6).
Precisely because this is a mysterious reality that surpasses our understanding, we must not be surprised if today too many find it hard to accept the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It cannot be otherwise. This is how it has been since the day when, in the synagogue at Capernaum, Jesus openly declared that he had come to give us his flesh and his blood as food (cf. John 6: 26-58).
This seemed "a hard saying" and many of his disciples withdrew when they heard it. Then, as now, the Eucharist remains a "sign of contradiction" and can only be so because a God who makes himself flesh and sacrifices himself for the life of the world throws human wisdom into crisis.
However, with humble trust, the Church makes the faith of Peter and the other Apostles her own and proclaims with them, and we proclaim: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6: 68). Let us too renew this evening our profession of faith in Christ, alive and present in the Eucharist. Yes, "this [is] the truth each Christian learns, / bread into his flesh he turns, / to his precious blood the wine".
The Eucharist is the food reserved for those who in Baptism were delivered from slavery and have become sons; it is the food that sustained them on the long journey of the exodus through the desert of human existence.
Like the manna for the people of Israel, for every Christian generation the Eucharist is the indispensable nourishment that sustains them as they cross the desert of this world, parched by the ideological and economic systems that do not promote life but rather humiliate it. It is a world where the logic of power and possessions prevails rather than that of service and love; a world where the culture of violence and death is frequently triumphant.
Yet Jesus comes to meet us and imbues us with certainty: he himself is "the Bread of life" (John 6: 35, 48). He repeated this to us in the words of the Gospel Acclamation: "I am the living bread from Heaven, if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever" (cf. John 6: 51).
In the Gospel passage just proclaimed, St Luke, narrating the miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves and two fish with which Jesus fed the multitude "in a lonely place", concludes with the words: "And all ate and were satisfied" (cf. Luke 9: 11-17).
I would like in the first place to emphasize this "all". Indeed, the Lord desired every human being to be nourished by the Eucharist, because the Eucharist is for everyone.
If the close relationship between the Last Supper and the mystery of Jesus' death on the Cross is emphasized on Holy Thursday, today, the Feast of Corpus Christi, with the procession and unanimous adoration of the Eucharist, attention is called to the fact that Christ sacrificed himself for all humanity. His passing among the houses and along the streets of our city will be for those who live there an offering of joy, eternal life, peace and love.
In the Gospel passage, a second element catches one's eye: the miracle worked by the Lord contains an explicit invitation to each person to make his own contribution. The two fish and five loaves signify our contribution, poor but necessary, which he transforms into a gift of love for all.
"Christ continues today" I wrote in the above-mentioned Post Synodal Exhortation, "to exhort his disciples to become personally engaged" (Sacramentum Caritatis, n. 88).
Thus, the Eucharist is a call to holiness and to the gift of oneself to one's brethren: "Each of us is truly called, together with Jesus, to be bread broken for the life of the world" (ibid.).
At the end of the Eucharistic celebration we will join in the procession as if to carry the Lord Jesus in spirit through all the streets and neighbourhoods of Rome. We will immerse him, so to speak, in the daily routine of our lives, so that he may walk where we walk and live where we live.
Indeed we know, as the Apostle Paul reminded us in his Letter to the Corinthians, that in every Eucharist, also in the Eucharist this evening, we "proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (cf. I Corinthians 11: 26). We travel on the highways of the world knowing that he is beside us, supported by the hope of being able to see him one day face to face, in the definitive encounter.
In the meantime, let us listen to his voice repeat, as we read in the Book of Revelation, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3: 20).
The Feast of Corpus Christi wants to make the Lord's knocking audible, despite the hardness of our interior hearing. Jesus knocks at the door of our heart and asks to enter not only for the space of a day but for ever. Pope Benedict XVI (Homily, 7 June 2007)
Today's Solemnity of Corpus Christi, which was celebrated last Thursday in the Vatican and in different Nations, invites us to contemplate the supreme Mystery of our faith: the Most Holy Eucharist, the Real Presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar. Every time that the priest renews the Eucharistic Sacrifice, in the prayer of consecration he repeats: "This is my Body... this is my Blood".
He says this lending his voice, hands and heart to Christ, who wanted to stay with us and be the heartbeat of the Church. However, after the celebration of the divine Mysteries, the Lord Jesus remains alive in the tabernacle; for this reason special praise is given to him with Eucharistic adoration, as I wished to recall in the recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (cf. nn. 66-69).
Indeed, an intrinsic connection exists between celebration and adoration. In fact, Holy Mass is in itself the Church's greatest act of adoration: "No one eats of this flesh", as St Augustine writes, "without having first adored it" (Enarr. in Ps. 98,9: CCL XXXIX, 1385).
Adoration outside Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the liturgical celebration and makes a true and profound reception of Christ possible.
In life today, often noisy and dispersive, it is more important than ever to recover the capacity for inner silence and recollection. Eucharistic adoration permits this not only centred on the "I" but more so in the company of that "You" full of love who is Jesus Christ, "the God who is near to us".
May the Virgin Mary, the Woman of the Eucharist, introduce us into the secret of true adoration. Her humble and simple heart was ever pondering the mystery of Jesus, in whom she adored the presence of God and of his redeeming love. May faith in the Eucharistic Mystery, joy in participating in Holy Mass, especially on Sundays, and enthusiasm in witnessing to Christ's immense love grow throughout the Church through her intercession. Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 10 June 2007)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-253. 8-)
At the midday hour it is the Church’s tradition to turn in prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, joyfully recalling her ready acceptance of the Lord’s invitation to become the mother of God. It was an invitation that filled her with trepidation, one which she could scarcely even comprehend. It was a sign that God had chosen her, his lowly handmaid, to cooperate with him in his saving work. How we rejoice at the generosity of her response! Through her “yes”, the hope of the ages became a reality, the One whom Israel had long awaited came into the world, into our history. Of him the angel promised that his kingdom would have no end (cf. Luke 1:33).
Some thirty years later, as Mary stood weeping at the foot of the cross, it must have been hard to keep that hope alive. The forces of darkness seemed to have gained the upper hand. And yet, deep down, she would have remembered the angel’s words. Even amid the desolation of Holy Saturday the certitude of hope carried her forward into the joy of Easter morning. And so we, her children, live in the same confident hope that the Word made flesh in Mary’s womb will never abandon us. He, the Son of God and Son of Mary, strengthens the communion that binds us together, so that we can bear witness to him and to the power of his healing and reconciling love. Pope Benedict XVI (Angelus, 6 June 2010)
See our compilation with Pictures in Encouragements-254. 8-)
The Gospel presents to us the account of the miracle of the Multiplication of the Loaves (Luke 9:11-17); I would like to reflect on one aspect of it that never fails to impress me and makes me think. We are on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, daylight is fading. Jesus is concerned for the people who have spent so many hours with him: there are thousands of them and they are hungry. What should he do? The disciples also pose the problem and tell Jesus: “send the crowd away” so that they can go and find provisions in the villages close by. But Jesus says: “You give them something to eat” (v. 13). The disciples are discomfited and answer him: “we have no more than five loaves and two fish”, as if to say, barely enough for ourselves.
Jesus well knows what to do, but he wishes to involve his disciples, he wants to teach them. The disciples’ attitude is the human one that seeks the most realistic solution which does not create too many problems: dismiss the crowd, they say, let each person organize himself as best he can, moreover you have already done so much for them: you have preached, you have healed the sick.... Send the crowd away!
Jesus’ outlook is very different; it is dictated by his union with the Father and his compassion for the people, that mercifulness of Jesus for us all. Jesus senses our problems, he senses our weaknesses, he senses our needs. Looking at those five loaves, Jesus thinks: this is Providence! From this small amount, God can make it suffice for everyone. Jesus trusts in the heavenly Father without reserve; he knows that for him everything is possible. Thus he tells his disciples to have the people sit down in groups of 50 — this is not merely coincidental, for it means that they are no longer a crowd but become communities nourished by God’s bread. Jesus then takes those loaves and fish, looks up to heaven, recites the blessing — the reference to the Eucharist is clear — and breaks them and gives them to the disciples who distribute them... and the loaves and fish do not run out, they do not run out! This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer. Everyone eats and some is left over: it is the sign of Jesus, the Bread of God for humanity.
The disciples witnessed the message but failed to understand it. Like the crowd they are swept up by enthusiasm for what has occurred. Once again they follow human logic rather than God’s, which is that of service, love and faith. The Feast of Corpus Christi asks us to convert to faith in Providence, so that we may share the little we are and have, and never to withdraw into ourselves. Let us ask our Mother Mary to help us in this conversion, in order to follow truly and more closely the Jesus whom we adore in the Eucharist. So may it be. Pope Francis I (Angelus, 2 June 2013)
Note: This webpage has many hyperlinks to the Vatican Webpage. The above extracts were compiled for your easy reading. This Publication is aimed to encourage all of Goodwill around the World. It is not for business or profit purposes but it is our way to thank our Creator for His continuous blessings!
Compiled on 16 June 2019
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