This Saturday, Leo XIV received the participants of the General Chapter of the Vallombrosa Congregation of the Order of San Benito in the Vatican. The Pope asked them to “advance the original need to reform, renew and simplify” the Christian life.
The Vallombrosa Order is a religious order founded by San Juan Gualberto in 1039 in Vallombrosa, near Florence (Italy). The rule of San Benito follows and is characterized by its emphasis on the return to evangelical poverty and the commitment to charity.
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The Pope pointed out that as at that time in the foundation of the order, today we are “at the dawn of a millennium” in which the world seems to be comforted in the middle of a context full of fears.
“It is not about abandoning the challenges of our time, but of inhabiting them with the depth of those who know how to remain silent and listen to the word of God, to illuminate it in changing culture,” said Leo XIV.
“That nothing prevents them from advancing the original need to reform, renew and simplify, for everyone’s benefit, that Christian life that can still expand horizons and breath of all human existence,” said the Holy Father.
He also highlighted the words of one of his predecessors, San Pablo VI, who in 1973 remembered the founder of the order as a man who wanted his institute to “return to the genuine sources of prayer and the apostolate, as the apostles, the parents of the Church and his San Benito had done”.
The first friars, ”said Leo XIV in the words of San Pablo VI – were looking for a new conversion in San Juan Gualberto“ that they felt as a source of personal sanctification, but that should also be yeast and new life ferment ”.
“My beloved predecessor, Pope Francis, tirelessly urged us to promote the renewal of the Church promoted by the Second Vatican Council. This continues to ask us to overcome self -referentiality, be poorer and listen to the poor, and intensify the ties of communion,” said the Holy Father.
“In particular, that communion with the other congregations of the daughters and sons of San Benito helps them to remain faithful to the rule, in dialogue with the contemporary world. In fact, the search for a spirituality in which prayer, work and joy are entered into fidelity to the places and things of each day is always new. They are attentive and hospitable witnesses of this,” he concluded.
Andrés Henríquez
I was born in Caracas in 1996. I am a writer for ACI Press and correspondent of EWTN since 2023. Since then, I cover events of the Catholic Church in Venezuela, Latin America and the world. I have more than 6 years of experience in bilingual media. In addition, in Venezuela I have worked from various fields for freedom and respect for fundamental rights in the country. I am a member of the Regnum Christi Federation since 2014.