In his first public appearance in Rome after more than two weeks in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV looked out the Apostolic Palace window to pray the Angelus with the faithful gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro.
“You cannot pray to God as ‘Father’ and then be hard and insensitive to others, but it is important to be transformed by their goodness, for their patience, for its mercy, to reflect as in a mirror his face in ours,” he said during his meditation prior to the Marian prayer.
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The Pope reflected on the Gospel of the day in which Jesus who teaches his disciples the Our Father and explained that this passage “invites us, in prayer and charity, to feel loved and love how God loves us: with availability, discretion, mutual care, without calculating”
He also assured that this part of the Gospel shows “the features of God’s fatherhood” through some suggestive images such as “that of a man who rises, in the heart of the night, to help a friend who must host an unexpected visitor”; And also “that of a father who cares about giving good things to his children.”
The Pope explained that these figures remember that God “never turns our back on us when we went to him, even when we arrive late to call his door, perhaps after making mistakes, omissions, failures.”
Thus he made it clear that in the great family of the Church, “the Father does not hesitate to make all participants of each of his gestures of love.”
He added: “The Lord always listens to us when we pray, and if sometimes he responds with times and difficult ways to understand, it is because he works with a greater wisdom and providence, which go beyond our understanding.”
On the other hand, he explained when reciting the Our Father, in addition to celebrating the grace of divine filiation, believers also express “the commitment to correspond to that gift, loving us as brothers in Christ.”
“The more we pray with confidence to the father of heaven, the more we discover beloved children and we know the greatness of their love,” the Pontiff finally said whose return to the Vatican last Tuesday marked the end of a brief period of summer rest before presiding over the jubilee of the young people that will take place from July 28 to August 3.
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.