Meditation of Pope Leo XIV during the prayer of the Holy Rosary for peace

This October 11, Pope Leo

Below is the meditation pronounced by Leo XIV:

Dear brothers and sisters:

We have gathered in prayer, tonight, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, as the first Church of Jerusalem used to do (Hch 1,14). All united, persevering and with the same feeling, we do not tire of interceding for peace, a gift from God that must become our conquest and our commitment.

Authentic Marian Spirituality

In this Jubilee of Marian spirituality, our gaze as believers seeks in the Virgin Mary the guide of our pilgrimage in hope, contemplating her “human and evangelical virtues, whose imitation constitutes the most authentic Marian devotion” (Cf. VATICAN COUNCIL II, Const. dogm. The light of the nations65.67). Like her, the first believer, we want to be a womb that welcomes the Most High, “humble tent of the Word, moved only by the wind of the Spirit” (St. JOHN PAUL II, AngelusAugust 15, 1988). Like her, the first disciple, let us beg for the gift of a heart that listens and becomes a fragment of a cosmos that welcomes. Through her, Painful, Strong and Faithful Woman, let us ask that the gift of compassion reach us towards every brother and sister who suffers, and towards all creatures.
Let us contemplate the Mother of Jesus and the small group of brave women at the foot of the Cross, so that we too can learn to remain, like them, next to the infinite crosses of the world, where Christ continues crucified in his brothers, to bring them comfort, communion and help. In her, sister of humanity, we recognize ourselves, and with the words of a poem we tell her:

“Mother, you are every woman who loves; mother, you are every mother who cries

to a murdered son, to a betrayed son.

These children who never end up being annihilated” (Cf. DM Turoldo).

Under your protection we seek refuge, Virgin of Easter, together with all those in whom the passion of your Son continues to be completed.

Do what he tells you

In the Jubilee of Marian spirituality, our hope is illuminated with the soft and persevering light of Mary’s words told to us in the Gospel. And among all of them, the last ones pronounced at the Wedding at Cana are valuable, when, pointing to Jesus, he says to the servants:

“Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2.5). Afterwards he won’t talk anymore. Therefore, these words, which are almost a testament, must be very dear to the children, like any mother’s will.

Everything he tells them. She is sure that her Son will speak, his Word has not finished, it continues to create, generate, filling the world with springs and the amphorae of the party with wine. Mary, like an indicative sign, guides beyond herself, shows that the point of arrival is the Lord Jesus and his Word, the center towards which everything converges, the axis around which time and eternity rotate.

Keep your wordrecommends. Fulfill the Gospelturn it into gesture and body, into blood and flesh, into effort and smile. Fulfill the Gospeland life will transform, from empty to full, from off to on.

Do everything he tells you: the entire Gospel, the demanding word, the consoling caress, the reproach and the hug. What you understand and also what you don’t understand. Mary exhorts us to be like the prophets: not to let a single one of their words fall into the void (cf. 1Sam 3,19)

And among the words of Jesus that we do not want to miss, one resonates especially today, in this vigil of prayer for peace: the one addressed to Peter in the olive garden: “Sheath your sword” (Jn 18, 11). It disarms the hand and, even before that, the heart. As I have mentioned on other occasions, peace is disarming and disarming. It is not deterrence, but brotherhood; It is not an ultimatum, but a dialogue. It will not come as the fruit of victories over the enemy, but as the result of sowing justice and fearless forgiveness.

Invades the espada is the word addressed to the powerful of the world, to those who guide the destiny of the people: have the audacity to disarm! And at the same time it is also addressed to each one of us, to make us increasingly aware that we cannot kill for any idea, faith or politics. The first thing to disarm is the heart, because if there is no peace in us, we will not give peace.

It shouldn’t be like that between you.

Let us listen to the Lord Jesus again: the great people of the world build empires with power and money (Cf. Mt 20,25; Mc 10:42), “But it should not be so among you” (Lc 22,26). God does not act like this: the Master does not have thrones, but rather he wraps himself in a towel and kneels at each person’s feet. His empire is that small space that is enough to wash his friends’ feet and take care of them.

It is also the invitation to acquire a different point of view to look at the world from below, with the eyes of those who suffer, not with the optics of the powerful; to see history with the eyes of the little ones and not with the perspective of the powerful; to interpret the events of history from the point of view of the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the wounded child, the exile, the fugitive. With the look of someone who is shipwrecked, of poor Lazarus, lying next to the rich man’s door. Otherwise, nothing will ever change and a new time, a kingdom of justice and peace, will not emerge.

The Virgin Mary also does so in the song of the Magnificatwhen he directs his gaze to the fracture points of humanity, where the distortion of the world occurs, in the contrast between the humble and the powerful, between the poor and the rich, between the satiated and the hungry. And she chooses the little ones, she takes the side of the last in history, to teach us to imagine, to dream together with her of the new heavens and the new earth.

blessed are you

Do everything he tells you. And we commit ourselves to making our flesh and passion, history and action, the great word of the Lord: “Blessed are you who work for peace” (cf. Mt 5,9).

blessed are you: God gives joy to those who engender love in the world, joy to those who, instead of defeating the enemy, prefer peace with him.

Cheer up, go ahead, on the way. You who build the conditions for a future of peace, in justice and forgiveness; Be meek and determined, do not be discouraged. Peace is a path and God walks with you. The Lord creates and spreads peace through his friends pacified in the heart, who in turn become peacemakers, instruments of his peace.

We have gathered tonight in prayer around Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, like the first disciples in the cenacle. To her, deeply peaceful woman, queen of peace, we address:

Pray with us, faithful Woman, sacred bosom of the Word. Teach us to listen to the cry of the poor and of Mother Earth, attentive to the calls of the Spirit in the secret of the heart,

in the lives of the brothers, in the events of history, in the groaning and joy of creation.

Holy Mary, mother of the living, strong, painful, faithful woman, Virgin wife next to the Cross,

where love is consummated and life springs,

Be the guide of our commitment to service.

Teach us to stop with you next to the infinite crosses where your Son remains crucified,

where life is most threatened;

to live and bear witness to Christian love, welcoming a brother in each man; to renounce dark selfishness

to follow Christ, true light of man.

Virgin of peace, door of sure hope,

welcome the prayer of your children!