Pope Leo XIV received this Wednesday at the Vatican a group of Augustinian Recollect nuns from Mexico, whom he reminded that love gives meaning to all Christian work.
At the beginning of his speech, delivered from the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, the Holy Father encouraged the nuns to find the Lord in their lives through Mercy and truth.
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“In these two ways, let us walk towards the Lord, serving like Martha in the works of mercy or resting like Mary at the feet of Jesus to contemplate the truth,” he added.
He also recalled that Saint Paul referred to this pilgrimage as the “way of love.” In this context, he stressed that this love “is not something that is achieved with effort” but is received as a gift.
In this regard, he recalled that the Augustinian saint Thomas of Villanueva stated that “no matter how many things God gives you, if he does not give you his love, he has denied himself to you.”
For the Holy Father, our journey takes shape from the heart: “God, in fact, does not look at what or how much you do, but at how much you advance in your desire and love for Him, because, although it is true that each one will be judged by his works, nevertheless the weight of the work is the charity of the heart.”
Pope Leo
Finally, he invoked the maternal protection of Our Mother of Good Counsel and the intercession of Saint Thomas of Villanueva, “who so loved the mission in America, to travel this path of perfection with patience and courage to reach the end.”
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
Graduated in Journalism and Advertising from the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. She has been a senior correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in the Vatican for two years and is currently a European correspondent based in Spain.