San Agustín in the first 3 months of Pontificate of Pope Leo XIV

Today, three months have passed since Pope Leo XIV appeared for the first time to the central balcony of the Vatican Basilica, after being elected successor of San Pedro.

In that first message City and the Worldpronounced on May 8, the Holy Father firmly expressed these words, which would mark the beginning of his pontificate:

“I am Augustine, a son of St. Augustine, who said: ‘With you I am a Christian and for you, bishop.’ In this sense we can walk all together towards that country that God has prepared us.”

In these three months, Leo XIV has cited on several occasions his spiritual father, St. Augustine, thus consolidating a deeply rooted pastoral line in the Augustinian tradition.

Either in messages about artificial intelligence, in speeches aimed at young people or in audiences with pilgrims, Pope Leo XIV has taken every occasion – through his speeches, audiences and homilies – to offer valuable teachings inspired by San Agustín de Hipona.

In most interventions he has cited Confessionsone of the best known works of the Saint, as he did in his homily during the opening mass of his Petrino Ministry, held on May 18. He has also referred to other fundamental works of the Bishop of Hippo, such as the Comment to Psalms y The city of God.

Unity in Christ

One of the most recurring themes in the teaching of Pope Leo XIV during these first months has been the importance of unity in Christ. Not by chance, the Holy Father chose the motto for his episcopal ministry In that one oneTomda de San Agustín.

During an audience with Ecumenical delegationsThe Pope recalled that the concern for the unit “has always been a constant in me, as attesting to the motto I have chosen for my episcopal ministry.”

This expression, he explained, “recalls that we also, even being many, ‘in that one – or in Christ – we are one'” (Enarr. in Ps.127,3).

“Our communion is done, in effect, to the extent that we converge in the Lord Jesus. The more we are faithful and obedient, the more we are among us. Therefore, as Christians, we are called to pray and work together to reach this goal by step, which is and will always be the work of the Holy Spirit,” he said on that occasion.

This unit call has also done it in other contexts, as in its message to the Pontifical mission worksin which he recalled that “it is in the Trinity that all things find their unity. This Christian dimension of our life and mission takes it in my heart.”

He added: “Christ is our Savior and in Him we are one, the family of God, beyond the rich variety of our languages, cultures and experiences.”

The celestial homeland

“You have done us for you, (sir,) and our heart is restless until you rest in you” (Confessions1.1.1). This famous phrase, which summarizes the core of Augustinian spirituality, has been cited by the Holy Father on more than one occasion, as in its message to the International Federation of Catholic Universities.

With her, Pope Leo XIV recalls that the human being has been created for God and that only in him can find full happiness.

In his message For the World Migrant and Refugee Day, he stressed the “pilgrim dimension” of the Church, “perpetually aimed at reaching the final homeland, sustained by hope that is theological virtue.”

In this context, he warned that “every time the Church gives to the temptation of ‘sedentary’ and ceases to be city foreign —The people of God pilgrim towards the celestial homeland (cf. San Agustín, The city of GodBook XIV-XVI)-, ceases to be ‘in the world’ and becomes ‘of the world’ ”.

Also, when you go to the young people who participated in a Meeting in Medjugorjehe recalled a thought of St. Augustine, that “he does not speak of the house of the Lord as of a distant goal, but announces the joy of a path lived together, as a people on pilgrimage”:

A faith lived with humility and compassion

In the light of the parable of the good Samaritan, Pope Leo XIV urged in his homily Pronounced on July 13 in Castel Gandolfo, to look at the neighbor “with the eyes of the heart.”

By citing Saint Augustine, he remarked that “the Lord and God our own wanted to be our neighbor, for Jesus Christ our Lord symbolized in which he helped the man lying on the road, wounded, semi -devivious and abandoned by the thieves” (The Christian doctrineI, 33).

In a VIDEOMANSAJE Aimed at the youth of Chicago, he recalled that the Holy of Hippo taught that, “if we want the world to be a better place, we must start from ourselves, we must start from our life, from our heart.”

Also, during one General audience On June 25, said the words of San Agustín in his work Conversations in which he affirmed that “the crowd squeezes, the faith touches.”

“Every time we perform an act of faith addressed to Jesus, contact with Him is established and immediately his grace leaves Him. Sometimes we do not realize, but in a secret and real way grace reaches us and slowly transforms life from within,” said the Holy Father.