On the occasion of the Jubilee of Consecrated Life, Pope Leo
The hermit life invites one to “live in contact with oneself, with one’s neighbor, with creation and with God,” the Pope said this October 11, from the Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
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Recalling the words that the Lord Jesus said to the Samaritan woman (Jn 4.23), the Holy Father assured that God “seeks and calls” men and women “at all times” to worship him “in the light of his Spirit and in the truth revealed by his only begotten Son.”
“He calls women and men to dedicate themselves entirely to Him, to seek Him and listen to Him, to praise Him and invoke Him, day and night, in the secret of their hearts,” he added.
In that sense, Pope Leo
“Only in this way can we abandon ourselves with confidence to the intimate dialogue with the Father, who dwells and sees in secret, and in secret fills us with his gifts,” said Leo XIV.
The contemplative life “is not about an escape from the world,” but about a “regeneration of the heart, so that it is capable of listening” and becomes “a source of the creative and fruitful action of charity that God inspires in us.” The Pope invited hermits to live this vocation “in an exemplary way, to be witnesses in the Church of the beauty of the contemplative life.”
“Their distancing from the world does not separate them from others, but unites them in a deeper solidarity,” said the Holy Father.
“Praying solitude generates communion and compassion for all humanity and for each creature, both in the dimension of the Spirit and in the ecclesial and social context in which they find themselves as a ferment of divine life,” he added.
Leo XIV also asked Italian hermits to remain faithful “to the legacy transmitted by the Fathers of the Church in the safeguarding of the Word,” through tools such as reading and the psalms, while calling them to “interpret the new spiritual challenges with the creativity of the Holy Spirit.”
“In fact, it is the Paraclete who opens them to dialogue with all seekers of meaning and truth, educating them to share and guide their often confusing spiritual search,” he assured.
Finally, in the midst of “our difficult times,” Leo XIV called on them to always be “with their hands up and their hearts alert,” walking in the presence of God and being “in solidarity with the trials of humanity.”
“With your gaze fixed on Jesus and opening the sails of your hearts to his Spirit of life, sail with the entire Church, our Mother, in the stormy sea of history, towards the Kingdom of love and peace that the Father prepares for all. Thank you,” he concluded.
Andres Henriquez
I was born in Caracas in 1996. I have been a writer for ACI Prensa and a correspondent for EWTN since 2023. Since then, I have covered events in the Catholic Church in Venezuela, Latin America and the world. I have more than 6 years of experience in bilingual media. Furthermore, in Venezuela I have worked in various areas in favor of freedom and respect for fundamental rights in the country. I have been a member of the Regnum Christi Federation since 2014.