Pope Francis Homilies

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Matthew Mark Luke John The Acts Romans 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Titus Philemon Hebrews James 1 Peter 2 Peter 1 John 2 John 3 John Jude Revelation Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Tobit Judith Esther 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes The Song of Songs The Book of Wisdom Sirach Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Baruch Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi

Pope Leo Angelus 13.07.25

Castel Gandolfo

Dear brothers and sisters,

Happy Sunday! Today’s Gospel begins with a great question posed to Jesus: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk 10:25). Those words express a constant desire in our life: our yearning for salvation, for an existence free from failure, evil and death.

This hope of the human heart is described as something to be “inherited”, not something to be gained by force, begged for, or negotiated. Eternal life, which God alone can give, is bestowed on us as an inheritance, as parents do with their children.

That is why Jesus tells us that, in order to receive God’s gift, we must do his will. It is written in the Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” and “your neighbour as yourself” (Lk 10:27; cfr Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18). When we do these two things, we respond to the Father’s love. God’s will is the law of life that the Father himself was the first to follow, by loving us unconditionally in his Son, Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, let us look to Jesus! He shows us the meaning of authentic love for God and for others. It is a love that is generous, not possessive; a love that forgives without question; a love that reaches out and never abandons others. In Christ, God made himself a neighbour to each and every man and woman. That is why each of us can and should become a neighbour to all whom we meet. Imitating the example of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, we too are called to bring consolation and hope, above all to those who are experiencing discouragement and disappointment.

In order to live eternally, we do not need to cheat death, but to serve life, by caring for others in this, our time together. That is the supreme law that is prior to all society’s rules and gives them their meaning.

Let us ask the Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, to help us to open our hearts to God’s will, which is always a will of saving love. In this way, we will become artisans of peace every day of our lives.

Brothers and sisters, let us not forget to pray for peace and for all those who, because of violence or war, find themselves in a state of suffering and need.

I wish all of you a happy Sunday!

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Pope Leo Holy Mass 13.07.25

Castel Gandolfo

Brothers and sisters,

I have the joy of celebrating this Eucharist with you. I greet all those present, the parish community, the priests, and His Eminence, the Bishop of the Diocese, and the civil and military authorities.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, we have heard one of Jesus’ most beautiful and moving parables. We all know the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25-37).

That parable constantly challenges us to think about our own lives. It troubles our dormant or distracted consciences, and warns us about the risk of a complacent faith that is satisfied with the outward observance of the law but incapable of feeling and acting with the same merciful compassion as God.

The parable is really about compassion. True, the Gospel story speaks of the compassion that moved the Samaritan to act, but it first speaks of how others regarded the wounded man lying on the roadside after being attacked by robbers. We are told that a priest and a Levite “saw him and passed by” (v. 32). Of the Samaritan, however, the Gospel says, “he saw him and had compassion on him” (v. 33).

Dear brothers and sisters, how we look at others is what counts, because it shows what is in our hearts. We can look and walk by, or we can look and be moved with compassion. There is a kind of seeing that is superficial, distracted and hasty, a way of seeing while pretending not to see. We can see without being touched or challenged by the sight. Then too, there is seeing with the eyes of the heart, looking more closely, empathizing with the other, sharing his or her experience, letting ourselves be touched and challenged. This way of seeing calls into question the way we live our life and the responsibility we feel towards others.

The parable speaks to us first about God’s way of seeing us, so that we in turn can learn how to see situations and people with his eyes, so full of love and compassion. The Good Samaritan is really a figure of Jesus, the eternal Son whom the Father sent into our history precisely because he regarded humanity with compassion and did not walk by. Like the man in the Gospel who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, humanity was descending to the depths of death; in our own day too, we have to confront the darkness of evil, suffering, poverty and the riddle of death. Yet God has looked upon us with compassion; he wanted to walk our same path and come down among us. In Jesus, the Good Samaritan, he came to heal our wounds and to pour out upon us the balm of his love and mercy.

Pope Francis, who often reminded us that God is mercy and compassion, once referred to Jesus as “the compassion of the Father toward us” (Angelus, 14 July 2029). Saint Augustine tells us that, as the Good Samaritan who came to our aid, Jesus “wanted to be known as our neighbor. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ makes us realize that he is the one who cared for the half-dead man beaten by robbers and left on the side of the road (De Doctrina Christiana, I, 30.33).

We can understand, then, why this parable is so challenging for each of us. If Christ shows us the face of a compassionate God, then to believe in him and to be his disciples means allowing ourselves to be changed and to take on his same feelings. It means learning to have a heart that is moved, eyes that see and do not look away, hands that help others and soothe their wounds, shoulders that bear the burden of those in need.

In today’s first reading, we hear the words of Moses, who tells us that obeying the Lord’s commandments and turning our minds and hearts to him does not involve multiplying outward acts, but rather looking to our own hearts and discovering that there God has written his law of love. If we realize deep down that Christ, the Good Samaritan, loves us and cares for us, we too will be moved to love in the same way and to become compassionate as he is. Once we are healed and loved by Christ, we too can become witnesses of his love and compassion in our world.

Brothers and sisters, today we need this “revolution of love.” Today, the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho is the road travelled by all those who descend into sin, suffering and poverty. It is the road travelled by all those weighed down by troubles or hurt by life. The road travelled by all who fall down, lose their bearings and hit rock bottom. The road travelled by all those peoples that are stripped, robbed and pillaged, victims of tyrannical political systems, of an economy that forces them into poverty, and of wars that kill their dreams and their very lives.

What do we do? Do we look and walk by, or do we open our hearts to others, like the Samaritan? Are we content at times merely to do our duty, or to regard as our neighbor only those who are part of our group, who think like us, who share our same nationality or religion? Jesus overturns this way of thinking by presenting us with a Samaritan, a foreigner or heretic, who acts as a neighbor to that wounded man. And he asks us to do the same.

The Samaritan, wrote Benedict XVI, “does not ask how far his obligations of solidarity extend. Nor does he ask about the merits required for eternal life. Something else happens: his heart is wrenched open... If the question had been ‘Is the Samaritan my neighbor, too?’ the answer would have been a pretty clear-cut no, given the situation at the time. But Jesus now turns the whole matter on its head: the Samaritan, the foreigner, makes himself the neighbor and shows me that I have to learn to be a neighbor deep within and that I already have the answer in myself. I have to become like someone in love, someone whose heart is open to being shaken up by another’s need” (Jesus of Nazareth, 197).

Looking without walking by, halting the frantic pace of our lives, allowing the lives of others, whoever they may be, with their needs and troubles, to touch our heart. That is what makes us neighbors to one another, what generates true fraternity and breaks down walls and barriers. In the end, love prevails, and proves more powerful than evil and death.

Dear friends, let us look to Christ, the Good Samaritan. Let us listen again today to his voice. For he says to each of us, “Go and do likewise” (v. 37).

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Pope Leo Angelus 06.07.25

Joyful laborers in God’s Kingdom

Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!

Today’s Gospel (Lk 10:1-12, 17-20) reminds us of the importance of the mission to which we are all called, each according to our own vocation and in the particular situations in which the Lord has placed us.

Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples (v. 1). This symbolic number indicates that the hope of the Gospel is meant for all peoples, for such is the breadth of God’s heart and the abundance of his harvest. Indeed, God continues to work in the world so that all his children may experience his love and be saved.

At the same time, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (v. 2).

On the one hand, God, like a sower, has generously gone out into the world, throughout history, and sowed in people’s hearts a desire for the infinite, for a fulfilled life and for salvation that sets us free. The harvest, then, is plentiful. The Kingdom of God grows like a seed in the ground, and the women and men of today, even when seemingly overwhelmed by so many other things, still yearn for a greater truth; they search for a fuller meaning for their lives, desire justice, and carry within themselves a longing for eternal life.

On the other hand, however, there are few laborers to go out into the field sown by the Lord; few who are able to distinguish, with the eyes of Jesus, the good grain that is ripe for harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35-38). The Lord wishes to do something great in our lives and in the history of humanity, yet there are few who perceive this, pause to receive the gift and then proclaim and share it with others.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Church and the world do not need people who fulfill their religious duties as if the faith were merely an external label. We need laborers who are eager to work in the mission field, loving disciples who bear witness to the Kingdom of God in all places. Perhaps there is no shortage of “intermittent Christians” who occasionally act upon some religious feeling or participate in sporadic events. But there are few who are ready, on a daily basis, to labor in God’s harvest, cultivating the seed of the Gospel in their own hearts in order then to share it in their families, places of work or study, their social contexts and with those in need.

To do this, we do not need too many theoretical ideas about pastoral plans. Instead, we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest. Priority must be given, then, to our relationship with the Lord and to cultivating our dialogue with him. In this way, he will make us his laborers and send us into the field of the world to bear witness to his Kingdom.

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, who generously gave her “yes” to participating in the work of salvation, to intercede for us and accompany us on the path of following the Lord, so that we too may become joyful laborers in God’s Kingdom.

06.07.25

Pope Leo Angelus 06.07.25

Dear brothers and sisters,

With affection I greet all of you, faithful of Rome and pilgrims from Italy and from various countries. In the great heat of this time of year, your journey to pass through the Holy Doors is even more courageous and admirable!

In particular, I greet the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart; the pupils and parents of Strzyzow School and the faithful from Legnica in Poland; and the Greek Catholic group from Ukraine.

I also greet the pilgrims from Romano di Lombardia, Melia (Reggio Calabria), Sassari, and the Latin American community from the Archdiocese of Florence.

Greetings to the English speaking pilgrims. I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters, who were at the summer camp, in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.

Dearest friends, peace is a desire of all peoples, and it is the sorrowful cry of those torn apart by war. Let us ask the Lord to touch the hearts and inspire the minds of those who govern, that the violence of weapons be replaced by the pursuit of dialogue.

This afternoon, I will travel to Castel Gandolfo, where I intend to have a short period of rest. I hope that everyone will be able to enjoy some vacation time in order to restore both body and spirit.

I wish all of you a happy Sunday

06.07.25

Pope Leo Video Message 15.06.25

To the Young People of Chicago and the Whole World

Pope Leo – July 2025

For formation in discernment

Let us pray that we might again learn how to discern, to know how to choose paths of life and reject everything that leads us away from Christ and the Gospel.

Holy Spirit, you, light of our understanding, gentle breath that guides our decisions, grant me the grace to listen attentively to your voice and to discern the hidden paths of my heart, so that I may grasp what truly matters to you, and free my heart from its troubles.

I ask you for the grace to learn how to pause, to become aware of the way I act, of the feelings that dwell within me, and of the thoughts that overwhelm me which, so often, I fail to notice.

I long for my choices to lead me to the joy of the Gospel. Even if I must go through moments of doubt and fatigue, even if I must struggle, reflect, search, and begin again… Because, at the end of the journey, your consolation is the fruit of the right decision.

Grant me a deeper understanding of what moves me, so that I may reject what draws me away from Christ, and love him and serve him more fully.

Amen.

July 2025

The Gospel in your pocket

How do we receive the Word of God? The response is clear: As one receives Jesus Christ. The Church tells us that Jesus is present in the Scripture, in His Word.

Always carry a small Gospel with you in your purse, in your pocket, and read a passage from the Gospel during the day. Not so much to learn something, but mostly to find Jesus, because Jesus actually is in His Word, in His Gospel. Every time I read the Gospel, I find Jesus. - Pope Francis 01.09.14

Daily Readings - read the entire New Testament over a 2 year period (reading plan courtesy of Gideon International)

The Bible Online

Thank you, Francis

Every month, you have invited us to pray with you for the challenges of humanity and the mission of the Church, teaching us to learn compassion for others from the heart of Christ. Thank you, Francis, for your life and your witness.

Your Worldwide Prayer Network.

Pope Francis Easter Message and Urbi et Orbi Blessing 20.04.25

Easter Sunday