Dear brothers and sisters, today, on this Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the Gospel recounts how Simeon and Anna recognised and proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah in the Temple (cf. Lk 2:22-40). What unfolds before us is a meeting between two movements of love: that of God, who comes to save his people, and that of humanity, which awaits his coming with vigilant faith.

On the part of God, the fact that Jesus is presented as the son of a poor family within the grand setting of Jerusalem shows us how he offers himself to us with full respect for our freedom, fully sharing in our poverty. There is nothing coercive in his actions; there is only the disarming strength of his unarmed generosity. On the other hand, the expectation of humanity — specifically that of the people of Israel — finds full expression in two elderly people: Simeon and Anna. This moment represents the climax of a long history of salvation that stretches from the Garden of Eden to the courtyards of the Temple — a history marked by light and shadow, failure and renewal, yet always driven by a single, vital desire: to restore full communion between the Creator and his creatures. And so, just steps from the “Holy of Holies,” the Fountain of Light offers himself as a lamp to the world, and the Infinite gives himself to the finite in a way so humble that it almost passes unnoticed.

Today we celebrate the 30th World Day of Consecrated Life with this scene in mind, recognising it as an image of the mission of religious men and women in the Church and in the world. As Pope Francis exhorted, “‘Wake up the world,’ since the distinctive sign of consecrated life is prophecy” (Apostolic Letter to all Consecrated People, 21 November 2014, II, 2). Dear brothers and sisters, the Church asks you to be prophets — messengers who announce the presence of the Lord and prepare the way for him. Borrowing expressions from the prophet Malachi, whom we heard in the first reading, you are invited to become, through the generous “emptying” of yourselves for the Lord, braziers for the Refiner’s fire and vessels for the Fuller’s soap (cf. Mal 3:1-3). Through this offering, Christ — the one eternal messenger of the covenant, who remains present among humanity today — can melt and purify hearts with his love, grace and mercy. You are called to this mission above all through the sacrificial offering of your lives, rooted in prayer and in a readiness to be consumed by charity (cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 44).

Your founders and foundresses, docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, offer you wonderful models of how to fulfil this mandate faithfully and effectively.  Living in constant tension between earth and heaven, they allowed themselves to be guided with faith and courage. Setting out from the Eucharistic table, some were led to the silence of the cloister, others to the demands of the apostolate; some to the classrooms of schools, others to the destitution of the streets or the toil of the missions. This same faith moved them to return, time and again, humbly and wisely, to the foot of the Cross and to the Tabernacle, where they offered everything and discovered in God both the source and the goal of all their actions. Through the power of grace, they also embarked on perilous undertakings. They became a prayerful presence in hostile or indifferent environments; a generous hand and a friendly shoulder amid degradation and abandonment; and witnesses of peace and reconciliation in situations marked by violence and hatred. They were ready to bear the consequences of going against the current, becoming, in Christ, a “sign of contradiction” (Lk 2:34), sometimes even to the point of martyrdom.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote that “the interpretation of sacred Scripture would remain incomplete were it not to include listening to those who have truly lived the word of God” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, 48).  Today, we honour our brothers and sisters who have gone before us as protagonists of this “prophetic tradition, wherein the word of God sets the prophet’s very life at its service” (ibid., 49).  We do so above all by carrying forward their legacy.

Even today, through your profession of the evangelical counsels and the many works of charity you carry out, you are called to bear witness to God’s saving presence in history for all peoples (cf. Lk 2:30-31), even within a society in which false and reductive understandings of the human person increasingly widen the gap between faith and life. You are called to testify that the young, the elderly, the poor, the sick and the imprisoned hold a sacred place above all else on God’s altar and in his heart. At the same time, each of them is an inviolable sanctuary of God’s presence, before whom we must bend our knee, in order to encounter him, adore him and give him glory.

Evidence of this can be seen in the many “outposts of the Gospel” that your communities have established in a wide variety of challenging contexts, even in the midst of conflict. These communities do not abandon their people, nor do they flee; they remain, often stripped of all security, as a living reminder — more eloquent than words — of the inviolable sacredness of life in its most vulnerable conditions. Even where weapons roar and arrogance, self-interest and violence seem to prevail, their presence proclaims the words of Jesus: “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones, for... in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father” (Mt 18:10).

In this light, I would like to reflect on the prayer of the elderly Simeon, which we recite every day: “Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen your salvation” (Lk 2:29-30).  Consecrated life, in its serene detachment from all that is passing, reveals the inseparable bond between authentic care for earthly realities and a hope filled with love for what is eternal — those goods already chosen in this life as the final and definitive end, and thus capable of giving meaning to all else. Simeon recognised salvation in Jesus and stood free before both life and death. As a “righteous and devout” (Lk 2:25) man, together with Anna, who “never left the temple” (v. 37), he kept his gaze fixed on the promise of the world to come.

The Second Vatican Council reminds us that “the Church... will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven... At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself... will be perfectly established in Christ” (Lumen Gentium, 48).  This prophetic vision concerns you as well: men and women firmly rooted in the realities of the present, yet “always attentive to the things that are above” (Roman Missal, Collect for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). Christ died and rose in order to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Heb 2:15). Through your commitment to follow him more closely — sharing in his self-emptying and in his life in the Spirit (cf. Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life Perfectae Caritatis, 5) — you can show the world the way to overcome conflict, sowing fraternity through the freedom of those who love and forgive without measure.

Dear consecrated men and women, today the Church gives thanks to the Lord and to you for your presence. She encourages you to be leaven of peace and signs of hope wherever Providence may lead you. As we renew the offering of our lives to God upon the altar, we entrust your work to the intercession of Mary Most Holy, together with all your holy founders and foundresses.

02.02.26

Pope Leo Angelus 01.02.26

FAMINE

Pope Francis

Hunger

Hunger is an injustice that destroys men and women because they have nothing to eat, even if there is a lot food available in the world. Human exploitation; different forms of slavery; recently I saw a film shot inside a prison where migrants are locked up and tortured to turn them into slaves. This is still happening 70 years after the Declaration of Human Rights. Cultural colonization. This is exactly what the Devil wants, to destroy human dignity – and that is why the Devil is behind all forms of persecution.

01.06.18

Pope Leo General Audience 28.01.26

Excerpt below, for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

Continuing our reading of the Conciliar Constitution Dei Verbum on divine Revelation, today we will reflect on the relationship between Sacred Scripture and Tradition. We can take two Gospel scenes as a backdrop. In the first, which takes place in the Upper Room, Jesus, in his great discourse-testament addressed to the disciples, affirms: “These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. … When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 14:25-26; 16:13).

The second scene takes us instead to the hills of Galilee. The risen Jesus shows himself to the disciples, who are surprised and doubtful, and he advises them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). In both of these scenes, the intimate connection between the words uttered by Christ and their dissemination throughout the centuries is evident.

It is what Vatican Council II affirms, using an evocative image: “There exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end” (Dei Verbum, 9). Ecclesial Tradition branches out throughout history through the Church, which preserves, interprets and embodies the Word of God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (cf. no. 113) refers, in this regard, to a motto of the Church Fathers: “Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records”, that is, in the sacred text.

In the light of Christ’s words, quoted above, the Council affirms that “the Tradition which comes from the Apostles develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit” (DV, 8). This occurs with full comprehension through “contemplation and study made by believers”, through “a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience” and, above all, with the preaching of the successors of the apostles who have received “the sure gift of truth”. In short, “the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes” (ibid.).

In this regard, the expression of Saint Gregory the Great is famous: “The Sacred Scriptures grow with the one who reads them”. [1] And Saint Augustine had already remarked that “there is only one word of God that unfolds through Scripture, and there is only one Word that sounds on the lips of many saints”. [2] The Word of God, then, is not fossilised, but rather it is a living and organic reality that develops and grows in Tradition. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, Tradition understands it in the richness of its truth and embodies it in the shifting coordinates of history.

In this regard, the proposal of the holy Doctor of the Church John Henry Newman in his work entitled  The Development of Christian Doctrine is striking. He affirmed that Christianity, both as a communal experience and as a doctrine, is a dynamic reality, in the manner indicated by Jesus himself in the parables of the seed (cf.  Mk 4:26-29): a living reality that develops thanks to an inner vital force. [3]

The apostle Paul repeatedly exhorts his disciple and collaborator Timothy: “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you” (1Tm 6:20; cf. 2Tm1:12-14). The dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum echoes this Pauline text when it says: “Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church”, interpreted by the “living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ” (no. 10). “Deposit” is a term that, in its original meaning, is juridical in nature and imposes on the depositary the duty to preserve the content, which in this case is the faith, and to transmit it intact.

The “deposit” of the Word of God is still in the hands of the Church and all of us, in our various ecclesial ministries, must continue to preserve it in its integrity, as a lodestar for our journey through the complexity of history and existence.

In conclusion, dear friends, let us listen once more to Dei Verbum, which exalts the interweaving of Sacred Scripture and Tradition: it affirms that they “are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and … all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls” (cf. no. 10).

Yesterday was the International Remembrance Day for all victims of the Holocaust, which brought death to millions of Jews and to many other people. On this yearly occasion of painful remembrance, I ask the Almighty for the gift of a world without antisemitism and without prejudice, oppression, and persecution of any human creature. I renew my appeal to the community of nations to remain ever vigilant. May the horror of genocide never again be inflicted upon any people and that a society founded on mutual respect and the common good may be built.

I greet the English speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s audience, in particular the groups from Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Australia, India and the United States of America. Upon you and your families, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!

Finally, my thoughts turn to young people, the sick, and newlyweds. Today we celebrate the liturgical memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas. May his example inspire you, dear young people, especially you students of the Flavoni School in Civitavecchia and the Tirinnanzi Institute in Legnano-Cislago ,  to follow Jesus as an authentic teacher of life and holiness. May the intercession of this Holy Doctor of the Church obtain for you, dear sick people, the serenity and peace drawn from the mystery of the Cross, and for you, dear newlyweds, wisdom of heart so that you may generously fulfil your mission in society.

My blessing to everyone!

28.01.26

Pope Francis Message for the 58th World Day of Peace 01.01.25

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

for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Pope Francis

Care for Our Common Home - Laudato Si'

Pope Francis 

Refugees and Migrants

Pope Francis

 Marriage

Pope Francis - The ‘foreverness’ and beauty of Love 

Pope Francis - The Family in the Light of the Word of God

Pope Francis 

Fraternity

Pope Francis

Compassion

Pope Francis

Happiness

Pope Leo Holy Mass 11.01.26 

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord