Holiness is a calling for everyone, not an achievement reserved for a select group, Pope Leo said yesterday during his Angelus address in St Peter’s Square. Source: EWTN News.
“The Solemnity of All Saints, which we celebrate today, invites us to share in the joy of that countless family of men and women who, following the Lord Jesus, have made their lives a gift to God and to their neighbours,” the Pope said.
Quoting Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Leo said the saints, along their different paths to holiness, “have longed for ‘the ocean of infinite love’”.
The Pope noted that the Church celebrates not only canonised saints on November 1 but also “the countless others who have not been formally recognised but are known to God.”
“It is indeed true that it is impossible to count this multitude of brothers and sisters, and not just in numerical terms,” he said. “Holiness, in fact, cannot be reduced to any calculation, for such is the good that all the saints have spread around them in the world.”
Pope Leo said the saints brought forth “actions and choices of love that transcend the calculations of greed and the arrogance of evil, which at times seems to prevail”.
“The saints are the most beautiful and powerful sign of the Kingdom of God that is coming – or rather, as Jesus teaches us, is already among us,” he said.
The Pope emphasised that the multitude of saints includes people “from the most diverse backgrounds, cultures and walks of life.”
“Holiness is not a privilege reserved for a few, but a universal vocation that speaks to each of us where we live,” Leo said.
“This is the hope-filled message of today’s feast: God sees the good that we do not see, knows stories that we do not know and reaches hearts to which we have no access.”
He entrusted the faithful to the Blessed Virgin Mary, praying that she would accompany them “along the path to holiness, so that we may never grow weary of fostering peace, both in the most important situations and in the ordinary circumstances of everyday life.”
After the Angelus, Leo recalled the beatification the previous day in Savannah, Georgia, of Pedro de Corpa and four companions, Franciscan friars killed in odium fidei, or “in hatred of the faith,” in 1597.
Leo also spoke about the recent humanitarian operation to assist civilians in Oleshky, in Ukraine, expressing hope that cooperation between the parties involved would lead to further steps toward peace.
FULL STORY
Pope Leo XIV: ‘Holiness is not a privilege reserved for a few’ (By Marco Mancini, EWTN News)
