By Devin Watkins
As the Church marks the Jubilee of the Holy See, Pope Leo XIV spent Monday morning with employees and officials of the Roman Curia.
The Jubilee began with a meditation offered by Sr Maria Gloria Riva, a Sister of the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady. The Pope then carried a Jubilee cross and led a procession of Holy See officials through the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica.
After the procession, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass and reflected in his homily on the spiritual foundations of the Apostolic See.
“The Holy See lives in a most particular way the co-presence of two poles: Marian and Petrine,” said the Pope. “It is the Marian one that ensures the fruitfulness and holiness of the Petrine one, through her motherhood, gift of Christ and the Spirit.”
The Holy Father noted that the Jubilee of the Holy See takes place on the liturgical memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, a day after the Solemnity of Pentecost.
The Gospel reading from John, he said, recounts that Jesus entrusted His mother to the Beloved Disciple from the Cross.
Pope Leo added that the Church’s fruitfulness is “the very fruitfulness of Mary,” which is realized in the lives of the Church’s individual members.
Each Christian, he said, is called to live the love of Jesus, as experienced on the Cross.
“This fruitfulness of Mary and of the Church is inseparably linked to her holiness, that is, her conformity to Christ,” said the Pope. “The Holy See is holy as the Church is holy, in her original core, in the fabric from which she is woven.”
Pope Leo XIV said the Apostolic See safeguards the holiness of her roots, just as she is safeguarded by that holiness.
“It is no less true that she also lives in the holiness of each of her members,” he said. “Therefore, the best way to serve the Holy See is to strive to be holy, each of us according to his or her state of life and the task entrusted.”
He offered the example of a priest bearing a heavy personal burden due to his ministry, who continues to carry out his work in his Holy See office as best he can “with love and faith.”
A lay Curial official with a difficult home life, said the Pope, also bears witness to the fruitfulness of Mary and the Church when he or she “carries on their work with commitment.”
Pope Leo XIV noted that Mary was with the disciples in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon them.
“This shows us the motherhood of Mary toward the nascent Church,” he said, calling hers “an ‘archetypal’ motherhood that remains present in every time and place.”
The Church’s fruitfulness, he added, is always connected to the grace that flowed from the pierced Heart of Jesus, along with blood and water, which are “symbols of the Sacraments.”
Pointing to the Apostle Peter, the Pope said Mother Church sustains the ministry of Peter’s successors with her Marian charism, even as he guides the Church.
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV invited employees and officials of the Holy See to let God’s Word be a lamp to light their steps, concluding with a portion of the Collect prayer.
“Grant, O Father, that your Church, supported by the love of Christ, may be ever more fruitful in the Spirit, rejoice in the holiness of her children, and gather into her womb the whole human family.” – Vatican News
