Pope Leo XIV says Live "in a sincere effort to communicate and understand" as a "generous response to the great and unique gift...that the Father in Heaven gives" FULL TEXT
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HOLY MASS FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE GENERAL CHAPTER OF THE ORDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE
FULL TEXT HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
Basilica of Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio (Rome)
Monday, September 1, 2025
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My dear sisters and brothers,
Father Alejandro Moral, Prior General, my brothers in the Episcopate, Luis and Wilder, and all of you, my Augustinian brothers, brothers and sisters who are here present. Before beginning the formal home which is prepared, I just want to greet all of you. And for those of you who understand English but do not understand Italian: pray for a gift of the Holy Spirit!
And perhaps during this brief time of reflection on the Word of God and reflecting upon that which the Lord is asking of all of you, those of you who are about to begin this Ordinary General Chapter, that you will be given indeed not necessarily the gift to understand or speak all languages, but the gift to listen, and the gift to be humble, and the gift to promote unity, within the Order and throughout the Order, throughout the Church and the world.
We celebrate this Eucharist at the beginning of the General Chapter, a moment of grace for the Augustinian Order and a moment of grace for the entire Church.
In this votive Mass of the Holy Spirit, we ask that He, through whom the love of Christ dwells in our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5), guide your work day by day.
An ancient author, speaking of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:1-11), describes it as an "abundant and irresistible triumph of the Spirit" (Didymus the Blind, De Trinitate , 6, 8: PG 39, 533). We ask the Lord that it may be the same for you: that his Spirit may prevail over all human logic, in an "abundant and irresistible" way, so that the divine Third Person may truly become the protagonist of the days to come.
The Holy Spirit speaks, today as in the past. He does so in the " penetralia cordis " and through our brothers and sisters and the circumstances of life. For this reason, it is important that the Chapter atmosphere, in harmony with the Church's centuries-old tradition, be one of listening: listening to God, listening to others.
Meditating on Pentecost, our Father Saint Augustine, responding to the provocative question of those who asked why, today, the extraordinary sign of "glossolalia" is not repeated, as it once was in Jerusalem, offers a reflection that I think will be very useful to you in the mandate you are about to fulfill. Augustine says: "At first each believer [...] spoke in all languages [...]. Now the body of believers speaks in all languages. Therefore, even now, all languages are ours, since we are members of the body that speaks" ( Sermo 269, 1).
Dearly beloved, here together, you are members of the Body of Christ, which speaks all languages. If not all the languages of the world, certainly all those that God knows are necessary for the fulfillment of the good that, in his provident wisdom, he entrusts to you.
Therefore, live these days in a sincere effort to communicate and understand, and do so as a generous response to the great and unique gift of light and grace that the Father in Heaven gives you by calling you here, you of all people, for the good of all.
And we come to a second point: do all this with humility. St. Augustine, commenting on the variety of ways in which the Holy Spirit has poured out himself upon the world over the centuries, sees this multiplicity as an invitation for us to humble ourselves before the freedom and inscrutability of God's action ( ibid ., 2). No one should think that they alone have all the answers. Everyone should openly share what they have. Everyone should welcome with faith what the Lord inspires, in the awareness that "as high as the heavens are above the earth" ( Is 55:9), so high are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts. Only in this way will the Spirit be able to "teach" and "remember" what Jesus said (cf. Jn 14:26), engraving it on your hearts so that its echo may spread from them in the uniqueness and unrepeatability of every heartbeat.
There is, however, one more point of reflection that I would like to underline regarding what the Liturgy of the Word offers us today: the value of unity.
In the first reading, Saint Paul, speaking of the community of Corinth, gives a description that can easily be applied to your Chapter. Here too, in fact, "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" ( 1 Cor 12:7), here too "all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing them to each one as he wills" (v. 11), and of you too it can be said that "just as […] the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ" (v. 12).
May unity be an indispensable object of your efforts, but not only that: may it also be the criterion for verifying your actions and work together, because what unites is from Him, but what divides cannot be.
In this regard, St. Augustine also comes to our aid here, commenting on the miracle of Pentecost, observing: "Just as then the different languages a man could speak were a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, so now is the love of unity […] the sign of his presence" ( ibid ., 3). And then he continues: "For just as spiritual men rejoice in unity, carnal men always seek discord" ( ibid .). He therefore asks: "What greater strength of piety is there than the love of unity?" and concludes: "You will have the Holy Spirit when you consent to have your heart cling to unity through sincere charity" ( ibid .).
Listening, humility, and unity: here are three suggestions, hopefully helpful, that the liturgy offers you for these coming days.
The invitation is to make them yours, renewing the prayer we addressed to the Lord at the beginning of this Celebration: "May the Spirit, the Paraclete, who proceeds from you, O Father, enlighten our minds and, according to the promise of your Son, guide us to all truth" (cf. Roman Missal, Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit , B, Collect).
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