Pope Leo XIV says "When you encounter difficulties, lift up your gaze and ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to live united in...virtues that “are like three stars that rise..." FULL TEXT

Pope Leo XIV, on June 11, met with bishops, priests, deacons, religious, seminarians, and pastoral workers in St. Anne's Cathedral in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The meeting during the Pope's Apostolic Journey to Spain, has included a strong focus on migration, social challenges, and the role of the Church in accompanying vulnerable communities. The Canary Islands have become one of the main entry points into Europe for migrants travelling from West Africa, and local Church communities have played a significant role in providing humanitarian and pastoral support. (Vatican News)

MEETING WITH BISHOPS, PRIESTS, DEACONS, RELIGIOUS,
SEMINARIANS AND PASTORAL WORKERS
FULL TEXT ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
Saint Anne's Cathedral (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
Thursday, 11 June 2026
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Dear brother bishops, priests, men and women religious, brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

It is a great joy for me to share this gathering with you.

Thank you for your warm welcome, for your kind presence and for your testimonies, which reflect a living Church, in whose heart “the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially those who are poor or afflicted” (Gaudium et Spes, 1) find an echo.

I come to these islands as a father and brother in the faith: “with you I am a Christian, and for you, I am a bishop” (cf. First “Urbi et Orbi” Blessing, 8 May 8 2025). Each of us has received various gifts and ministries for the building up of the body of Christ, as we heard in the reading from the Letter to the Ephesians. And this is the Lord’s call that resonates anew in our hearts today and confirms our vocation and mission: to build the Church together, founded on Christ, the “cornerstone” (cf. 1 Pet 2:6–8), to build on what is good, to harmonize our differences and to work together for the good of all (cf. Magnifica Humanitas, 11–14).

I would like us to reflect together on two attitudes in our Christian life that we must keep in mind in order to be “wise architects” in building the civilization of love (cf. Ibid., 236).

You, whether native Canarians or those who have made the Canary Islands your home, People of God on a pilgrimage through lands surrounded by the Atlantic, have the privilege of enjoying the majestic presence of the sea every day. They say that in the eyes of an islander, the image of the sea — which evokes the taste of home and homeland — remains etched in one’s pupils forever, and that it is sorely missed when one is far away from it, when one is “inland.” This feeling corresponds to a healthy nostalgia for immensity, for the open sky and sea stretching to the horizon, without limits or borders. It is found also in a sensitive heart ready to bid farewell with a tear to those who leave and to welcome with open arms those who arrive. In this sense, the sea can sometimes also be synonymous with distance and separation, with challenge and the journey ahead.

In this regard, St. Augustine tells us: “If someone were to glimpse his homeland from afar, but a sea stood between them: he sees where to go, but does not know the way. So it is with us: we long to reach our final destination, […] but the sea of this world stands in our way […] to show us the way, the One to whom we longed to go came himself. And what did he do? He appointed a tree by which we may cross the sea. No one is able to cross the sea of this world unless they carry the cross of Christ” (Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, 2, 2). Embracing the cross of Christ: this is the first attitude that guides us to navigate the waters of life and reach our destination, the heavenly homeland.

Dear brothers and sisters, the saints longed for God, and as they faced the storms of life, they knew how to take Jesus into their boats; they trusted in him, embraced the cross and thus calmed the waves of uncertainty and fear (cf. Mt 8:23-27). An example of this in these blessed lands, among so many others, is the Venerable Antonio Vicente González, a diocesan priest, also known as “the Good Shepherd of the Canary Islands.” His life, transfigured by divine grace, encourages us to take up the cross of Christ and follow him (cf. Mt 16:24), being faithful witnesses to the Gospel in this new chapter of history, not without turbulence and conflict, so that we may thus reach the promised destination (cf. Jn 12:32).

The first “guiding principle,” therefore, is to take up the cross of Christ. You do this every day, for example, as Good Samaritans, accompanying and helping to carry the burdens of so many brothers and sisters who are crucified by life’s trials. I thank you for this generous work of charity and mercy.

I would also like to highlight another practice: cultivating a Eucharistic spirituality. This is connected to the ancient tradition preserved in this beautiful cathedral: the showering of flower petals before the Blessed Sacrament on the Solemnity of the Ascension, as a sign of the spiritual and heavenly gifts that the Lord pours out as he ascends into heaven. This gesture of devotion, practiced by so many generations over time, has a profound meaning: on our pilgrimage, the goal is the encounter with Christ; he is the center of Christian life, before whom we bow our knees in adoration, around whom we gather to form one body and with whom we offer ourselves as a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1).

The Council tells us: the faithful, “taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, the source and summit of the Christian life, … offer the divine victim to God and themselves along with him. And so it is that, … they manifest in a concrete way that unity of the people of God” (Lumen Gentium, 11). Therefore, cultivating a Eucharistic spirituality means delving deeper into “a spirituality of ecclesial unity in love” (Magnifica Humanitas, 234). Let us make our lives a response to Jesus’ desire: “that they may all be one … so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21).

One concrete way to express this spirituality of communion is Christian solidarity, because “union with Christ is also union with all those to whom he gives himself” (Deus Caritas Est, 14). For this reason, I encourage you to continue offering to everyone the love that you, in turn, have received from the Lord (cf. 1 Jn 4:19) — a love that becomes nourishment through hospitality, listening, closeness and care for the most vulnerable: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:35–36).

Dear pilgrim Church in the Canary Islands, following in the footsteps of holiness of so many men and women who have gone before you — who offered their lives in communion with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and at the altar — I encourage you to press on, firmly rooted in him, so that you may continue to navigate with courage through this new era of history. When you encounter difficulties, lift up your gaze and ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to live united in faith, hope and charity — virtues that “are like three stars that rise in the sky of our spiritual life to guide us to God” (Saint John Paul II, Catechesis, 22 November 2000).

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Stella Maris, guide us on our journey, help us to “put out into the deep” (cf. Lk 5:1–11) and thus lead us to the safe harbor of our final encounter with her Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you!