The Pope Leo XIV presided this Monday, September 15, 2025, over a prayer vigil in the Basilica of Saint Peter, where he exhorted the Church to be a bearer of consolation in the face of the pain and violence that mark our time. In a message full of biblical and patristic references, disseminated by the Bulletin of the Holy See, the Pontiff recalled that only Jesus Christ can transform suffering into hope and that forgiveness is the true liberation that anticipates the Kingdom of God.
We leave below his complete message:
Prayer Vigil
Presided over by the Holy Father Leo XIV
Basilica of Saint Peter
Monday, September 15, 2025
«Comfort, comfort my people» (Is 40,1). This is the invitation of the prophet Isaiah, which today reaches us in an urgent way as well: it calls us to share God’s consolation with so many brothers and sisters who live in situations of weakness, sadness, pain. For those who are in weeping, in despair, in illness and in mourning, the prophetic announcement of the Lord’s will to put an end to suffering and transform it into joy resounds clear and strong. In this sense, I would like to thank once again the two people who have given their testimonies. All pain can be transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ. Thank you! This compassionate Word, made flesh in Christ, is the good Samaritan of whom the Gospel spoke to us. He is the one who heals our wounds, He is the one who cares for us. In moments of darkness, even against all evidence, God does not leave us alone; on the contrary, precisely in those circumstances we are called more than ever to hope in his closeness as Savior who never abandons.
We seek someone to console us and often we do not find them. Sometimes even the voice of those who, sincerely, try to share our pain becomes unbearable to us. It is true. There are situations in which words are useless and become almost superfluous. Perhaps in those moments only the tears of weeping remain, if they have not yet been exhausted. The Pope Francis recalled the tears of Mary Magdalene, disoriented and alone, by the empty tomb of Jesus. «She simply weeps ―he said―. Look, sometimes in our life the glasses to see Jesus are tears. There is a moment in our life when only tears prepare us to see Jesus. And what is the message of this woman? “I have seen the Lord”».
Dear sisters and brothers, tears are a language that expresses deep feelings of the wounded heart. Tears are a silent cry that implores compassion and consolation. But even before that, they are liberation and purification of the eyes, of feeling, of thinking. There is no need to be ashamed of crying; it is a way of expressing our sadness and the need for a new world; it is a language that speaks of our weak and tested humanity, but called to joy.
Where there is pain, the question inevitably arises: Why all this evil? Where does it come from? Why did it have to happen to me? In his Confessions, Saint Augustine writes: «I sought the origin of evil […]. What is its root and what is its seed? […] Since God, who is good, made all things good […]. Where does evil come from? […] Such things I turned over in my breast […]. However, in a stable way, the faith in your Christ, Lord and Savior of ours, took root in my heart, in order to the Catholic Church; certainly formless in many points and as if fluctuating […], yet my soul no longer abandoned it» (VII, 5).
In the passage from questions to faith, what educates us is Sacred Scripture. In fact, there are questions that turn us back on ourselves, divide us interiorly and separate us from reality. There are thoughts from which nothing can be born. If they isolate us and despair us, they also humiliate the intelligence. It is better, as in the Psalms, that the question be protest, lament, invocation of that justice and that peace that God has promised us. Then we build a bridge toward heaven, even when it seems silent. In the Church we seek the open heaven, which is Jesus, the bridge of God toward us. There is a consolation that reaches us when that faith which seems “formless and as if fluctuating” takes root in the heart, like a boat in the storm.
Where evil is, there we must seek the relief and consolation that overcome it and give it no respite. In the Church it means: never alone. Resting one’s head on a shoulder that consoles you, that weeps with you and gives you strength, is a medicine that no one can do without because it is a sign of love. Where the pain is deep, the hope born of communion must be even stronger. And this hope does not disappoint.
The testimonies we have heard convey this certainty. That pain must not generate violence; that violence is not the last word, because it is overcome by the love that knows how to forgive. What greater liberation can we hope to achieve than the one that comes from forgiveness, which by grace can open the heart despite having suffered all kinds of brutalities? The violence suffered cannot be erased, but the forgiveness granted to those who generated it is an anticipation on earth of the Kingdom of God, it is the fruit of his action that puts an end to evil and establishes justice. Redemption is mercy and can make our future better, while we still await the Lord’s return. Only He will wipe away every tear and open the book of history allowing us to read the pages that today we cannot justify or understand (cf. Ap 5).
Also to you, brothers and sisters who have suffered the injustice and violence of abuse, Mary repeats today: “I am your mother.” And the Lord, in the secret of the heart, tells you: “You are my son, you are my daughter.” No one can take away this personal gift offered to each one. And the Church, some members of which have unfortunately wounded you, today kneels beside you before the Mother. May we all learn from her to shelter the smallest and most fragile with tenderness. May we learn to tend to their wounds, to walk together. May we receive from the Sorrowful Mary the strength to recognize that life is not defined only by the evil suffered, but by the love of God who never abandons us and guides the whole Church.
The words of Saint Paul, moreover, suggest to us that, when consolation is received from God, then one is capable of offering consolation also to others: He ―the Apostle writes― «comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to give to those who suffer the same consolation that we receive from God» (2 Co 1,4). The secrets of our heart are not hidden from God. We must not prevent him from consoling us, deceiving ourselves that we can count only on our own strength.
Sisters and brothers, at the end of this Vigil a small gift will be offered to you: the Agnus Dei. It is a sign that we can take to our homes to remember that the mystery of Jesus, of his death and resurrection, is the victory of good over evil. He is the Lamb who gives the Holy Spirit the Comforter, who never leaves us, comforts us in need and strengthens us with his grace (cf. Acts 15,31).
Those whom we love and who have been taken from us by sister death are not lost nor do they disappear into nothingness. Their life belongs to the Lord who, as Good Shepherd, embraces them and holds them close to himself, and will return them to us one day so that we may enjoy an eternal and shared happiness.
Dear friends, just as there is personal pain, in our days there is also the collective pain of entire peoples who, crushed by the weight of violence, hunger and war, implore peace. It is an immense cry, which commits us to pray and act so that all violence may cease and so that those who suffer may recover serenity; and it commits above all to God, whose heart beats with compassion, so that his Kingdom may come. The true consolation that we must be capable of transmitting is that of showing that peace is possible, and that it springs from each one of us if we do not stifle it. May those responsible for nations listen particularly to the cry of so many innocent children, to guarantee them a future that protects and consoles them.
In the midst of so much arrogance, we are sure, God will not allow hearts and hands to be lacking that bring help and consolation, builders of peace capable of encouraging those who are in pain and sadness. And together, as Jesus taught us, we will invoke with greater truth: “Your Kingdom come!”.