On Saturday, October 11, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV presided over the prayer vigil and Rosary for peace within the framework of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality. According to ACI Prensa, thousands of faithful joined in the prayer with the Pontiff, who invited the universal Church never to tire of interceding for peace in the world.
The Pope recalled that the first Christian community, gathered with Mary in Jerusalem, persevered in unanimous prayer (cf. Acts 1:14), and that the same spirit must guide today’s Catholics amid the trials of history.
“Do everything he tells you”
Leo XIV centered his meditation on the words of the Virgin in Cana: “Do everything he tells you” (Jn 2:5). He explained that this exhortation is a mother’s testament to her children: to live the Gospel in body and spirit, in joy and sacrifice. “Fulfill the Gospel and life will be transformed: from empty to full, from dimmed to ignited,” assured the Pontiff.
The Pope also exhorted to look at reality through the eyes of the poor and those who suffer, not from the perspective of the powerful. In this sense, he cited Mary’s Magnificat as a prophetic song that denounces the distortion of the world between rich and poor, between the satisfied and the hungry.
Peace does not come from weapons
One of the strongest moments of the vigil was the reference to Jesus’ command to Peter in Gethsemane: “Put your sword back” (Jn 18:11). Leo XIV insisted that Christian peace is not built with weapons or military victories, but with justice, forgiveness, and disarmament of the heart.
“Peace is unarmed and disarming,” he repeated. “It is not an ultimatum, but dialogue. It will not come as the fruit of conquests, but as the result of sowing justice and bold forgiveness.”
Hope in Mary, Queen of Peace
The Pope concluded by entrusting to the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, the path to peace: “Virgin of peace, gate of sure hope, welcome the prayer of your children.” He called on Christians to be peacemakers in a world wounded by violence, recalling Jesus’ words: “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mt 5:9).
We leave below the full message of Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters:
we have gathered in prayer this evening, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, as the first Church in Jerusalem used to do (Acts 1:14). All united, persevering and with one mind, we do not tire of interceding for peace, God’s gift that must become our conquest and our commitment.
Authentic Marian spirituality
In this Jubilee of Marian spirituality, our gaze as believers seeks in the Virgin Mary the guide for our pilgrimage in hope, contemplating her “human and evangelical virtues, whose imitation constitutes the most authentic Marian devotion” (Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 65.67). Like her, the first believer, we want to be a womb that welcomes the Most High, “humble tent of the Word, moved only by the wind of the Spirit” (St. John Paul II, Angelus, August 15, 1988). Like her, the first disciple, let us beg the gift of a heart that listens and becomes a fragment of a cosmos that welcomes. Through her, the sorrowful, strong, and faithful Woman, let us ask her to obtain for us the gift of compassion toward every brother and sister who suffers, and toward all creatures.
Let us contemplate the Mother of Jesus…
Let us contemplate the Mother of Jesus and the small group of brave women at the foot of the Cross, to learn also to remain, like them, beside the infinite crosses of the world, where Christ continues to be crucified in his brothers and sisters, to bring them consolation, communion, and help. In her, sister of humanity, we recognize ourselves, and with the words of a poem we say to her:
“Mother, you are every woman who loves;
mother, you are every mother who weeps
for a murdered son, for a betrayed son.
These sons who never finish being annihilated” (Cf. D. M. Turoldo).
Under your protection we seek refuge, Virgin of Easter, together with all those in whom the passion of your Son continues to be fulfilled.
Do what he tells you
In the Jubilee of Marian spirituality, our hope is illuminated by the gentle and persevering light of Mary’s words that the Gospel relates to us. And among all of them, the last ones pronounced at the Wedding at Cana are precious, when, pointing to Jesus, she says to the servants: “Do everything he tells you” (Jn 2:5).
After that, she will speak no more. Therefore, these words, which are almost a testament, must be very dear to her children, like every testament of a mother.
Everything he tells you. She is certain that her Son will speak, his Word has not ended, it continues to create, generate, filling the world with springs and wine the jars of the feast. Mary, like a signpost, points beyond herself, shows that the point of arrival is the Lord Jesus and his Word, the center toward which everything converges, the axis around which time and eternity revolve.
Fulfill his Word, she recommends. Fulfill the Gospel, turn it into gesture and body, into blood and flesh, into effort and smile. Fulfill the Gospel, and life will be transformed, from empty to full, from dimmed to ignited.
Do everything he tells you: the entire Gospel, the demanding word, the consoling caress, the reproach and the embrace. What you understand and also what you do not understand. Mary exhorts us to be like the prophets: not to let a single one of his words fall into the void (cf. 1 Sam 3:19).
Put your sword away
And among the words of Jesus that we do not want to let pass, one resonates especially today, in this prayer vigil for peace: the one addressed to Peter in the garden of olives: “Put your sword back” (Jn 18:11). Disarm the hand and, even before, the heart. As I have mentioned on other occasions, peace is unarmed and disarming. It is not deterrence, but fraternity; it is not an ultimatum, but dialogue. It will not come as the fruit of victories over the enemy, but as the result of sowing justice and bold forgiveness.
Put your sword away is the word addressed to the powerful of the world, to those who guide the destiny of peoples: have the audacity to disarm! And at the same time, it is addressed to each one of us, to make us ever more aware that we cannot kill for any idea, faith, or politics. The first thing to disarm is the heart, because if there is no peace in us, we will not give peace.
It should not be so among you
Let us listen again to the Lord Jesus: the great ones of the world build empires with power and money (cf. Mt 20:25; Mk 10:42), “But it should not be so among you” (Lk 22:26). It is also an invitation to acquire a different point of view to look at the world from below, with the eyes of those who suffer, not with the optics of the powerful; to see history with the gaze of the little ones and not with the perspective of the mighty; to interpret the events of history from the point of view of the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the wounded child, the exile, the fugitive.
With the gaze of the shipwrecked, of poor Lazarus, thrown at the door of the rich Epulon. Otherwise, nothing will ever change and a new time will not arise, a kingdom of justice and peace.
The Virgin Mary does the same in the song of the Magnificat, when she directs her gaze to the fracture points of humanity, where the distortion of the world occurs, in the contrast between the humble and the powerful, between the poor and the rich, between the sated and the hungry. And with that strength of hers, she takes the side of the last ones in history, to teach us to imagine, to dream together with her of new heavens and a new earth.
Blessed are you
Do everything he tells you. And we commit ourselves to make it our flesh and passion, history and action, the great word of the Lord: “Blessed are you, the peacemakers” (cf. Mt 5:9).
Blessed are you: God gives joy to those who generate love in the world, joy to those who, instead of defeating the enemy, prefer peace with him.
Courage, forward, on the way. You who build the conditions for a future of peace, in justice and forgiveness; be meek and determined, do not be discouraged. Peace is a path and God walks with you. The Lord creates and spreads peace through his friends pacified in the heart, who in turn become peacemakers, instruments of his peace.
We have gathered this evening in prayer around Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, like the first disciples in the upper room. To her, the deeply peaceful woman, queen of peace, we address ourselves:
Pray with us, faithful Woman, sacred womb of the Word.
Teach us to listen to the cry of the poor and of Mother Earth,
attentive to the calls of the Spirit in the secret of the heart,
in the life of brothers and sisters in the events of history,
in the groaning and in the joy of creation.
Holy Mary, mother of the living,
strong and faithful Woman,
Virgin spouse at the foot of the Cross,
where love is consummated and life springs forth,
be you the guide of our commitment to service.
Teach us to stop with you beside the infinite crosses
where your Son continues to be crucified,
where life is most threatened;
to live and bear witness to Christian love
welcoming in every man a brother;
to renounce dark selfishness
to follow Christ, the true light of man.
Virgin of peace, gate of sure hope,
welcome the prayer of your children!