Pope Leo XIV centered his Regina Cæli reflection this Sunday on the spiritual meaning of the Ascension, emphasizing that it is not a distant event, but a reality that “also draws us toward full communion with the Father.” From the window of the Apostolic Palace, the Pontiff recalled that Christ, “by raising and rescuing man from his condition of sin,” opens a path of hope and new life for all the baptized.
In his catechesis, the Pope stressed that the Ascension invites Christians to orient their lives “to the measure of God’s heart,” following the example of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the “saints next door,” in an expression taken from Pope Francis. After the Regina Cæli, Leo XIV also dedicated a few words to World Communications Day, warning about the challenges of artificial intelligence and calling for forms of communication that are “always respectful of the truth of man.”
Below are the full words of Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
Today, in many countries around the world, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated.
The image of Jesus —as the biblical text recounts (cf. Acts 1:1)— rising from the earth and ascending into heaven may lead us to perceive this Mystery as a distant event. In reality, it is not so. We are, in fact, united to Jesus as members to the head, in one body, and his ascension into heaven also draws us, with him, toward full communion with the Father. Saint Augustine said on this point: “That the head goes before is a guarantee for the members” (Sermon 265, 1.2).
The entire life of Christ is an ascending dynamism that embraces and envelops, through his humanity, the whole stage of the world, raising and redeeming man from his condition of sin, bringing light, forgiveness, and hope where there was darkness, injustice, and despair, to reach the definitive victory of Easter, in which the Son of God “by dying destroyed our death, and by rising restored life” (Easter Preface I).
The Ascension, then, does not show us a distant promise, but a living bond that also draws us toward heavenly glory, broadening and elevating —already in this life— our horizon and bringing our way of thinking, feeling, and acting ever closer to the measure of God’s heart.
We know the path of this ascending journey (cf. Jn 14:1-6). We find it in Jesus, in the gift of his life, in his examples and teachings, as we also see his footprints in the Virgin Mary and in the saints: those whom the Church offers as a universal model and those —as Pope Francis liked to say— “next door” (Apost. Exhort. Gaudete et exsultate, 7), with whom we live every day —fathers, mothers, grandparents, people of all ages and conditions— who with joy and commitment sincerely strive to live according to the Gospel.
With them, with their support and thanks to their prayer, we too can learn to ascend day by day toward heaven, making the object of our thoughts, as Saint Paul says, “whatever is true, just, and lovely” (cf. Phil 4:8) and putting into practice, with God’s help, what we have “heard and seen” (v. 9), making the divine life we received in baptism grow within us and in our surroundings, constantly urging us upward, toward the Father, and spreading in the world precious fruits of communion and peace.
May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven, who at every moment enlightens and guides our journey, help us.
After the Regina Caeli
Dear brothers and sisters:
Today, in many countries, World Communications Day is celebrated, which this year I have chosen to dedicate to the theme “Guarding Human Voices and Faces.” In this age of artificial intelligence, I encourage everyone to commit to promoting forms of communication that are always respectful of the truth of man, to which all technological innovation must be directed.
From today until next Sunday, Laudato si’ Week will take place, dedicated to the care of creation and inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical. In this jubilee year of Saint Francis of Assisi, we recall his message of peace with God, with our brothers and sisters, and with all creatures. Unfortunately, due to wars, progress in this area has been greatly delayed in recent years. Therefore, I encourage the members of the Laudato si’ movement, and all those working for integral ecology, to renew this commitment. Caring for peace is caring for life.
I greet all of you, dear faithful of Rome and pilgrims from various countries. In particular, I welcome some musical bands from Germany, the confraternity Sant’Antonu di u Monti of Ajaccio, and the group of students from Montana in the United States of America.
I greet the young people of Oppido Mamertina, the animators of Lorenzaga from the diocese of Concordia-Pordenone, and the young confirmands of the diocese of Genoa.
I wish you all a happy Sunday!