Pope Leo XIV has returned this Monday to the Santuario de la Madre del Buen Consejo de Genazzano, where he presided over the Mass on the vigil of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and presented Mary’s humility as an expression of the way God acts in history.
During the homily, the Pontiff recalled that God chose «the humblest historical conditions and the humblest of creatures» to manifest his Kingdom, «in which arrogance has no place and omnipotence is creation, service, and care for life». Leo XIV linked this logic to the need for peace in a world marked by «destruction» and «uncertainty»: «Let peace grow within us. It will germinate in the world».
The Pope thus returned to a sanctuary especially linked to his Augustinian spirituality. He had already visited it on May 10, 2025, just two days after his election, when he explained that the Virgin of Good Counsel had accompanied him throughout his life «with her maternal presence, with her wisdom, and the example of her love for the Son». In this new visit, Leo XIV especially drew on the reflections of Saint Thomas of Villanova, an Augustinian friar and bishop, to meditate on Mary’s smallness and her central place in the history of salvation.
Below is the full homily of Leo XIV:
Dear brothers and sisters:
As you may recall, already «in the first days of the pontificate I felt the duty and a deep desire to come to Genazzano, to the shrine of the Virgin of Good Counsel, who throughout my life has accompanied me with her maternal presence, with her wisdom, and the example of her love for the Son, who is always the center of my faith» (Dedication in the Shrine’s guestbook, May 10, 2025).
With joy I am here again, to celebrate with you the Vigil of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin and to entrust to the Child Mary what is still being born in this poor and magnificent humanity: fragile like a shoot, yet a sign of God’s faithfulness. Yes, Mary is the dawn of a different day, of our world finally freed from evil. And we are here, beside Her, around the Altar from which salvation comes to us and transforms us, children in the Son. Let us ask her for her Good Counsel, to welcome the divine Word, to keep it within us, and to give it birth through courageous and wise decisions, decisions of authentic conversion.
Dear friends, in this place of ancient Augustinian presence I will return to the biblical pages we have just proclaimed with the help of Saint Thomas of Villanova, an Augustinian friar and bishop who, dedicating his life to the service of the poor, penetrated deeply into the truth of the faith. He was able to see the paradox of Mary’s smallness and, so to speak, of her marginality, which became central in the economy of salvation.
Let us ask ourselves: what must the birth of a girl have meant in the days of Joachim and Anne? Saint Thomas reflects: «I have often reflected —he writes— and wondered why the evangelists, who spoke so extensively of Saint John the Baptist and the apostles, recount the story of the Virgin Mary, who surpasses all by her history and personal stature, in such a brief manner. Why, I wonder, has the manner of her conception, her birth, her upbringing, her customs, the virtues that adorned her, the human relationship she maintained with her son, how she related to him, how she lived with the apostles after his ascension, not been described to us? All these things were important, and the faithful would have read them with singular devotion and they would have pleased the common people. Oh, evangelists, I address you! Why have you deprived us of such great joy with your silence? Why have you omitted details so joyful, so awaited, so pleasing?» (Complete Works VII, 266,8).
We find in these words an important suggestion for our faith: to question Scripture and its authors, to discuss with the text and dialogue with the witnesses of Revelation, as with friends. We are, in fact, «fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God» (Eph 2:19), and from Mary herself we learn the intelligence that converses with God, that asks questions (cf. Lk 1:34) and interprets events by keeping them and pondering them in the heart (cf. Lk 2:19,51).
The Gospel according to Matthew, however, seems to give Saint Thomas of Villanova reason with its silence. We have heard it: it records Mary’s presence, but not a single word. And yet, Mary’s simple being —and the Son within her— moves all of history: that of Joseph and that of his entire household. Mary’s presence provokes, as it were, a leap in the genealogy, an unexpected novelty, capable of modifying not only expectations but also the predictable behavior of a man.
What Joseph hears, what he decides, and what he does is, in fact, a response to God and to Mary’s presence, to her absolute difference, which surpasses any possible discourse or narrative. In Mary salvation finds a home: God with us!
Our Saint Thomas also writes: «Well, regarding these reflections of mine to which I referred, about why a book was not written on the deeds of the Virgin, as was done, on the other hand, with the deeds of Paul, […] it only occurs to me that it was so because it so pleased the Holy Spirit, and that by his impulse the evangelists kept silence about her, for the simple reason that the glory of the Virgin, as we read in the psalm, was all within her (cf. Ps 44:14 Vulg.), and could be imagined rather than described, and that, as a synthesis of her history, what is expressed in the title suffices: that Jesus was born of her. What more do you wish to know? What more do you seek in the Virgin? It suffices for you to know that she is the Mother of God» (ibid.).
Dear brothers and sisters, we feel a kind of vertigo before this Mystery: it is impossible to grow accustomed to it! We celebrate the birth of a girl called to become the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of God who saves. And yet, simply a girl is born, like the daughters and granddaughters we hold in our arms.
Today we have for her noble and exalted titles, of Lady and Queen, but God’s way has been and continues to be simpler and more silent, though no less powerful and transforming. It is the way of Jesus himself, «the firstborn among many brothers» (Rom 8:29).
Well then, like Mary, we too are «predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son» (ibid.): by grace, certainly, but desiring and preferring to other paths his way, his choices, his path. In Jesus Christ, God chose the humblest historical conditions and the humblest of creatures to manifest the originality of his Kingdom, in which arrogance has no place and omnipotence is creation, service, and care for life.
Saint Thomas of Villanova later adds: «Let your imagination run free, expand the limits of understanding, and paint in the depths of your soul a young woman most pure, most prudent, most beautiful, most devout, most humble, most meek, full of every grace, richest in holiness, adorned with all virtues, beautified by all charisms, absolutely pleasing to God; magnify her as much as you can, imagine as much as you are able» (ibid.).
Saint Thomas invites us to this wonderful exercise of imagination. And he observes: «The Holy Spirit did not describe her in writing, but waited for you to paint her inwardly» (ibid., VII, 266,9).
Dear brothers and sisters, it is precisely so: in contemplative prayer what the world does not tell us, but already exists, takes shape; what is still invisible, but holds within itself a new kind of power. It is not a matter of fantasy, but of prophecy. We need it, in times of destruction and uncertainty, to see the work of God and to serve it.
The prophet Micah, in tiny Bethlehem, intuited the rise of a King of peace, thanks to whom we might finally dwell secure in the land (cf. Mi 5:1-4). And today, in the collect prayer, addressing the little Mary, we have asked that «the feast of her birth increase peace within us».
Yes, dear friends, we wish to imagine peace —to expand the limits of understanding and paint it for ourselves in the soul— to recognize that it already exists, to welcome it and serve it. It is the gift of God, the breath of the Risen One, the work of the Holy Spirit.
Let peace grow within us. It will germinate in the world. And the Mother of Good Counsel will accompany us in this mission.