In his weekly catechesis, Pope Leo XIV, reminds us that holiness is not a privilege, but a universal calling
SUMMARY OF THE WEEKLY PUBLIC CATECHESIS:
Dear brothers and sisters,
In today’s catechesis on the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, we turn our attention to the universal call to holiness. Every baptized person is called to be holy: to live in God’s grace, to practice virtue and to become like Christ.
At its heart is love for both God and neighbor, and its greatest expression is martyrdom, the supreme witness of faith and charity. For this reason, the Church teaches that believers should be ready to confess Christ to the point of shedding blood.
However, the interior transformation that conforms us to Christ is not possible without the aid of the Sacraments, most especially the Eucharist. In this regard, I would like to make particular mention of those men and women who consecrate their lives to God through the evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience which express their complete trust in God’s providence, modelled on Christ’s gift of himself to the Father with a pure heart.
By their lives, consecrated persons radically witness to the fullness of life in Christ, even to the cross.
I greet the English speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s audience, in particular the groups from England, Ireland, Nigeria, Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam and the United States of America.
In the joy of the risen Christ, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all and may his peace be with you!
