“Whoever wants to serve me must follow me.” With these words, Pope Leo XIV celebrated the annual Mass in memory of the cardinals and bishops who have died over the past year.
The pope recounted the story of the final farewell of St. Monica to her two sons, Augustine and Navigius.
Monica was traveling back to North Africa with Augustine after accompanying him on his journey to conversion. Before she died, she made one request of her sons.
LEO XIV
As she bid farewell to her sons, Augustine and Navigio, shortly before her death, Saint Monica said: “I ask only one thing of you: remember me, wherever you may be, before the altar of the Lord.”
The reference was intentional. The first reading at Mass also came from a passage about praying for the dead.
LEO XIV
Though we are not spared trials and suffering, we are guided and sustained by a promise: a communion over which death has no power.
Let us not, therefore, allow our remembrance of the deceased to be reduced to mere nostalgia.
The cardinals who died included Italy’s Camillo Ruini, who investigated Medjugorje; Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka; and Cardinal Pengo.
A bishop from Honduras was also among those remembered. He died unexpectedly at Madrid airport while traveling to Rome for his ad limina visit.
And just days ago, two more bishops died in Peru, ahead of the pope's visit to the country.
LEO XIV
ORIG. ITALIANO
To pray for the repose of the dead means to celebrate life. Above all, the risen life of Christ the Lord and, through His grace, our own life, which rises again in Him.
Every November, the Vatican celebrates this Mass to commend to God those who dedicated their lives to serving the Church.
