In the classroom Paul VI, Pope Leo XIV addressed a new and pressing appeal to the faithful: praying and fasting for peace. “Maria – said the Pontiff – is the mother of the believers here on earth, and is also invoked as a queen of peace, while our land continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world”. The Pope asked the believers to observe on August 22, the liturgical party of the Blessed Virgin Mary Regina, a special time of fasting and prayer“By pleading the Lord who grants us peace and justice, and who dry the tears of those who suffer because of the current armed conflicts”.
Forgiveness and peace
During the hearing, Leo XIV greeted the pilgrims of different languages, focusing in particular on the Portuguese faithful, to whom he recalled that “without forgiveness there will never be peace”. A strong message, which indicates the path of reconciliation as an indispensable condition for the coexistence between peoples and people. Then addressing the Polish pilgrims, and in particular to those who came from the sanctuary of the Madonna of Jasna Góra, to Częstochowa, asked to “include in your intentions the plea for the gift of peace – disarmament and disarming – for the whole world, in particular for Ukrainian and the Middle East”.
Pilgrimages and incessant prayer
The Pope’s appeal has been preceded, in recent days, by two significant gestures. Tuesday 19 August Leone XIV went to the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie della Mentorella, in Guadagnolo, in the diocese of Palestrina, a hermitage very dear to St. John Paul II. Here, as the Rector told, the Pontiff gathered in the church at the foot of the Virgin, turning on a candle “with a particular plea for peace in the world”. Also last night, leaving the summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, he confided to journalists who awaited him in front of Villa Barberini: «You really need to look for the way to go on, find peace. There is hope, but you have to work and pray a lot ».
A thread that unites all the faithful
Leone XIV’s gestures and words make up a single thread: that of one incessant prayerwhich embraces the symbolic places of Marian devotion and the faithful of each nation. A thread that binds Castel Gandolfo to Rome, the mentorella in Poland, the Middle East to Ukraine, with the belief that only through faith, forgiveness and intercession of Mary can the fire of the wars be turned off.
