For prayer with the Word of God
Let us pray that praying with the Word of God be nourishment for our lives and a source of hope in our communities, helping us to build a more fraternal and missionary Church.
By Kielce Gussie
Greeting around 40,000 people gathered in Saint Peter’s Square on the first day of 2026, Pope Leo XIV extended his heartfelt wishes for peace and every good to them. He also shared his best wishes to the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
In his words following the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the Pope pointed out that for the last 58 years—at the wish of Pope Saint Paul VI in 1968—January 1st has been celebrated as the World Day of Peace. In his own message for that day, Pope Leo recalled the greeting “the Lord suggested” to him after being elected to the papacy: “Peace be with you all!”
This peace, he continued, “is unarmed and disarming, which comes from God, a gift of his unconditional love, and is entrusted to our responsibility.”
With this responsibility, the Holy Father challenged everyone, with Christ’s grace, to start today to “build a year of peace, disarming our hearts and refraining from all violence.”
He acknowledged that many people and organizations around the world already dedicate themselves to ending violence and have created countless initiatives for building peace. Specifically, the Pope highlighted a national march which took place on the evening of 31 December in Catania, Italy, as well as a march to be held by members of the Community of Sant’Egidio.
Finally, he took a moment to greet students and teachers from Richland, New Jersey, in the United States.
Recalling the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, Pope Leo closed his Angelus greetings with the Saint's blessing taken from Sacred Scripture: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
The Pope added his own wishes that Mary, the Mother of God “guide us on our journey in the new year.”
By Joseph Tulloch
“May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace”.
Pope Leo opened the homily at his first Mass of 2026 by reflecting on this blessing from the Book of Numbers, taken from the day’s first reading.
The blessing, he said, was addressed to the people of Israel, who had just been liberated from slavery in Egypt, and had been offered a “rebirth”, an “open road toward the future”.
In this way, the Pope noted, the day’s liturgy reminds us that “every day can be the beginning of a new life, thanks to God’s generous love, his mercy and the response of our freedom.”
We should thus view the coming year, the Pope urged the roughly 5,500 faithful in attendance, as “an open journey to be discovered”.
READ THE FULL TEXT OF POPE LEO'S HOMILY HERE
The day’s liturgy marked both the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and the World Day of Peace.
In his homily, the Pope explored the tight relationship between the two celebrations. With Mary’s co-operation, he said, God arrived amongst us “naked and defenceless”, a “newborn in a cradle.”
“He does this”, the Pope explained, to teach us that the world is not saved by violence but by “tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear.”
“In Mary’s divine motherhood”, the Pope emphasized, two ‘unarmed realities’ come together: “that of God, who renounces every privilege of his divinity to be born in the flesh, and that of a human person who, trustingly and fully, embraces God’s
will.”
The Pope brought his homily to a close by reflecting on the 2025 Jubilee Year, which will come to an end on the 6th of January.
He did so by citing the words of his predecessor Pope St John Paul II, at the closure of the 2000 Jubilee:
