Wednesday General Audience with Pope Leo XIV 02.04.2026

 

Pope

• Pope Leo XIV
• general audience
• Second Vatican Council
• sacred scripture
• jesus

Pope at Audience: Read Word of God in historical context to avoid fundamentalism

During his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV warns against "fundamentalist or spiritualist readings" of Scripture and upholds the Church's mission to proclaim the Word of God in language that touches human hearts.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Scripture reveals God’s desire to be close to His people, Pope Leo XIV expressed during his Wednesday General Audience, as he continued his catechesis series on the Second Vatican Council.

He concentrated again this week on the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum on Divine Revelation, which the Pope has called “one of the most beautiful and important” documents of the Council.

READ POPE LEO XIV'S FULL GENERAL AUDIENCE ADDRESS

The Pope recalled that the Conciliar Constitution indicates that, in Sacred Scripture, the faithful find a "privileged space for encounter where God continues to speak to the men and women of every time, so that, by listening, they can know Him and love Him." 

Accessible, out of God's great love

The biblical texts, Pope Leo pointed out, "were not written in a heavenly or superhuman language, suggesting that God, out of great love, chooses to speak using human languages, and thus, various authors, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have written the texts of Sacred Scripture."

Dei Verbum, the Pope said, reiterates that “the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made like men.”

Therefore, the Holy Father observed, not only in its content, but also in its language, "Scripture reveals God’s merciful condescension towards human beings, and His desire to be close to them."

Language embodied in human history

The Pope acknowledged that throughout the course of Church history, the relationship between the divine Author and the human authors of the sacred texts has been studied. 

"A correct interpretation of the sacred texts can dispense with the historic environment in which they developed and the literary forms that were used," he said. "On the contrary, to renounce the study of the human words that God used risks leading to fundamentalist or spiritualist readings of Scripture, which betray its meaning."

He also noted this principle also applies to the proclamation of the Word of God.

"If it loses touch with reality, with human hopes and sufferings, if an incomprehensible language is used, or if it is uncommunicative or anachronistic," Pope Leo warned, "it is ineffective."

Moreover, he reaffirmed, “In every age, the Church is called to repropose the Word of God in a language capable of being embodied in history and reaching hearts.”

Especially when proclaimed in the context of the liturgy, the Pope insisted, "Scripture is intended to speak to today's believers, to touch their present lives with their problems, to enlighten the steps to be taken and the decisions to be made."

Joyful proclamation of full life God has given to us

"Scripture," the Pope stated, "serves to nurture the life and charity of believers."

He reiterated that the divine origin of the Scripture also recalls that the Gospel, entrusted to the witness of the baptized, despite embracing all the dimensions of life and reality, transcends them.

Scripture, Pope Leo stressed, “cannot be reduced to a mere philanthropic or social message, but is the joyful proclamation of the full and eternal life that God has given to us in Jesus.”

Finally, Pope Leo concluded by urging the faithful to “thank the Lord because, in His goodness, He ensures our lives do not lack the essential nourishment of His Word, and let us pray that our words, and even more so our lives, do not obscure the love of God that is narrated in them.”

The Wednesday General Audience with Pope Leo XIV 01.28.2026

 

Pope

• general audience
• sacred scripture
• church
• Second Vatican Council

Pope at Audience: The Word of God is the guide for our existence

During his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Leo XIV continues his reflection on the Dogmatic Constitution 'Dei Verbum' on Divine Revelation and emphasizes the close relationship between Sacred Scripture and Tradition.

By Isabella H. de Carvalho

“The ‘deposit’ of the Word of God is still in the hands of the Church and all of us, in our various ecclesial ministries, must continue to preserve it in its integrity, as a lodestar for our journey through the complexity of history and existence,” Pope Leo XIV said during the Wednesday General Audience on January 28, 2026.

Continuing his catechesis series dedicated to the Second Vatican Council and its documents, the Pope focused again on the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, on Divine Revelation. He highlighted the close relationship between Sacred Scripture and Tradition, meaning the living transmission of the Gospel through the Holy Spirit.

The Word of God “is not fossilized, but rather it is a living and organic reality that develops and grows in Tradition,” he underlined. “Thanks to the Holy Spirit, Tradition understands it in the richness of its truth and embodies it in the shifting coordinates of history.”

Tradition and Scripture come from the same wellspring

Pope Leo cited two Gospel scenes to explain “the intimate connection between the words uttered by Christ and their dissemination throughout the centuries.”

The first is when Jesus addresses the disciples in the Upper Room before his death and tells them they will receive the Holy Spirit from the Lord, who will guide them “into all the truth.” The second is when the risen Christ shows himself to the disciples and calls them to “make disciples of all nations … teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Quoting point 9 of Dei Verbum, the Pope emphasized how the Second Vatican Council explains this close relationship between Scripture and Tradition by saying that “both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end.”

“Ecclesial Tradition branches out throughout history through the Church, which preserves, interprets and embodies the Word of God,” the Pope continued.

“Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records,” he added, citing point 113 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Church perpetuates Her belief to all generations

The Pope then highlighted how Tradition, which comes from the Apostles, develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit.

“This occurs with full comprehension through ‘contemplation and study made by believers’, through ‘a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience’ and, above all, with the preaching of the successors of the apostles who have received ‘the sure gift of truth’,” he explained, citing again the Dogmatic Constitution.

“In short," he reiterated, "‘the Church, in Her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that She Herself is, all that She believes’.”

To explain the living dimension of the Word of God and its relationship with Tradition, the Pope quoted the Doctor of the Church, St. John Henry Newman, who affirmed that “Christianity, both as a communal experience and as a doctrine, is a dynamic reality, in the manner indicated by Jesus himself in the parables of the seed: a living reality that develops thanks to an inner vital force.”

One sacred deposit of the Word of God 

Pope Leo emphasized then how Dei Verbum points out that “‘Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church’, interpreted by the ‘living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ’.”

The term deposit, he continued, implies that the custodian should preserve the content, in this case the faith, and transmit it intact, and thus called on the Church and all Her members to do so.

Pope Leo concluded by quoting again Dei Verbum, which explains that the Sacred Scripture and Tradition “are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and … all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”

Papal General Audience on 01.21.2026

 

Pope

• general audience
• Pope Leo XIV
• Second Vatican Council
• catechesis

Pope at Audience: We are God's beloved children

During his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV reminds the faithful that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, as he continues his catechesis on the Dogmatic Constitution 'Dei Verbum' on Divine Revelation.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

“Thanks to Jesus, Christians know God the Father and entrust themselves to Him with confidence.”

Pope Leo XIV expressed this during his Wednesday General Audience, as he continued his catechesis series on the Second Vatican Council. He concentrated again this week on the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum on Divine Revelation, which the Pope last week called “one of the most beautiful and important” documents of the Council.

READ POPE LEO'S FULL ADDRESS HERE

What happens in Jesus Christ

The Pope recalled that we have seen that God reveals Himself in a dialogue of covenant, in which He addresses us as friends. It is therefore a relational knowledge, which not only communicates ideas but also shares a history and calls for communion in reciprocity.

The fulfillment of this revelation, he explained, takes place in a historical and personal encounter in which God Himself gives Himself to us, making Himself present, and in which we discover that we are known in our deepest truth.

“It is what happens in Jesus Christ,” said Pope Leo, as he recalled that Dei Verbum states, “The deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation.”

Christ reveals the Father to us

The Pope stressed that Jesus reveals the Father to us by involving us in His own relationship with Him. In the Son sent by God the Father, “humanity might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature.”

Therefore, he explained, “we reach full knowledge of God by entering into the Son’s relationship with His Father, by virtue of the action of the Spirit.”

“Thanks to Jesus,” Pope Leo said, “we know God as we are known by Him.” Indeed, in Christ, he recalled, “God has communicated Himself to us, and, at the same time, He has manifested to us our true identity as His children, created in the image of the Word.”

‘Your Father, who sees in secret will reward you’

The Pope recalled St. Matthew's Gospel, in which Jesus reassures, "Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you," and adds that "your Father knows that you need all these things."

Jesus Christ, the Pope said, is the place where we recognize the truth of God the Father, while at the same time we discover ourselves known by Him as sons in the Son, called to the same destiny of full life.

He then quoted Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son … so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”

The Lord’s own humanity

Finally, the Holy Father emphasized that Jesus Christ reveals the Father through His own humanity.

“Precisely because He is the Word incarnate who dwells among men, Jesus reveals God to us with His own true and integral humanity,” he noted, insisting that “in order to know God in Christ, we must welcome His integral humanity.”

“God’s truth is not fully revealed where it takes something away from the human, just as the integrity of Jesus’ humanity does not diminish the fullness of the divine gift. It is the integral humanity of Jesus that tells us the truth of the Father,” the Pope said.

Not only the channel of transmission of intellectual truths

“It is not only the Death and Resurrection of Jesus that save us and call us together,” Pope Leo stressed, “but His very person: the Lord who becomes incarnate, is born, heals, teaches, suffers, dies, rises again and remains among us.”

Read also

21/01/2026

Pope: Amid war and loss of respect for human dignity, let us pray for peace

“If Jesus has a real body, the communication of the truth of God is realized in that body, with its own way of perceiving and feeling reality, with its own way of inhabiting and passing through the world.” In this way, “Jesus Himself invites us to share His perception of reality,” Pope Leo said.

Nothing can separate us from God’s love

The Holy Father concluded by telling the faithful that “by following the path of Jesus to the very end, we reach the certainty that nothing can separate us from God’s love.”

Quoting once more Saint Paul, Pope Leo said: “If God is for us, who is against us?”

Papal General Audience 01.14.2026, continues catechesis on Vatican II

 

Pope

• Second Vatican Council
• papal magisterium
• general audience
• Pope Leo XIV

Pope at Audience: Vatican II calls us to friendship with Christ

During his weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV continues his catechesis series on the Second Vatican Council, looking more closely at "one of the most beautiful and important of the Council," namely the Dogmatic Constitution 'Dei Verbum,' on Divine Revelation.

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends."

Pope Leo XIV recalled Jesus' words in the Gospel passage according to St. John during his Wednesday General Audience on January 14, as he continued his new catechesis series, which is dedicated to the Second Vatican Council and a rereading of its Documents.

READ POPE LEO'S FULL CATECHESIS HERE

Focusing on the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, on Divine Revelation, the Pope called it one of the most beautiful and important Documents of the Council.

The Holy Father noted that the text recalls Jesus' invitation for us to be His friends.

"This is a fundamental point of Christian faith, which Dei Verbum reminds us of: Jesus Christ radically transforms man’s relationship with God, which is henceforth a relationship of friendship. Therefore, the only condition of the new covenant is love."

God makes us sons and daughters

He acknowledged that we are not equal to God, and the relationship between God and humanity always remains asymmetrical, as we are only creatures of the Creator.

In spite of this, the Holy Father said, with the coming of the Son in human flesh, God's Covenant opens up to His final purpose.

"In Jesus," he said, "God makes us sons and daughters, and calls us to become like Him, albeit in our fragile humanity."

With this in mind, Pope Leo reminded us of our need to listen, "so that the Divine Word may penetrate our minds and our hearts," and also "to speak with God," "not to communicate to Him what He already knows, but to reveal ourselves to ourselves."

Must make time for prayer each day

This, he explained, is why prayer is so important for us to live and to cultivate friendship with the Lord. We do so first of all, he said, in liturgical and community prayer, "in which we do not decide what to hear from the Word of God, but it is He Himself who speaks to us through the Church." 

This liturgical prayer, he continued, is "achieved in personal prayer, which takes place in the interiority of the heart and mind."

For these reasons, the Holy Father insisted, "time dedicated to prayer, meditation, and reflection cannot be lacking in the Christian’s day and week."

Finally, Pope Leo XIV pointed out that we know from experience how friendships easily end through a 'rupture' or neglect.

"Jesus calls us to be friends," he said. "Let us not leave this call unheeded." By welcoming and caring for this relationship, the Holy Father insisted, "we will discover that friendship with God is our salvation."