Shrines join Pope for global peace Rosary

According to the Dicastery for Evangelisation, more than 200 shrines worldwide joined and took part in the recitation of the Rosary with Pope Leo. There were more than 100,000 people in attendance at the various shrines, and people from Lebanon, Nicaragua, Ukraine, Tanzania and Syria read the Gospel passages for the decades.

The Pope opened his reflection at the end of the five decades with Psalm 85:8 – “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.”

This psalm expresses the “hope of which we stand in need, especially in the face of current difficulties and violence”, Pope Leo said.

He urged everyone – those present in the Vatican Gardens and all those connected around the world – to “dispose their hearts” to be open to hearing the Word of God, so that through prayer “we may come to understand the meaning of the events of history” and see God’s providence guiding and sustaining us.

The Virgin Mary, Pope Leo highlighted, is the model example of a believer who turns their heart to listen to “what God says”. She is an example of obedience as she welcomed Jesus into her womb, the Pope said.

Peace, the Pope stressed, “is not a theory to be tested in a laboratory, nor a naïve illusion, nor a matter to be pursued out of self-interest”. Rather, it must be looked for with a sincere heart and seen as a daily commitment.

Even in the midst of the current global situation – violence, war, and conflict – Pope Leo explained that “peace becomes possible when we choose to listen to the cry of those deprived of it: innocent children, anguished mothers and fathers, abused prisoners, refugees and people of every age who suffer”.

All these groups “have but one word upon their lips: peace!”

FULL STORY

Pope Leo at Rosary: Even in times of conflict, peace is possible (By Kielce Gussie/Vatican News)