{"id":77928,"date":"2025-07-20T12:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T12:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77928\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T12:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T12:05:08","slug":"pope-at-mass-take-summer-to-savor-moments-of-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/77928\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope at Mass: Take summer to savor moments of reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presiding over Mass at the Cathedral of Albano, Pope Leo reflects on hospitality, service, and listening as essential elements to building a relationship with God and others.<\/p>\n

By Kielce Gussie<\/b><\/p>\n

Marking his third Sunday at the papal summer residence in the Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV presided over Mass for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time at the nearby Cathedral of Albano.<\/p>\n

At the start of his homily, the Pope joked about having to change in plans to visit Albano back in May. “As you know, I was supposed to arrive on May 12, but the Holy Spirit had other plans. Still, I\u2019m truly happy to be here, and with this sense of fraternity and Christian joy, I greet all of you present.”<\/p>\n

Reflecting upon the first reading and the Gospel, he said these passages call us to reflect on hospitality, service, and listening.<\/p>\n

Good hosts<\/b> <\/p>\n

The Pope first looked at the the first reading from Genesis where three men visit Abraham \u201cin the heat of the day\u201d. Pope Leo pointed out how Abraham\u2019s response to these visitors as master of the house was one of hospitality.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n A copy of the image of the ancient Byzantine-style icon of the Madonna della Rotonda \u00a0 (@Vatican Media)\n <\/p>\n

With this attitude, the atmosphere changed and, as the Pope highlighted, \u201cthe afternoon\u2019s stillness is filled with gestures of love\u201d from Abraham, his wife Sarah, and their servants. In that setting, God shares the news the couple had been waiting for: they will have a son.<\/p>\n

This encounter encourages us to reflect on how God chose the path of hospitality to enter into Abraham and Sarah\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Twin dimensions of hospitality<\/b> <\/p>\n

Turning to the Gospel, Pope Leo commented on how the passage \u201cteaches us about God\u2019s way of acting.\u201d Jesus came as a guest in the house of Martha and Mary, not as a stranger but as a friend during a celebration.<\/p>\n

The two sisters react to their guest in very different ways: Martha welcomes him by serving, while Mary sits at his feet to listen to him. Jesus responded to Martha’s comments by inviting her to see the value of listening. Yet, the Pope stressed that \u201cit would be incorrect, however, to see these two attitudes as mutually exclusive, or to compare the merits of the two women.\u201d Service and listening, he said are \u201ctwin dimensions of hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

\n Two members of Caritas from the Diocese of Albano brought up the gifts during Mass \u00a0 (@Vatican Media)\n <\/p>\n

When striving to live these two aspects in our daily lives, our relationship with God must come first and we need to live out our faith through concrete actions, according to our state in life. But we can only do this after reflecting on the Word of God and listening for the Holy Spirit. In order to do this, the Pope called us to dedicate times of silence and prayer, eliminating distractions, so we can focus on God and give him space to speak to us.<\/p>\n

He argued \u201cthis is a dimension of the Christian life that we particularly need to recover today, both as a value for individuals and communities, and as a prophetic sign for our times.\u201d The Pope pointed out that summer is a good moment to push for this and experience the beauty of our relationship with God and how it can help us be more open to others.<\/p>\n

Summer vacation and God<\/b> <\/p>\n

As summer often offers more free time to reflect and spend time with others, Pope Leo challenged everyone to \u201cmake good use of this, by leaving behind the whirlwind of commitments and worries in order to savor a few moments of peace and reflection\u201d and to visit others.<\/p>\n

Summer can be an opportunity to care for others, get to know them, and listen to them. These are all expressions of love, the Pope explained, of which we are all in need. He argued that if we courageously try to live these out, we will be promoting a culture of peace, \u201chelping those around us to overcome divisions and hostility and to build communion between individuals, peoples and religions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Before<\/p>\n

\n Before Mass, the Pope knelt in front of the altar of the Blessed Sacrament for a brief moment of adoration \u00a0 (@Vatican Media)\n <\/p>\n

Recognizing that this demands effort and sacrifices, Pope Leo stressed that it is in these efforts that \u201csomething worthwhile can be built in life.\u201d Listening to and serving others is the only way to create and strengthen genuine relationships with others.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your service<\/b> <\/p>\n

At the end of Mass, Pope Leo presented the Bishiop of Albano, Vincenzo Viva, with a chasuble. “We present this gift to His Excellency, an expression of our closeness to his diocesan Church, with the hope that the Lord’s blessing may always accompany you. Thank you for your service and thank you to your poeple.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presiding over Mass at the Cathedral of Albano, Pope Leo reflects on hospitality, service, and listening as essential…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[44513,44618,15704,50,3417,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-77928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-castel-gandolfo","9":"tag-homily","10":"tag-mass","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","13":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114885474686510180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}