On 04th October, 2025 on the occasion of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, Pope Leo XIV met with a crowd of faithful and pilgrims in Saint Peter’s Square, to whom he led a catechesis focused on the theme “To hope is to choose”, proposing as an example the life of Saint Clare of Assisi, a faithful follower of the great Italian saint and founder of the second Franciscan order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Below is the full text of the Holy Father’s catechesis during this Saturday’s Jubilee Audience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome everyone!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the biblical passage we just read (Luke 16:13-14), the Evangelist points out that some people, after listening to Jesus, mocked him. They found his discourse on poverty absurd. More precisely, they were deeply moved by his attachment to money.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear friends, you have come as pilgrims of hope, and the Jubilee is a time of concrete hope, in which our hearts can find forgiveness and mercy, so that everything can begin anew. The Jubilee also opens the hope of a different distribution of wealth, the possibility that the earth belongs to everyone, because in reality it does not. In this year, we must choose whom to serve: justice or injustice, God or money.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To wait is to choose. This means at least two things. The most obvious is that the world changes if we change. This is why the pilgrimage is made; it’s a choice. We pass through the Holy Door to enter a new time.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The second meaning is deeper and more subtle: waiting is choosing, because those who don’t choose despair. One of the most common consequences of spiritual sadness, that is, acedia, is choosing nothing. Those who experience it are then overcome by an inner laziness that is worse than death. Waiting, on the other hand, is choosing.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Today I would like to remember a woman who, with God’s grace, knew how to choose. A brave young woman who went against the current: Clare of Assisi. And I am happy to speak of her precisely on the feast day of Saint Francis.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We know that Francis, in choosing evangelical poverty, had to break with his own family. But he was a man: the scandal existed, but it was minor. Clare’s choice was even more striking: a young woman who wanted to be like Francis, who wanted to live, as a woman, free like those brothers!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clare understood what the Gospel calls for. But even in a city that considers itself Christian, the Gospel taken seriously can seem like a revolution. Then, as today, we must choose! Clare chose, and this gives us great hope.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We see two consequences of her courage in following that desire: the first is that many other young women in that area found the same courage and chose the poverty of Jesus, the life of the Beatitudes; the second consequence is that this choice was not like a straw fire, but endures over time, even to this day. Clare’s choice has inspired vocational choices around the world and continues to do so today.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus says: you cannot serve two masters. Thus, the Church is young and attracts young people. Clare of Assisi reminds us that the Gospel appeals to young people. It remains so: young people like the people they have chosen and accept the consequences of their choices. And this makes others want to choose. It is a holy imitation: one does not become a “photocopy,” but each person\u2014when they choose the Gospel\u2014chooses themselves. They lose themselves and find themselves. Experience shows: this is how it happens.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Team Maverick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray, then, for young people; and let us pray to be a Church that does not serve money or itself, but rather the Kingdom of God and its justice. A Church that, like Saint Clare of Assisi, has the courage to inhabit the city differently. This gives hope!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 04th October, 2025 on the occasion of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, Pope Leo XIV met with a crowd of faithful and pilgrims in Saint Peter’s Square, to whom he led a catechesis focused on the theme “To hope is to choose”, proposing as an example the life of Saint Clare of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":76736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[81],"post_format":[],"flags":[],"class_list":["post-76735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76737,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76735\/revisions\/76737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76735"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_format&post=76735"},{"taxonomy":"flags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavericknews30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fflags&post=76735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}