His Holiness Pope Leo XIV: Blessed Virgin Mary, watch over this humanity
Continuing a decades-old tradition of paying homage to the statue of the Immaculate Conception in Rome, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV prays at the foot of the 12-meter column on top of which the figure of the Virgin Mary is placed, and lays a wreath at the base.
By Kielce Gussie
Within 100 years of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the tradition of sending flowers to the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome had begun with Pope Pius XII. A few years later in 1958, Pope Saint John XXIII went to Piazza di Spagna and placed a basket of white roses at the foot of the statue.
Continuing this decades-old practice started by his predecessors, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV marked 8 December—the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception—with a visit to the Piazza di Spagna.
A moment for Mary
As the Holy Father arrived in the Piazza di Spagna, the choir and assembly sang a Marian hymn entitled “You rise more beautiful than the dawn”. The Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina and the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, welcomed the Pope as he arrived.
After an opening prayer, Pope Leo offered a bouquet of flowers at the base of the 12 meter (39-foot) tall column of the Immaculate Virgin and the choir prayed the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary in song.
Then the Pope offered a prayer dedicated to the Virgin:
Hail, O Mary! Rejoice, full of grace, filled with that grace which, like a gentle light, makes radiant all those on whom the presence of God shines. The Mystery has wrapped you round from the beginning; from your mother’s womb it began to accomplish great things in you, things that soon asked for your consent—that “Yes” which inspired so many other “yeses.”
Immaculate one, Mother of a faithful people, your purity bathes Rome in eternal light, your path fills its streets with a fragrance sweeter than the flowers we offer you today. Many pilgrims from all over the world, O Immaculate Virgin, have walked the streets of this city throughout history and in this jubilee year. A humanity tested, at times crushed, humble as the very earth from which God shaped it and into which He does not cease to breathe His life-giving Spirit.
Look, O Mary, upon so many sons and daughters whose hope has not been extinguished: may what your Son has sown in them take root and grow—He, the living Word, who in each person asks to grow still more, to take on flesh, face, and voice. May jubilee hope blossom in Rome and in every corner of the earth, hope in the new world God is preparing, of which you, O Virgin, are like the bud and the dawn. After the holy doors, may other doors now open—doors of homes and oases of peace where dignity may flourish again, where people may learn nonviolence and the art of reconciliation…
This text was originally published on the Website of Vatican News. Please click here to read the full text.