In a message to participants in a meeting of Latin American priests, religious, and seminarians who are studying in Rome, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the Lord’s “absolute initiative” in calling someone to follow Him, as well as the “commitment that responding to this vocation entails.”
Pope Leo also spoke of “the urgent need for theoretical and practical knowledge of the divine law,” gained “above all through reading the Holy Scriptures, meditating in the silence of deep prayer, reverently welcoming the voice of legitimate pastors, and attentively studying the many treasures of wisdom offered to us by the Church.”
“In the midst of joys and difficulties, our motto must be: if Christ went through this, it is also our duty to live what He lived,” the Pope added. “We must not be driven by applause because its echo is short-lived; nor is it healthy to dwell only on the memory of days of crisis or times of bitter disappointment.”