Pope celebrates Our Lady of Good Counsel with an appeal to cultivate peace

“Let us allow peace to grow within us,” the Pope said during his homily as he presided over Mass at the Augustinian shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel, “It will blossom in the world.”

Returning to the sanctuary in Genazzano, southeast of Rome, Pope Leo recalled that he had felt “a deep desire” to come there just days after his election to the papacy in May 2025. Mary, he said at the time, had accompanied him throughout his life “with her maternal presence, with her wisdom, and with the example of her love for her Son, the Son who is always at the centre of my faith.”

Now, celebrating the Vigil of Mary's birth, he said he was once again entrusting to Mary “what is still born in this poor and magnificent humanity: fragile like a shoot, but a sign of God's faithfulness.”The Pope's homily focused on the apparent paradox of Mary's place in salvation history: a woman whose life changed the course of history, yet whose presence in the Gospel is marked by simplicity and silence.

Reflecting on the writings of St Thomas of Villanova, the Augustinian friar and bishop, Pope Leo asked why the Evangelists provide so little detail about Mary's birth, childhood and daily life, despite her unique place in the story of salvation.

St Thomas himself wondered why the Evangelists had written at length about John the Baptist and the Apostles but had said so little about Mary. Pope Leo quoted his question: “Why, I ask, have you deprived us of such great joy by your silence?”

Yet, the Pope said that silence offers an important lesson for believers.

“We are, in fact, ‘fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God’,” he said, adding that Mary teaches an intelligence that “converses with God,” asks questions and treasures events by connecting them in her heart.

In Matthew's account, Mary does not speak in the passage proclaimed at the Mass. Yet her presence, together with the presence of Christ within her, is enough to change the course of events.

“The simple presence of Mary – and of the Son within her – moves the whole of history,” Pope Leo said.

Her presence changes Joseph's expectations, decisions and actions, he continued. “In Mary, salvation finds a home: God with us!”

The Pope then reflected on the mystery celebrated in the feast of Mary's birth.

“It is impossible to become accustomed to it!” he said. A child is born who will become “the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of God who saves.”

And yet, he observed, Mary is born simply as a child, “like the daughters and granddaughters whom we hold in our arms.”

“We have noble and lofty titles for her, of Lady and Queen,” he said, “but God's way has been and remains simpler and quieter, yet no less powerful and transformative.”

The same path is revealed in Christ, he continued, noting that “In Jesus Christ, God chose the most humble historical circumstances and the humblest of creatures to manifest the originality of his Kingdom, in which arrogance has no place and omnipotence is creation, service and care for life.”