Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church Date10/11/2025

 Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Reading of the day

A reading from the Book of Wisdom

1:1-7

Love justice, you who judge the earth;

think of the Lord in goodness,

and seek him in integrity of heart;

Because he is found by those who test him not,

and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.

For perverse counsels separate a man from God,

and his power, put to the proof, rebukes the foolhardy;

Because into a soul that plots evil, wisdom enters not,

nor dwells she in a body under debt of sin.

For the holy Spirit of discipline flees deceit

and withdraws from senseless counsels;

and when injustice occurs it is rebuked.

For wisdom is a kindly spirit,

yet she acquits not the blasphemer of his guilty lips;

Because God is the witness of his inmost self

and the sure observer of his heart

and the listener to his tongue.

For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world,

is all-embracing, and knows what man says.

Gospel of the day

From the Gospel according to Luke

17:1-6

Jesus said to his disciples,

"Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,

but woe to the one through whom they occur.

It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck

and he be thrown into the sea

than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

Be on your guard!

If your brother sins, rebuke him;

and if he repents, forgive him.

And if he wrongs you seven times in one day

and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,'

you should forgive him."

And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,

you would say to this mulberry tree,

'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."

The words of the Popes

Therefore, there is life, a new possibility of life and salvation that comes from faith, because it not only helps us to resist evil and to persevere in doing good, but it transforms our lives so as to make of them an instrument of the salvation that even today God wishes to bring about in the world. And, as Jesus says in the Gospel, this is about a lowly strength, for faith does not impose itself by means of power and in extraordinary ways. Indeed, it is enough to have faith the size of a mustard seed in order to do unimaginable things (cf. Lk 17:6), because it carries within it the strength of God’s love that opens the way to salvation. This is a salvation that is fulfilled when we take responsibility and, with the compassion of the Gospel, care for the suffering of others; it is a salvation that leads the way, silently and apparently without success, in daily words and actions, which become precisely like the tiny seed of which Jesus speaks; it is a salvation that slowly grows when we become “unworthy servants”, namely when we place ourselves at the service of the Gospel and of our brothers and sisters, not seeking our own interests but only bringing God’s love to the world. (Pope Leo XIV, Homily, Jubilee of the Missionary world and Migrants, 5 October 2025)