Rome (Italy). On 2 February 2026, Pope Leo XIV presided over the Eucharistic Celebration on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the 30th World Day of Consecrated Life, in St. Peter’s Basilica, which was “illuminated” by hundreds of consecrated men and women, including the Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, the General Councilors, and numerous FMA Sisters from all over Rome, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, SDB, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DIVCSVA), the Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation, Father Fabio Attard, and various members of the Salesian Family.
The celebration was preceded by the blessing of the candles by the Holy Father and their lighting, which took place outside the Basilica. The candles were then carried in procession along the central nave towards the altar, to remind us that Jesus is the “light of the nations.” With the rite of the presentation in the temple, Jesus “submitted Himself to the prescriptions of the Law, but in reality, he was coming to meet His people, who awaited Him with faith.”
One of the candles was brought by Sister Lucrecia Uribe, FMA, a collaborator of the Salesian Family Sector, while the First Reading, in Spanish, was read by Sister Maria Eugenia Arenas Gomez, FMA, from DIVCSVA.
In the homily, the “prophecy” of Consecrated Life resonated in the words of Pope Leo, who recalled Pope Francis’ unforgettable exhortation, “Wake up the world, because the characteristic note of consecrated life is prophecy,” from the Apostolic Letter for the Year of Consecrated Life. “Dearest brothers and sisters, the Church asks you to be prophets, messengers who announce the presence of the Lord and prepare the way for Him,” he added.
Paraphrasing the words of the prophet Malachi, he explained that, “he invites you, in your generous ’emptying yourselves’ for the Lord, to become braziers for the Refiner’s fire and vessels for the Fuller’s soap (cf. Mal 3:1-3), so that Christ, the one and eternal Angel of the Covenant, present even today among men and women, may refine and purify their hearts with His love, His grace, and His mercy. And you are called to do this first and foremost through the sacrifice of your lives, rooted in prayer and ready to be consumed in charity.”
Each consecrated man and woman then felt personally addressed when he referred to their Founders and Foundresses, who, “docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, have left you wonderful models of how to actively live out this mandate.
In constant tension between earth and Heaven, they, with faith and courage, allowed themselves to be guided, starting from the Eucharistic table, some to the silence of the cloisters, others to the challenges of the apostolate, others to teaching in schools, others to the misery of the streets, others to the hardships of the missions. And with the same faith, they returned each time, humbly and wisely, to the foot of the Cross and before the Tabernacle, to offer everything and to find in God the source and the goal of all their actions.
Strengthened by grace, they also embarked on risky ventures, becoming a prayerful presence in hostile and indifferent environments, a generous hand and a friendly shoulder in contexts of degradation and abandonment, a witness of peace and reconciliation amidst scenes of war and hatred, ready even to suffer the consequences of acting against the current, which made them, in Christ, a ‘sign of contradiction’ (Luke 2:34), sometimes even to the point of martyrdom.”
From them, as from the “many brothers and sisters who have preceded us,” each of us receives the witness of this prophetic tradition to carry forward:
“Even today, through the profession of the evangelical counsels and the many charitable services you offer, you are called to bear witness, in a society where faith and life seem to be increasingly separated, in the name of a false and reductive conception of the person, that God is present in history as salvation for all peoples (cf. Lk 2:30-31). To bear witness that the young, the elderly, the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, first and foremost have their sacred place on His Altar and in His Heart, and that at the same time, each of them is an inviolable sanctuary of His presence, before which to kneel to encounter Him, adore Him, and glorify Him.”
The Pope concluded his homily by thanking all the consecrated men and women for their presence, encouraging them to be, “wherever Providence sends you, a leaven of peace and a sign of hope,” and entrusting their work “to the intercession of Mary Most Holy and all your holy Founders and Foundresses, as we renew together on the altar the offering of our lives to God.”
The celebration was, for those who participated and also for those who followed from home, “a caress from God,” a “privileged” moment in which to feel, in the diversity and beauty of the multifaceted charisms generated by the Holy Spirit, united in the same “prophecy” entrusted, as Pope Leo reminded us, to “men and women with their feet firmly planted on the ground, but at the same time constantly attentive to the things that are above.”
Upon leaving the Basilica, we experienced the feeling of merging into a “single river” – where people greeted each other and wished each other “Happy Feast Day” despite not knowing each other – thus demonstrating to everyone the joy of being consecrated men and women.
