Pope Leo’s Jubilee Year of St. Francis: A Holy Invitation to Peace

My heart has been restless these days as there is so much upheaval in the world around us. My prayer has been, "what do I do, Lord? What are you calling me to?"

And then Pope Leo XIV announced that he is calling this the Jubilee Year of St. Francis. A beloved saint for many of us. This year, we will celebrate the 800th anniversary of his death. I sighed a big exhale as I read what Pope Leo said. An answer to my own prayers. 

"At the beginning of his evangelical life, he had heard a call: «The Lord revealed to me that we should say this greeting: “The Lord give you peace”»[1]. With these essential words, he delivers to his Brothers and to every believer the interior wonder that the Gospel had brought into his existence: peace is the sum of all the goods of God, a gift that comes down from Above. What an illusion it would be to think of building it with human strength alone! And yet it is an active gift, to be welcomed and lived every day."

He continues, "In this age, marked by so many seemingly interminable wars, by internal and social divisions that breed mistrust and fear, he continues to speak. Not because he offers technical solutions, but because his life points to the authentic source of peace."

This is the peace that I seek in my own heart, my own community, and in our world. Pope Leo wrote a prayer for all of us to pray this year:

Saint Francis, our brother, you who eight hundred years ago
went to meet Sister Death as a man at peace,
intercede for us with the Lord.

In the Crucifix of San Damiano you recognized true peace,
teach us to seek in Him the source of all reconciliation
that breaks down every wall.

You who, unarmed, crossed the lines of war
and misunderstanding,
give us the courage to build bridges
where the world erects borders,

In this time plagued by conflict and division,
intercede so that we may become peacemakers:
unarmed and disarming witnesses of the peace that comes from Christ.
Amen.

May we, as people of faith and trust in our God, become peacemakers: unarmed and disarming witnesses of the peace that comes from Christ.

I made the prayer into a free print that you can download and print for your homes!