Holiness is a calling for everyone, not a privileged few, Pope Leo says during All Saints’ Day Angelus

Pope Leo XIV spoke during his Nov. 1 Angelus about the Solemnity of All Saints, saying the feast invites everyone to celebrate the joy of so many men and women who followed Christ and “have made their lives a gift to God and to their neighbors.” 

“Along their different paths to holiness, they have longed for ‘the ocean of infinite love,’ to use a beautiful expression of Pope Benedict XVI,” the Pontiff said. He explained that everyone is called to holiness and that the chief fruit and characteristic of the saints is their charity.  

Reflecting on how the Scripture readings for the Sunday Mass relate to the saints, Pope Leo noted that Revelation 7:9 describes the saints as “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” The solemnity celebrates both the saints formally recognized by the Church and the countless other saints who though not formally recognized are known to God, he said. 

Referencing the day’s Gospel passage of Matthew 5:1-12, which focused on the beatitudes, Pope Leo elaborated on how the saints have lived these out, saying first that “they are poor in spirit, yet rich in God’s love.”

“Their faces are streaked with tears, yet they find consolation in prayer,” he continued. “They are meek in the face of violence and rewarded by the Father. They hunger for justice, yet are filled in the depths of their consciences. They are ready to forgive and embraced by mercy. They are disarmed in heart, yet protected by God. They are peacemakers, called by name by God. They are persecuted and insulted, yet strong in faith and charity.”

Along with the fact that the number of saints cannot be counted, holiness itself “cannot be reduced to any calculation,” Pope Leo continued, “for such is the good that all the saints have spread around them in the world.”

The good brought about by the saints, with God’s grace, are choices of love and charitable actions, he said, “that transcend the calculations of greed and the arrogance of evil, which at times seems to prevail.”

Amid this witness of charity triumphing over evil, the saints’ lives point to the Kingdom of God spoken about by Christ, according to the Pope. 

“The saints are the most beautiful and powerful sign of the Kingdom of God that is coming — or rather, as Jesus teaches us, is already among us,” he said, referencing Luke 17:20-21. “Moreover, this blessed multitude embraces people from the most diverse backgrounds, cultures and walks of life. Holiness is not a privilege reserved for a few, but a universal vocation that speaks to each of us where we live. This is the hope-filled message of today’s feast: God sees the good that we do not see, knows stories that we do not know and reaches hearts to which we have no access.”

Concluding the reflection on the solemnity, Pope Leo invoked the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking her to “accompany us along the path to holiness, so that we may never grow weary of fostering peace, both in the most important situations and in the ordinary circumstances of everyday life.”

After leading the Angelus prayer, the Pontiff highlighted that five martyrs were beatified in Savannah, Georgia, on Oct. 31. Known as the Georgia martyrs, these Franciscan religious were killed for their faith in 1597. 

Pope Leo noted that they were originally from Spain but “responded generously to the Lord's call to evangelize the peoples of the Americas, even to the point of giving their lives,” and he encouraged the faithful to invoke the Georgia martyrs’ intercession in praying for all missionaries.  

Pope Leo also highlighted that he will celebrate Mass at a cemetery in Rome on All Souls’ Day, Nov. 2, and urged the faithful to cultivate closeness to the Communion of Saints this month and pray for those who have died, especially those who are forgotten. 

Pontiff comments on humanitarian operation beginning in Russian-occupied Ukrainian city 

Pope Leo also commented on the humanitarian operation underway in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky. While he was still recovering in the hospital from lung surgery in October, Pope Leo had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin expressing concern for Oleshky, which was facing a dire humanitarian situation. The Pope urged for a ceasefire to allow for a voluntary, safe evacuation of the population and for humanitarian aid to be delivered. Days later after returning to the Vatican, Pope Leo spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reiterating his concern for the city and his hope for cooperation between the parties. 

On Oct. 23 the White House announced that First Lady Melania Trump had secured a ceasefire in Oleshky to enable a civilian evacuation and delivery of humanitarian aid, as Zeale News reported. 

Speaking at the end of his Nov. 1 Angelus address, Pope Leo said, “I hope that the cooperation between the parties, which made this necessary humanitarian act possible, will strengthen the desire for dialogue and lead to new concrete peace initiatives. Let us entrust to Mary, Queen of Peace and of All Saints, all those throughout the world who are suffering because of war.”