Pope Leo meets with a group of hermits in Rome for the Jubilee of Consecrated Life and encourages them to continue living out their vocation, helping the Church and all the faithful rediscover the importance of intimacy with God.
By Isabella H. de Carvalho
“In a world increasingly alienated by the media and technology,” there is a greater need than ever to respond to the “call to interiority and silence, to live in contact with oneself, with one’s neighbour, with creation, and with God.” With these words, Pope Leo XIV encouraged a group of Italian hermits he met on the morning of 11 October in the Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace. They have been in Rome for the Jubilee of Consecrated Life, held from 8 to 9 October. The vocation of hermits, the Pope said, testifies to the Church the “beauty of the contemplative life.” It is “not an escape from the world, but a regeneration of the heart, so that it may become capable of listening, a source of creative action and fruitful action of the charity that God inspires in us.”
The importance of hermits in the Church
The Pope highlighted that from the “intimate friendship with the Lord” which hermits are called to live, “the joy of living, the wonder of faith, and the taste of ecclesial communion are reborn.” He emphasized the relevance of their presence, especially in rural or remote areas, where priests and religious are increasingly rare and parishes are losing opportunities. Even in anonymous and complex urban contexts, marked by an negative type of loneliness, the Pope said hermitages become oases of communion with God and with our brothers and sisters.
Helping others recenter their hearts
Pope Leo XIV went on to explain that while hermits remain faithful to the legacy of the Church Fathers—“safeguarding the Word, through the lectio divina and the service of prayer and intercession with the prayer of the Psalms”—they are also called to meet new spiritual challenges with “the creativity of the Holy Spirit.” “It is the Paraclete,” he said, “who opens you to dialogue with all seekers of meaning and truth, educating you in sharing and guiding their spiritual quest, often confused.”
“There, in the depths of the soul, each person can discover the fire of the desire for God that burns and never goes out,” the Pope continued. Hermits are “guardians and witnesses” of this desire that dwells in every person, “so that each one may discover it and nurture it within themselves.”
Entering the secrecy of the heart
The Pope also stressed that “the Father seeks and calls, in every age, men and women to worship him in the light of his Spirit … and to devote themselves entirely to him, to seek him and listen to him, to praise him and invoke him, day and night, in the secrecy of their hearts.” He explained that God calls hermits to “enter this hidden place of the heart, patiently delving into it,” undertaking an inner journey that requires “emptying and divesting ourselves” “Once we have entered,” he said, God asks us “to close the door to bad thoughts in order to safeguard a pure, humble and meek heart, through vigilance and spiritual combat.”
An important mission in troubled times
For Pope Leo XIV, hermits can help the faithful rediscover the importance of intimacy with God, because “prayerful solitude generates communion and compassion for all humankind and for every creature, both in the dimension of the Spirit and in the ecclesial and social context,” where hermits act as “leaven of divine life.”
Pope Leo XIV exhorted them to “stand in the breach, with your hands raised and your hearts alert,” walking “always in the presence of God, in solidarity with the trials of humanity.” He concluded: “Keeping your gaze fixed on Jesus and opening the sails of your hearts to his Spirit of life, sail with the whole Church, our mother, on the stormy sea of history, towards the Kingdom of love and peace that the Father prepares for all.”
