“We gather under Mary's maternal mantle,” said Pope Leo XIV, ending the month of May in the Vatican Gardens.
On May 31, 2025, at the conclusion of the “Month of Mary,” the Pope gathered with the faithful in front of the Lourdes grotto installed in the Vatican Gardens.
This grotto, desired by Leo XIII in 1902 and inaugurated by St. Pius X in 1905, has been an important place of prayer for successive popes, especially for Benedict XVI, who came here regularly to pray after his retirement from the papacy.
After kneeling before the grotto, Leo XIV gave a brief speech, quoting St. John Paul II to recall that “the Rosary, Marian in form but Christological in heart, concentrates within itself the whole depth of the Gospel message.”
Meditation on the “Joyful Mysteries” thus allows us to pause, “as on a pilgrimage, at various places in the life of Jesus,” explained Leo XIV.
“Your steps have thus been marked by the Word of God, which has marked, by its rhythm, your walk, your stops and your departures, just as it did for the people of Israel in the desert, on their way to the Promised Land,” he continued.
“Let us ask the Lord to know how to praise him every day with our lives and words, with our hearts and lips, with our voices and conduct, avoiding false notes: may our tongue be in tune with our life, and our lips with our conscience,” the Pope encouraged, quoting a sermon by St. Augustine.
He greeted the cardinals, prelates, religious and faithful present, expressing in particular his affection “for the Benedictine sisters of the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, who support our community and our work with their hidden and constant prayer."
Before greeting a few sick people, he more broadly thanked the “family” of the Vatican who work “in the service of the universal Church,” echoing the words of Benedict XVI, who came to celebrate the end of May in the same setting on May 31, 2012.
