We feel almost dizzy in the face of this mystery -- of God choosing a simple girl to become his mother. Pope celebrated Mass in Genazzano on Vigil of Mary's Nativity.
“Imagine peace.” That was the invitation extended by Pope Leo XIV as he celebrated Mass on September 7, 2026, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano. From this place, which is home to a community of Augustinian friars — his spiritual family — the Pope invited the faithful to envision peace “in their souls,” in order to recognize that it “already exists.”
The Holy Father also gave this image of Our Lady a "golden rose."
The base of the three-branched rose bears the coats of arms of the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel; Martin V, the first pope to present the shrine with a Golden Rose in 1431, which was later lost during the Napoleonic era; Leo XIII, who elevated the Genazzano shrine to the rank of a basilica; and Leo XIV.
Leo XIV arrived by car around 5:00 p.m. in Genazzano, a small town of just over 5,000 residents located some 20 miles southeast of the Italian capital. This was his second visit to this shrine since his election: the Pope made his first trip outside Rome there at the very beginning of his pontificate, on May 10, 2025.
On Monday, he recalled that previous visit, during which he had paid homage to the Virgin Mary, who “throughout [his] life, [has] accompanied [him] with her maternal presence and wisdom.”
The Pontiff has a personal connection to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel for several reasons: this popular pilgrimage site — which houses an image of the Virgin and Child — was founded in the 15th century by an Augustinian nun, Blessed Petruccia; it is still run today by a community of Augustinian friars. Furthermore, it was Leo XIII — the pope whose name inspired that of Leo XIV — who elevated this site to the rank of minor basilica.
In his homily on the eve of the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, Leo XIV drew upon the writings of the Spanish saint Thomas of Villanueva (1488–1555), a member of the Order of Saint Augustine. He noted that the Gospel provides few details about Mary’s life and words. Despite this “smallness” and “marginality,” her presence “sets all of history in motion,” the Pope added, emphasizing that Mary’s motherhood — who, according to the faith of the Catholic Church, conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit — “transcends all possible discourse and narrative.”
“We feel almost dizzy in the face of this mystery,” the Pope reflected, urging us not to grow accustomed to the fact that a simple “little girl, like the daughters and granddaughters we hold in our arms,” has become “the Mother of God.”
This is “God’s way, […] simpler and more silent,” which highlights “the uniqueness of his Kingdom, where arrogance has no place and where omnipotence is creation, service, and care for life.”
Leo XIV invited the faithful to engage in “an exercise of the imagination” in order to see “what is still invisible, but which carries within itself a new kind of strength.” In “times of destruction and uncertainty,” he thus recommended “imagining peace” and “painting it in one’s soul, to recognize that it already exists, to welcome it, and to serve it.”
