The Holy Spirit gives us one synodal evangelizing mission, Pope tells ecclesial movements

June 09, 2025

Preaching during a Pentecost vigil to an estimated 70,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV told members of ecclesial movements that “at Pentecost, Mary, the Apostles, and the disciples with them received a Spirit of unity, which forever grounded in the one Lord Jesus Christ all their diversity.”

“Theirs were not multiple missions, but a single mission,” the Pope said in his homily during the June 7 evening vigil, part of the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations and New Communities. “They were no longer introverted and quarrelling with one another, but outgoing and radiant with joy.”

“Saint Peter’s Square, with its wide-open and welcoming embrace, magnificently expresses the communion of the Church that each of you has experienced in your various associations and communities, many of which are the fruit of the Second Vatican Council,” he added.

The Pontiff also explained synodality as walking together in unity in the Holy Spirit:

On the evening of my election, moved as I looked out at the people of God gathered here, I spoke of “synodality,” a word that aptly expresses how the Spirit shapes the Church. That word begins with the Greek word syn— meaning “with”—which speaks of the secret of God’s life. God is not solitary. God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a “with” in himself, and God with us. At the same time, the word “synodality” speaks to us of a road ahead—hodós—for where there is the Spirit, there is movement, a journey to be made.

We are a people on the move. This does not set us apart but unites us to humanity like the yeast in a mass of dough, which causes it to rise. The year of the Lord’s grace, reflected in the current Jubilee, has this fermentation within it. In a divided and troubled world, the Holy Spirit teaches us to walk together in unity ...

Dear friends, God created the world so that we might all live as one. “Synodality” is the ecclesial name for this. It demands that we each recognize our own poverty and our riches, that we feel part of a greater whole, apart from which everything withers, even the most original and unique of charisms.

Stating that evangelization is “the way of the Beatitudes” and “always God’s work,” the Pontiff concluded:

Evangelization, dear brothers and sisters, is not our attempt to conquer the world, but the infinite grace that radiates from lives transformed by the Kingdom of God. It is the way of the Beatitudes, a path that we tread together, between the “already” and the “not yet,” hungering and thirsting for justice, poor in spirit, merciful, meek, pure of heart, men and women of peace. Jesus himself chose this path: to follow it, we have no need of powerful patrons, worldly compromises, or emotional strategies. Evangelization is always God’s work.

If at times it takes place through us, it is thanks to the bonds that it makes possible. So be deeply attached to each of the particular Churches and parish communities in which you cultivate and exercise your charisms. Together with the bishops and in cooperation with all the other members of the Body of Christ, all of us will then work together harmoniously as one.

The challenges facing humanity will be less frightening, the future will be less dark and discernment will be less complicated… if together we obey the Holy Spirit! May Mary, Queen of the Apostles and Mother of the Church, intercede for us.

 

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Further information:

• Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements - Vigil of Pentecost (Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
• Holy Spirit fosters unity, peace, justice, pope says at Pentecost vigil (CNS)
• Pope Leo at Pentecost Vigil: God intends all to live as one (Vatican News)