‘Mary is the dawn of a different day,’ Pope preaches at Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel

September 08, 2026

Pope Leo XIV traveled yesterday to the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy, where he unveiled a fresco and celebrated the Mass of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary last evening (video).

The fresco, which depicts Pope Leo in prayer, joins images of Pope Urban VIII, Blessed Pius IX, St. John XXIII, and St. John Paul II, who also prayed at the shrine. The shrine is entrusted to the Order of Saint Augustine, and the first Augustinian pope began his homily by paying tribute to Our Lady of Good Counsel’s maternal care for him throughout his life.

“Mary is the dawn of a different day, of our world finally freed from evil,” Pope Leo preached. “And we are here, with her, around the altar from which salvation comes to us and transforms us, children in the Son. Let us ask her for her Good Counsel, to welcome the divine Word, to keep it in us and to give birth to it through courageous and wise decisions, decisions of authentic conversion.”

Quoting extensively from St. Thomas of Villanova (1488-1555), a fellow Augustinian friar, the Pontiff reflected on Scripture’s relative silence about the Blessed Mother.

“Dear brothers and sisters, let us feel astounded before this mystery: it is impossible to get used to it,” Pope Leo preached. “We celebrate the birth of a little girl called to become the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of God who saves. Yet, a girl is born in a simple manner, like the daughters and granddaughters we hold in our arms.”

“In Jesus Christ, God has chosen the humblest historical conditions and the humblest of creatures to manifest the originality of his Kingdom, in which arrogance has no place and omnipotence is creation, service and care for life,” the Pope continued.

He concluded:

The prophet Micah in tiny Bethlehem sensed the rise of a King of peace, thanks to whom we can finally live on earth in security (cf. Mic 5:1-4). And today, in the Collect prayer, turning to the little Mary, we asked that “the feast of her nativity increase peace in us”.

Yes, dear ones, we want to imagine peace—to enlarge the boundaries of understanding and paint it in our soul—to recognize that it already exists, to welcome it and to serve it. It is the gift of God, the breath of the Risen One, the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us allow peace to grow in us. It will sprout in the world. And the Mother of Good Counsel will accompany us on this mission.

In an article on the shrine’s history, L’Osservatore Romano reported:

Robert Francis Prevost had frequented the shrine for decades, first as a young student in Rome in the early 1980s, and later, often, as Prior General. Before his election, he had celebrated Mass there on the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel, April 25, 2024.

This bond has deep roots: Our Lady of Good Counsel is deeply venerated within the Anglo-Saxon Augustinian world, the Augustinian Province of Chicago bears her name, and it was at the Genazzano friary during the 19th century that the first Augustinian novices from the United States began their religious lives. Many of the missionaries who accompanied Italian migrants overseas, as well as the first Augustinian missionary to Australia, set out from Genazzano.

 

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Further information:

• Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Holy Mass (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 9/7/26)
• Pope celebrates Our Lady of Good Counsel with an appeal to cultivate peace (Vatican News, 9/7/26)
• Pope Leo XIV unveils a fresco at the sanctuary where he prayed after his election last year (AP, 9/7/26)