Text of Pope Leo’s Nov. 24 address in Rome to the Order of the Servants of Mary.

I am pleased to meet you on the occasion of your 215th General Chapter. It constitutes a return to the sources and at the same time a look towards the future. The two things cannot be separated: the more one returns to one’s origins, the more one becomes capable of creativity and prophecy.

The first source to return to is always the Gospel. Indeed, “for the various founders and foundresses, the Gospel was the absolute rule, whereas every other rule was meant merely to be an expression of the Gospel and a means of living the Gospel to the full.” This was written by Pope Francis, who added: “For them, the ideal was Christ; they sought to be interiorly united to him and thus to be able to say with Saint Paul: ‘For to me to live is Christ’. Their vows were intended as a concrete expression of this passionate love.”  First and foremost, then, return to the Gospel.

The second return is to the Rule – for you, that of Saint Augustine – to the Constitutions, and to the heritage of spirituality that comes to you from your history. These sources offer you, in a certain sense, the “exegetical key” with which, with the help of the Spirit, you can read and interpret what the Word of God says to you.

Finally, the third return is to listening to the cry of the poor. It is a return to today as kairos, as the moment of grace in which everything the Lord has given you finds its meaning. 

In order for you to live this threefold return in the best way, not only in these days but always, I would like to recommend three means, typical of your tradition: fraternity, service and Marian spirituality.

With regard to the first, fraternity, it is striking that the Order of the Servants of Mary - almost unique in the history of religious foundations – was not founded around a single founder, a charismatic leader, but around a group of seven friends: a true evangelical group. The founder is not one man, but several people linked by a strong friendship in Christ. In a world such as ours, this is a sign of a particular task and vocation: to live and bring fraternity, especially where men are divided due to conflicts, wealth, cultural diversity, race or religion. In all these contexts, you are called upon to be bearers of friendship and peace, just like the “Seven” who, in their cities, albeit divided by fratricidal hatred, became bearers of reconciliation and charity.

This leads us to the second means: service. It is significant for you that the first members of the Order chose to be and to be called “Servants”, and that the foundation itself took its first steps in the context of a hospice for the poor: the Fonte Viva Hospital of Bigallo. 

There, your founders placed themselves at the service of the sick, pilgrims, poor women; in short, the least of their time, giving them all the goods they possessed, so as to follow, naked, the naked Lord. And it is the experience of serving God in the wounds of suffering that soon led them to the encounter with Him in the contemplation of Monte Senario, “cor unum et anima una in Deum.” Life following the Gospel is like this: it is passion for God and for man, which leads to loving Heaven and earth with the same intensity.

Only in this union are the right choices born and matured which, today as then, allow us to be present where our brothers and sisters are most wounded, where the Lord wants us to be. In this sense, I wish to encourage you in your service to the poor – immigrants, prisoners, the sick – as well as in your commitment to promoting an integral ecology for the protection of creation and of people in the places where you work.

We come to the third means: Marian spirituality. The most ancient history of the Order gave the Seven Founders the name of “praecipui amatores dominae nostrae”, that is, great, special devotees of Our Lady, of Mary. You continue to promote her devotion in the Church, based on the Word of God.

Dear friends, may Mary, present at the Cross, strong, faithful, show you how to stand beside the countless crosses where Christ still suffers in his brethren, to bring them comfort, communion, help and the valuable bread of affection.