At his year’s final audience, Pope Leo XIV urges believers to give thanks, seek forgiveness, and entrust the new year to God’s mercy.
Newsroom (31/12/2025 Gaudium Press) As the final hours of 2025 draw near, St. Peter’s Square became once again a gathering place of reflection and renewal. At his last General Audience of the year, Pope Leo XIV invited the faithful to look back with gratitude and forward with trust, urging all to “entrust everything to God’s mercy” as the world turns another page in time.
The Pope spoke to pilgrims assembled from many nations, reminding them that the year now closing has been marked by both joy and sorrow — a shared journey of faith shaped by human frailty and divine grace. “Some of them joyful,” he recalled, “such as the pilgrimage of so many of the faithful on the occasion of the Holy Year; others painful, such as the passing of the late Pope Francis, and the scenarios of war that continue to convulse the planet.”
This contrast, he said, is precisely what makes prayer at year’s end essential: gathering “everything—joys and sufferings alike—before God,” and asking Him to renew in us “the wonders of His grace and mercy.”
The Prayer of Gratitude
Pope Leo drew the audience into the meaning of the ancient Te Deum, traditionally sung on December 31 as a solemn thanksgiving. “It is in this dynamic that the tradition of the Te Deum… finds its place,” he said. Quoting Pope Francis’ reflections on the prayer, he noted how this spiritual gratitude differs from worldly satisfaction: “In this liturgy, one breathes an entirely different atmosphere—one of praise, of wonder, of gratitude.”
That atmosphere, the Pope continued, calls believers to honesty and conversion. “We are called upon to reflect on what the Lord has done for us over the past year,” he said, and also to “ask forgiveness for all the times we have failed to treasure His inspirations.” Thanksgiving, he suggested, is not merely acknowledgment, but renewal.
A Pilgrim People
Turning to another theme of the Holy Year, Pope Leo spoke of the countless pilgrims who journeyed to Rome to pray at Peter’s Tomb. “Our whole life,” he observed, “is a journey whose final destination transcends space and time.” That journey, he said, finds its completion “in the encounter with God and in full and eternal communion with Him.”
This hope, voiced in the Te Deum itself—“Bring us with your saints to glory everlasting”—reminds humanity that each step of faith points toward eternity.
Through the Holy Door
The Pope also reflected on the passage through the Holy Door, a central act of the Jubilee. The gesture, he said, is more than symbolic; it is a personal declaration of faith and surrender. “Crossing the threshold expresses our ‘yes’ to God,” an acceptance of “a new life, animated by grace, modeled on the Gospel.”
Citing Pope Paul VI, Pope Leo emphasized that this new life must be marked by love “for that neighbour… even if bothersome and hostile,” recognizing in each person “the incomparable dignity of a brother.”
“This,” Pope Leo said, “is our ‘yes’ to a life lived with commitment in the present and oriented towards eternity.”
Joy to All
In closing his reflection, Pope Leo looked to the Christmas mystery through the words of Saint Leo the Great: “Let the saint rejoice, because he is approaching his reward; let the sinner rejoice, because he is offered forgiveness; let the pagan take courage, because he is called to life.” That same invitation, he said, extends to all — to the baptized who walk with Christ, to sinners who rise again by grace, and to the poor and fragile who find strength in God’s companionship.
Finally, recalling Pope Paul VI’s message at the Jubilee of 1975—summed up in one word, love—Pope Leo XIV offered his final blessing of the year:
“God is Love! God is mercy! God is salvation! God is life! May these thoughts accompany us in the passage from the old to the new year, and then always, in our lives.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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