Cardinal Leo’s Advent message calls Catholics to transformative hope, daily Gospel reading, forgiveness, and works of mercy.
Newsroom (01/12/2025 Gaudium Press )On the eve of the First Sunday of Advent, His Eminence Frank Cardinal Leo, Metropolitan Archbishop of Toronto, has issued a pastoral message framing the coming season as a profound intersection of expectant waiting and the grace of the 2025 Jubilee Holy Year.
Describing the faithful as “Pilgrims of Hope,” Cardinal Leo underscores that Advent is far more than preparation for Christmas festivities. It is, he writes, a graced opportunity to allow “the mystery of God’s mercy to shape our waiting” so that the Church prepares not only for the historical birth of Christ in Bethlehem but for the fullness of life he brings now and at the end of time.
Quoting the prophet Isaiah’s anguished cry – “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down” (Is 64:1) – the archbishop links the ancient longing for liberation and peace with the Jubilee imperatives of renewal and restoration drawn from Leviticus 25: forgiveness of debts, freedom for captives, and the mending of broken relationships.
Each candle of the Advent wreath, he notes, marks both the weeks until Christmas and the unfolding stages of salvation history, making the passage of time itself sacred within God’s plan.
During this Holy Year proclaimed by Pope Francis, Cardinal Leo teaches that Advent waiting must become “active discipleship.” Echoing Pope Benedict XVI’s distinction in Spe Salvi between merely “informative” faith and faith that is “performative,” the archbishop urges the faithful to live the Jubilee through intensified sacramental life, pilgrimage, prayer, and concrete assistance to the needy – visible signs of the passage “from sin to grace, from fear to trust, from self-enclosure to communion.”
The cardinal offers three concrete invitations for the season:
- Rediscover the freshness of the Gospel by dedicating a few minutes each day to prayerful reading of Scripture.
- Courageously release any resentment harbored toward others.
- Become men and women of communion and forgiveness, actively working for unity in families, parishes, and communities.
In this way, he writes, hearts will progressively open, “making room for Christ to dwell therein.”
Cardinal Leo concludes by entrusting the Archdiocese of Toronto to “Our Lady of Advent,” wishing all a blessed season in which hope becomes joy and waiting becomes mission – “a true jubilee of grace” marked by the rebirth of the human heart.
The full text of the archbishop’s message, dated 30 November 2025, has been sent to parishes across the archdiocese and is available on the archdiocesan website.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from the Archdiocese of Toronto
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