Pope Leo XIV‘s first apostolic exhortation “Dilexi Te” (“I have loved you”), was signed by him on the feast of St Francis of Assisi on the 4th October and then promulgated on the 9th October, the feast day of St. John Henry Newman.
This Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Leo XIV is a teaching document from the pope which aims to exhort and encourage the entire Christian community to care for the Poor.
Dilexi Te means “I have loved you” and echoes the title of Pope Francis’ last encyclical letter Dilexit Nos, He loved us”), on the devotion to the Sacred Heart. The title is taken from the words of Jesus in Revelation 3:9 and the exhortation is addressed “to all Christians on love for the poor.”
With the release of his first major magisterial document a few months into his papacy, we read Pope Leo’s developed thoughts on the Christian life for the first time, both in humble continuity with Pope Francis and with his own particular style and experience.
Fr. Joseph Ivel Mendanha, C.Ss.R, General Consultor and member of the Redemptorist General Secretariat for Spirituality takes us through the Apostolic Exhortation highlighting important aspects and themes addressed by the Holy Father Pope Leo XIV in each of the 5 Chapters of Dilexi Te.
According to Fr. Ivel, this is a very rich exhortation, because it offers an overview of everything the Church has done, does, and should continue to do toward and with the world’s poorest. It speaks forcefully to the Church today, at a time when many are excluded and marginalized. It is therefore a document to be read, meditated upon, and above all put into practice.
The timing of the document is very providential, right in the midst of the Jubilee for Consecrated life and so according to Fr. Ivel the document recalls everything that religious communities have given and continue to offer in this area, therefore, It is an invitation to commit ourselves as consecrated men and women and for us Redemptorists called to proclaim Good News to the Poor, to commit ourselves even more, with hope and concreteness to the cause of the poor.
Pope Leo XIV’s first Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te (I have loved you), speaks to all communities that choose to live alongside the poor and specifically for us Redemptorists in the Year dedicated to Mission on the one hand, with our theme for the sexennial “Missionaries of Hope in the footsteps of the Redeemer” in the tricentenary of the birth of St Gerard Majella whose short life of 6 years in the Congregation as spent at the service of the crucified Lord in and through his love for the poor of the Lord, and as an impetus for us Redemptorists to read along with Communicanda 2, “Let us cross over to the other side.”
This exhortation will enable us Redemptorists who have the poor at the very heart of our charism, “to discover their richness and all that they have and can give to the world, to the Church and to our Congregation today.”
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