Pope: St. Rose of Lima a shining example of our vocation to holiness
By Devin Watkins
The natural beauty of the Vatican Gardens was enriched on Saturday with two new images: a mosaic depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima.
Pope Leo XIV attended the inauguration along with the Ambassador of Peru to the Holy See, Jorge Ponce San Román, and the President of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Carlos Enrique García Camader of Lurín.
“This gesture renews the profound bonds of faith and friendship that unite Peru—a country so dear to me—with the Holy See,” said the Pope at the end of the ceremony.
The Vatican Gardens, he added, are a “beautiful place, where everything speaks to us of the Creator and of the beauty of creation.”
He thanked the artists who created the two works of art which have now found a permanent home in Vatican City State.
Commissioned by the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference, the images were created by the “Don Bosco Family of Artisans,” an association of young people from the Peruvian Andes Mountains.
“The two figures evoked—our heavenly Mother and the first Latin American Saint, Rose of Lima—lead us to the theme of holiness,” said the Pope.
He recalled the Second Vatican Council’s call for all of the faithful to seek the fullness of Christian life and the perfection of charity.
“The holiness of the People of God will bring forth abundant fruits, as the history of the Church splendidly demonstrates in the lives of so many saints,” he said, quoting the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium.
Pope Leo invited Christians to embrace the “greatness of the vocation to which God calls us, that is, the universal vocation to holiness.”
In conclusion, the Pope prayed that the Virgin Mary and St. Rose of Lima may intercede for us on our journey toward the heavenly homeland.
“I encourage you to be, with the grace of God,” he said, “witnesses and examples of that holiness in the world today.”
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