“Freedom Under Grace:” Pope Leo XIV’s early writings to be released in English
English edition of Pope Leo XIV's early writings, titled “Freedom Under Grace: Reflections on the Spiritual Tradition That Formed Me,” will be released on September 15. The book compiles homilies, speeches, messages, and letters from Fr. Robert Francis Prevost during his tenure as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine (2001‑2013). Originally published in Italian by the Vatican Publishing House, the volume was presented in Rome on May 6, 2026, and received by Pope Leo XIV. Publishers and Augustinian Fathers emphasize the work’s focus on grace, mission, and modern communication of the Gospel, aiming to inspire Catholics and other Christian seekers.
3 months ago
The English edition of “Freedom Under Grace”—a collection of homilies, addresses, messages and letters written by Robert Francis Prevost during his tenure as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine—will be released on 15 September 2026, offering readers worldwide insight into the spiritual formation of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV. 1
The volume, titled Freedom Under Grace: Reflections on the Spiritual Tradition That Formed Me, is published by Image Books, an imprint of the Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group. 1
Originally issued in Italian by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) under the name Liberi sotto la Grazia, the book was presented in Rome on 6 May 2026 at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum and was handed to Pope Leo XIV on the eve of its release. 1
Translations are planned in several languages, with the English edition scheduled for September. 1
Edited by Augustinian Fathers Rocco Ronzani, Miguel Ángel Martín Juárez and Michael Di Gregorio, the collection gathers Prevost’s early public writings from his service as Prior General (2001‑2013). 1
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin noted that the pages reveal core Augustinian motifs: the quest for God, the primacy of grace, the Church’s missionary mandate, a preferential option for the poor, and the need to convey the Gospel in language understandable to contemporary society. 1
Campbell Wharton, senior vice‑president and publisher at Penguin Random House Christian, described each chapter as “a window into the spiritual depth and vision of the man who would eventually become Pope Leo XIV,” emphasizing its urgent message of love and service for today’s challenges. 1
Wharton added that the book is intended not only for Catholics but also for “any Christian or spiritual seeker looking for guidance and hope for living a life that transforms the world.” 1
The English release expands access to the theological and pastoral foundations that shaped Pope Leo XIV’s ministry, allowing a broader readership to engage with his Augustinian spirituality and his vision for a Church rooted in grace and service. 1*
Examine the Augustinian concept of grace as a basis for contemporary evangelization
Augustine’s teaching on grace offers a powerful foundation for contemporary evangelization because it puts the initiative of salvation where it belongs: in God’s gratuitous gift, which heals and elevates nature, makes faith possible, and then bears fruit in real moral transformation. Evangelization, on this Augustinian basis, is not primarily human persuasion or moral self-improvement, but the proclamation of a saving grace that precedes, accompanies, and empowers human freedom.
Augustine’s central pastoral and theological instinct is anti-Pelagian: grace is not a wage paid for human self-generated goodness; grace is a free gift. He argues that if grace is given because merits already exist, then grace ceases to be grace and becomes a debt. In his words, grace cannot be “given in payment of a debt,” because then it is no longer a gratuitous gift but a recompense.
A key Augustinian move for evangelization is that he grounds everything in the apostolic logic—“not of yourselves, but the gift of God.” Augustine presses this point directly, asking how anyone could be said to receive God’s help “while cleaving to Him” if that very cleaving were already possible without divine assistance.
He also treats the beginning of conversion itself as grace. In Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Augustine states that the beginning of a good will is not something we do first by ourselves and then God helps with; rather, even the good will is awakened and aided by God’s grace, so that grace is not rendered “due— not given as not due—and thus grace is made no more grace.”
This is why Augustine is intensely concerned with how grace relates to merit. He criticizes views in which grace is “given according to men’s merits,” insisting that such a framework turns justification into a kind of payment rather than a freely given gift.
Augustine also connects grace to election: “A remnant are saved according to the election of grace,” and he says it would not be grace if merits preceded it—otherwise what is “given” would be “rather paid to merits than freely given.”
Evangelization implication: the proclamation must not be framed as “achieve the spiritual prerequisite and then God rewards you,” but as “God initiates; respond to a gift already offered.” That changes the emotional and intellectual shape of preaching: conversion becomes a response to grace, not a self-purchased credential.
A common worry today is that emphasizing grace undermines responsibility. Augustine’s doctrine aims at the opposite balance: grace enables a genuinely human turning.
The International Theological Commission (drawing on the Church’s tradition) affirms that, in salvation, the objective work of Christ and participation in the divine life of grace are inseparable, and that “man’s acceptance of grace must be an act of freedom, an authentically recovered freedom.”
So Augustine can insist that what is salvific comes from God as gift, while still requiring genuine human consent and moral action. His anti-Pelagian polemic is not a denial of freedom; it is a denial that freedom can heal itself unaided.
This also resonates with how magisterial teaching assimilates Augustine’s emphasis on the sufficiency of grace. A study of Saint Augustine’s presence in Veritatis Splendor explains that the Council of Trent uses Augustine to affirm that God’s grace is always sufficient and that “God does not command the impossible.”
Evangelization implication: preaching should be both:
Augustine’s grace is not a floating abstraction that ignores the real human world. Catholic teaching emphasizes that grace respects nature: it heals wounds of sin and elevates toward the divine life.
The International Theological Commission states a single principle explaining faith and culture: “Grace respects nature, healing in it the wounds of sin, comforting and elevating it.”
It adds that Christians should treat deification as taking place through grace—especially through the sacraments in the Church—and that grace invites humanity in the Holy Spirit, culminating in full communion with God.
And regarding evangelizing cultures, the Commission connects Christian faith to cultural realities by noting that cultures, when animated and renewed by grace and faith, become complementary and can show the Gospel’s multiform richness (truth, justice, love, liberty) as traversed by the Spirit of Christ.
It also describes inculturation as transformation—“the intimate transformation of authentic cultural values through their integration in Christianity.”
Evangelization implication: an Augustinian approach avoids two extremes:
Instead, evangelization becomes the joyful announcement that God’s grace enters real lives, heals sin, and elevates authentic goods—so that Gospel truth can genuinely take root in particular cultures without being emptied of its supernatural character.
Augustine’s gift-centered theology is often caricatured as “grace-only,” but the Catholic tradition received a more integrated picture: grace and moral order belong together.
A study of Veritatis Splendor highlights that one major Augustinian undercurrent is “the unity of law and grace, obedience, and freedom in the Christian moral life,” and that Veritatis Splendor “wages war against proportionalism and the relativization of moral norms.”
It also quotes Veritatis Splendor’s teaching that “Only the freedom which submits to the Truth leads the human person to his true good,” so obedience to God’s truth becomes a precondition for authentic freedom.
Evangelization implication: preaching grace does not eliminate moral teaching; it gives it its right foundation. The moral demand makes sense because grace:
An Augustinian evangelization therefore calls people to conversion that is truly moral (not merely emotional), because grace doesn’t bypass the will—it renews it from within.
Because grace precedes merit, evangelization must consistently proclaim that the Christian life is grounded in what God gives, not what people achieve. Augustine’s insistence that grace must remain “gratuitous” shapes how the message is framed: the Gospel is not a ladder to God but news that God comes down with help.
Evangelization should invite authentic consent—faith and conversion are not forced. But it should do so with confidence in grace’s sufficiency: God does not command the impossible.
Grace respects nature and heals and elevates it. So evangelization should engage cultural life positively while also recognizing that cultures can perpetuate pride and selfishness. The aim is inculturation as intimate transformation of authentic values by integration into Christianity.
Because deification and participation in divine life occur through Christ and “come especially through the sacraments in the Church,” contemporary evangelization must move beyond preaching alone to the sacramental ecosystem of ongoing grace. Grace is offered within the Church’s life, not as a purely private feeling.
Augustine’s grace-centered theology supplies a coherent evangelization model for today: God’s gratuitous grace initiates salvation; human freedom truly responds; grace heals and elevates cultures and persons; and moral obedience belongs within the unity of law and grace. When these points are held together, evangelization becomes both deeply hopeful and genuinely demanding—because the Gospel announces a gift sufficient for real conversion, not a task that leaves people to their own strength.