The text is the full content of Pope Leo XIV’s homily delivered during vespers on January 25, 2026. The service took place at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls and marked the conclusion of the 59th Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Representatives from various churches and ecclesial communities participated in the ecumenical celebration. The homily focused on the conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, referencing his past as a persecutor and his transformation into a witness for Christ through divine grace. The Pope highlighted the significance of Paul's name change from Saul to Paul as a symbol of his complete transformation.
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Pope Leo XIV delivered a homily during an ecumenical Vespers service on January 25, 2026, at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome.1
The service concluded the 59th Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, with representatives from various churches participating.1
The homily centered on St. Paul's transformation from persecutor (Saul) to apostle (Paul), enabled by grace and an encounter with the risen Christ.1
Paul became a "prisoner in the Lord," proclaiming Christ's love with zeal, mirroring the mission of all Christians to build the Body of Christ.1
Echoing Vatican II's Lumen Gentium, the Pope urged Christians to proclaim the Gospel to all, inviting the world to Christ.1
Divisions among Christians dim the Church's radiant witness, yet the Week of Prayer renews commitment to unity in this task.1
The Pope recalled the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, celebrated in Iznik with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.1
Reciting the Nicene Creed together affirmed shared faith in one God, Lord, faith, and baptism, as per Ephesians 4:4-6.1
Building on Pope Francis, the homily described the Catholic synodal journey as inherently ecumenical.1
It called for developing shared synodal practices ahead of the 2033 anniversary of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection.1
Greetings went to Cardinal Kurt Koch, ecumenical leaders like Metropolitan Polykarpos and Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, and various delegates.1
Thanks were extended to Armenian churches for the Week's materials, honoring their history of martyrdom and Saint Nersès Šnorhali's unity efforts.1
Armenia's legacy as the first Christian nation was highlighted, with prayers for gospel fruits in unity, justice, and peace worldwide.1
Unity is essential for preaching the Gospel, not for strategic gain.1
Investigate Catholic teachings on conversion exemplified by St. Paul
Catholic doctrine presents conversion as a profound, transformative process—a radical reorientation of the whole life toward God, marked by sorrow for sin, a turning away from evil, and a firm resolve to amend one's ways through God's grace. This interior movement of the heart, often called conversio cordis, finds its ultimate exemplar in St. Paul, whose dramatic encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus shifted him from fierce persecutor of the Church to its greatest apostle, embodying the Church's teaching on the Holy Spirit's power to convict and convert. Drawing from the Catechism and Vatican II, conversion integrates personal repentance with ecclesial life, culminating in the Sacrament of Penance, and calls all faithful to continual renewal.
At its core, conversion is not merely external acts like fasting or mortification but a deep change of heart, as Jesus and the prophets emphasized. "Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed." This involves animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart), accompanied by hope in God's mercy. St. Paul's conversion mirrors this: blinded by divine light, he experienced profound compunction, fasting in darkness before Ananias restored his sight and baptized him (Acts 9:1-19). His pre-conversion zeal against Christians gave way to total surrender, illustrating how true conversion demands vulnerability and trust in grace.
While interior conversion is primary, it manifests in "visible signs, gestures and works of penance," ensuring authenticity. Without heartfelt change, outward practices are "sterile and false." The Church teaches that the Holy Spirit, proving "the world wrong about sin," convicts the heart while consoling it with grace for repentance. In St. Paul's case, the Spirit's action was immediate and total, fulfilling Christ's promise: "When he comes, he will convict the world in regard to sin" (Jn 16:8). This pneumatic dimension underscores conversion as God's initiative, not human effort alone.
The Church identifies two intertwined elements in conversion: human acts spurred by the Holy Spirit—contrition, confession, and satisfaction—and God's forgiving action through the Church. Contrition entails perfect sorrow and resolve to sin no more; confession verbalizes sins to a priest; satisfaction repairs harm through penance. "The Church, who through the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him." Thus, the sinner is "healed and re-established in ecclesial communion."
St. Paul's life exemplifies these: his contrition shone in his three days of blindness and prayer (Acts 9:9); confession implicitly in his obedience to Ananias; satisfaction in lifelong apostolic labors, as he later reflected, "I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor 15:9). Post-conversion, his heart "learns to pray in faith," adhering filially to God beyond feelings. This progression—from shock to prayerful adherence—aligns with the Church's view that commitment to conversion fosters deeper communion with the Father through Christ, the "door and the way."
Conversion reaches fullness in the sacraments, especially Penance, where the baptized are reconciled to God and the Church wounded by sin. "Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from the mercy of God for the offence committed against Him and are at the same time reconciled with the Church, which they have wounded by their sins, and which by charity, example, and prayer seeks their conversion." Baptism initiates this priestly people, Confirmation strengthens witness, and Eucharist nourishes unity, all prefiguring conversion's fruits. Bishops, as Good Shepherds, foster this through preaching and charity, urging the faithful to apostolic zeal.
Laity, too, participate via sensus fidei, proclaiming the Gospel through continual conversion amid daily life. "Let them not, then, hide this hope... but even in the program of their secular life let them express it by a continual conversion." St. Paul's transformation propelled him into this lay-like apostolate before ordination, evangelizing "Greeks and barbarians" (cf. Lumen Gentium's vision of universal mission). The laity's role, nourished by sacraments, makes the Church "salt of the earth."
Recent papal reflections reinforce this, linking St. Paul's feast (January 25) to ecumenical conversion. Pope Francis, in his 2014 Vespers homily for the Solemnity of St. Paul's Conversion, urged a "path of conversion" toward unity, echoed in synodal processes. Though sources emphasize general principles, St. Paul's radical shift—from Saul to Paul—universalizes the call: no sinner is beyond grace.
Conversion is not one-time but ongoing, as Lumen Gentium urges wrestling against "spiritual forces of wickedness" while awaiting glory. Pope Leo XIV's messages evoke this dynamism, from seeking Christ to ecological conversion, but the core remains personal metanoia. St. Paul lived it: "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on" (Phil 3:13-14).
In summary, Catholic teachings portray conversion as Spirit-wrought heart-change, sacramentally realized, with St. Paul as timeless model—from enmity to apostleship. This invites all to contrition, confession, and mission, restoring communion with God and Church. May we, like Paul, heed Christ's call and turn resolutely to Him.