By Vatican News<\/b>
On Wednesday, 31 December, the last day of the year, Pope Leo XIV presided over the First Vespers of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, his final celebration of 2025.<\/p>\n
In St. Peter\u2019s Basilica in Rome, with roughly 5,500 of the faithful in attendance, the Pope said that the evening\u2019s liturgy possesses \u201ca singular richness that flows both from the awe-inspiring mystery it celebrates and from its place at the end of the civil year.\u201d
\u201cWhen the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.\u201d This biblical passage from Saint Paul\u2019s Letter to the Galatians, read out during the vespers, was at the centre of Pope Leo\u2019s homily.
The Pope said that this way of presenting the mystery of Christ \u201ccalls to mind a great plan for human history\u2014a mysterious plan, but one with a clear center, like a high mountain lit by the sun in the midst of a dense forest: the \u2018fullness of time.\u2019\u201d
Today, in a society weighed down by the burden of sin, we keenly feel \u201cthe need for a wise, benevolent, merciful plan\u201d, the Pope said.
However, he warned, there are other plans at work in the world: \u201cstrategies aimed at conquering markets, territories, and spheres of influence; armed strategies, concealed beneath hypocritical rhetoric, ideological proclamations, and false religious motives.\u201d
In St Peter\u2019s Basilica, speaking before the recitation of the traditional thanksgiving hymn of the Te Deum, <\/i>Pope Leo expressed his gratitude to God for the \u201cgift of the Jubilee, which has been a powerful sign of his plan of hope for humanity and for the world.\u201d
He also offered thanks to all those who, throughout the months and days of 2025, worked at the service of pilgrims to make Rome more welcoming.
This hospitality was, Pope Leo said, the wish Pope Francis expressed a year ago. \u201cI would like it to continue to be so\u2014and I would even say, all the more so after this period of grace\u201d.
Pope Leo noted that \u201cthe Jubilee is a great sign of a new world, renewed and reconciled according to God\u2019s plan.\u201d
And \u201cwithin this plan, Providence has reserved a special place for this city of Rome\u2014not because of its glories, not because of its power, but because Peter and Paul and so many other martyrs shed their blood here for Christ. That is why Rome is the city of the Jubilee\u201d.
Pope Leo expressed the hope that the city would take care of the poor and weak: \u201cMay this city, animated by Christian hope, be at the service of God\u2019s plan of love for the human family.\u201d
Following the liturgy, the Pope then went out to St. Peter\u2019s Square to pray before the nativity scene there and to greet the faithful and pilgrims who had gathered.
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