Under a gray December sky, but with hearts ablaze with Jubilee hope, Pope Leo XIV presided this afternoon over the traditional act of veneration of the Immaculate Conception in the Piazza di Spagna. Thousands of Romans and pilgrims from around the world gathered around the column crowned by the statue of the Virgin to hear the prayer that the Holy Father addressed to Mary Immaculate.

After placing a large basket of white roses at the foot of the monument – ​​a gesture that Popes have performed on December 8 since 1958 – Leo XIV delivered a heartfelt prayer that resonated among the buildings of the historic center like a song of confidence amidst the difficulties of the present time.

“Your transparency illuminates Rome with eternal light,” the Pope said, emphasizing how Mary’s purity continues to be a beacon for the Eternal City and for all humanity. In a Holy Year marked by millions of pilgrims crossing the Holy Doors, Leo XIV asked the Virgin that, “after the Holy Doors, other doors may be opened: homes and oases of peace where dignity resides, we may be taught non-violence, and learn the art of reconciliation.”

Especially moving were the words dedicated to a humanity “tested, sometimes broken,” but in which “hope has not died.” The Pope invoked Mary to make the seed that her Son has sown in each person germinate, and to inspire “new insights” in the universal Church and in the particular Churches, always attentive “to the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anguish of our contemporaries, especially of the poor.”

In a passage that drew prolonged applause, Leo He asked the Virgin to teach the Church to be “lievito nella pasta di un’umanità che invokes giustizia e speranza.”

The prayer concluded with a triple invocation that summarizes the meaning of the act: “Indicale Gesù, portala a Gesù, presentala a Gesù. Madre, Regina della pace, prega per noi!”.

At the end of the ceremony, the Pope greeted the Rome firefighters—who, as every year, placed the wreath of flowers on the statue’s head—the civil authorities, and the many sick and elderly people present. Then, in a spontaneous gesture, he approached to bless several children holding signs with the phrase “Totus tuus.”

With this act, Leo XIV reaffirmed the Marian devotion that characterizes his pontificate and offered Rome and the world a word of encouragement: Mary Immaculate continues to be “the gem and the dawn” of the new world that God never ceases to prepare, even in the most uncertain times.

 Full text of the prayer of the Holy Father Leo XIV to Mary Immaculate
(Piazza di Spagna, December 8, 2025)

Hail Mary!
Rejoice, full of grace,
with that grace which, like gentle light, makes radiant
all those whom the presence of God reflects.
The Mystery enveloped you from the beginning;
from your mother’s womb it began to do great things in you,
which soon required your consent,
that “Yes” which inspired many other “yeses.”

Immaculate Mother of a faithful people,
your transparency illuminates Rome with eternal light,
your presence perfumes its streets more than the flowers we offer you today.
Many pilgrims from all over the world, O Immaculate,
have walked the streets of this city
throughout history and in this Jubilee Year.

A humanity tested, sometimes crushed,
humble like the earth from which God formed it
and in which He never ceases to breathe His Spirit of life.

Look, Mary, at so many sons and daughters in whom hope has not been extinguished:
make germinate in them what your Son has sown,
He, the living Word who in each one asks to continue growing,
to take flesh, face and voice.

May the Jubilee hope flourish in Rome and in every corner of the earth,
hope in the new world that God is preparing
and of which you, Virgin, are like the gem and the dawn.

After the holy doors, may other doors of homes and oases of peace now open
where dignity may flourish again,
where non-violence is taught, and where the art of reconciliation is learned.

May the kingdom of God come,
the newness you have long awaited, the one to which you have fully opened yourself,
as a child, as a young woman, and as a mother of the nascent Church.

It inspires new insights in the Church that journeys in Rome
and in the particular Churches that, in each context, gather
the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties
of our contemporaries, especially the poor
and all who suffer.

May baptism continue to produce holy and immaculate men and women,
called to be living members of the Body of Christ,
a Body that acts, consoles, reconciles and transforms
the earthly city in which the City of God is being prepared.

Intercede for us, as we face changes
that seem to catch us unprepared and powerless.
Inspire dreams, visions, and courage,
you who know better than anyone that nothing is impossible for God
and, at the same time, that God does nothing alone.

Set us on the path, with the haste that once moved your steps
towards your cousin Elizabeth
and with the restlessness with which you became an exile and a pilgrim,
to be blessed, yes, but among all women
the first disciple of your Son,
mother of God-with-us.

Help us to always be Church with and among the people,
leaven in the dough of a humanity that cries out for justice and hope.

Immaculate Mother, woman of infinite beauty,
watch over this city, over all humanity.
Point her to Jesus, lead her to Jesus, present her to Jesus.
Mother, Queen of Peace, pray for us!