Commenting on the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mt. Tabor, Leo contrasts the law, symbolized by Moses, with the grace of the gospel brought by Jesus Christ. He notes how this glimpse of the glory of his divinity and risen humanity was given to...
Leo the Great on Mary, the Royal Virgin of the house of David, mother of the Messiah and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, was associated with the Virgin Mary since Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus would have crossed...
The Solemnity or Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord is celebrated on March 25. Here, in his typically lyrical language and powerful imagery, Leo the Great ponders the unfathomable mystery of God becoming man in the womb of a Virgin who had the...
Leo the Great on the famous passage from Matthew 16 in which Jesus gives Cephas the new name of Peter, meaning rock, along with the keys to the kingdom of heaven. It is read each year on the Feast of the Chair of...
Here Leo the Great comments on the fourth, fifth and sixth of the Beatitudes, explaining why those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed as well as the merciful and the pure of heart....
Saint Leo says the genealogy of Jesus given us in Luke and Matthew's gospels shows that Jesus was truly one of us, possessing a complete human nature. He did not merely appear in human form, as in the biblical types and scriptural symbols of the...
Leo's exegesis of these important verses of St. Matthew's Gospel is one of the most important patristic commentaries on the Beatitudes. Christ, the New Moses chooses to give his Sermon on a Mount to show that he is the new Moses, teaching the newRegarding...
Lenten fasting works best when accompanied by almsgiving and works of mercy, says Leo the Great, writing around AD 450. This powerful combination brings healing, spiritual renewal, and progress in virtue....
Leo the Great here emphasizes that the Incarnation, the mystery of God becoming man, changes everything. Human dignity is now vastly elevated, requiring us to live in a new way, with a new relationship to the visible things of this beautiful but passing world....
"Epiphany" means revelation or appearance of a King. On this feast, the church celebrates the revelation of Christ as King, messiah, Lord, and God to the Gentiles, to all nations, represented by the Magi from the east. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']T[/dropcaps]he loving providence of...