Pope asks Benedictines to confront modern challenges with prayer, study, holiness Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday celebrated Mass at a Benedictine monastery in Rome, where he urged the monks to confront modern challenges with prayer, study, and personal holiness. Sant\u2019Anselmo Church, located on the Aventine Hill, was consecrated on Nov. 11, 1900. It is part of a residential college and offices of the Benedictine Confederation, the governing body of the Order of St. Benedict. St. Anselm was a Benedictine monk and doctor of the Church. Upon his arrival at Sant\u2019Anselmo Church, Leo was welcomed by the abbot primate of the Benedictines, Jeremias Schr\u00f6der, who symbolically handed over the keys of the church to the pope. The Holy Father recalled that the church was erected at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when Pope Leo XIII \u201cwas convinced that your ancient order could be of great help to the good of all God\u2019s people at a time full of challenges.\u201d \u201cThe monastery,\u201d he continued, \u201chas increasingly come to be seen as a place of growth, peace, hospitality, and unity, even during the darkest periods of history.\u201d Turning to the present day, Leo reflected on the challenges of the modern world, which \u201cprovoke and question us, raising issues never before encountered.\u201d He addressed the Benedictine monks directly, inviting them to respond to the demands of their vocation by \u201cplacing Christ at the center of our existence and our mission \u2014 beginning from that act of faith that leads us to recognize in him the Savior, and translating it into prayer, study, and the commitment of a holy life.\u201d He urged the monks of the Aventine to become \u201ca beating heart within the great body of the Benedictine world \u2014 with the church at its center, according to the teachings of St. Benedict.\u201d \u201cIn the industrious hive of Sant\u2019Anselmo,\u201d he added, \u201cmay this be the place from which everything begins and to which everything returns to be verified, confirmed, and deepened before God.\u201d The pope also reflected on the deeper meaning of the anniversary, saying that \u201cthe dedication marks the solemn moment in the history of a sacred building when it is consecrated to be a place of encounter between space and time, between the finite and the infinite, between man and God: an open door toward eternity, where the soul finds an answer to \u2018the tension between the circumstances of the moment and the light of time, of the larger horizon \u2026 which opens us to the future as a final cause that attracts.\u2019\u201d He went on to recall the teaching of the Second Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium, a constitution on the sacred liturgy, which \u201cdescribes all this in one of its most beautiful pages, when it defines the Church as \u2018human and divine, visible yet endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world and yet a pilgrim; \u2026 in such a way, however, that what is human in her is ordered and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, the present reality to the future city toward which we are journeying.\u2019\u201d \u201cThis,\u201d the pope said, \u201cis the experience of our lives and of the lives of all men and women of this world \u2014 searching for that ultimate and fundamental answer that \u2018neither flesh nor blood\u2019 can reveal, but only the Father who is in heaven; ultimately, a need for Jesus, \u2018the Christ, the Son of the living God.\u2019\u201d At the end of his homily, the Holy Father recalled that Jesus \u201cis the one we are called to seek, and to him we are called to bring all those we meet \u2014 grateful for the gifts he has bestowed upon us, and above all for the love with which he has gone before us.\u201d \u201cThen this temple,\u201d Leo XIV concluded, \u201cwill increasingly become a place of joy, where we experience the beauty of sharing with others what we have freely received.\u201d This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA\u2019s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA. Receive the most important news from EWTN Vatican via WhatsApp. It has become increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channel today EWTN Vatican on WhatsApp Almudena Mart\u00ednez-Bordi\u00fa Would you like to receive the latest updates on the Pope and the Vatican Receive articles and updates from our EWTN Newsletter. More news related to this article Prison is where \u2018I learned to be a priest,\u2019 chaplain says after 23 years of service Cardinal Parolin points to the life of this blessed judge murdered by Mafia Pope Francis Calls On Vatican Christmas Concert Artists To Promote Peace, Reconciliation LIVE | Pope Francis in Hungary: Visit to the Poor, Refugees & Greek Catholics | April 29th, 2023 What did Milei and Pope Francis say to each other at the canonization of Mama Antula? Meet The Cardinal Who Oversees The Making Of Saints<\/p>\n