Pope Leo XIV returned to his Augustinian confreres to encourage their new leader and to offer some final thoughts as they prepared to conclude their general chapter discussions about vocations, formation, and education.

The Pope also congratulated U.S.-born Augustinian Father Joseph L. Farrell, 62, who was elected the prior general of the global order on September 9.

Pope Leo, who led the order from 2001 to 2013, had celebrated the opening Mass for the general chapter meeting on September 1.

Returning September 15 to the group, which was meeting at the order’s patristic institute across the street from the Vatican, Pope Leo focused first on the theme of vocations and initial formation.

“I like to recall the exhortation of St. Augustine: ‘Love what you will become,'” he said. “I find this to be a valuable insight, especially to avoid the mistake of imagining religious formation as merely a set of rules to follow or tasks to complete, or as a pre-made garment to be worn passively.”

“At the heart of it all is love,” he said. “The Christian vocation, and the religious vocation in particular, arises only when one feels the attraction of something great — of a love that can nourish and satisfy the heart.”

Formation as spiritual adventure

In vocations work, he said, “our first concern should be to help others, especially young people, to glimpse the beauty of the call and to love what they can become by embracing their vocation.”

“Vocation and formation are not pre-established realities: they are a spiritual adventure involving the whole story of a person, and above all, they are an adventure of love with God,” he said.

“Love — which, as we know, Augustine placed at the center of his spiritual quest — is also a fundamental criterion for theological study and intellectual formation,” the pope told the chapter members.

“In knowing God, we can never reach him through reason alone or by collecting theoretical information,” he said. “Rather, it begins with allowing ourselves to be amazed by his greatness, to question ourselves and the meaning of events, to trace in them the footprints of the creator — and above all, to love him and help others to love him.”