And in the seventh month, the Pope rested.
Pope Leo recently returned to the Vatican, after spending almost the entire month of July in the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo. Castel Gandolfo has served as a summer papal retreat in a small but beautiful hill town just outside of Rome since the 1600s. Historically it has offered a quieter, calmer, and cooler place for the pope to rest and pray, a tradition that Pope Francis had halted. I’ve had the opportunity to visit, and it’s truly a lovely place.
Pope Leo has revived the tradition and just spent his second July there. And for reasons I almost can’t explain, my own summer felt the richer watching from afar as he seemed to relish in his respite. His face seemed tanner, his smile wider; what is good for the Holy Father is good for the faithful.
And perhaps that is it. The pope is the vicar of Christ, but he is also a man, and man needs rest. God himself took a rest from the Creation on the seventh day, and commands the faithful that we honor the Sabbath, first by attending Mass, but also by resting. Resting doesn’t just meet a physical need, it allows us to refocus ourselves on our rightful priorities, God, and family.
The Holy Father did us all a great service in modeling this, and in showing that even he is not exempt from the human need to repose. I imagine he would have enjoyed some privacy, but he allowed the world to take part, in a sense, in his time there. He enjoyed a concert, taking time to enjoy beauty and inviting us all to do the same. The concert featured artists like Andrea Bocelli, and afterward Pope Leo said, “The beauty of music invites us to encounter the one who is beauty itself.”
He continued, “It is significant that Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy of the Church speak of ‘choirs of angels and saints’ when describing the joy of heaven, not because they are literally singing all the time, but because united in love they behold God together and find in him the fullness of happiness.”
He also spent time with family, taking a “surprise road trip” with his brother John through the countryside of Italy. Even the places they visited had a serene and restful feel—mountainous shrines and monesteraries that are known places of peace and prayer. They delighted area residents as they went along with their playful spontaneity, giving the world countless photos of the pope laughing with locals interspersed with images of him praying before ancient frescos.'
Perhaps the best photo is of Pope Leo leaning out of the window of the Monastery of St. Benedict in Subiaco, his face perfectly serene, the white panels of his garments lifted in the wind. In another viral video, the pope is seen smiling and climbing rocks at a waterfront overlook (an athletic feat!), turning as his garments flap uncontrollably in the wind, and then laughing as his zucchetto flies off his head.
Of rest, G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “When you give a man a holiday, you give him back his body and soul.” The holiday, he wrote, has holy origins. “Only when they made a holy day for God did they find they had made a holiday for men.”
The Holy Father is a man of great service, and in taking time to rest himself, he continues to serve all of mankind’s need to rest and reconnect more deeply with each other and, most importantly, with God.
As we enter the final stretches of summer, it’s worth fighting for the very thing Pope Leo has just modeled for us all. A little bit of rest, a little bit of spontaneous fun with family, and most importantly, a little extra time enjoying nature, beauty, and time with the Lord.
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