Pope Leo XIV at Lourdes preaches on sin, repentance, penance and conversion: “Indeed I promise you that eternal life is a firm and certain promise that the Lord makes to us. He has already won for us the victory in His death and resurrection, through the grace of Baptism He brings this eternal life to fulfilment in each day. It is within our reach but we must firmly welcome it, take hold of it and not stand in its way. For the obstacles to grace and eternal life, the only obstacle to love is sin, by where we turn in upon ourselves, refusing God and shutting ourselves up in our own darkness. Our personal responsibility therefore comes in to play, and great responsibility it is: God has made us free, since freedom is necessary for love no one can be forced to love, we must therefore use our freedom to say yes to Christ, relying on His grace as Mary did. This is the yes that we renew until our final breath, now and at the hour of our death, as we always say in the Hail Mary. We hear the same urgent call to conversion in the words which Mary spoke right here: “Penance, penance, penance!” She repeats the three times and she asks Bernadette to perform certain acts of penance. Why? Are we slow to understand, do we too easily think of ourselves without sin? Do we not practice penance enough? The Virgin asks us to do penance not only for ourselves because we do need it, but also for sinners and for a world that is going astray. How can our hearts not be moved by the conflicts that are spreading and destroying so many innocent lives. Yet the evil of our times comes from the human heart. God is not responsible for this. It therefore the human heart that must change.”