During the Angelus prayer on Sunday, June 14, 2026, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the nature of true love, saying it bears fruit only when “we are willing to lose a little of ourselves to make room for the other.” He identified three essential attitudes for authentic love: “detachment, loss and hospitality.”The Pope explained that love grows when we give up something personal — “to lose a little time to listen to a friend, to lose a little comfort to share a difficult situation.” He noted that this is hard to grasp “especially in a world where losing seems to be a weakness and where people are obsessed with having and possessing.”
Citing the Gospel, he warned that “whoever holds onto life only for himself actually loses it, because he does not open himself to the joy of love and becomes sterile.”Pope Leo XIV grounded his reflection in Jesus’ call to follow Him and bear witness to His Kingdom. “It is not about external acts, but about committing our whole being in a relationship of love with Him,” he said. When Christ first sent the apostles on mission, the Pope recalled, “he wanted them to be free from any attachment.” That principle, he added, applies to everyone: “even our deepest affections find their fulfillment in the love that Christ gives us.”He pointed to married life as an example. Marriage “can only be lived fully by leaving one’s parents’ home to commit to the conjugal relationship.”
Likewise, children grow and find happiness when parents educate them “to be self-reliant and make their own decisions.”Jesus, the Pope said, “invites us to embrace the Cross: He offered himself, he lost himself, and precisely in this way, we have been able to receive his life in abundance.” In the same way, “if we live according to the logic of giving, we too will be able to generate new life in our relationships.”The Holy Father closed by focusing on hospitality. Love is also shown in small, daily gestures, “like offering a glass of water to someone who is thirsty.” He recalled that Jesus sent His disciples ahead without provisions, “in need, so as to inspire hospitality in those they encounter along the way.”