Pope Leo XIV on Thursday read “Wildpeace”, a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai during his Christmas sermon at the Vatican.
The Pope sought to illustrate, through Amichai’s poem, God’s desire for peace and reconciliation.
He said: “The invocation of peace that rises from every land reaches God’s heart, as one poet wrote: ‘Not the peace of a cease-fire, not even the vision of the wolf and the lamb, but rather as in the heart when the excitement is over and you can talk only about a great weariness… Let it come like wildflowers, suddenly, because the field must have it: wildpeace.’”
Amichai’s poem was the only source cited in the Pope’s Christmas sermon which was not drawn from the Christian scriptures.