Both Francisco Palau, the 19th-century Carmelite mystic and missionary, and Pope Leo XIV in his apostolic exhortation Dilexi te (2025), reveal a strikingly similar vision of poverty — not as mere material deprivation, but as a privileged path of communion with God and service to humanity. Though separated by time and circumstance, both voices converge on a central truth: that authentic Christian life is inseparable from love for the poor, lived through a spirit of humility, sacrifice, and communion.

1. Poverty as Union with Christ

For both Palau and the Pope, poverty is not only an external reality but a profound mystery of union with Christ.
Pope Leo XIV writes that “Jesus himself became poor and was born in the flesh like us. We came to know him in the smallness of a child laid in a manger and in the extreme humiliation of the cross.” (Dilexi te, §16–18) Poverty thus reveals God’s descent into human fragility, the divine identification with the weak and forgotten.

Francisco Palau experiences this mystery existentially. In his Struggle of the Soul with God, he describes prayer and sacrifice as the soul’s “battle” for the suffering Church, sharing in its wounds and desolation. For him, the Church herself is the suffering Christ present in the poor and persecuted. To love the Church, therefore, is to love Christ in his poverty. His mystical union with the “beautiful Church” is never detached from the pain of her members — those who are oppressed, exiled, or deprived of dignity.

Both thus perceive poverty as the form of Christ’s presence in the world. The poor are not objects of assistance but bearers of divine revelation.

2. The Cry of the Poor as God’s Voice

In Dilexi te, Pope Leo XIV reminds us that “the condition of the poor is a cry that, throughout human history, constantly challenges our lives and societies” (§9). To ignore this cry, he says, is to turn away from “the very heart of God.” The Pope insists that to encounter the poor is to encounter the living Christ — echoing the Gospel mandate, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”

Palau shares this prophetic sensitivity. When he laments the devastation of the Church in Spain — its persecution, loss of faith, and suffering — he interprets these not only as historical tragedies but as the groaning of Christ’s mystical Body. His call to “struggle with God” in prayer is born from hearing the cry of a wounded Church, which for him includes the suffering poor, the displaced, and the spiritually abandoned.
In both, the poor are not silent; they speak with the voice of God, calling believers to conversion and solidarity.

3. Love and Service: Two Faces of the Same Poverty

For Pope Leo XIV, love for Christ and love for the poor are inseparable: “Love for the Lord is one with love for the poor… contact with those who are lowly and powerless is a fundamental way of encountering the Lord of history” (§5). Charity, then, is not philanthropy but participation in God’s merciful love, which descends into human misery to heal it.

Palau’s spirituality embodies this same principle. His motto, “Love is work”, expresses the union of contemplation and mission. Prayer and apostolate are “mutually deduced from the same ecclesial love,” as his writings explain. For him, to pray for the Church and to serve her concretely — especially in her poor and suffering members — are one and the same act of love. Poverty becomes apostolic: it impels service, compassion, and total availability to God’s will.

Thus, both Palau and the Pope view service to the poor as not only a moral duty but a mystical vocation — the continuation of Christ’s own self-emptying love.

4. The Church as the Home of the Poor

In Dilexi te, Leo XIV insists that the Church must be “the friend and liberator of the poor,” reflecting God’s own preferential love (§17). The Church’s holiness, he says, is measured by her closeness to those who suffer. This recalls the call of Vatican II and the spirituality of Saint Francis — a model both Palau and the Pope invoke as emblematic of evangelical poverty.

Palau anticipated this ecclesial vision a century earlier. His entire mysticism is ecclesial: he contemplates the Church as both the Bride of Christ and the suffering Body of humanity. His pastoral and missionary work — whether in preaching, writing, or founding communities — was aimed at building a Church that embodies communion and service. For him, the Church’s beauty shines not in power or wealth but in her fidelity to the poor Christ.

5. Conversion of Heart and Society

Both warn against the illusions of comfort and indifference. Pope Leo XIV denounces the “illusion of happiness derived from a comfortable life” that blinds societies to the suffering of millions (§11). He calls for a “change in mentality” — a cultural conversion that recognizes the dignity of the poor and rejects systems of exclusion.

Palau, too, identifies sin, complacency, and spiritual blindness as the roots of social ruin. His “struggle with God” is not rebellion but intercession — a cry for mercy and renewal. His vision of the Christian life demands inner poverty, detachment, and trust in God’s providence, which then bear fruit in concrete service to others. Poverty, therefore, is both a personal virtue and a prophetic critique of injustice.

Conclusion: A Shared Path of Love

Francisco Palau and Pope Leo XIV converge on the conviction that poverty is the privileged place of encounter with God and the measure of authentic Christian love. Both see the Church’s mission as inseparable from the care of the poor — not out of mere compassion, but because in the poor, Christ himself continues his saving work.

Palau’s “love made work” and Leo XIV’s “I have loved you” (Dilexi te) echo across the centuries as a single call: to embrace poverty not as a curse, but as a grace — the doorway to communion, compassion, and the transformation of the world through love.