Robert Prévost – now Pope Leo XIV – is set to publish a collection of his writings from the 2000s in English later this year.
Freedom Under Grace: Reflections on the Spiritual Tradition that Formed Me will be released in September, featuring unpublished sermons and addresses from Prevost’s time as Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine between 2001 and 2013.
“This book has an urgent message of love and service to address the challenges of today’s world,” said Campbell Wharton, publisher of Penguin Random House Christian, the book’s American publisher. The collection was originally published in Italian by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Vatican’s publishing house. In the UK, it will be the launch title of a new spirituality imprint at Penguin division Cornerstone. Wharton further described it as a book “for any Catholic, but also any Christian or spiritual seeker”.
Prevost became the first American Pope in May 2025. Born in Chicago, he studied mathematics at Villanova University, Philadelphia, before being ordained priest in Rome in 1982. He was then sent to a mission in Peru. After serving as Prior General of the Augustinian Order in the 2000s, he was appointed bishop in 2014, and created a cardinal by the late Pope Francis in 2023.
The collection is arranged chronologically, so that “readers can follow the evolution of Prevost’s thinking”, editor Matthew Burdette writes in a reader’s note. Topics covered in the book include education, leadership, diversity, and “the church in the world”. The title of the book originates from a text of the Rule of St. Augustine, in which the Bishop of Hippo urges his monks to live “not as servants under the law, but as free men under grace.”
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A collection of sermons and speeches given by Prévost since becoming Pope was published in February as Peace Be With You!: My Words to the Church and to the World.
