Pope Leo’s Prayer Intention: That the world might grow in compassion – Let us pray that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from his Heart, learn to have compassion on the world.
Pope Leo has taken over Pope Francis’ prayer intentions. The June invitation to pray that the world might grow in compassion, however, reflects a theme dear to Pope Francis. His insistence on the importance of our heartfelt relationship with Jesus echoes his long exploration of devotion to the Sacred Heart in the Encyclical Dilexit Nos. He reminds us that a living faith needs to touch our heart as well as our mind. Although it is important that we believe that we must address the threat to the environment and that we should treat with respect people who seek protection from us, our convictions must touch our feelings as well as our thoughts. Faith is more than thinking right thoughts. It is also about having sympathetic hearts. In his Encyclical, Pope Francis describes the human heart as the deep centre of every human life where thought and desire come together. It is the place in which other persons move from being a ‘them’ to become a ‘you’.
For Christians, God’s love for us is shown when joining us in Jesus’s human life and dying for us. Our natural response to such love is gratitude. We then find in our relationship to Jesus the centre of our lives. He is at the centre of our prayer, the place where his heart and our heart are joined. As we allow the stories of his life and death to move us, our hearts are drawn into friendship with him, and we learn what it means to live by love. Jesus’ heart represents the love of Christ both as Son of God and as our brother and fuses together these two aspects of God’s love.
When Jesus is at the centre of our lives we experience consolation. For Pope Francis, consolation includes a deep peace even in times of grief and anxiety. It also includes an attraction to living generously even when it is costly. Our heart is linked to Jesus’ heart.
When we are grateful to a dear friend, our love naturally stretches to the persons whom they love. If their other close friends are hurt, we want to help them. We learn from our friends how we should relate to others. In that way, Pope Francis joins our relation to Jesus to our kindness to one another. Jesus’ special friends during his human life were people who were doing it hard and excluded from society. If Jesus is our friend, we shall be more ready and encouraged to see them as our friends, and to notice and respond to their need. Our heart expands.
In our time of instant opinions and harsh judgments, it is important to pay attention to our heart and to the way in which Jesus speaks to us through it. Our relationship to God and to one another becomes heartfelt.
