We can never love too much

It's already June, the month of blooming roses and fragrant jasmine, and days, here in the northern hemisphere, stretching through warm lengthy evenings, to their longest possible point. And it's the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart. This is almost always the month when, at some point, we celebrate this loveliest of feasts, at the end of more than 100 days of seasons and movable feasts, determined by the date for Easter; all of them, each in their own way, focusing on love - ours for God, and, especially, God’s for us. 

This year, thanks to a later than usual Easter, we will celebrate the Sacred Heart at the very end of June, on Friday 27th. So, we have the whole month in which to prepare! 

How can each of us spend this month consciously growing in love, in tenderness and kindness, and in union with the Heart of Jesus? 

An increase in love; strong and gentle love... it's what our sorry, wounded world so desperately needs; what so many hurting people, known or unknown to us, need. We will never love enough, St Charles de Foucauld wrote in his last-ever letter, shortly before his death: we can never love enough; and we can also never love too much... but there is no reason for us not to try...

This need, and this increase, lies at the heart of this month's Pope 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. 

And for those of us who spend time on social media, a similar message, though differently phrased, for yesterday's World Communications Day: Share with gentleness the hope that is in your hearts (cf. 1 Pet 3:15-16)... Share with gentleness: care for your heart, your interior life... Be meek and never forget the faces of other people; speak to the hearts of the women and men whom you serve... Do not allow instinctive reactions to guide your communication... Always spread hope, even when it is difficult, even when it costs, even when it seems not to bear fruit... Try to promote a communication that can heal the wounds of our humanity...

And over and under and around all this: prayer. Just as we can never love too much, we can also never pray too much, but it is prayer which will underpin our efforts, bestowing the grace of greater loving, and union with his Heart; which will enable us to become the love and tenderness, hope and compassion God has created us to be.

St Madeleine Sophie Barat is believed to have said this prayer every day. Why not join me in saying it this month? Or simply focus on asking for the aspect of Jesus’ Heart your own heart most needs...

Sacred Heart of Jesus,

Give us [or me] a heart that is one with your own...
A humble heart that knows and loves its nothingness;
A gentle heart that holds and calms its own anxiety;
A loving heart that has compassion for the suffering of others;
A pure heart that recoils even at the appearance of evil;
A detached heart that longs for nothing other than the goodness of heaven;
A heart detached from self-love and embraced by the love of God,
Its attention focused on God,
Its goodness its only treasure in time and in eternity.

And have a lovely June, filled with growth and blooming, grace and greater loving!