Each month, we are offered a different prayer intention, discerned well in advance by the Pope, and promoted by his Worldwide Prayer Network, as guidelines not only for our prayer, but for our service and mission as well. They express the Pope's concerns for our world, and the calls and challenges facing us all. This month, the intention is so very appropriate for June, the month of the Sacred Heart...
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.
The intention had been discerned by Pope Francis, but this month is the first time the accompanying video has featured Pope Leo. And instead of a short reflection, expanding on the theme, the video offers us a prayer to the Sacred Heart, which I have seen described as 'previously unpublished'.
Lord, it begins, I come to Your tender Heart today,
to You who have words that set my heart ablaze,
to You who pour out compassion on the little ones and the poor,
on those who suffer, and on all human miseries.
Ending with:
From this encounter, send us out on mission,
a mission of compassion for the world
in which You are the source from which all consolation flows.
In its entirety, it is a lovely prayer; one that I wanted to share with a reflection group I've been working with. Earlier this evening, while looking for the text, I stumbled across the Italian version of the video - spoken in the original English, but with Italian subtitles. And I was immediately struck by a noticeable difference in the opening lines...
Lord, today I come from your tender Heart:
from you who have words that inflame my heart,
from you who pour out compassion...
To becomes da, becomes from... Two tiny words, four letters in total, but a whole world of difference. A sending forth on mission; a flowing, emerging movement from Jesus' Heart of tenderness and compassion, into our bruised, blessed and broken world... And then I realised: vengo da... I come from...It's what we say to denote origin and belonging: I come from this city or country... I come from this family or background...
And... vengo da, I come from Jesus' tender Heart; from the One who sets my heart ablaze, and pours out compassion... I come from the One, from the Love who is my origin, and my mission: the One who calls me to himself, and who sends me forth to make known his love - unlimited and unconditional - in all encounters and places.
St Madeleine Sophie once said that RSCJ are born in Jesus' Heart, and must grow, live and die there; in him, with him, for him. And once again I ask myself: what can this mean - what do I want it to mean - to be able to say, and to live, that I come from his Heart?
What does this prayer - in whatever language - say to you?
Thank you Silvana. The Italian translation makes all the difference ~ vengo da ~
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