FROM OUR SHEPHERD Share your joy Be a messenger of the Lord’s presence in you
POPE FRANCIS
Only love will save humanity, Pope Francis says in Sacred Heart encyclical
BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service
A world that has become “heartless” and in- different to greed and war, and a Catholic Church in need of revitalizing its missionary joy need to open themselves up to Christ's infinite love, Pope Francis wrote. By contemplating Jesus’ Sacred Heart, the faithful can be filled with the “living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together toward a just, solidary and fraternal world,” the pope wrote in his en- cyclical, “ ‘Dilexit nos’ (‘He loved us’): on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.” The Vatican released the 28,000-word text Oct. 24. While it is the pope's fourth encyclical, he wrote that it is meant to be understood in tandem with his previ- ous two encyclicals, “ Laudato Si, on Care for Our Com- mon Home” and “ Fratelli Tutti , on Fraternity and Social Friendship.” “The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social encyclicals … is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ,” he wrote. “For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home.” The pope had said in June, the month the church traditionally dedicates to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that he was going to release a document in the fall on the devotion to “illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, but also to say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart.” The encyclical includes numerous reflections from the Bible, previous magisterial texts and the writings of saints and his fellow Jesuits, to re-propose to the whole church the centuries-old devotion. Since 1899, there have been four papal encyclicals and numerous papal texts dedicated to the Sacred Heart – a symbol of Jesus' infinite love, which moves the faithful to love one an- other. “In the deepest fiber of our being, we were made to love and to be loved,” the pope wrote. However, he wrote, “when we witness the outbreak of new wars, with the complicity, tolerance or indiffer- ence of other countries, or petty power struggles over partisan interests, we may be tempted to conclude that our world is losing its heart.” “It is heartbreaking,” he wrote, to see elderly women,
I t was a great grace to spend a month in Rome for the second and concluding session of the Synod. It was a blessing to be with the Holy Father and with the delegates from all over the world. I am happy to be back and want to share some thoughts about what is at the heart of what the Synod is calling us to do. When the Holy Father and the Synod says that we all need to participate in the mission of the Church, it starts with something basic, with a consciousness of the hope we have and our willingness to witness to that in our daily life, and not be afraid to do so. That is where it starts. That is being a missionary disciple in the most basic sense. When the Holy Father speaks of the Synod, he often describes it as a basic way to encourage everyone in the Church to participate actively in the mission of the Church. It starts with something simple and profound, that we all be more conscious of the hope we share in Christ and to be willing to witness to this in our daily life. Sometimes we are afraid to do this. We can think we are not prepared to witness to the faith, or that our example may not be good enough. The document published at the end of the synod in October says a lot about how we can all be better prepared, but it nowhere suggests that our witness has to be on hold until we are better prepared. All of us can strive today to simply be as faithful as possible to our daily responsibilities as Catholics, and to do so joyfully. That is where it starts. This is being a missionary disciple in the most basic sense. The synod was a beautiful experience. Hearing from people from all over the world and speaking with them about their witness of faith strengthened my sense that the mission of the Church is first a mission to give testimony in the world in the hope we have for Christ, especially in a world that is so troubled. It his passion, death, and Resurrection the Lord spurs us on, and we have to give our witness. Christ’s victory is the cause of our hope. This joy and hope involves many things, including our defense of human dignity, our service to those who are the poor and vulnerable. It also involves our fidelity in participating in the very mystery that we receive, which is the Eucharist. Being fed by God in the Eucharist, and our witness in the world go hand in hand. In our diocese I see that call to be a disciple who witnesses to our hope and to our love is something we
who should be enjoying their golden years, experienc- ing the anguish, fear and outrage of war. “To see these elderly women weep, and not feel that this is something intolerable, is a sign of a world that has grown heartless.” “The most decisive question we can ask is, ‘Do I have a heart?’ ” the pope wrote. The human being is more than an instrument, a ma- terial body and a carrier of intelligence and reason, the pope wrote. The human person also embodies spiritual, emo- tional, creative and affective dimensions that are often undervalued, neglected or squelched in today's world, he wrote. It is the heart that integrates all these dimen- sions that are so often fragmented or neglected. The most precious treasures that animate and dwell in the human heart are often the simple and poignant moments in life: “How we first used a fork to seal the edges of the pies that we helped our mothers or grand- mothers to make at home”; “a smile we elicited by telling a joke”; “the worms we collected in a shoebox”; and “a wish we made in plucking a daisy.” “All these little things, ordinary in themselves yet ex- traordinary for us, can never be captured by algorithms” and artificial intelligence, he wrote, and, in fact, “poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity,” not just reason and technology. This encyclical explicitly presents the spiritual and theological foundation underlying the pope's message to the church and the world for the past 12 years – that everything “springs from Christ and his love for all hu- manity.” Many saints and religious congregations have a spe- cial devotion to the Sacred Heart, including St. Ignatius of Loyola and the Society of Jesus, the religious order the saint co-founded and to which Pope Francis belonged. St. Ignatius' spiritual exercises encourage people to “enter into the heart of Christ” to “enlarge our own hearts” and train them to “sense and savor” the Gospel message and “converse about it with the Lord,” the pope wrote. Christ's heart is aflame with infinite love, and Christ desires to be loved and consoled in return, the pope said, especially by loving and serving one's neighbors and those who are most marginalized. Jesus associated with “the lowest ranks of society,” he wrote, introducing the” great novelty of recognizing the
are already focused on in terms of our outreach to the poor and to the colonias, but also our special attention to young people, and our sense of wanting to help those who struggle. One of the things I found very moving from the Synod, is Pope Francis’ joy and focus. Even though he struggles physically, he is always smiling, and he is strong in his announcement of always being focused on Christ. It is important to know where our joy comes from. It’s knowing how much God has loved us, and that should spur us to hasten forward. In my message to young people participating in the Youth Jam this past November, I shared that it is important we take moments to enjoy the mystery of our faith and to be grateful that the Lord has given us many graces. In the prophet Isaiah, he says, “They that hope in the Lord will be renewed in their strength, and they will soar with eagle's wings, and they will run, and they will not grow weary. They will walk, and they will not grow faint.” It is a promise from the prophet about what hap- pens to us when we encounter the Lord Jesus, especially all of us together, in the communion of Christ’s body, the Church. In the Church, we look for ways to help each other encounter the Lord – the Lord who loves us, the Lord Jesus who comes into our lives, who offered us his life, his death, and his Resurrection, and who offers us the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This lifts us up in hope, and it gives us a sense of purpose in our lives. We rejoice in such a great gift. The world desperately needs for us to be messengers of hope and messengers of goodness in our own places – in school and at home and in your neighborhood. We must be a messenger of hope and of joy because this is what the Lord gives us. The Lord says through the prophet Isaiah that we will run and that we will not grow weary, and that we will walk and not grow faint, because the Lord gives us the strength. I know each of us, young and old, sometimes feel like we are a little weary. We grow tired, and maybe the world around us does not make a lot of sense some- times. We can get discouraged. But the Lord lifts us up, like on eagle's wings. It is something that nourishes us and gives us strength, but not just for ourselves. It something that allows us to help and be a messenger of
For pilgrims of hope We pray that this Jubilee Year strengthens our faith, helping us to recognize the Risen Christ in our daily lives, and that it may transform us into pilgrims of Christian hope. December The Pope’s Monthly Prayer Intentions
Most Reverend Daniel E. Flores Bishop of Brownsville
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January
For the right to an education We pray for migrants, refugees and those affected by war, that their right to an education, which is necessary to build a better world, might always be respected.
We have a responsibility and a mission. ... It is a mission to be a joyful, happy Christian Catholic who lives the faith, who loves the faith, and who just knows in our deepest, deepest heart how much the Lord has loved us, and how he pulls us together.
February
For vocations to the priesthood and religious life We pray that the ecclesial community might welcome the desires and doubts of those young people who feel a call to serve Christ’s mission in the priesthood and religious life.
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DIOCESE OF BROWNSVILLE
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THE VALLEY CATHOLIC
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