Angelus: pope reveals love inspired encyclicals

Pope Benedict XVI concluded his Sunday message on June 1 with an invocation to the "maternal intercession of the Virgin" for the people of China and Myanmar, "struck by natural calamities", and "for those going through the many situations of pain, illness, and material and spiritual misery that mark humanity's journey".

The month of June is when Roman Catholics mark their devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, symbolizing the infinite love of God for mankind. The pope asked Christians to re-encounter this “center” of love and faith, "I invite everyone to renew, in the month of June, his devotion to the Heart of Christ, making use also of the traditional prayer of daily offering and including the intentions I have proposed for the whole Church".

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the mother of Jesus, has its roots in medieval Europe but was renewed by the mystical visionary St. Marguerite Marie Alacoque in the 1600s.

During the pope’s Angelus message to the world, he explained "The Heart of Christ expresses in a simple and authentic way the 'good news' of love, summarizing in itself the mystery of the Incarnation and of the Redemption . . . From the infinite horizon of his love, in fact, God wished to enter within the limits of history and the human condition, he took on a body and a heart, so that we can contemplate and encounter the infinite in the finite, the invisible and ineffable Mystery in the human Heart of Jesus, the Nazarene".

Speaking to the crowds assembled in St. Peter’s square, Benedict XVI mentioned that the two encyclicals he has so far released were inspired by the devotion to the Sacred Heart, "In my first encyclical, on the theme of love, the point of departure was precisely the contemplation of the pierced side of Christ, of which John speaks in his Gospel (cf. 19:37; Deus Caritas Est, 12). And this center of the faith is also the source of hope in which we have been saved, the hope that I made the object of the second encyclical".

To be released during the autumn of the northern hemisphere, "Caritas in Veritate" will deal with social issues, including distribution of wealth.

"Every person ", the pope continued, "needs a 'center' for his life, a source of truth and goodness to draw upon in various situations and in the struggle of everyday life. Each of us, when we pause in silence, needs to feel not only the beating of his own heart, but more profoundly the pulsing of a trustworthy presence, which is sensed through faith but nonetheless is much more real: the presence of Christ, the heart of the world".

The solemnity of the sacred Heart of Jesus was celebrated on Friday, May 30.

The following day, the Immaculate Heart of Mary was venerated.

Benedict’s third encyclical, “Caritate in Veritas”, is expected in the autumn of 2008.
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