Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus—a solemnity which falls 19 days after Pentecost. The Sacred Heart is a symbol of God’s infinite love for humanity, and this devotion unites our minds, hearts and wills with the One who has given us everything.

A note from Alessandro, 

I would like to share with you a wonderful meditation, simple and luminous, taken from the book Cuore di Gesù, cuore dell'uomo (Heart of Jesus, heart of the man), by Father Stefano Maria Manelli, FI, written for the month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

MERCIFUL HEART

The word "merciful" literally means "giving the heart to the wretched" (miseris-cor-dare).

When Jesus tells us to be merciful like the Father in Heaven who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Mt 5:45), He asks us to be good and heartfelt towards those who would not deserve it.

We know that the world is the scene of so much evil, injustice, dishonesty. The most immediate temptation we all feel is to strike at evildoers and criminals, treating them with the severity they deserve.

But if we do so, we can never be "children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (Lk 6:35). 

If the Heart of Jesus had wanted to treat us as we deserve, it would never have subjected itself to a life of hardship and humiliation on earth; it would never and ever have had to drink the bitter chalice of our Redemption; much less would it have been able to remain among us and for us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

The Heart of Jesus, on the other hand, has not considered our wickedness at all, it has completely given itself, and it continues to give itself and will give itself "to the very end of the age” (Mt 28:20).

On the contrary, he arrives to let himself be taken without resistance even to be torn apart by sacrileges, by traitors, by declared enemies like the Freemasons who procure the consecrated Hosts to stab them in their infamous lodges.

The Heart of Jesus is the inexhaustible source of mercy.

Even on the cross, he cries out with the Blood and with his voice a prayer of mercy for his executioners: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34).

He knows how fragile and miserable we are, how easily we are victims of ourselves and our passions, how much we need to be filled "not on bread alone" (Mt 4:4), but with what nourishes us for eternal life. Therefore his Heart is always ready to repeat with anxiety of mercy what he said before the multiplication of the loaves: "I have compassion for these people" (Mt 15:32).

Therefore He revealed His Heart to us and gave us the Great Promise, which is a treasure of mercy: "I promise you," Jesus said to Saint Margaret, "in the excess of the mercy of my Heart, that my almighty love will grant to all those who will communicate on the first Friday of the month, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final perseverance: they will not die in my misfortune nor without receiving the Sacraments, as my Heart will serve them as a safe haven at that extreme hour.”