HEART OF JESUS: A SYMBOL OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

VATICAN CITY, 1 JUN 2008 (VIS) 
At midday today, Benedict XVI appeared at the window of his study overlooking St. Peter's Square to pray the Angelus with faithful and pilgrims gathered there.

The Pope explained how the month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Heart of Jesus, "a symbol of the Christian faith that is especially dear, to ordinary people as well as to mystics and theologians, because it expresses the 'good news' of love in a simple and authentic way, encapsulating the mystery of Incarnation and Redemption".

The sequence of feasts following the period of Easter (Blessed Trinity, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart of Jesus) bring to mind, said the Pope, "a movement towards the centre; a movement of the spirit which God Himself guides. From the boundless horizon of His love, God entered the limitations of history and of the human condition. He took 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 of Nazareth. ... This is the core of faith, and the source of the hope in which we have been saved".

"We all need a 'centre' to our lives, a source of truth and goodness from which to draw in the various situations and exertions of daily life. Each of us, when we pause in silence, needs to feel not only the beating of our own heart but, deeper down, the pulsing of a reliable presence, perceptible with the senses of faith, yet real: the presence of Christ, heart of the world.

"I call upon everyone to renew, in this month of June, their devotion to the Heart of Jesus, also making use of the traditional prayer of this day and bearing in mind the prayer intentions I proposed to the entire Church", the Holy Father added.