June: the month of the Sacred Heart

This month I will try and reflect on each of the invocations of the Litany of the Sacred Heart.  In this month the Church asks us – as Blessed John Paul  once observed - to focus on the mystery of the Heart of Jesus.  These great mysteries, he argued are expressed in a ‘penetrating way’ in the Litany. (in Moell, ed., John Paul II , Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Prayer and Service, October – December 1990: 280)

‘The month of June is especially dedicated to the veneration of the Divine Heart.  Not just one day – the liturgical feast that usually falls in June – but every day.  Connected with it is the devout practice of daily reciting or singing the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a marvelous prayer, totally concentrated on the interior mystery of Christ, the God-Man.  The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus draws abundantly from biblical sources, and at the same time reflects the deepest experiences of human hearts.  It is also a prayer of veneration and authentic dialogue.. This prayer, recited and meditated, becomes a true school of the interior life, the school of the Christian…..In reciting the Litany – and in venerating the divine Heart – we learn the mystery of redemption in all its divine and human depth. At the same time, we become sensitive to the need for reparation.  Christ opens his Heart to us that we may join him in his reparation for the salvation of the world.  The language of the pierced Heart speaks the whole truth about his gospel and about Easter. Let us try to understand this language even better.  Let us learn it.’ (in  Moell, ed., John Paul II , Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Payer and Service, October – December 1990: 292)

So, let us try and learn this language – with the help of the icon.