On October 24, Pope Francis published the encyclical Dilexit Nos (He loved us). In it he urges Catholics to reconnect with the love and compassion embodied in Jesus’s heart. The encyclical explores how the heart of Jesus serves as a source of healing and transformation for a fragmented world. I share a few quotes from it today and more next week.

Eucharist our nourishment

“We find ourselves immersed in societies of serial consumers who live from day to day, dominated by the hectic pace and bombarded by technology, lacking in the patience needed to engage in the processes that an interior life by its very nature requires.

“Amid the frenetic pace of today’s world and our obsession with free time, consumption and diversion, mobile phones and social media, we forget to nourish our lives with the strength of the Eucharist.”

Out on a mission

“Jesus is calling you and sending you forth to spread goodness in our world. His call is one of service, a summons to do good, perhaps as a physician, a mother, a teacher, or a priest. Wherever you may be, you can hear his call and realise he is sending you forth to carry out that mission.”

Working a social miracle

“It is only by starting from the heart that our communities will succeed in uniting and reconciling differing minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters. Reconciliation and peace are also born of the heart.

“The heart of Christ is ‘ecstasy’, openness, gift, and encounter. In that heart, we learn to relate to one another in wholesome and happy ways, and to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)