God loves me!

"God personally looks after me, after us, after all mankind. I am not abandoned, adrift in the universe and in a society which leaves me ever more lost and bewildered. God looks after me. He is not a distant God, for whom my life is worthless.... It is fine and consoling to know that there is someone who loves me and looks after me. But it is far more important that there is a God who knows me, loves me and is concerned about me. "I know my own and my own know me" (Jn 10:14)... God knows me, he is concerned about me. This thought should make us truly joyful. Let us allow it to penetrate the depths of our being...." ~Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 11, 2010

The above words of our Holy Father, which he spoke in his homily at the closing Mass of the Year for Priests, make my heart sing! God knows me and loves me! This knowledge, this reality, is a rock for me, just as the Lord Himself is my rock. "I love you, Lord, my strength, my rock, my fortress, my savior. My God is the rock where I take refuge; my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold!" (Ps 18:2-3)

It is in the Sacred Heart of Jesus that I have always found the surest sign of God's deep, enduring love for me and for all. "Behold this heart which has so loved men," our Lord said to St. Margaret Mary when he revealed His Sacred Heart to her. The apparitions of this Visitandine nun were private revelations that took place during the years 1673-1675 at the Visitation Convent in Paray-le-Monial. Three hundred and thirty-five years later, the devotion generated by these apparitions still attracts the hearts of men, women and children throughout the world. Actually, it's not the devotion that so attracts our poor, feeble hearts but the love of God revealed to us in and through the heart of His Beloved Son.

Heart deep as the nights that have no face...
Heart strong as the waves that have no shores...
Heart tender as little children that have no bitterness...
Royal Heart in the flowing mantle of Thy blood...
Brother-Heart in the wild mockery of the thorny crown...
Breaking Heart in the stark ornament of Thy death wounds...
Heart dethroned, Heart betrayed, Heart cruelly martyred...
Heart before whom the mighty find their knees...
Heart before whom the careless find their tears...
Heart in whom thieves and murderers yet find forgiveness...
Great Heart, Heart of mercy, Heart of glory...
Whispering nearness in which parted friends may meet...
Comforting lamp of the distressed...
Lighthouse of the persecuted and the disgraced...
Hidden chamber in which the gentle dead may yet breathe...
All-knowing Heart, all-guiding Heart, ultimate Heart...
Heart that takes us all to itself...
Heart that strikes the center of all our hearts...
Heart that breaks the proud hearts of us all...
Heart that makes solitude into a great people...
Heart that makes discord into a united people...
Heart in which the whole world becomes Thy people...
Heart from which the heavens draw their glory...
Heart from which suns and constellations draw their beginning and their end...
Heart from which the souls of the blessed draw their blessedness...
Mighty Heart, ineluctable Heart, all-consuming Heart...
World-ordering Heart, world-conquering Heart, Thou only Heart of hearts...

That Thy Dawn may break with kindling light,
We consecrate ourselves to Thy love.
That Thy day may bring fire to our hearts,
We consecrate ourselves to Thy love.
That Thy day may burn all our hearts into Thine,
We consecrate ourselves to Thy love...
Amen. Amen.
May the day of Thine infinite love come quickly.

Gertrude von le Fort, Litany of the Sacred Heart