Sacred Heart, teach us to love as you love.

Dear friends,

June is the month which traditionally, both for great saints and for the simplest of God's people, is dedicated especially to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To that Heart which reminds us that God loved us first and ardently desired to eat the Passover with each one of us. It is precisely Corpus Christi, the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, that we celebrate during this month.

Since the 11th century, the Supreme Pontiffs, in one way or another, have encouraged this devotion so that we may embrace and expand the boundless love of our Lord Jesus Christ. His love for us is so infinite that it is impossible to fully understand or describe it. At this moment, writing to you in front of the Tabernacle, I would like to share just a few facets of it that resonate within me, certain that you embody these and so many others in your daily life and in your family.

“Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:28-29). What a relief! It is Jesus Himself who shoulder with us the yoke - that wooden beam that binds the oxen together so that they have the strength to pull the cart - and by being so united to Him, we can relieve the weariness of those who are overburdened by the pandemic or by their family ailments.

At the same time, Jesus opens the door of his Heart for us to learn to be meek and humble, leaving space in our hearts to welcome him in his Word, in the magisterium, in the wisdom of the elderly, in the most vulnerable or in the youngest to whom God often inspires what is best (Cfr. Saint John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte). How many conflicts would have been avoided, in our families and also in the life of the Church, if instead of defending ourselves “with the sword,” we had reacted with humble listening and gentle dialogue!

“Jesus felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36). That feeling of compassion refers to the depths of a motherly heart that experiences as its own the pain of children, the fragility of the elderly, the loss of loved ones... I hope that in this Amoris Laetitia Family Year we will react with our organisations with more closeness, tenderness and mercy towards families, in order to respond to and protect those who are alone, the unguided bride and groom, the unborn child, those who have fallen or those who need to strengthen their marriage. May many families have a “missionary heart” for other families.

Mary reflects in hers the Heart of her Son. I propose that we enter with her into the Heart of Jesus, because “whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong who need not treat others poorly in order to feel important themselves” (EG 288). May the love of the sacrament of marriage be a source of blessing for society!

I say goodbye to you with affection and invite you all to join in the following prayer

María Lía Zervino, Servidora

WUCWO President General

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

preserve for me a childlike heart, pure and clear as a fountain.

Give me a simple heart that does not know how to savour sorrows;

a heart great in self-giving, tender in compassion;

a faithful and generous heart that forgets no good and bears no grudge for any evil.

Forge me a meek and humble heart, which loves without demanding reciprocity,

joyful to be identified with the Heart of your divine Son;

a great and indomitable heart that no ingratitude will hold back,

that no indifference will weary;

a heart impassioned for the glory of Jesus Christ,

wounded by his love and whose wound is healed only in heaven. Amen.