FRIDAY, JUNE 11
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Let us meditate on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with Saint John Paul II: “Here are the words of Saint John the Apostle: ‘It was not we who loved God, but he who loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins... so that we might have life through him’ (1 Jn 4:9-10).
This Heart beats with human blood, which was shed on the cross. This Heart beats with all the inexhaustible love that is eternally in God. With this love it is always open toward us, through the wound opened in it by the centurion’s lance on the cross.
“If God has loved us, we also must love one another” (1 Jn 4:11): love gives birth to love, unleashes love, and is fulfilled through love. Every particle of true love in the human heart contains something of that with which the Heart of the God-Man is filled without limit.
Therefore, in the liturgy of the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart, he asks us: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me” (Mt 11:28-29).”
The Pope concluded the Angelus of July 1, 1984 (from which this passage is taken) with a prayer to Mary, which is worth proposing again because it emphasizes the mystery of love that unites the Hearts of Jesus and Mary:

You, O Mother of Christ,
you were the first to obey this call.
Meditating, in the prayer of the Angelus,
on the mystery of the Annunciation,
we pray to you:
teach us to open our hearts
to the love that is in the Heart of Jesus,
as you opened his Heart to him
from the very first “fiat.”
And as you have always opened it.
Teach us, Mother,
to be intimate,
in truth and in love,
with the divine Heart of your Son.

To learn more:
• Prayers to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

SATURDAY, JUNE 12
Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The promoter of the liturgical feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was Saint John Eudes (1601-1680), who as early as around 1643 began celebrating it with the religious members of his congregation. In 1668, the feast and its liturgical texts were approved by the cardinal legate for all of France. In 1944, Pope Pius XII extended the feast to the whole Church, as a perpetual remembrance of the Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which he had carried out in 1942. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary received a strong impetus after the apparitions of Fatima in 1917. The proximity of the two feasts can once again be traced back to Saint John Eudes, who in his writings never separated the two hearts of Jesus and Mary, emphasizing the profound union of the Mother with the Son of God made flesh.
Pope Francis recently entrusted the Church and the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary: “To the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we entrust the Church, ourselves, and the whole world. In prayer, we ask for peace, an end to the pandemic, a spirit of penance, and our conversion.”

To learn more:
• Prayers to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

SUNDAY, JUNE 13
Saint Anthony of Padua

The man known to the world as Saint Anthony of Padua was born in Lisbon under the name Fernando and became a priest among the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine. His life was changed, however, when the bodies of the first five Franciscan martyrs, killed in Morocco, passed by: fascinated by the Franciscan ideal, he joined the order and received the name Anthony. He desired martyrdom and embarked to serve as a missionary among Muslims, but a storm forced the ship to land in Sicily. Traveling up through Italy on foot, he met Francis of Assisi in 1221 and became the first Franciscan to teach theology. He preached everywhere, bringing about the conversion of heretics and even performing miracles. At only 36, he was already renowned as a miracle worker when he died at Arcella (Padua), exhausted by his labors, on June 13, 1381. In 1946, Pius XII named him a “Doctor of the Church.”

To learn more:
• Pen-and-ink portrait of Friar Antonio