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POPE-SACREDHEART May-23-2006 (240 words) xxxi
Pope says devotion to Sacred Heart helps Catholics focus on love
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus helps Catholics focus on the reality of God's love and their obligation to love others, Pope Benedict XVI said.
In the Sacred Heart, "we can recognize in an ever clearer way the limitless love God has for us," the pope wrote in a May 15 letter.
The papal letter was addressed to Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior general of the Society of Jesus, in recognition of the Jesuits' efforts to promote the devotion throughout the church over the past 150 years.
In 2006, the church celebrates the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus June 23.
Pope Benedict said the devotion acquires its deepest meaning only when people express their awareness of God's love by dedicating their lives to his service.
"The experience of the love of God is lived as a 'call' to which one must respond," the pope said.
Gazing upon Jesus' "pierced heart" is a reminder that he took on the sufferings and sins of all humanity, which "helps us become more attentive to the suffering and needs of others," Pope Benedict said.
"It makes us able to entrust ourselves to his saving and merciful love and, at the same time, reinforces our desire to participate in his work of salvation by becoming his instruments," the pope said.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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