#Dilexit

[europahoynews]

'Dilexit Nos' expande la devoción hacia el Sagrado Corazón en todo el mundo

Comunicado de http://www.vaticannews.va — Más de mil fieles asisten al primer congreso en el mundo dedicado al Sagrado Corazón de Jesús en Westerville, Ohio, tras la publicación de la encíclica del Papa Francisco “Dilexit Nos”. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik y Tomasz Zielenkiewicz El congreso del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús en Westerville, Ohio, atrajo a 1,200 personas a la Santa Misa el 9 de noviembre. “Se…

[aure-entuluva-2407]

Cor Iesu Sacratissimum

In honor of the new Encyclical :D

[apenitentialprayer]

This was Paul's deepest conviction: the knowledge that he was loved. Christ's self-offering on the Cross became the driving force in Paul's life, yet it only made sense to him because he knew that something even greater lay behind it: the fact that "He loved me." At a time when many were seeing salvation, prosperity, or security elsewhere, Paul, moved by the Spirit, was able to see farther and to marvel at the greatest and most essential thing of all: "Christ loved me."

Pope Francis (Dilexit nos, §46b)

[fear-not-beloved]

Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, grows in the understanding of his words and our will is moved to put them into practice. This could easily remain on the level of a kind of self-reliant moralism. Hearing and tasting the Lord, and paying him due honour, however, is a matter of the heart. Only the heart is capable of setting our other powers and passions, and our entire person, in a stance of reverence and loving obedience before the Lord.

DILEXIT NOS (27)

[locustheologicus]

Takeaways from the Encyclical “Dilexit Nos”

With the tragedy of our own American elections, after Pope Francis has expressed his concerns regarding the state of democracy, I find myself once again reflecting on my faith. Where is God in these moments. I offered my initial thoughts on this new encyclical in a recent post but in this post I just wanted to share what others are saying and offer one added insight. Above you have a presentation from Rome Reports and below are 5 takeaways from America magazine.

This is a reflective encyclical for us to contemplate our ultimate meaning and purpose especially in light of our own challenges, struggles and pain. As Pope Francis mentiones in the report above.

The worst thing that can happen in life is that pain shuts you down. It's a little bit the gesture… of the teeth. Pain makes you surly. Leave room for caressing. Pain asks to be caressed. Pain asks for that. To leave room for hope. When pain closes in on itself it is always poisonous.

This document is about our ultimate purpose or teleology which I will describe later. Pope Francis invites us to enter into a meaningful devotional practice that will help us consider what our personal and collective purpose is.

As I personally reflect further on some of the spiritual insights that Pope Francis offers us in this document I see that he wants us to remind us of the human element that the devotion to Christ and the Sacred Heart has been throughout our early tradition. Pope Francis even offers the following brief survey.

The Fathers of the Church, opposing those who denied or downplayed the true humanity of Christ, insisted on the concrete and tangible reality of the Lord’s human affections. Saint Basil emphasized that the Lord’s incarnation was not something fanciful, and that “the Lord possessed our natural affections”. Saint John Chrysostom pointed to an example: “Had he not possessed our nature, he would not have experienced sadness from time to time”. Saint Ambrose stated that “in taking a soul, he took on the passions of the soul”. For Saint Augustine, our human affections, which Christ assumed, are now open to the life of grace: “The Lord Jesus assumed these affections of our human weakness, as he did the flesh of our human weakness, not out of necessity, but consciously and freely… lest any who feel grief and sorrow amid the trials of life should think themselves separated from his grace”. Finally, Saint John Damascene viewed the genuine affections shown by Christ in his humanity as proof that he assumed our nature in its entirety in order to redeem and transform it in its entirety: Christ, then, assumed all that is part of human nature, so that all might be sanctified. - DN #62

Pope Francis wants to have us recognize that dualism is a concern that our faith and spirituality must respond to. Dualism "has gained renewed strength in recent decades, but it is a recrudescence of that Gnosticism which proved so great a spiritual threat in the early centuries of Christianity because it refused to acknowledge the reality of 'the salvation of the flesh'." Adopting the devotion to the suffering of Christ or the Sacred Heart is meant to humanize our spirituality in order to respond to our own human challenges and the challenges that others go through.

In contemplating the heart of Christ and his self-surrender even to death, we ourselves find great consolation. The grief that we feel in our hearts gives way to complete trust and, in the end, what endures is gratitude, tenderness, peace; what endures is Christ’s love reigning in our lives... If we believe that grace can bridge every distance, this means that Christ by his sufferings united himself to the sufferings of his disciples in every time and place. In this way, whenever we endure suffering, we can also experience the interior consolation of knowing that Christ suffers with us. In seeking to console him, we will find ourselves consoled. At some point, however, in our contemplation, we should likewise hear the urgent plea of the Lord: “Comfort, comfort my people!” (Is 40:1)... This then challenges us to seek a deeper understanding of the communitarian, social and missionary dimension of all authentic devotion to the heart of Christ. For even as Christ’s heart leads us to the Father, it sends us forth to our brothers and sisters. In the fruits of service, fraternity and mission that the heart of Christ inspires in our lives, the will of the Father is fulfilled.

The teaching that Pope Francis offers us here is that the devotion to Christ and the Sacred Heart can and should lead us to the life of mission defined by charity and service to others. This responds to Pope Francis' concern of a spiritual desertification which he fears that many Catholic/Christians have, an otherwordly spirituality that seperates them from the concerns of the world or others.

So what does this say to me now that the elections are over? It reminds me to bring the social challenges and obstacles that I encounter to Christ. I must remember that Christ knows first hand the challenge of social injustice and the gruesome reality of oppression and violence. Nothing that concerns me is beyond his own experience and he invites me, and all those who share in the social anxiety of the moment, to place these concerns "at the foot of the cross" as we say. Having done that I am now left reflecting on how our community will resurrect from this moment and partner with Christ in making this happen. I wish I could have clarity on what this will look like but that is not the way. Instead we have to have faith that God will guide us and at some point, could be near or distant future, we will rise again. This is the promise he made and the hope he gave us. For now I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill the hearts of the faithful, starting with me, with the wisdom of justice and charity.

[ultramontanism]

“Dilexit Nos” is a masterclass in Modernism as condemned by past popes.

[maribelad]

Carta Encíclica DILEXIT NOS

Clic en la imagen

[cooperatoresveritatisinfo]

Dilexit nos - Enciclica sull’amore umano e divino del Cuore di Gesù Cristo, di Papa Francesco

Conferenza Stampa di presentazione di “Dilexit nos – Lettera Enciclica – sull’amore umano e divino del Cuore di Gesù Cristo”, 24.10.2024 Alle ore 12.00 di oggi, presso la Sala Stampa della Santa Sede, in Via della Conciliazione 54, ha avuto luogo la Conferenza Stampa di presentazione di “Dilexit nos – Lettera Enciclica sull’amore umano e divino del Cuore di Gesù Cristo”. Sono intervenuti: S.E.…

[jameslmartello]

Pope Francis to release new encyclical ‘Dilexit Nos’ on the Sacred Heart of Jesus | Catholic News Agency

[theladyconstellationmain]

"In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity. No algorithm will ever be able to capture, for example, the nostalgia that all of us feel, whatever our age, and wherever we live, when we recall how we first used a fork to seal the edges of the pies that we helped our mothers or grandmothers to make at home. It was a moment of culinary apprenticeship, somewhere between child-play and adulthood, when we first felt responsible for working and helping one another. Along with the fork, I could also mention thousands of other little things that are a precious part of everyone’s life: a smile we elicited by telling a joke, a picture we sketched in the light of a window, the first game of soccer we played with a rag ball, the worms we collected in a shoebox, a flower we pressed in the pages of a book, our concern for a fledgling bird fallen from its nest, a wish we made in plucking a daisy. All these little things, ordinary in themselves yet extraordinary for us, can never be captured by algorithms. The fork, the joke, the window, the ball, the shoebox, the book, the bird, the flower: all of these live on as precious memories “kept” deep in our heart.

This profound core, present in every man and woman, is not that of the soul, but of the entire person in his or her unique psychosomatic identity. Everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the dwelling-place of love in all its spiritual, psychic and even physical dimensions. In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved."

-Pope Francis Dilexit Nos (2024, 20-21)

[henxleo]

Sic enim dilexit Deus mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret, ut omnis, qui credit in eum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam.

Ioannes 3:16

Porque Dios amó tanto al mundo, que entregó a su Hijo único para que todo el que crea en él no muera, sino que tenga Vida eterna.

Juan 3:16

[apenitentialprayer]

God's merciful love always triumphs (cf. Hos 11:9), and it was to find its most sublime expression in Christ, His definitive Word of love.

Pope Francis (Dilexit nos, §100b)

Christ Leans from Heaven and Draws Us to the Heart of God, by Elizabeth Wang

What does serving mean? Serving means giving an attentive welcome to a person who arrives. It means bending over those in need and stretching out a hand to them, without calculation, without fear, but with tenderness and understanding, just [like] Jesus[.]

Pope Francis (September 10th, 2013 Address to the Astalli Centre Refugee Service)

[fear-not-beloved]

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.

Dilexit Nos (28)

[locustheologicus]

DILEXIT NOS: ON THE HUMAN AND DIVINE LOVE OF THE HEART OF JESUS CHRIST

As I begin to read this Encyclical I am reminded of a saying my spiritual director would tell me as I struggled with the idea that God loves me, “the farthest distance exist between the head and the heart.” I immediately thought about that as I considered Pope Francis’ social reason for writing this encyclical.

Living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart. #2

A Teleological Encyclical: I do not think this encyclical will be known as a social encyclical. Like all encyclicals it will address social concerns for sure but the subject of what Pope Francis is addressing here goes at the heart of human meaning. The encyclical has us reflect on teleology and theological anthropology rather than focus on a particular social issue. Pope Francis invites us to ponder the following questions.

Who am I, really? What am I looking for? What direction do I want to give to my life, my decisions and my actions? Why and for what purpose am I in this world? How do I want to look back on my life once it ends? What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences? Who do I want to be for others? Who am I for God? All these questions lead us back to the heart. #8

There is a social concern however underlying the timing for this teaching. The tragic warping of our humanity by becoming what Pope Francis defines as “a serial consumers who live from day to day, dominated by the hectic pace and bombarded by technology.”

There is so much wisdom about personal growth that anyone can really take from this document. I advice all people to please read this encyclical (yes, even non-Catholics) and consider the idea that we humans musty go beyond the limites of defining ourselves within a system of reason and cold logic. If God is truly love then the only way we can come to an actual awareness of that truth is to enter into a dynamic of relationship with God and one another. If we are open to this dynamic we may be shocked into believing what that actually means for us. This is same shock that so affected St. Augustine who struggled to find meaning during the late Roman Empire. Pope Francis tells us that "Saint Augustine opened the way to devotion to the Sacred Heart as the locus of our personal encounter with the Lord. For Augustine, Christ’s wounded side is not only the source of grace and the sacraments, but also the symbol of our intimate union with Christ, the setting of an encounter of love."

These jottings are of course my own personal reflections but I again invite each individual who is open to their own spiritual growth and development to take this document and deeply reflect on the premise that God is love and we are called to share in that love with ourselves and each other.

I have been deeply drawned to the idea that Pope Francis developed of a mystical fraternity in his very first exhortation. I have written on Goizueta's idea of forming an "empathic fusion" as the dynamic that forms an authentically integrated relationship between peoples. In this new encyclical Pope Francis takes us further in defining this dynamic by describing the dangers of individualism and narcisism.

The heart makes all authentic bonding possible, since a relationship not shaped by the heart is incapable of overcoming the fragmentation caused by individualism. Two monads may approach one another, but they will never truly connect. A society dominated by narcissism and self-centredness will increasingly become “heartless”. This will lead in turn to the “loss of desire”, since as other persons disappear from the horizon we find ourselves trapped within walls of our own making, no longer capable of healthy relationships. As a result, we also become incapable of openness to God. #17

The central point I am finding with this document is that Pope Francis wants us to rediscover the deepest meaning to our humanity by entering a stage of mystical reflection and in doing so to distance ourselves away from the world of algorithms, social media and AI.

In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved. #21

Pope Francis reminds us that Jesus teached this to us, not even so much in words as by his examples.

He seeks people out, approaches them, ever open to an encounter with them. We see it when he stops to converse with the Samaritan woman at the well where she went to draw water (cf. Jn 4:5-7). We see it when, in the darkness of night, he meets Nicodemus, who feared to be seen in his presence (cf. Jn 3:1-2). We marvel when he allows his feet to be washed by a prostitute (cf. Lk 7:36-50), when he says to the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you” (Jn 8:11), or again when he chides the disciples for their indifference and quietly asks the blind man on the roadside, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10:51). Christ shows that God is closeness, compassion and tender love. #35

There is much more that Pope Francis says here about teleology and spirituality but I will leave that alone for now because I was in the middle of writing on that theme for a project I am working on. As I said this encyclical is primarily teleological in its emphasis so chapters three and four are very much reserved for this theme. For now let me just focus on what his social message for us is in light of this theme.

An Evangelical Mission based on Institutional Charity: In the fifth chapter of the encyclical Pope Francis raises for scriptural quotes that remind us how love of God and neighbor shapes our call to Christian discipleship.

“Just as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

“For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’” (Gal 5:14).

“We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death” (1 Jn 3:14).

“Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 Jn 4:20).

This is followed by an historical lesson on how Christianity ultimately defeated the Roman Empire, a lesson we need to recall as we again take on the spirit of a missionary Church. The lesson comes from the exchange of Emperor Julian the Apostate who tried to undermine the deep social influence of Christianity.

We need to remember that in the Roman Empire many of the poor, foreigners and others who lived on the fringes of society met with respect, affection and care from Christians. This explains why the apostate emperor Julian, in one of his letters, acknowledged that one reason why Christians were respected and imitated was the assistance they gave the poor and strangers, who were ordinarily ignored and treated with contempt. For Julian, it was intolerable that the Christians whom he despised, “in addition to feeding their own, also feed our poor and needy, who receive no help from us”. The emperor thus insisted on the need to create charitable institutions to compete with those of the Christians and thus gain the respect of society: “There should be instituted in each city many accommodations so that the immigrants may enjoy our philanthropy… and make the Greeks accustomed to such works of generosity”. Julian did not achieve his objective, no doubt because underlying those works there was nothing comparable to the Christian charity that respected the unique dignity of each person. #169

An historical lesson that many of us teach was that Christianity, during the days of persecution, developed an entire welfare state within the imperial state. We gathered the charitable love of the community that felt marginalized by the Empire through our own system of charitable offering. It was said that by the time Decius and Diocletian attempted to combat the perceived Christian threat we had become a state within the state and so the forms of persecutions and social violence that worked so well for the Empire before would no longer succeed. Evidently Emperor Julian is aware of this but he was not able to turn the tide.

In a section titled "Echoes in the History of Spirituality," Pope Francis identifies members of our mystical tradition who recognized a "bond between devotion to the heart of Jesus and commitment to our brothers and sisters." This is part of our Christian spirituality which we need to meditate on. This document promotes devotion and piety but it aims to reincorporate the social responsibilities that it once had.

Pope Francis offers a beautiful lesson here that allows us to stretch the boudaries of our spirituality. Not only are we asked to enter deeper into our devotional practices but we are to see our service to those in need as part of our piety and devotions.

If we are concerned with helping others, this in no way means that we are turning away from Jesus. Rather, we are encountering him in another way. Whenever we try to help and care for another person, Jesus is at our side. We should never forget that, when he sent his disciples on mission, “the Lord worked with them” (Mk 16:20). He is always there, always at work, sharing our efforts to do good. In a mysterious way, his love becomes present through our service. He speaks to the world in a language that at times has no need of words. #214

So what then is the lesson for us. I suggest that the lesson here is that the Christian faith cannot survive or even find relevance by only claiming a distant ideological thesis and relying on a preaching ministry. As the encyclical mentions, Jesus teaches more by example then by words. If Christianity is to believe in the love of God and neighbor then it must be a witness to this teaching; this of course is best accomplished through our communal integration with all people, especially the dispossessed and marginalized, and through our charitable infrastructure.

An Ethic of Reparation: Pope Francis is asking us to build over the ruins of a world we have debilitated with the sins of individualism, narcissism, and insatiable consumerism. Towards the end of the encyclical he calls us toward an ethic of evangelical reparation.

Evangelical reparation possesses this vital social dimension, our acts of love, service and reconciliation, in order to be truly reparative, need to be inspired, motivated and empowered by Christ. Saint John Paul II also observed that “to build the civilization of love”, our world today needs the heart of Christ. Christian reparation cannot be understood simply as a congeries of external works, however indispensable and at times admirable they may be. These need a “mystique”, a soul, a meaning that grants them strength, drive and tireless creativity. They need the life, the fire and the light that radiate from the heart of Christ. #184

Evangelical reparation is a call to mission. It is a call for the Church to be commiteed in "repairing the harm done to this world," with “a desire to mend wounded hearts where the deepest harm was done." This sounds to me like the “field hospital” version of preferential option for the poor. It is a call to the mission of charitable service that very much characterized the early Christian Church. This is the ecclesial mission that Pope Francis is conferring on us. The mission of discipleship.

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 realize that he is sending you forth to carry out that mission. He himself told us, “I am sending you out” (Lk 10:3). It is part of our being friends with him. For this friendship to mature, however, it is up to you to let him send you forth on a mission in this world, and to carry it out confidently, generously, freely and fearlessly. If you stay trapped in your own comfort zone, you will never really find security; doubts and fears, sorrow and anxiety will always loom on the horizon. Those who do not carry out their mission on this earth will find not happiness, but disappointment. Never forget that Jesus is at your side at every step of the way. He will not cast you into the abyss, or leave you to your own devices. He will always be there to encourage and accompany you. He has promised, and he will do it: “For I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). #215

Of course I would also add to this list of services the social worker/minister and community organizer. Those who are called to serve in our time honored tradition of social ministry should also recognize the need to be guided and enriched by the loving heart of Jesus. These were the ministries that ultimately caused the Christian community to grow and overshadow the Roman Empire.

As he concludes his encyclical Pope Francis offers us the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as our devotional guide in embracing the teaching that God truly loves us. As I mentioned, this encyclical is not meant to be a social encyclical, rather, Pope Francis offer a spiritual and devotional orientation for how we can address these social issues. As he says it.

The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social Encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ. For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home. #217

[ultramontanism]

Catholic Esquire presents: Problems with “Dilexit Nos”

[lesser-known-composers]

Andrea Gabrieli (c.1533-1585) - Sic Deus dilexit mundum

Artist: Carsten Lorenz

Choir: Ensemble Officium, Conductor: Wilfried Rombach