Heart of Jesus, aflame with love for us A love greater than thousands of ocean. A love deeper than the world's deepest abyss. A burning love hotter than a thousand furnace that can melt men's hearts of the whole universe in an instant. A painful love that makes the whole Heaven keep silence. Our earthly words cannot totally describe. Our intellect cannot fully understand. "Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love...". This is Jesus' Most Sacred Heart. This is His Love for you. This is not some sort of fantasy or myth or legend or fiction. It is a true fact and It is alive. Jesus - a real God, opened His Divine Heart to St Mary Margaret and told her that "My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men,...being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must needs spread them abroad by your means, and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition...".  You may ask: how can we as a human equally return this Love? To be honest, we can never equally return His Love, yet He is happy for our 'small love' to return His 'endless Love'. Because He is not asking you to do something extremely great, He is not asking you to conquer the whole nation to prove your love to Him. Some of the ways we can honour Jesus including consecrating ourselves to His Most Sacred Heart, enthronement of the Sacred Heart in our homes, pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart, celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, practice the 'First Fridays' devotion, and one hour Adoration on Thursdays. They are not something impossible, they do not depend on your wealth, your intelligence, your knowledge, but depend on whether you are willing to. Jesus, Heart of Love, I love you, let my love appease your pain.

Then he said to them, ‘Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith?’ They were filled with awe and said to one another, ‘Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.’ (Mark 4:40-41) Grant, O Lord, that we may always revere and love your holy name, for you never deprive of your guidance those you set firm on the foundation of your love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,  God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Pope Francis has decided that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee. Theme is “Pilgrims of Hope”. It will be a year of hope for a world suffering impacts of war, the ongoing effects of COVID pandemic, and climate crisis. In preparation for the Jubilee Year, 2024 has been designated a Year of Prayer by the Holy Father. Here are some resources to help us prepare: Pray as you go https://pray-as-you-go.org (An online resource recommended by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales offering prayers, meditations, music and blogs to help deepen your daily spiritual life) Hallow https://hallow.com/ (An app that offers reflections, quizzes, daily rosary, meditations, daily gospel readings.) Teach us to Pray https://rcadc.org/resources-for-jubilee-2025 (A resource to use as a community, families and individually to intensify our prayer.) Praying the Word https://rcadc.org/resources-for-jubilee-2025 (Lectio Divina & the Sunday Readings) We Dare to Say https://rcadc.org/resources-for-jubilee-2025 (A booklet for small group reflection on the Lord’s Prayer compiled by the Bishop’s Conference)

Heart of Jesus, overwhelmed with insults We often show our love to the ones we love through hugging or kissing, or through buying flowers or expensive presents; but if someone show his love through excruciating pain and enormous sufferings, through costing his own life...does that take this 'love' to a totally higher level and intensity? One of the things which St Mary Margaret Alacoque wrote in her diary was that the Sacred Heart of Jesus was shown to her surrounded with a crown of thorns, symbolising the pain He is suffering for our sins...Think about His Love again: what a sacrifice it was for an almighty and powerful God incarnate to become a weak and fragile human, but that is not all, He suffered His most horrible Passion and died for us. Yet that is still not all, because He revealed to St Mary Margaret that He experiencing more grievous sufferings than all He endured in His Passion because His Heart which so loves us and has Love overflowing for us, received nothing from us in return but only ingratitude and contempt: "If only they would make Me some return for My Love, I should think but little of all I have done for them and would wish, were it possible, to suffer still more. But the sole return they make for all My eagerness to do them good is to reject Me and treat Me with coldness." It is a Heart waiting, waiting to be loved. It is also a Heart wounded because of us, because of our sins. Everyday, this desire of His often meets a sorrowful end, because the 'us' that He has been waiting with eagerness return to Him, not with love, but with new and more tortures - our indifferences, our coldness, our spitefulness, our sacrileges, our rebellious, our criticisms, our condemnations...all these like spears and arrows and thorns pierced His Most tender Heart...yet like a silent lamb He bears with them all. Such is the patience of His Heart, ever waiting, so many years of disappointment, still continue to love with hope; like a Father waiting for his prodigy son to return home, like a man waiting for his disappeared lover that one day she will return into his embrace...

‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like? ...It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’ (Mark 4:30-32) O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Church teaches that life is to be nurtured from conception to natural death. This year’s theme is The Lord is my Shepherd – Compassion and Hope at the End of Life . A debate on end-of-life issues has been in the headlines in recent months with calls for assisted suicide being expressed, especially by celebrities, a view that opposes the Catholic view that life is a gift and that we are called to care for others at the end of their lives. His Holiness Pope Francis prays that through their reflection on the theme, this public testimony will encourage a deeper understanding of the precious gift of life and a greater desire to protect the most vulnerable from a culture that would pressure them into ‘assisted suicide’, which is falsely presented as a form of compassion. It is likewise his hope that those nearing the end of their earthly journey will recognise the immense value of their lives, experience the comforting presence of Jesus and their loved ones, receive dignified care and trust deeply in God’s promise of eternal life.  The Day for Life 2024 Message and Prayers can be found: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ sites/3/2024/06/DFL24-Printable-A4.pdf (CBCEW) This weekend there is a Second Collection for Day for Life

Promises of Jesus to St Margaret Mary In favour of those devoted to His Sacred Heart (1) I will grant them all the graces necessary for their state in life. (2) I will establish peace and union in their families. (3) I will console them in all their pains and trials. (4) I will be their assured refuge in life and more especially in death. (5) I will bestow the blessings of Heaven on all their undertakings. (6) Sinners will find in My Heart the fount and infinite sea of Mercy. (7) Tepid souls will become fervent. (8) Fervent souls will rise rapidly to greater perfection. (9) I will bless those homes wherein the image of My Sacred Heart is exposed and honoured. I will imprint My love on the hearts of those who wear this image. I will also destroy in them all disordered movements. (10) I will give to priests who are animated by a tender devotion to My Divine Heart the gift of moving even the most hardened of hearts. (11) Those who propagate this devotion will have their names inscribed on My Heart, never to be effaced from it. (12) I promise thee, in the excess of the mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant all those who receive Holy Communion on the first Fridays of NINE consecutive months THE GRACE OF FINAL REPENTANCE: THEY WILL NOT DIE IN MY DISPLEASURE, nor without having received the Sacraments. My Heart will be their secure refuge in this last hour.

‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking round at those sitting in a circle about him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.’ (Mark 3:33-35) O God, from whom all good things come, grant that we, who call on you in our need, may at your prompting discern what is right, and by your guidance do it. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Divine Mercy Prayer Group Next meeting dates are 13th, 27th June & 11th July at 2.30pm in St David’s Chapel Entrance from Bedford Street. All are welcome!