Fr Paul reads from the Gospel of John (19: 31-37) which tells of the time between Jesus’s death on the cross and when his body is taken down from it.

Fr Paul says, today, we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; a devotion that is one of the most widely practiced and well known of our Catholic devotions. It is where we think about, and pray about, the heart of Jesus and how we view it as a symbol of God’s boundless and passionate love for all humankind.

St Gertrude, St John Eudes and St Margaret Mary Alacoque were the three who popularized this devotion to the Sacred Heart.  The devotion is especially concerned with what the Church deems to be the long-suffering love and compassion of the heart of Jesus towards humanity.

For our reflection today, Fr Paul invites us to reflect on the heart of Jesus and on the love and compassion Jesus has for us as humans.