Pope Video: A call to compassion

June 9, 2020 in coronavirus, News

The Pope Video for June 2020 asks us to pray “that all those who suffer may find their way in life, allowing themselves to be touched by the Heart of Jesus”. The context of the Pope’s call to compassion is the current pandemic and the hardship it has brought to so many people throughout the world.

The video which accompanies the Pope’s prayer is replete with images of front-line women and men, especially health-care workers who have been called on most directly to accompany and to serve the sick and their families. The prayer notes that this “itinerary full of compassion” can transform people’s lives by bringing them closer to the Heart of Christ. In a striking phrase, Pope Francis says that the Heart of Christ “welcomes us all into the revolution of tenderness”.

The Pope Video is published monthly by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (which includes the Eucharistic Youth Movement – EYM). Its International Director is Fr. Frédéric Fornos SJ. In notes accompanying the June video, Fr Fornos emphasizes that the devotion to the Heart of Jesus presents us with a mission of compassion for the world, and is the foundation of every mission:

The disciple whom Jesus most loved, the one who best knew the Heart of Jesus, who lay his head on his breast (Jn 13:23), was also the first to recognize the Risen Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Galilea (Jn 21:7). The closer we are to the Heart of Jesus, the more we perceive His joys and how He suffers for the men, women and children of this world; and we recognize that He is present today as He was in the past, working in the world. The closer we are to the Heart of Jesus, the less indifferent we are to those around us, desiring to commit ourselves with Jesus in this world, at the service of His mission of compassion.

View this month’s video above or visit the Pope Video Youtube channel.