Taizé for June: The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Introduction

One of Pope Francis’ legacies is his encyclical letter published during the last year of his life, which is entitled in English, “He Loved Us.” He uses the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the illustration of that love.

In the Catholic Church, the month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One of the most beautiful aspects of our faith is that through the incarnation, the Son of God shared fully in our humanity. This means that when we say that God loves us, he does so, not in a disembodied way, but as one of us. He experiences the affection, the tenderness, warmth, and passion that we experience in loving another. The Sacred Heart reminds us that in Christ, God loves us with a human heart, and each one of us is the object of his love.

Click on this link to download a copy of the worship aid for the June 5 prayer service. https://www.pbrenewalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/June-5-2025-Taize-Worship-Aid.pdf

A reading from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel.

For thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I myself will search for my sheep and examine them.

As a shepherd examines his flock while he himself is among his scattered sheep, so will I examine my sheep. I will deliver them from every place where they were scattered on the day of dark clouds.

I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and every inhabited place in the land.

In good pastures I will pasture them; on the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down on good grazing ground; in rich pastures they will be pastured on the mountains of Israel.

I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest.

The lost I will search out, the strays I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, and the sick I will heal. (Ezekiel 34: 11-16)

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon: where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Closing Prayer

O God, you pour out your love on us.

May we in turn lavish that love on others, as your Son Jesus did in his life, death, and resurrection. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.