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Many popes in the last 100 years have had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, frequently encouraging it and writing about it in their homilies, speeches and letters.
Pope Benedict XVI wove it into a number of his writings and speeches, such as a letter he wrote on the 50th anniversary of the encyclical, Haurietis Aquas.
Opening us to the love of God
He reflected on devotion to the Sacred Heart and explained how it can open our own hearts to God:
When we practice this devotion, not only do we recognize God's love with gratitude but we continue to open ourselves to this love so that our lives are ever more closely patterned upon it. God, who poured out his love "into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (cf. Rom 5:5), invites us tirelessly to accept his love. The main aim of the invitation to give ourselves entirely to the saving love of Christ and to consecrate ourselves to it (cf. Haurietis Aquas, n. 4) is, consequently, to bring about our relationship with God.
Pope Benedict XVI went so far as to say that the devotion, "has an irreplaceable importance for our faith and for our life in love."
Furthermore, the love we experience from Jesus' Sacred Heart can help us love our neighbor:
Whoever inwardly accepts God is moulded by him. The experience of God's love should be lived by men and women as a "calling" to which they must respond. Fixing our gaze on the Lord, who "took our infirmities and bore our diseases" (Mt 8:17), helps us to become more attentive to the suffering and need of others.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus remains a beautiful devotion, one that helps to form our heart and open it to God and our neighbor.
