Pope’s Prayer Intention for June

Pope Leo XIV has released his monthly prayer intention for June, asking the faithful worldwide to pray "that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from His Heart, learn to have compassion on the world."

The Holy Father extended the invitation through The Pope’s Video, an initiative to evangelize through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

According to the Vatican News Service:

The Pope Video for June begins with hearing Pope Leo pray "that each one of us might find consolation in a personal relationship with Jesus, and from His Heart, learn to have compassion on the world." The video also presents an original prayer to the Sacred Heart.

Prayer to the Sacred Heart

A woman’s voice leads the prayer, which begins, “Lord, I come to Your tender Heart today, to You who have words that set my heart ablaze, to You who pour out compassion on the little ones and the poor, on those who suffer, and on all human miseries.” 

Next, it expresses the desire to know the Lord better, to contemplate Him in the Gospel, to be with Him, and to learn from Him and His charity.

Remembering how Christ “showed us the Father’s love by loving us without measure with Your divine and human Heart,” the prayer implores, “Grant all Your children the grace of encountering You.”

With this sentiment, it asks for the Lord’s closeness and involvement in our daily lives. “Change, shape, and transform our plans,” the prayer continues, “so that we seek only You in every circumstance: in prayer, in work, in encounters, and in our daily routine.” 

Finally, the supplication asks that the Lord, from this encounter, send us out on a mission of compassion and consolation for the world.

The images accompanying this prayer were filmed in the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in Rome, where one finds the famous image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pompeo Batoni, the restoration of which will be completed by the end of the month; and the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Makati, in the Philippines, which is a popular religious destination for the Archdiocese of Manila. 

Sacred Heart at the heart of pontificates

The Church has traditionally dedicated the entire month of June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

The relevance of the Sacred Heart to the life of the Church is demonstrated both in popular devotion and in the fact that four Popes have dedicated an encyclical to the topic.

Pope Leo XIII, whose name the current Pope took, wrote Annum Sacrum in 1899, in which he consecrated all of humanity to the Heart of Jesus. In 1928, Pope Pius XI, in Miserentissimum Redemptor, invited us to make reparation through acts of love for the wounds our sins inflict on the Heart of Christ. For his part, Pope Pius XII published Haurietis aquas in 1956, in which he explores the theological basis for devotion to the Sacred Heart.