ANGELUS: NECESSITY TO CONTEMPLATE THE HEART OF CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, JUN 23, 2002 (VIS) - Before praying the Angelus today at midday with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II affirmed that "the month of June is marked in a special way by devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Celebrating the Heart of Christ means going to the intimate center of the person of the Savior."

The Pope said that "if the human heart represents an unfathomable mystery that only God knows, how much more sublime is the Heart of Jesus in which the very life of the Word beats! In it ... all the treasures of wisdom and science and all the fullness of divinity are to be found."

"How necessary is the message derived from the contemplation of the Heart of Christ for contemporary humanity! Today I wish to entrust in a special way all those who live in the Holy Land to the merciful Heart of Jesus: Jews, Christians and Muslims. That Heart, full of shame, never nurtured feelings of hatred or vengeance, but asked pardon for its killers; that Heart shows the only way to exit the spiral of violence: the way of the pacification of souls, reciprocal comprehension and reconciliation."

After the Angelus, the Holy Father indicated that "from the region of Qazvin, situated in northwest Iran, there arrives news of a violent earthquake that has caused numerous deaths, injuries and serious damage. I elevate to the Lord fervent prayers for the victims, their families and for all those who suffer due to the dramatic consequences of the earthquake. I encourage the efforts of the rescue workers and I hope for an immediate and generous response of international solidarity in the face of this grave situation."

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