Originally published at National Catholic Register
The encyclical is being published amid the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
Pope Francis will publish the fourth encyclical of his pontificate on Thursday on “the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”
The encyclical entitled, “Dilexit nos,” meaning, “He has loved us,” will be published on Oct. 24.
The Pope had announced in June that he was preparing a document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, noting that meditating on the Lord’s love can “illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart.”
Pope Francis then described the document as something that “brings together the precious reflections of previous Magisterial texts and a long history that goes back to the Sacred Scriptures, in order to re-propose today to the whole Church this devotion imbued with spiritual beauty.”
“I believe it will do us great good to meditate on various aspects of the Lord’s love, which can illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart,” Francis said at the
