CBCP declares June as month of mercy in the year of laity

THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has declared the month of June in this year of the Laity as a month of mercy.

In a meditation addressed to the faithful, Lingayen Archbishop Socrates Villegas, CBCP president, urged everyone to spend the month of June as a “really special month dedicated to MERCY from the PIERCED HEART OF JESUS”.

“Can we make this a month wherein by God’s grace the Divine Mercy can fill out our own hearts and lives, can bring conversion into our lives, and through us radiate in some very true way in our communities, our parishes …?  A month when we will earnestly ask the Hearts of Jesus and Mary to change us – yes, even little by little – to the likeness of their own hearts, through prayer and devotion, and through deeds of self-giving mercy, compassion, justice and self-sacrifice?" the prelate asked.

The Catholic Church traditionally celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June but with no fixed date. This year the solemnity falls on June 27.

Urged by the example of Pope Francis, who constantly preached on God's unbounded mercy and exhorted everyone to do same, Villegas explained that "we would like to focus this month of renewed Sacred Heart devotion to the Divine Mercy, -- as incarnated, embodied, symbolized in the Pierced Heart of Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord."

"The Holy Father also reminds us that we encounter Jesus by living out his compassion and mercy towards our brothers and sisters who are in need of our own compassion and mercy, -- brothers and sisters in poverty, suffering, loneliness, brokenness, difficulty and despair," he added.

The archbishop said the canonization of John Paul II last April 27 was also an inspiration in proclaiming this month as a month of mercy.

It will he recalled that St. John Paul II created the feast of the Divine Mercy, which is celebrated the second Sunday after Easter.

"The Church, People of God and Body of Christ on earth, must thus also become more and more truly “the Church of Mercy”, Villegas said.

He noted, -- citing Christian spiritual tradition, the teachings of the popes, and the lives of saints – that, it is only from the Pierced Heart of Jesus on the Cross that we can "draw the profound grace and spirituality which can and will renew the primacy of Mercy – both divine and human – in and for our own lives and the life of the Church."

Villegas urged for a "renewed, genuine conversion of heart, and a true reviving and deepening of ‘the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus’” that does not only "involve a renewal and intensification of prayer and devotion in faith and interior life," but also urges an "ongoing earnest, self-sacrificing deeds of love, justice and compassion toward our brothers and sisters."

"We need to go out from our “comfort-zones” and go forth to give ourselves to others -- to “the poor” -- in deeds of charity, sharing; in deeds of justice and merciful love," he added.

"We are called to consecrate ourselves and our lives anew to the Pierced Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary; earnestly to return to the Eucharist and the sacramental life, and the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy," Villegas said.