Dilexit Nos
Pope Francis
ISBN 9781784698331
CTS Booklet DO977
I picked up this volume for it was the next volume in Father Mark Goring’s Saint Mark’s School of Reading, This is available on the Vatican website for free, but I prefer the CTS Booklet version, I just wish they could publish an eBook edition. I worked through two different versions of this book, this physical edition and the eBook edition available from Opus Dei. I used text-to-speech to listen to the eBook and read this version.
About this volume we are informed that:
“In his fourth encyclical, Pope Francis reflects on the Sacred Heart of Jesus: “The deepest part of us, created for love, will fulfil God’s plan only if we learn to love. And the heart is the symbol of that love.””
The description of this volume is:
“Dilexit Nos is Pope Francis’s encyclical on the love of Jesus’s Sacred Heart, exploring how this divine and human love meets the deepest needs of our world today. The Sacred Heart is not only a symbol but a living reality that invites us to unity, compassion, and transformation. Through Jesus’s actions, words, and sacrifice, we see His enduring closeness to us, His profound mercy, and His desire for our reconciliation with God and each other. This text calls Catholics to return to the heart, where true self-understanding and love for others begin, and to embrace a faith that inspires both personal and societal renewal.
"Love and the human heart do not always go together, since hatred, indifference and selfishness can also reign in our hearts. Yet we cannot attain our fulfillment as human beings unless we open our hearts to others; only through love do we become fully ourselves. The deepest part of us, created for love, will fulfil God’s plan only if we learn to love. And the heart is the symbol of that love." (Dilexit Nos, 59)”
The chapters and sections in this volume are:
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HEART
What do we mean by "the heart"?
Returning to the heart
The heart unites the fragments
Fire
The world can change, beginning with the heart
ACTIONS AND WORDS OF LOVE
Actions that reflect the heart
Jesus 's gaze
Jesus's words
THIS IS THE HEART THAT HAS LOVED SO GREATLY
Worshipping Christ
Venerating his image
A love that is tangible
A threefold love
Trinitarian perspectives
Recent teachings of the Magisterium
Further reflections and relevance for our times
A LOVE THAT GIVES ITSELF AS DRINK
A God who thirsts for love
Echoes of the Word in history
The spread of devotion to the heart of Christ
St Francis de Sales
A new declaration of love
St Claude de la Coiombiere
St Charles de Foucauld and St Therese of the Child Jesus
Resonances within the Society of Jesus
A broad current of the interior life
The devotion of consolation
LOVE FOR LOVE
A lament and a request
Extending Christ's love to our bothers and sisters
Echoes in the history of spirituality
Reparation: building on the ruins
Reparation: an extension of the heart of Christ
Bringing love to the world
Conclusion
I highlighted a few passages while reading this volume, they are:
“The symbol of the heart has often been used to express the love of Jesus Christ. Some have questioned whether this symbol is still meaningful today. Yet living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart.”
“It could be said, then, that I am my heart, for my heart is what sets me apart, shapes my spiritual identity and puts me in communion with other people.”
“We see, then, that in the heart of each person there is a mysterious connection between self-knowledge and openness to others, between the encounter with one’s personal uniqueness and the willingness to give oneself to others. We become ourselves only to the extent that we acquire the ability to acknowledge others, while only those who can acknowledge and accept themselves are then able to encounter others.”
“At that point, we realize that in God’s eyes we are a “Thou,” and for that very reason we can be an “I.” Indeed, only the Lord offers to treat each one of us as a “Thou,” always and forever. Accepting his friendship is a matter of the heart; it is what constitutes us as persons in the fullest sense of that word.”
“The heart of Christ, as the symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us, is the very core of the initial preaching of the Gospel. It stands at the origin of our faith, as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs.”
“In his humanity, Jesus learned this from Mary, his mother. Our Lady carefully pondered the things she had experienced; she “treasured them… in her heart” (Lk 2: 19, 51) and, with Saint Joseph, she taught Jesus from his earliest years to be attentive in this same way.”
“Since the heart continues to be seen in the popular mind as the affective centre of each human being, it remains the best means of signifying the divine love of Christ, united forever and inseparably to his wholly human love.”
“Finally, Saint John Damascene viewed the genuine affections shown by Christ in his humanity as proof that he assumed our nature in its entirety in order to redeem and transform it in its entirety: Christ, then, assumed all that is part of human nature, so that all might be sanctified.”
“Devotion to the heart of Jesus, as a direct contemplation of the Lord that draws us into union with him, is clearly Christological in nature.”
“While no one should feel obliged to spend an hour in adoration each Thursday, the practice ought surely to be recommended. When we carry it out with devotion, in union with many of our brothers and sisters and discover in the Eucharist the immense love of the heart of Christ, we “adore, together with the Church, the sign and manifestation of the divine love that went so far as to love, through the heart of the incarnate Word, the human race.””
“It could be argued that today, in place of Jansenism, we find ourselves before a powerful wave of secularization that seeks to build a world free of God. In our societies, we are also seeing a proliferation of varied forms of religiosity that have nothing to do with a personal relationship with the God of love, but are new manifestations of a disembodied spirituality.”
“One who is pierced, a flowing fountain, the outpouring of a spirit of compassion and supplication: the first Christians inevitably considered these promises fulfilled in the pierced side of Christ, the wellspring of new life. In the Gospel of John, we contemplate that fulfilment. From Jesus’ wounded side, the water of the Spirit poured forth: “One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water flowed out” (Jn 19: 34). The evangelist then recalls the prophecy that had spoken of a fountain opened in Jerusalem and the pierced one (Jn 19: 37; cf. Zech 12: 10). The open fountain is the wounded side of Christ.”
“Saint Charles de Foucauld and Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, without intending to, reshaped certain aspects of devotion to the heart of Christ and thus helped us understand it in an even more evangelical spirit. Let us now examine how this devotion found expression in their lives.”
“In a world where everything is bought and sold, people’s sense of their worth appears increasingly to depend on what they can accumulate with the power of money. We are constantly being pushed to keep buying, consuming and distracting ourselves, held captive to a demeaning system that prevents us from looking beyond our immediate and petty needs. The love of Christ has no place in this perverse mechanism, yet only that love can set us free from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for a gratuitous love. Christ’s love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost.”
“I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that his Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary and fraternal world.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for the content of this Apostolic Letter. I admit I was unsure of what to expect when I began reading this. I am thankful I gave it a read. One of the things I loved most about this volume was how much was drawn from the lives and writings of the saints. And many of the saints quoted are among my favourites of those I have studies a lot. In Some ways it was like visiting with many old friends.
It is a longer than the other Encyclical letters from Pope Francis, it comes in at 144 pages for this edition, 94 for the eBook for this booklet edition and 55 pages if you print it off from the Vatican site. This is a great volume.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.
Note: Father Mark Goring used a few guest speakers while covering the material in this volume. He wanted a number of hearts to share on the Heart of Jesus. They were: Sister Elizabeth Marie, Father Isaac Longworth, and Amber Rose. The reason for this comes right from the Encyclical the beginning of 148 “Devotion to the heart of Christ reappears in the spiritual journey of many saints, all quite different from each other; in every one of them, the devotion takes on new hues.” It really added to the experience of reading this and the School of Reading Lessons on the volume.
For a list of all books that are part of Father Mark Goring's Saint Mark’s School of Reading click here.
Books about the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
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