St. Francis never tired of proclaiming it.
He exhorted the faithful
in the LOVE
that is God to love one another.
He spent long nights weeping that
LOVE
is not loved!
As
he lay dying, he asked that
The
human heart is converted by looking on Him
Catechism
#1432
It was for this reason that St. Clare taught her Sisters to
meditate constantly on the Passion of Christ, to keep their spiritual
gaze fixed on Jesus Crucified, to align their wills with the redemptive
FIAT! of the Son of God.
The whole prayer of Jesus
is
contained in the loving adherence of His human Heart
to the mystery of
the will of the Father.
Catechism
#2603
While devotion to the Sacred Heart was only in the first stages
of development in the 13th century, awareness of the infinite
treasures of the love of Christ was deeply rooted in early Franciscan
spirituality.
In fact, it
was to the writings of the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, that the
Church turned when composing the Office for the Feast of the Sacred
Heart.
He who bids us to run to the Fountain
which is Christ reminds us that the Church
venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus because
(this)
Sacred Heart,
pierced
by our sins and for our salvation,
is
quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that love
with
which the divine Redeemer continually loves
the eternal Father
and all human beings without exception.
Catechism
#478