More importantly, there are moments expressive and supportive of genuine love: Father’s Day, June weddings, family reunions, ordinations to the priesthood.

Pentecost Sunday often falls in June, though this year it showed up on May 24 because of the date of Easter. My religious community has a customary Pentecost novena which ties the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit to descriptions of real love. 

Love is a fire that inflames the heart, says the novena on Day One. Then it continues with eight more declarations that love is: a light that enlightens the soul, a fountain that satisfies, a dew which fertilizes, a repose that refreshes, the virtue which gives us strength, the divine cause for God’s dwelling in our hearts, the bond which binds, a treasure containing every good. We can thank St. Alphonsus Liguori for these images of love.

In addition, we are also grateful to St. John Paul II who, in his encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, counseled us that “personal love is the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the Father and the Son,” (10) flowing out to us and the whole world.

Two weeks after Pentecost, we move on to the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi, celebrated this year on Sunday, June 7. With processions across parish properties and in the streets of our cities, we honor the gift of the Eucharist, the “source and summit” of our faith, our ongoing ultimate love feast.

Sacred 

We celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus this year on June 12. We credit the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century with promoting the popular devotion to the Sacred Heart worldwide — and the consequent commitment to marking First Fridays and making holy hours on the vigils of those Fridays.

St. Margaret Mary relayed 12 promises made to those who persevere in devotion. The first 11 of the promises to the faithful, slightly paraphrased here, include: graces needed for one’s state in life, peace in families, consolation in troubles, refuge in Christ’s heart throughout life and especially at the hour of death, abundant blessings on one’s undertakings, an ocean of mercy for sinners, fervor moving lukewarm souls, a speedy rise to perfection for the fervent, blessings on homes that display and honor the Sacred Heart image, a special power given to priests to touch hardened hearts, and a lasting remembrance in the Lord’s heart for those who spread the devotion. 

The last one is perhaps the most familiar: those who have received Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays receive the grace of final repentance, sacramental support and refuge in their last hours. These all attest to Christ’s super-abundant mercy and personal desire for the deepest of connections with each of us.

For me, reviewing the promises of the Sacred Heart recalls the words God speaks in Hosea: “… it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; but they did not know that I cared for them. I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like those who raise an infant to their cheeks; I bent down to feed them” (11:3-4).

Consecrated

Families and devotional groups have conducted enthronements of the Sacred Heart. Nations have been consecrated to the Sacred Heart. One of our now deceased Sisters of Sts. Cyril and Methodius managed for years to smuggle Sacred Heart pamphlets and badges into the former Czechoslovakia when it was under Soviet Communist rule. The bishops of the United States are poised to consecrate the nation to the Sacred Heart on June 11, the eve of the feast.

No one denies that we have seen love, in so many quarters, be eclipsed by war, vengeance, violence, hate-filled actions and rhetoric, oppression and disregard for human life and dignity. In this national act of consecration — on the eve of our nation’s 250th anniversary — we continue to pray that God, who is love, will conquer the hearts and minds of those who resist the call to love and mercy.

I expect during this month to have more than the average heart-to-heart conversations with God. I have numerous requests and some vexing questions, the biggest of which is why so many are militating against love. However, we know that love (God) has triumphed, does triumph, will ultimately triumph.

Some 30 years ago, when I was walking on a downtown street in Pittsburgh, a media personality thrust a microphone in front of me. The question of the day was, “What could you do to improve your love life?” I think the interviewer somehow hadn’t caught on to my religious state in life, and my answer caused him to fall all over himself: 

“I definitely could pray more.”

That’s still true, ever true for believers. The love of God gains momentum and the leverage of the communion of saints when we are all in.