The first step of the Way of the Heart focused on God’s initiative to communicate with us, in many different ways, his love for us. Even when our mind is away from God, when our frailty and our sin seem to push us away from him, we know by faith that God comes to dwell in our heart and give us what we need the most at every moment of the day.

Just as our hearts are restless and needy when we do not rest in God, so too is the world in which we live restless when it isn’t focused on God. In fact, we see daily so many situations that remind us how God’s mission for humanity is far from being a reality. Devastating hunger, wars, injustice, exploitation of the poorest of society, economies that destroy people and natural disasters all reveal the brokenness that exists in the world. All this must touch our hearts and make us sensitive to the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, especially those who are victims.

Pope Francis in Lampedusa spoke of the “globalization of indifference,” that is, living as if these realities did not touch us. We need to acquire a greater sensitivity, which will not let us be closed off in our com-forts, but will lead us, through prayer and action, to be instruments of the closeness of God in all these situations. We must continually ask God to give us courage us, that we may not stand still when some-one is suffering.

• Fr. António Valério, SJ
  Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Portugal)