I picked up a scrap of paper that was placed under the statue of the Sacred Heart in the church. Someone had written a one line prayer that was invested with a gem-like faith. It read: O Sacred Heart of Jesus, fill the hearts of the new First Communion children with your presence of love always.  This is a prayer of wonder and mystery. It is in keeping with the prayer intention of this month that people, including children may “find their way in life, allowing themselves to be touched by the Heart of Jesus.”

The scrap of paper under the statue reminds us of the scraps of everyday experiences of grace that we fail to collect because we are too busy, too pre-occupied and maybe we delude ourselves into thinking that we are too sophisticated for the beauty and simplicity of prayer.

So often we come to God’s altar with empty “heart-baskets” because we have neglected to collect the scraps of the ordinary, the everyday, the hum-drum,  that etch for us all the traces of “the loving-kindness of the heart of our God” in the chaotic pattern of our hectic lives.

Let us strive to walk along the Way of the Heart on a daily basis and make our own the Father’s loving gaze upon humanity, acting in all things with the Heart of Jesus Christ. Let us also go to the places where men and women are suffering injustice, to help heal and support the brokenhearted.

• John Cullen
  Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Ireland)