Frédéric Fornos, Jesuit priest and international director of the Pope’s Prayer Network between 2014 and 2024, presents the link between Pope Francis (who died on 21 April 2025) and the spirituality of the heart of Jesus.
Pope Francis‘ last encyclical is entitled “Dilexit nos” (’He loved us’, Rom 8:37) and deals with the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ. Published in October 2024, it came out in the middle of the Jubilee of the Heart of Jesus, which will conclude in June 2025. With this encyclical, at the end of his pontificate, as he entrusted us with his testament in the form of the synodal path, he also revealed to us the source of his ministry: Jesus.
At the source of the Gospel.
Through his first name and his very life, he wished to follow in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, who embodied the Gospel for his time, among the poor and the excluded, and cared for our common home. As a Jesuit, that is, a companion of Jesus, Pope Francis was steeped in the Gospels and the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. The Gospels reveal to us the very way of being of Jesus. They were his compass. Saint Ignatius never speaks of the Heart of Jesus, but invites us to contemplate Jesus in the Gospels, following him on the paths of Galilee, as if we were at his side, listening to him and watching him act, ever closer to him, so that one day we may be like him. He invites us to ask for the grace to have ‘a greater inner knowledge of Christ, who became man for me, so that I may love him and follow him more’. This is what Francis lived his whole life, every day, at the source of the Gospel, of the Heart of Christ, to the point of being marked by his way of life.
At the school of the Spiritual Exercises
The Spiritual Exercises lead, in fact, to a deep love for Christ that culminates in what we call ‘Contemplation to attain love,’ where, in recognising all the good we have received, the desire to ‘love and serve God in all things’ grows within us. This leads to the total gift of oneself, asking only for the grace to love him (ES 234). The Spiritual Exercises lead to the Heart of Jesus, even though the word ‘heart’ does not appear as such. The height, length, breadth and depth of Love were revealed in Jesus. Pope Francis’ mission, in docility to the Spirit, has its source in a deep personal love for Jesus Christ.
In the light of the Beatitudes and Matthew 25
This is evident when we know him, when throughout his pontificate we have listened to his words and seen his actions. In fact, his life and actions speak louder than his words. Words can be interpreted and even misinterpreted by taking them out of context, but actions are more difficult to misinterpret. We may not want to see them, and the Gospels clearly show that we can have eyes and not see, ears and not hear, but actions remain. Those who have a ‘heart of the poor,’ those who are the simplest, are those who see and hear. This is also what Jesus says when he reveals his heart to us through the Beatitudes.
The Gospel at work can be recognised by a poor heart that allows itself to be touched.
Pope Francis’ way of being was fraternal, simple and full of humour. Many of us felt that when we met him, we were unique, as if he had all the time in the world for us, to welcome us and listen to us. His ability to listen was exceptional. It is rare to meet people who are totally present, without being distracted by their thoughts. He listened with his heart. He was a spiritual father. He then gave us back what he had heard, what he had perceived deeply, what had resonated within him as he listened, fully attentive to spiritual movements, in an attitude of discernment.
As international director of the Pope’s Prayer Network, I never felt, as I sometimes do with other people, that he was above us, distant, or seeking to exercise any kind of power. He exercised a natural, paternal authority, and at the same time fraternal as a Jesuit, without seeking to impose his views or to guide this or that decision, but in dialogue, seeking together what was best. He was a man of prayer and discernment. His simplicity in his life and even in his language, which was direct and full of little stories and parables from everyday life, said more than anything else that Jesus, his way of being, his heart, was his source.
Allowing himself to be ‘merciful’ by God.
Let us not forget how many times he emphasised the importance of mercy. Of course, this was especially true during the ‘Extraordinary Holy Year’ dedicated to Divine Mercy (8 December 2015 to 20 November 2016), whose motto was ‘Merciful like the Father’ (Luke 6:36). How many times did he remind us: ‘God never tires of forgiving; it is we who tire of asking for his mercy.’ The mercy of the Lord’s Heart is central to Francis‘ life and pontificate, to the point that Pope Francis’ official motto is ‘Miserando atque eligendo,’ which can be translated as ‘Chosen because forgiven.’ He even coined a new word. He uses the verb ‘misericordiar’ in Spanish (his mother tongue), which could be translated into English as ‘to be merciful’ or ‘to be shown mercy’. ‘Let yourselves be shown mercy by God’, let yourselves be actively touched, transformed and healed by the Lord’s mercy.
The Heart of Jesus, an antidote to the temptations of our time.
I remember one day when I presented to Pope Francis the formation programme of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, called ‘The Way of the Heart’, which is a renewal of the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus in the light of the Spiritual Exercises. Each month, he asks us to pray for the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church, helping us to learn compassion from the Heart of Christ. During that meeting, he told me that the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus was an antidote to the two temptations of our time, Gnosticism and Pelagianism, which he speaks about in Gaudete et Exsultate. On the one hand, in the face of Pelagianism, the spirituality of the Heart of Christ emphasises the gratuitousness of God’s love and our dependence on his mercy, reminding us that our salvation is a gift, not a merit. The Heart of Jesus is the source of this grace, an invitation to make ourselves docile to the Spirit of the Lord rather than relying on our own strength. On the other hand, in the face of Gnosticism, it reminds us of the incarnate love of God in Jesus Christ, thus avoiding a purely intellectual understanding of faith. Furthermore, this spirituality teaches us that knowledge of God’s love comes through the heart, through experience and relationship, rather than through pure intellectual speculation.
The Heart of Jesus is an antidote to the ‘globalisation of indifference’.
As he reminded the Laudato Si communities in 2020, ‘compassion is the best vaccine against the epidemic of indifference’. ‘Compassion is not just nice feelings, it is not pietism, it creates a new bond with the other. It means taking charge, like the Good Samaritan who, moved by compassion, took care of the unfortunate man he did not even know (cf. Lk 10:33-34). The world needs this creative and effective charity, people who do not remain in front of a screen commenting, but people who get their hands dirty to remove degradation and restore dignity. Having compassion is a choice: it is choosing not to have enemies, to see everyone as my neighbour. And it is a choice.’
Pray with me
I cannot resist ending by recalling what Pope Francis said in June 2020 about the Heart of Jesus:
a devotion that unites the great spiritual masters and the simple people of God. Indeed, the human and divine Heart of Jesus is the source from which we can always draw God’s mercy, forgiveness and tenderness. We can do this by reflecting on a passage from the Gospel, feeling that at the centre of every gesture, every word of Jesus, there is love, the love of the Father who sent his Son, the love of the Holy Spirit who is in us. And we can do this by adoring the Eucharist, where this love is present in the Sacrament. In this way, our hearts too, little by little, will become more patient, more generous, more merciful, imitating the Heart of Jesus. There is an old prayer – which I learned from my grandmother – that said: ‘Jesus, make my heart like yours’. It is a beautiful prayer. ‘Make my heart like yours’. A beautiful, simple prayer to recite this month. We too can whisper it in the silence of our hearts: ‘Jesus, may my heart be like yours.’
