Many of you will be aware that I was in Rome for a few days last week. Providentially I happened to be in St Peter's Square when our new Holy Father Pope Leo was announced and was fortunate to receive his first blessing as Pope. During my time there I prayed for, and offered Mass for, your intentions.

In this coming Sunday's gospel we hear the Lord Jesus talk of love. Love is a word much used, often misunderstood, or sometimes abused. What is the nature of love? This is something that has preoccupied people from time immemorial. Our preoccupation with it perhaps suggests that in some way we are "programmed" to love. Without a sense of love in our lives we somehow feel incomplete as a human being.

At its deepest level, as St Paul says, loves gives everything to the other person. I am reminded of this every time I see a person caring for another during times of illness and difficulty. I have seen this in my own family where my dad cared 24/7 for my mum who had a long term debilitating illness. Loving another enlarges the heart and illuminates the soul as it certainly did for both my mum and dad. May they rest in peace.

As Christians we see this too in Jesus whose love was, and is, so deep for each and every one of us that it led to the sacrifice of himself on the cross. But his love for us was and is so strong that it overcame the limitations of death in his resurrection, a resurrection that he offers to us too where he desires to share his love for us in eternal life.

Perhaps take a moment to thank God for the experience of love you have encountered in your life and ask that he will being you to eternal life, light, and love in his kingdom. Be assured that this is something that he greatly desires for you.

Please be assured of my daily prayers for your needs and intentions.

Fr Chris