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Our Spirituality

In prayer we come to Him with everything that touches our life,
with the sufferings and hopes of humanity.
 (Constitutions, 20)

As apostolic contemplatives, Religious of the Sacred Heart root our lives in prayer. With a mission to discover and reveal the love of God, our spirituality and our mission are based in love. Our contemplative outlook is part of who we are, whether in prayer, in ministry or in our daily lives.

"The contemplative outlook on the world has been a call to be authentic apostles of Christ's love, to help bring to birth a more welcoming world, to make known a God who is great, bountiful and tender. It is a call to educate in such a way that God's plan, God's glory, may become a reality, so that all may grow as brothers and sisters in the inward freedom of the children of God, and have fullness of life." (Superior General Concepcion Camacho, RSCJ)

The pierced Heart of Jesus opens our being to the depths of God and to the anguish of humankind.
(Constitutions, 8)

On these pages, we will share prayers, poems, reflections and artwork that reflect the spirituality of the Society of the Sacred Heart. We hope you will return here periodically for resources appropriate to the liturgical season and our Sacred Heart traditions.

First Friday Reflections for May 2016

The Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

As a Catholic, I was often puzzled by the continued return to heart imagery among our saints and in our art. The "Sacred Heart" of Jesus and the "Immaculate Heart of Mary," where both are pointing to their blazing heart, are images known to Catholics worldwide. I often wonder what people actually do with these images. Are they mere sentiment? Are they objects of worship or objects of transformation? Such images keep recurring because they must have something important, good, and perhaps even necessary to teach the soul. What might that be?

Blue Hyacinth Day

Blue Hyacinth Day

On May 6th, in 1882 Janet Erskine Stuart had a life-changing experience of God amidst a garden of blue hyacinths. In a flash of insight she knew and embraced the vocation to which God was inviting her. Every year thereafter, on May 6th, she quietly celebrated that event in the garden and renewed her sense of vocation and purpose.

An Affair of the Heart

Friendship

A reflection included on pages 28-31 in Seeking the One Whom We Love: How RSCJs Pray

by Suzanne Cooke, RSCJ

Years ago I learned that Saint Madeleine Sophie spoke of prayer in terms of a conversation. She spoke and God listened, and then God spoke and she listened. I believe prayer is essentially a relationship, and like all relationships, prayer begins in the silence of one’s heart.

First Friday Reflection for April 2016

Wood carving by an unknown artist

How can Christ’s heart possibly be large enough to hold us all?

Consider the beauty of this wooden carving. I see it as an image of Christ’s wide open heart. I am struck by the scale of the heart relative to the size of the image itself; the prominent size and the width suggest an openness which cries out in invitation. A wide gate welcomes many visitors, and so it is with the heart of Christ.

First Friday Reflection for March 2016

While reflecting on Jesuit Marko Rupnik’s mosaic for a while now, I couldn’t help but think of Bette.

Bette McNiff, my very good friend, is dying. As she puts it, “I’m ready for the golden ticket, anytime the good Lord decides.” Acceptance and surrender is at the core of her life. When asked the secret of how she is dealing with her cancer with so much equanimity, now in month sixteen after having been given three months to live, Bette says “faith and trust in God and an Irish sense of humor.”

First Friday Reflection for February 2016

First Friday Reflection for February 2016

As you take a moment to sit quietly with this image, where are your eyes drawn? Is it the figure of Jesus on the cross, the various churches, the contrast of light and darkness in the painting, the depth of color? What catches your attention? What stirs your heart? God communicates to us through images, sounds, words, feelings, imagination and intuition. What is God communicating to you as you gaze at this image?

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