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.
If you look closely at this image, Love Ripples, by Mary Stewart, RSCJ, you will see me resting in God’s heart – just there on the right of the center of this Heart – in the darkest, quietest corner. I am not alone. Someone is resting there with me. Is it you?
The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is an important one in the Society of the Sacred Heart, because it was important to Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat. We offer here a contemporary version of Sophie's prayer and a poem by Sister Eve Kavanagh.
When I look at this image, I feel safe and loved. I love the colors, the depth, the vitality, but most of all I love the emotion. I identify with what I perceive as a human figure in the lower right corner, sheltered by the cross and the Sacred Heart. There is warmth emanating from that little corner of the world, and the cross of Jesus, with its sturdy support and fiery center, protects her. In a world that offers too much violence, too much uncertainty, too much casual meanness and self-involvement, how many of us are looking for nothing more than security and love?
Pope Francis has designated September 1 as a Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. We offer the prayer below for your use on this day.
Good and gracious God,
I thank you for the beauty of the earth and all creation.
Help me to hear always the calling to be a good steward of your gifts, the caretaker of all you have entrusted to us on earth.
Let me always recognize, cherish and enjoy the goodness in all of creation.
Teach me reverence for every person and all living things.
As the new school year begins, we offer some prayers for our Sacred Heart students, teachers, staff, parents and trustees:
Heavenly Father, unseen Companion of our life,
give us faith and eager expectancy
as we begin this fresh stage of our journey.
Take from us all fear of the unknown
and teach us to wrest treasures from the darkness.
For four years I lived in a small town in Haiti and, although there is not proof that the creator of this image is Haitian, I see it through that lens.
The bright white of his robe reminds me of the dresses of the little girls of the village, washed in the muddy water of drainage ditches yet emerging spotless! Starched and pressed with irons filled with hot charcoal, made from trees stripped and burned in the decimated hills, yet still providing fuel for food and a bit of dignity.
This image of the Sacred Heart, as traditional as any image could be, held a place of honor in my husband’s family home on the living room fireplace mantel. It was there before he was born and it remains there today. Each evening, his parents would gather the family around it for the family rosary. When I first saw it, in the ‘70s, I was fascinated by the warmth and peace that seemed to radiate from the image – a human with a heart, yet divine.
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
So loving
So humble
So gentle
So compassionate
So faithful
So wise
So patient
So steadfast
So tender
So spacious
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
God’s joy
God’s shalom
Harp of the Trinity
Wingbeat of the Spirit
Breath of God
Five-petaled rose
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Through the centuries, the Christian community has consistently tried to capture its developing understanding of Jesus Christ in word and image, a never ending challenge to portray the Mystery of the love of God made visible in the man, Jesus of Nazareth, who went about doing good and eventually laid down his life for us.
In the long text version of Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich devotes a chapter to the Sacred Heart. The words Jesus had spoken to her twenty years before as he directed her gaze to the wound in his side — “Look how much I loved you” — she explains as follows: