Our Spiritual Library

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 Sunday of Advent Reflection 2018

First Sunday of Advent

From the evening Jorge Mario Bergoglio stepped onto the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome after his election, we learned that the pontificate of Pope Francis was to be focused on the care of and outreach to "the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned" (Mt 25:35-36). Even in the choice of artist for the Holy See's commemorative postage stamps for Christmas, it is an inmate from Milan's Opera Prison, Marcello D'Agata, who communicates the hope which Christ brings by becoming one with us.*

The Journey continues

Gratitude fills our hearts as our journey in Christ, with Christ and through Christ continues

Feast of the Sacred Heart 2018

June 7, 2018

On the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we invite you to reflect on words from our Superior General, Barbara Dawson, RSCJ: “All of us are called to pray deeply. We are called to deepen our love – within the Heart of Christ, for each other and for our world and its people.

The Feast of Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat 2018

May 25, 2018

Happy Feast Day!

The Bicentennial Committee presents: Echoes from the Rebecca

April 23, 2018

The Bicentennial Committee is pleased to share Echoes from the Rebecca, a prayer, reflection and guided meditation resource centered around the four calls of the 2016 General Chapter.

To download, click the "vimeo" logo. Once on the vimeo page, click "Download" located beneath the video.

First Friday Reflection for November 2017

Imagine my surprise walking into the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health and seeing this piece of art on display. Of course I was immediately drawn to the Sacred Heart, particularly this rendition showing both the strength of the flame resting on metal and the vulnerability of the vein-crossed heart formed from fragile glass (at least that’s how I interpret it). When you go to a research institution like NIH, either for yourself or with someone you love, you are embarking on an uncharted path, often as the pioneer for a new treatment that may or may not work.

First Friday Reflection for October 2017

The image of Christ crucified amid a bleak urban landscape reminds us that wherever there is any human suffering, God is also suffering. The smoke stacks poisoning the environment, the tall towers that depersonalize a sense of neighborhood, and the lack of any human presence save that of Jesus Himself are underscored by the color palate of deep russet, black, and gray. One is reminded of William Blake’s “Jerusalem” – one interpretation of which suggests that the mills and factories of the Industrial Revolution dehumanized society and enslaved millions.

watercolor by Min-Ah Cho, Novice of the Society of the Sacred Heart, USC Province

First Friday Reflection for September 2017

Prior to the noviceship, I certainly did not anticipate that the interior work of the noviceship would bring me into such acutely vulnerable places of my heart. In no way did I ever surmise how visceral it would be to face my naked self in those places into which God draws me. The soreness of encountering my shadow, however, is not all that I did not know about the noviceship. I also did not imagine the impact of grace—how deeply it touches my heart and urges me to connect to God’s beauty in people.

First Friday Reflection for August 2017

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.” (John 4:7).

God’s love flows through the compassionate heart of Jesus into the world and is there for us to receive every day, not for doing wonderful deeds but for being, for waking up and living. What a gift!

First Friday Reflection for July 2017

At a particularly difficult moment in the noviceship, I found myself at the botanical garden in Encinitas, California, where I was surrounded by desert flora and could see the Pacific Ocean in the distance. The internal work of being a novice at that moment felt too big for me – whatever it was I had discovered in myself could no longer be contained by prayer in my room. It needed instead the openness of ocean and desert.

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