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.
Seeing that He was already dead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a lance, and immediately there came forth blood and water.
Between the death and resurrectionCame the gift.The strength to give,The knowledge of the giving,The gift itself – the life –Had gone.Only then: the piercing and the gift.
Life offered to the Father was received, and in that act returned with powerDeath could not survive.The second resurrectionWaits on our acceptance of the gift.
This image certainly disquiets me. Nearly disturbs. But I keep sliding my eyes back to look ... and then slowly I see it. This image is alive with the suffering of the world.
Also, the colors, tilt of the head, and glow, they remind me of a line from Muriel Barbery's book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I now know what you have to experience before you die: let me tell you. What you have to experience before you die is a driving rain transformed into light.
Sixth Station
The dark has liftedfor a moment now,and film of dirt and sweat,blurring His eye focusto make crazy patterns on the road,he cleared.
Too cool clean clothfeels sweet against His face -He remembers His motherhad the same gentleness in her touchwhen she had washed from Himthe grime a child's play made,these many years ago,and held a fresh white towelclose. This towel, too He sees is white.
She entered the roomcarrying an alabaster jar.It was evening –they sat around in conversation.
She approached Jesus quietlyand breaking open the jar she pouredthe precious fluid over his head and filled the air with sweetness.
"Why this waste?”"Who is this woman?" "Why doesn't he stop her?"
Questions crowded the roomsucking up all the air ... hard to breathe.
“Leave her alone! She has anointed me for my burial."
It wasn't about green beer and paradesIt was about freedom and food and a dreamIt's what you do when all that you care about has to fit into a trunkAnd you pretend that you'll get back somedayThat you will see the hills of green and the lyric of Gaelic rhymeBut you know that you won'tAnd so you face your fears and let the tears flow until there aren't anymoreWhile you watch the homeland slip away and feel the rocking of the shipAnd it's not a cruise ship...it's cold and you wonder what you were thinkingand why you believed and all you have is your dream, your memoriesand your faith.
It rides aroundnot quite a shadowbut haunting melike the unfinished business of a half-finished plot
It sits just behind my right shoulder bladelodged between my egoand my consciencebeckoning darknessthat keeps me from the light
Sometimes it's a personthat I couldn't seebecause I was blindedby what I wanted to seewas it generosity or a fool's charadewas it you I was seeingor my own desire to remake you?the clouds move away and I am willing to see
Since I met the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I have found in our logo the meaning of our spirituality: an open heart, the consequence of a “crazy” way of loving so much and so freely, each person in the world. This is Jesus´ Heart and those of us who have heard his invitation to follow him, want to learn how to love this way.
I built my house by the sea. Not on the sands, mind you, not on the shifting sand. And I built it of rock. A strong house by a strong sea. And we got well acquainted, the sea and I. Good neighbours. Not that we spoke much. We met in silences, respectful, keeping our distance but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand. Always the fence of sand our barrier, always the sand between.
"You are dust!" ... a poem by Sister Pamela Hickey
Assume Good Will
It's Simple...Yet very hard to do...
Just for todayAssume Good Will
It means that you choosefor just one dayto assume that good will is the intention of each one with whom you interact
The person who cut in front of you...(was headed for an emergency,not attempting to raise your insurance premium)
