Tag Archives: Sacred Heart

He Loved Us: Dilexit Nos

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When I typed in “Sacred Heart” with “Pope Francis” on the Vatican website yesterday, I got 1826 results. In his 13 years as pope, Francis referenced the Sacred Heart of Jesus that many times in his public statements. . He did it in talks to religious communities dedicated to the Sacred Heart who came to Rome for a general chapter, to representatives of hospitals, universities and places associated with this devotion. There is even a reference to the Sacred Heart in a talk the pope gave on artificial intelligence.

His Encyclical Dilexit Nos, written last October,  is a long work that surely reflects years of thought on this mystery.  Francis believed a  world increasingly heartless needed to be reminded of God’s love.

It’s a work well worth reading. I took away a number of things from Dilexit Nos on the symbolism of the heart. For one thing, Pope Francis cautions  against being fixed on one artistic representation of this mystery. The meaning of the Sacred Heart can be expressed in many ways, not just the symbolic heart or the image of Christ showing us his heart that usually recalls this mystery.

The gospel at Mass today of the Shepherd searching for the lost sheep is an image of the love of God for us. The sign my community the Passionists wears is a symbol of God’s infinite love. The pope is his letter sees a sign of that love in a mother who takes her little child into her arms after the child has done wrong as an example. No matter what her child has done, the mother still loves.  The love of God takes many forms; the heart symbolizes them all.

I also like the pope’s observation that devotions change over time. The devotion of First Friday Mass and Communion originally was a response to Jansenism that saw humanity unworthy to approach Jesus present in the Eucharist. 

Today, as so many ignore the Eucharist, the pope sees the devotion calling us to remember this Sacrament of God’’s Love.

The Sacred Heart: A Heart Says it All

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Faith says great things in simple ways. Sometimes a few words say it all, like the few words of the Creed. Sometimes signs like bread and wine point far beyond themselves to an infinitely generous God.

How is it possible to sum up the love of Jesus Christ for us? Today’s Feast of the Sacred Heart expresses divine love, which cannot be measured, through the human heart. Pope Francis offered an important recent reflection on the Sacred Heart in his Encyclical Letter, Dilexit nos,

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is always celebrated on Friday, the day Jesus showed the depth of his love, the day he faced rejection and gave himself for us. On that day a soldier pierced his heart as he hung on the cross, and blood and water poured out. “Immediately blood and water poured out.”

See these signs with eyes of faith, John’s gospel says. They reveal God’s love for us and for our world. His pierced heart says it all. The heart can never be separate from the Person whose heart it is: Jesus Christ. He can never be separate from the Father and the Holy Spirit, so his heart represents the love of the Trinity for the world.

Consider

Consider who hangs on the cross for you, his death gives life to the dead, his passing heaven and earth mourn,  even the hard stones split. Consider how great he is, who he is. He slept on the cross that the church be formed from his side and scripture might be fulfilled:

“They shall look on him who they have pierced,  One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, blood and water flowed out paying the price of our salvation. He gave his blood that the sacraments might give grace, living water, eternal life.

Bride of Christ, arise and like the dove, like the sparrow finding a home, drink from the wells of your Savior. He is the spring flowing in the midst of Paradise. from him four rivers flow to every heart, watering the whole world and making it fruitful.

Run with longing, cry out from your inmost heart: Beauty of God most high, Shining everlasting light, Life that gives life to all life, Light that illumines every light, Water eternal and unseen, clear and sweet, flowing from a spring hidden from all, A spring whose depths can’t be plumbed, whose height can’t be measured, whose shores can’t be charted, whose purity can’t be muddied. From him flows the river that makes glad the city of God. 

So with songs of thanksgiving, we sing hymns of praise. With you is the fountain of life and in your light we shall see light.  Adapted from St. Bonaventure.

Almighty God and Father,  we glory in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, your beloved Son,  as we call to mind the great things his love has done for us.Fill us with the grace that flows in abundance  from the Heart of Jesus, the source of heaven’s gifts. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,  one God, for ever and ever.Amen.

Feast of the Sacred Heart

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The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus falls on the Friday after the Feast of Corpus Christi because  the Eucharist comes from the loving heart of Jesus.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart has influenced generations of Catholics. I think today of the beautiful church of the Sacred Heart in Springfield, Mass, where Father Theodore Foley, the saintly Passionist whose cause for canonization was recently introduced, grew up. That church surely had a profound influence on him.

The devotion was strong in the pre-Vatican II church, but is it as strong today? I ask that question because as I listened on the internet to a short segment on church music from Vatican Radio featuring popular hymns to the Sacred Heart I realized you don’t hear them much in church today.

The devotion, however, has a long history and is deep significance. Here’s an excerpt from St. Bonaventure for today’s Office of Readings  on the heart of Jesus:

“Take thought now, you who are redeemed, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you. His death brings the dead to life, but at his passing heaven and earth are plunged into mourning and hard rocks are split asunder.

By divine decree, one of the soldiers opened his sacred side with a lance. This was done so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the cross, and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘They shall look on him whom they pierced’.
“The blood and water which poured out at that moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.”

“Sweet Savior, bless us ere we go
thy words into our minds instill
and make our lukewarm hearts aglow
with lowly love and fervent will.
Through life’s long day and death’s dark night,
O gentle Jesus be our light.”

Sacred Heart

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Today, the Friday after the Feast of Corpus Christi, is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The feast was deliberately placed on this date because of its associations with the death of Jesus and the mystery of the Eucharist. Statues and symbols of this feast can still be found in so many of our churches and shrines and even our homes. Devotion to the Sacred Heart was a favorite devotion of the generation of Catholics before ours. It was promoted especially by the Jesuits, but the whole church took it up.

I think today of Sacred Heart Church in Springfield, Mass where Theodore Foley grew up. The devotion expressed in that church must of had a profound influence on him.

The devotion was strong in the pre-Vatican II church, but not so strong now. How do I know? I was listening to a little segment on church music from Vatican Radio, which featured popular hymns to the Sacred Heart. Most of them you don’t hear today.

By the way, the Vatican Radio site is a lively place to get little gems of information, like “Was St. Paul a Mysoginist?” Some wonderful stuff on the art and architecture of Rome too.

The devotion, however, points to a mystery that transcends its present expression. Here’s St. Bonaventure, from today’s Office of Readings:

“Take thought now, you who are redeemed, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you. His death brings the dead to life, but at his passing heaven and earth are plunged into mourning and hard rocks are split asunder.

“By divine decree, one of the soldiers opened his sacred side with a lance. This was done so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the cross, and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘They shall look on him whom they pierced’. The blood and water which poured out at that moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting. “

Fr. Theodore Foley Remembered

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Foley Memorial

A memorial area honoring Fr. Theodore Foley, CP in Sacred Heart Church, Springfield, Mass. was blessed today by Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell of the Diocese of Springfield.

Fr. Theodore led the worldwide religious community of Passionists until his death in 1974 and the process for declaring him a saint has begun in Rome. Sacred Heart, in Springfield’s North End was Foley’s parish where he was baptized, attended school and served as an altar boy.

I was one of  nine Passionists at the service, along with a number of diocesan priests, seminarians, sisters and laity. I liked Bishop Mc Donnell’s observation that Fr. Theodore is “a reminder that holiness is all around us.”  How true that is! The memorial area in this beautiful church built in 1889, which has been the spiritual home for so many from the area, is a testimony to the simple, powerful faith of generations of loyal Catholics like the Foleys and their holy son.

The Springfield Republican covered the story  http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/late_springfield_priest_rev_th.html?category=Springfield and CBS televevision.

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more about “Springfield Priest A Candidate For Sa…“, posted with vodpod

Photo courtesy of Jim Brady, Chicopee

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