When I was little I thought that the images of the Sacred Heart were strange, even a little creepy. You know the images I'm referring to- there are many forms, but always they depict Jesus with his heart exposed. Sometimes he's holding it in his hands, sometimes he's pulling back his robes to show the heart in his chest... the heart always has flames coming from the top and often is surrounded by a crown of thorns.
As an adult the significance was explained to me, and ever since then it has been one of the images that is able to move me to tears. At the time that Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque, images, even crucifixes, often portrayed Jesus as a triumphant king in regal robes rather than as the suffering servant. This indicated the greater deficiency; that we did not understand the true nature of his love. When he appeared to St Margaret, he came to tell us that he loves us with a HUMAN heart; a heart like ours. And in his human heart he feels the grief of our rejection, the pain of being separated from those he loves, he feels our indifference and our ingratitude. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is, simply put, devotion to the love of God.
His love is so raw, so visceral, so vulnerable that a piece of himself, offered in deepest silence, is more to the point.
5 comments:
Faith, I'm going to Czestochowa, now it's night here and I'm prepering my backpack. We will start at 5.30 from sw. Anna. This year there is no white gruop so I joined to black-white - this is Dominikan's :). I hope that my faith which is close to the Franciszek rather, will be on corect place :). You are in my prayers.
Wojtek :)
Wojtek,
You're joining the good guys! God bless your pilgrimage!
RE: Sacred Heart
It always disappoints me how people -- and I take myself as the prime example -- can go to such great lengths to avoid facing the difficulties of our life, especially the pain and suffering of it. Yet this is exactly where Christ meets us. He gives us his heart, and we wound it mortally, and yet he continues to give it to us -- because it's the only way that our own hearts can be healed. He calls us to share his suffering, because he has come to share our suffering. And by sharing his suffering, he also draws us with him to share hie life.
I found your blog and I thought that you might be interested in the musical act called The Priests. What separates this classical trio from others is that they really are catholic priests, who have recently signed a recording contract with Sony BMG. They are currently recording an album of classic hymns from the Latin Mass but you can find them on their
website and even on youtube If you like what you hear it would be great if you could help them become better known to the public by mentioning them in one of your blog posts one day.
Perhaps several of us can join Wojtek on the Czestochowa walk next year. -Trinka
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