Missionaries of the Sacred

Dear Friends,

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have as our motto “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be Loved Everywhere.” Our founder, Fr. Jules Chevalier, came up with the phrase in the mid 1800s because he saw what he called “modern evils” and believed that the solution was God’s love. Our mission is to bring the love of God to whatever situation in which we find ourselves.

Our missionaries work in many different settings and in various parts of the world. Some of us do hospital chaplaincy where we visit, pray for and simply be with those who are ill. In this ministry, we want those who are suffering to know that they are not alone. We also have missionaries who do prison ministry to bring hope and share some sense of how God is present for people who are incarcerated. Some of us also work in parish settings and bring a sense of God’s love and involvement to daily life and circumstances. We help each parish with its particular needs. For instance, in my parish we run a food pantry and a health clinic for the uninsured. Again in this setting, we carry the same message that God’s love is both real and made so through us. We also have men working with Native Americans and with Latinos, helping them understand and believe that they too are part of the Kingdom. Many of our missionaries also have dedicated their lives to the work of God in foreign countries like Papua New Guinea and Colombia.

Most of the time we do not have specific answers to the particular problems faced by different communities; but we do have God’s presence. That’s what ministry is all about for us. It is a focus on God’s presence, not ours, and how God touches the lives of people. We are grate­ful to be instruments of His love.