Missionaries of the Sacred

On Friday, July 1, 2011, we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart, our Patron. The Sacred Heart is the Source of all graces. Our Founder, Jules Chevalier, wrote in 1862, “The Heart of the divine Master is the center of which everything in the Old and New Testaments converges, the pivot around which everything in Catholicism turns, the sun of the Church, the soul of our souls, the source of our mysteries, the origin of our sacraments, the pledge of our reconciliation, the salvation of our world the remedy of all our ills.”

One of the greatest messages of our Faith is that God loved us with a human heart. This Heart was formed in the womb of our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. It is the fountain of human love, emotional love and divine love. (Cf. Pius XII, Haurietis Aquas)

The Church sets aside days to honor special devotions to teach us and to remind us of what’s important in life. Some of these devotions are becom­ing popular due to the positive im­pact on people’s lives. I believe that we have a feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all of these reasons.

As the years go by, our needs, under­standings, and motivations change. In order to meet the needs of our changing situation, the meanings contained in a devotion often devel­op and grow. I believe this is happen­ing in the Sacred Heart Devotion. The change is from devotion (something we do) to spirituality (something God does within us). Often in devotions, we hope God will cooperate with us and our needs and desires. Spiritu­ality is about our cooperating with God and His desires. His first desire for each of us is a loving relationship with us because He loves us. His next desire is that we radiate the senti­ments of His heart, which are the fruits of this relationship and which help those around us enter more deeply into a loving relationship with Him. All of our teaching, praying, sacraments, and vocations to priest­ly, religious, married, or single life are really about this. Missionary activity, evangelization, contemplation, and meditation all are about a loving re­lationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

An excerpt from an article by Fr. David Foxen, MSC

The point of religious freedom is to respect the beliefs and practices of oth­ers because we recognize their fundamental human dignity. As missionaries we do not see our mission limited to any one group for it is a call to reach out to every person. We are formed in the Spirituality of the Heart, and the Spirituality of the Heart is the basis of dialog with every person, regardless of their personal religious convictions. It is an understanding of God’s love, made human in the person of Jesus Christ, that transcends language and culture. In the Gospels we see the unseen love of God become visible and present in the human words and actions of Christ. In the deepest sense, it does not really require words. God’s love is revealed in the healing touch, the comfort to the widowed mother, the respect and forgiveness shown to the woman at the well or the woman about to be executed.