The Heart

The Heart
By Br. Stella Maris

The heart is a sign of life and love. When we see a heartbeat on
a sonogram, we are joyful. It is the heart that pumps lifeblood through
our bodies. The heart is also a sign of love. We often replace the word love
with a heart in our messages when we express our love. We feel a certain
warmness of heart when we think about those we love, whether it’s our
family, friends, spouse, or God and His goodness. This month of June we
glory in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His Sacred Heart is also a sign of life
and love, divine life and divine love. Divine life because through pouring out
His blood in His Passion we are freely given grace, which is a share in the
divine life. A sign of divine love, a love ceaselessly pursuing us, His
beloved, to free us from our slavery to disordered desires, selfishness, and
death. When we receive the Eucharist, the same body, blood, soul, and
divinity that animates the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our hearts
are transformed. Let us then go forth into the world and seek out
those whose hearts are hardened by vice or suffering, with only a flicker of
life left in their heart and invite them to be transformed by the overflowing
measure of grace poured out for them by the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

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