SPIRITUAL LIFE COMMITTEE

 

MISSIONARY SERVANTS OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

 

 

May 21, 2002

Dear Confreres:

 

May the grace and love of the Holy Spirit be with us during this blessed season and in the days to come!!!

We are sending you for the month of June this first of the series of Monthly Reflections as a resource for your personal or communal spiritual exercises. We hope that this will be of benefit to you.

We want to thank our brothers and sisters who have graciously accepted to write and share with us their reflections. We ask each one of you to dig into your files, select one or two reflection aids you have written (or a favorite of yours) and send them to the Spiritual Life Committee for future dissemination. Also we encourage you to give us feedback on how we can enhance our ministry to you and to the Family!

God bless you all. Sincerely yours,

In the Most Holy Trinity,

Your brothers in the Spiritual Life Committee

Anselm, Dennis, Domingo, Gerardo, John Seymour, Seraphim

A HEART THAT IS SACRED

"Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, have mercy on us." Here we have the Mystery of the Incarnation: Heart of Jesus. (Meditations of Father Judge p. 285).

Eating soup in a restaurant in Lorain, Ohio, one afternoon, a young married man thinks of his wife and daughter living in Puerto Rico. He works at the steel mill and is sending money for them to join him here.. A priest from the United States arrives saying the he wishes to speak with the men that were having lunch. The priest tells them that he wishes to establish a church for the Puerto Rican community. With this invitation the mission of Sacred Heart Chapel commences. This was 50 years ago and the priest was Father Gerard Fredericks, ST. The person of Jesus was the inspiration for this priest and of our founder Father Thomas Augustin Judge. SACRED HEART: A name that reveals to us the love of the eternal Father and reveals the mercy that God has for us. In the pictures of the Sacred Heart we notice that his heart has a wound. God wants to penetrate our pain. God wants to make all of our experiences sacred..

What is it that makes a heart sacred? What is it that makes the heart of Jesus sacred? What is it that filled Jesus with passion and tenderness? Let us name a few things and people that filled the heart of Jesus:

The reality of ‘knowing himself as the beloved son' which led him to love.

His passion for proclaiming not the kingdom of men but the ‘Kingdom of God'.

His intimate desire de ‘show us the Father' at every moment.

These realities penetrated him completely and led him to a love without conditions for the following people: Children, lepers, widows and orphans, the humble, the blind, cripples and prisoners, the depressed and the naked. Alas the most insignificant. To the list I only need to add myself. When I know myself as wounded and yet loved by Jesus I, too, become a heart that is sacred. A heart that allows me to be humble and at the same time attentive to the needs of those who suffer. What is the heart of Jesus calling me to? That I be "Heart of Jesus burning furnace of charity." The source of charity is Jesus and we are called to be like him. To give ourselves to those that are not worth much in the eyes of the world.

Today the insignificant ones are those that live at the margins of society, the drug addicts, alcoholics, indigenous, those abused and those that abuse, the gay and lesbian people and all those that are different than me. But if my heart is like Jesus' heart something special happens. I, too, feel the reality of being a ‘son or daughter loved by God' and led to love others. I proclaim a ‘kingdom' where forgiveness and love reign. This then will allow me to live a life that "shows or reveals the Father"at every moment.

Father Gerard knew how to imitate the heart of Jesus with the Puerto Ricans in Lorain. Father Judge expects that we approach the fire of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus so that we can shine on this world so in need of love.

Reflection questions:

What is it that makes a heart sacred? What is it that makes my heart sacred? What is it that fills me with passion and tenderness? What can I do to imitate the love of Jesus?