Year of Saint Joseph
Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"
In other years: Saint Barnabas the Apostle
Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 8 The Divine Office at Night
Mass: Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9; Resp Ps (Is 12); Eph 3:8-12, 14-19; Jn 19:31-37
May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith.
HEART OF JESUS, PIERCED WITH A LANCE,
HAVE MERCY ON US.
Happy Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Why not pray with the Litany to the Sacred Heart today. What is your favorite invocation? May it be on your lips and in your heart throughout this most glorious day. Heart of Jesus, aflame with love for us, have mercy on us.
Perhaps take some time too with words from Karl Rahner (1904-1984), beautifully read at Vigils this morning. They are from his little book of meditations, Encounters with Silence, first published in 1965.
Jesus has really told me that He loves me, and His word has come from the depths of His human heart. And His heart is Your heart, O God of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, if this human heart of Your Son is unspeakably richer and greater than my heart, it is so only in that love and that goodness which can never be anything else but love and goodness. It can never conceal within itself the awe-fullness of Your Infinity, which is always all else as well.
Grant, O Infinite God, that I may ever cling fast to Jesus Christ, my Lord. Let His heart reveal to me how You are disposed toward me. I shall look upon His heart when I desire to know who You are. The eye of my mind is blinded whenever it looks only at Your Infinity, in which You are totally present in each and every aspect at once. Then I am surrounded by the darkness of Your unboundedness, which is harsher than all my earthly nights. But instead I shall gaze upon His human heart, O God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and then I shall be sure that You love me.
But I still have one more request. Make my heart like that of Your son. Make it as great and rich in love as His, so that my brothers-or at least one of them, sometime in my life-can enter through this door and there learn that You love him. God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, let me find you in His heart.
And some final words from my patron, Saint Gertrude the Great of Helfta (1256-1301/2), oh she who was so close to the heart of Jesus. It is said that Jesus told one of Gertrude's sisters at Helfta, I live in the heart of Gertrude. Jesus lives in your heart too. Share the love Jesus has for you with others today.
May my soul bless you, Lord God, my creator! ... you have granted me the priceless gift of your familiar friendship, giving me in various ways, to my indescribable delight, the noblest treasure of the divinity, your divine heart, now bestowing it freely, now as a sign of our mutual familiarity, exchanging it with mine. How often you have revealed to me your secret counsels and your pleasures, melting my soul with your loving caresses.
(Gertrude of Helfta, The Herald of Divine Love, Book II, Ch 23)
SAINT BARNABAS THE APOSTLE,
SAINT GERTRUDE THE GREAT OF HELFTA,
SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE,
SAINT CLAUDE LA COLOMBIERE,
SAINT JOSEPH, DILIGENT PROTECTOR OF CHRIST,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: Saint Gertrude the Great of Helfta, through the hand of Brother Claude, OSB. She hangs outside the Chapel at Queen of Angels Monastery, home to the Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel, Oregon.
© Gertrude Feick 2021
