"O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us poor sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of You, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate heart of Mary, Your tender mother and ours." (from the Novena to the Sacred Heart)
The image above is from an "Entering Canaan" weekend we had one summer at "Camp St Joseph". The theme I chose was "Living in the heart of Jesus". One of things we asked the women to do was to write their names on the board of the Sacred Heart you see in front of the altar.
Many wrote their names within the heart, some wrote them in the white area surrounding the heart, some on the edges, and others deep in the middle of His Sacred Heart.
There is no question that our names are etched into the heart of Jesus in spite of any sins we may have comitted. He calls us to His embrace, telling us this is so, but when we are immersed in pain and working our way to healing, it is sometimes hard to see or believe that we are within His heart. In fact, we may even be fearful of being there for fear of his judgement. We may still not believe such a sin can be forgiven. Still, we are always there in His heart, whether we will to be or not. The question is, how open are we to allowing Him in our hearts? Our signature can be a reflection of this. A sign of where we are in our healing.
As our healing grows, we recognize and want to be in His heart. We do not judge by our feelings which can be fleeting and changing depending on our moods, or the events of the day, but instead by a "knowing". A knowing that He is working in our lives, has forgiven us if we have confessed, and is leading us deeper into His heart and a life with Him.
As we write our names, are we in the white section, distant from Him? Are we on the border, still not sure and moving with caution, or have we opened our hearts to dwell in the depths of His?
"The mercy of God gives life to man, it raises him from the dead. The Lord is always watching us with mercy, [always] awaits us with mercy. Let us be not afraid to approach him! He has a merciful heart! If we show our inner wounds, our sins, He always forgives us. He is pure mercy! Let us never forget this: He is pure mercy! Let us go to Jesus!" Pope Francis
Let us embrace the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus trusting Him and opening ourselves so that our hearts shares the rhythm of His as He embraces us!
