Presentation Sisters Union North East Ireland Union of Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This Friday, 28th June we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
This can be a Feast Day that seems somehow ‘old fashioned’ and out of date with where we are at in society today. That might have something to do with some of the imagery that we have grown up with surrounding it.
However, in these days it seems to me that it is a Feast that is more relevant than ever.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was particularly important to Nano Nagle, and continues to have a particular resonance for Presentation people everywhere. This Feast can help us understand what the measure and extent of our love should be.
I am also struck so often by my immediate colleagues, and their faithful, consistent loving of others that prevails, often in the challenging and seemingly unrelenting situations they find themselves in. This Feast provides the answer, the reason and the motivation for ‘faith-filled’, faithful care and love of all people and all things in the Universe.
As Father James Martin writes:
“..If we set this devotion aside, we will miss out on a great opportunity to meditate on one of the most important aspects of Jesus’s life: the way that he loved. The Sacred Heart is an invitation to ask ourselves, “How did Jesus love?” and “Whom did Jesus love?”
For me the answers to those two questions are: abundantly, totally and completely; and everyone, especially those who were poor or marginalised.
But there are other questions that Solemnity of the Sacred Heart raises: “How do I love?” and “Whom do I love?” And the most important question of all, “How can I love like Jesus?”
Maybe that’s a question you can ask yourself all week, as you encounter each person with the love of your own heart, which seeks to love as Jesus’s Sacred Heart did”.
Thank you Nano Nagle for your living example of compassionate limitless love and care for those kept poor, and for your continually evolving legacy of practical love.
See link for full article by Fr. James Martin HERE