The heart, in its biblical understanding, is the core of a person, the center where all one's thoughts, feelings, and will come together in full unity. To speak of the heart of God is to speak of the place where God is most God.

The feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus draws us to the reality that God's heart is broken open by love and poured forth for the sake of love. It reminds us that self-emptying love is the true image in which our hearts were created.

I ponder God's broken open heart poured forth in creation...

I ponder Jesus' self-emptying heart, pouring love like balm and it its emptiness creating a haven and home for us...

I ponder my heart made in that image, rejoicing in how God has formed me to receive and offer unbounded love and begging to live more fully from that identity.

--RitaWoehlcke, SSJ

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