A young woman prays quietly, kneeling at a wooden pew in a cool stone chapel. It’s a night like many others. A cold breeze squeezes through the wooden window panes. The chapel is quiet, with the warm, sweet smell of candle wax and incense from recent feast days. She turns the pages of a small prayer book, glancing up at the crucifix over the main altar.
Her life is not bad. She has friends and family who care for her. She suffers from occasional stress and has trouble sleeping, but she can speak with a few friends about these issues and find support. She knows that people find her a bit odd. She is clumsy, awkward, nervous.
And, there is something else. She’s never been able to name it. A stirring. A hope and desire for something, for someone. She feels it now. The red flickering flame in the dark church draws her eye. This red candle honors the Real Presence of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus in the tabernacle. The flame grows brighter, hotter, like a heart beating silently in the dark. She hears something. It is quiet at first, growing louder and more insistent. She sees something. She sees someone. She sees him. Jesus says to her, “Behold the Heart.”
“I could plainly see His Heart, pierced and bleeding, yet there were flames, too, coming from it and a crown of thorns around it. He told me to behold his heart which so loved humanity. Then he seemed to take my very heart from me and place it there in His Heart. In return he gave me back part of his flaming heart” [excerpts from her journal, France, 1673-75]
[This reflection is from Fr Joe Laramie SJ’s award-winning book, Love Him Ever More: A 9-Day Personal Retreat with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Ave Maria Press, Notre Dame, IN, 2023. Used here with permission]
full article: https://www.denvercatholic.org/the-sacred-hearts-350-year-legacy-began-with-one-humble-nun