One year can fly by or creep. For Kim King, RSCJ, the anniversary of her final vows is an opportunity to reflect on her vocation and her life as a Religious of the Sacred Heart.

Mater Admirabilis was painted in 1844 by Pauline Perdrau, who at that time was a Sacred Heart postulant. Her feast is celebrated on the 20th October, a special day for Religious of the Sacred Heart, their co-workers and friends throughout the world.

Maureen Glavin, RSCJ offered this reflection at a Reconciliation Service in St. Charles on March 30. Her encouragement on finding the path to holiness is worth a few minutes during this Holy Week.

From July 7 to 11, 2010, approximately 250 RSCJ, Associates, Network colleagues, and collaborators and friends of the Society of the Sacred Heart met at Stone Ridge for a conference entitled Sacred Heart Spirituality in a Globalized World. 

"We all know that we are in the midst of a social and cultural upheaval; a new civilization is being created

We in the US Province affirm our fundamental identity as women summoned by God’s love revealed in Jesus. With a common refrain across the province we acknowledge that our communion with the Triune God, who is Holy Mystery and Sacred Presence in our universe, is the ground of our being. Prayer and intimacy with God in the Pierced Heart of Jesus is the wellspring of all that we are and do, and everything in our lives flows from it. Fed by prolonged times of contemplative silence and solitude, we offer our lives daily, generously, in cooperation with the transforming power of the Spirit, to further God’s work of healing and redemption. The mystery of Incarnation—the conviction that God has taken flesh among us—alerts us to know God in humanness: our own and that of others. We know ourselves as members of the body of Christ where Eucharist is lived daily both in celebration and in acts of solidarity with all. The call to be “wholly contemplative /wholly apostolic” resonates deeply within our hearts and challenges us to be women who engage the world around us with the intuitions and convictions that come from deep within the heart of Christ, a heart that, throughout our lives, we come to know and love above all else.

What is it that fills our hearts?
What is it that we really want?
Are we so pre-occupied with what we have to accomplish, with doing things right, with measuring up, with meeting expectations that we can not attend to the emptiness of our hearts?

Eve of All Saints’ Day, 1854

We prepare for the feast of All Saints with peaceful joy. There are millions of saints in heaven…some who are close to us. There are those who met with the same challenges, the same temptations, the same passions that we have. There are some who faced enormous difficulties. So we can attain – in fact we hope for – heaven. That is why we are here today. We look forward to the same heaven; we expect to enjoy the same God. What a powerful encouragement!

This essay by Terry Monroe, RSCJ originally appeared in RSCJ Occasional Papers of Fall 1995. Even though more than ten years have passed, the content still speaks to issues that are very alive for us today. Since no Word document is extant, the essay is provided here only in the PDF format.

Lent is not only an invitation to contemplate Christ’s pierced heart. It is also an opportunity to practice habits of heart that help us live the paschal mystery and an invitation to look for signs of his resurrection in our daily lives. This afternoon I want to reflect with you about being the heart of God, the heart of the risen Christ in our world today, this dynamic process of the Spirit present and powerful. As I give examples from those who have reflected on these habits of heart and from my own life, I encourage you to fill in examples from your own life.