In these recent weeks leading up to Lent, I have spent much time in prayer meditating on the heart — my heart, your heart, the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Bible mentions “the heart” more than 700 times.
We know the heart symbolizes our deepest self, the center of our emotions, desires, longings, and loves.
Our heart drives our decisions, commitments, values, and direction.
The Lord tells us that where our treasure is, there also our heart will be. (Matthew 6:21)
This Year of Jubilee and this Lenten season are opportune moments to ask ourselves: Where are our hearts?
Let Him in
We have all had times and seasons when we felt our heart to be broken, sad, disengaged, or even dead.
Suffering in any form, whether it be physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual, can tempt us to withdraw from God and others, wary of trusting the Lord’s ways or the intentions of others.
Sadness, anger, and fear can paralyze us, when we are so wrapped up in our own issues, that little room exists in our hearts for God and others.
Mass, prayer, family time, and even social activities can weigh heavily on us when our heart is not in it.
Lent is a powerful opportunity for us to enter the inner chamber of our own heart, as the Lord told us in the Gospel on Ash Wednesday, and to let the Divine Physician do some heart surgery on us.
Explore with the Lord in prayer these forty days where your heart is at this point in your life.
Are you tired, distracted, discouraged, overwhelmed?
Is your heart hopeful, longing, searching, and loving?
Maybe some of both?
When we allow the Lord to search our souls in prayer, we will discover His love in a deeper way than ever before, and simultaneously attain greater self-knowledge.
I picture the Lord walking through the halls and chambers of my heart with a lifted lamp, healing, blessing, cleansing, de-cluttering the byways of my inner being with the light of the Holy Spirit and the grace of His Divine Mercy.
We can go through all the motions of practicing our faith, being the dutiful Catholic, performing all that is expected of us by others at work and home, but if our heart is not in it, we know that something essential is lacking.
With all the responsibilities and problems in our lives, we can become resentful, feeling taken for granted, unappreciated, invisible, or even worthless.
Only Jesus, through the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, and through our own faithful prayer life, can heal us of all of that, and keep our hearts centered on Him.
Open our hearts
St. Thérèse of Lisieux reminds us that God is not looking for us to perform great deeds, but to do little things with great love in our hearts.
In other words, it matters less what we externally accomplish in the world than whether our heart is truly awake, vigilant, and in love with the Lord.
God is constantly inviting us to fall deeper in love with Him, and when we have even little glimpses of that burning charity which flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our faith becomes a response to this great divine romance.
If we simply remain on the safe and boring level of fulfilling some Catholic obligation, we will never become the saint that God has called us to be.
When we fall in love with the Lord, we stop counting what we do for Him, but simply give our all, like Mary pouring forth the costly aromatic perfume on the feet of Jesus in John 12 to manifest her heart before His fearful Passion and death.
Exercise your heart this Lent, so that your perfume jar is full!
Stretch yourself when it comes to prayer, charitable actions, the study of Scripture, your presence and attention at Mass, your care for those around you.
Maybe the Lord is not calling us to do more, but to be more, to be more present, attentive, and engaged in the present moment.
After all, the present moment is all we have, and God is profoundly active within it.
Meditate on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Imagine the Lord standing in front of you, as He appeared to St. Margaret Mary in 1673, with His flaming Heart extended to you.
This meditation, which I try to do often, sets my heart in the right direction, as I ask the Lord to place His Heart within me, so that I can speak, love, and act as an extension of Him.
Let the Lord lead you to the inner chamber of His Heart where we find consolation, peace, joy, and salvation.
Often in the Gospels, Jesus goes off to a deserted place and spends the entire night absorbed in prayer.
This inner spiritual life of the Son of God fascinates me.
What did the Son say to the Father during those long, mysterious nights?
What did the Father say to the Son?
Did Jesus simply rest in the Father’s heart in a wordless communion of love?
If Jesus felt the need to pray that much, how much more should I!
This Lent and this Jubilee are golden opportunities for us to give our hearts to the Lord and to let Him reign in us.