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Reflections from The Cross, Our Only Hope

If the teaching body in the Church exhorts, so powerfully and unanimously, all Christians to seek salvation in the Sacred Heart, we, consecrated as we are by our own constitutions to this Adorable Heart, should be foremost in this solemn act by the fervor of our souls and the entire offering of our whole being to the loving Heart of our Divine Savior. — Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C.

To speak about the heart is to speak about the very core of who we are, the very center of our being.

Traditionally, the heart is also the symbol of the emotions, most particularly the symbol of love. In a rich and powerful way these two ideas come together in the Sacred Heart. For, devotion to the Sacred Heart draws us into the core of who Christ is, which is ultimately divine love.

Fr. Moreau chose the Sacred Heart as the patron for the priests of Holy Cross because it drives at the heart of who we are called to be—men who are drawn to the Lord and his divine love and men who offer our lives to him in service of the Church.

Throughout most of my formation and early priesthood, I wondered if I had what it took to be a Holy Cross priest. This question was probably the strongest in my mind as I lay on the floor at my ordination while the litany of the saints was sung. What was I doing? What did I have to offer? And as I listened to the words and the beating of my own heart, it slowly came to me: right there on the floor was what I had to offer—only me and my beating heart. And in the end, that is all any of us has to offer to God—our very self and our own heart beating in time with Christ’s.

— Jeffrey Allison, C.S.C. (Reflection for June 6)

From The Cross, Our Only Hope: Daily Reflections in the Holy Cross Tradition, ed. by Andrew Gawrych, C.S.C., and Kevin Grove, C.S.C., Copyright 2008 by Priests of Holy Cross, Indiana Province. Used with permission of Ave Maria Press (www.avemariapress.com).