Australia: Reflecting on Our Logo

For a few years now I have been wearing the logo of the open heart enclosing the world. This logo expresses what I understand and love about my vocation as a religious of the Sacred Heart.

 

Jeanne de Charry rscj wrote of our spirituality being one movement – from the Heart of Christ to the world and back to the Heart of Christ. That has had a strong appeal for me and I found this logo giving expression to that. The Sacred Heart is a love that draws us outwards and the openness of the heart in the logo is a symbol of that.

 

The cross that links the ends of the heart says that to be truly loving, to be open to the world is not simply to have a cozy feeling or to look at others from afar. There is a depth to the loving that passes through the cross.This is the model of the love that Jesus left us, it seems to me, and for that it speaks to me of my understanding of my vocation.

 

I also feel it puts before us the truth that our ministry is so much more than what we do and for this reason we continue to live it to the day we die. At times, RSCJ question their value if they no longer have an active ministry. The heart surrounding the world tells us that our ministry is on-going, that there is never a moment when we cease to carry it out.

 

For me personally, the prayer of intercession has become important and is linked to our responsibility for the world. This may sound grand but it is viewed from the position of the widow and her contribution to the Temple! Small, though it be, it is a response to a call to discover and reveal the love with which we have been gifted, a love that we send across the world through our bringing that world before the God who made us.