ooooo
The spirit of the Sacred Heart, for me, is everything that goes beyond the classrooms, the books, the lessons, the blackboards, and the walls of the school where I was educated. The essence of the Sacred Heart is to be found scattered throughout the world, in the form of imprints, passed from one heart to another.
The Sacred Heart means feeling at home: with a charism that is full of life, revolutionary, visionary, austere, enthusiastic, advocate, open-eyed, focused on the weakest. Feeling at home visiting Bantabá. Feeling at home when I see a picture of Mater. Feeling at home every time the Barat groups greet one another with embraces, pat each other on the back, or shake hands.
Following the way of the Sacred Heart means being out there on the street, allowing oneself to be devoured by the realities of the least powerful, and freely proposing justice, kindness and social change. Being part of the Sacred Heart is being part of a family that generously gives its life in the desire to respond. A sharing family, a family that offers support and spreads out in a network woven together with humanitarian values.
An RSCJ friend and companion once explained to me that what vulnerable people really need is dignity, and that is given with the most powerful weapon, love. A vital lesson that I received as a member of the Sacred Heart Family has been the capacity to live and bear witness to this seeming madness of using the weapon called love.