Spirituality of the Heart

A PLACE OF HOSPITALITY

‘If the structure is more important than the mission, we will never get anywhere,’ says priest who works on parish renewal.^[1]

The Canadian priest, Father James Mallon, says that “A healthy church is a missionary church”. He proposes a renewal that begins by welcoming people first and then allowing them to discover their faith from the inside. This is a reversal that should lead to an end of the “managing decline” approach in favour of evangelization borne of looking for signs of life in the Spirit. The ‘process’ or movements of Heart Spirituality are an embodiment of this proposal. Our hospitality wins hearts, and this hospitality becomes a place where people encounter the God who loves them. Our hospitality is the cradle of faith commitment.

Father Chevalier was well known for his hospitality. Fr. Piperon who knew Fr. Chevalier longer than anyone else said of him,

“Still today after fifty years, we find him kind, compassionate, amiable towards all those who come to him. He has become all things to all men to gain them all to Jesus Christ. This is the great secret which draws so many souls to him from all countries …” ^[2]

And from the Memoire of Fr. X. Maillard, 1923 we read,

There was an obvious breadth to his works of charity, and to his vision. Just as his mind and heart were open to all, his house was too, for hospitality is one of the expressions of charity: He exercised a generous hospitality, especially towards the clergy, regular or secular. His house was always open to his confreres in the priesthood and if his table was simple and frugal, his welcome was always very cordial. ^[3]

In the MSC Constitutions & Statutes 32, 123, 124, we read,

Ours is a spirit of family and a spirit of brotherhood, formed by kindness and understanding, by compassion and mutual forgiveness, by gentleness, humility and simplicity, by hospitality and a sense of humour.

…. the community will value highly the practice of hospitality, especially towards those in need, and towards friends and benefactors.

Hospitality towards our own members, a clear sign of our common spirit, should be a concern of all our members.

BUILDING STRUCTURES OF WELCOME

Shifting from structures to a mission of hospitality can be challenging. Our spirituality, however, shows us how to do it: gentleness, humility, simplicity and kindness. We have a map. The process of transformation that begins with opening our own hearts to the love of God fills us with a charitable joy that confirms our missionary energy.

On the 7th March 2013, just days before the conclave that elected him, Cardinal Bergoglio told the Cardinals,

Evangelizing presupposes a desire in the church to come out of herself. The church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents and of all misery. When the Church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then gets sick. The evils that, over time, happen in ecclesiastical institutions have their root in self-reference and a kind of theological narcissism.

In Revelation, Jesus says that he is at the door and knocks. Obviously, the text refers to his knocking from the outside in order to enter but I think about the times in which Jesus knocks from within so that we will let him come out. The self-referential Church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out. When the Church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light; she ceases to be the mysterium lunae and gives way to that very serious evil, spiritual worldliness. It lives to give glory only to one another. Put simply, there are two images of the Church: the Church which evangelizes and comes out of herself, the Dei Verbum religiose audiens et fidente proclamans; and the worldly Church, living within herself, of herself, for herself. This should shed light on the possible changes and reforms which must be done for the salvation of souls. Thinking of the next pope: He must be a man who, from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, helps the Church to go out to the existential peripheries, that helps her to be the fruitful mother, who gains life from the sweet and comforting joy of evangelising.^[4]

COMING OUT OF OURSELVES

Our being MSC doesn’t call us to come out of ourselves. Coming out of ourselves is why we are MSC. This is the ecstatic nature of religious vocation, to go out beyond ourselves, as did Jesus, following him. Yes, he is at the door and knocking, not in order to join us, but to call us out to join him. Otherwise, it is on our terms. Being drawn beyond ourselves is the point of conversion.

As members of the Society, we are called to the peripheries. We know the experience and how challenging it can be. There are times we know the frustration of encountering great indifference. Jules Chevalier recognised the egocentrism and religious indifference of his time; the mal moderne. Pope Francis points to the same reality. It is an example of the self-reference that can be found both in individuals and systems. It is present within our own Society – not in a deliberate way, but part of our human nature. At the individual level, I am the voice I am listening to. Systemically, the automatic patterns of thinking and acting are the voices we listen to, often without critical awareness.

At a meeting in Rome a confrère once spoke of a “stove-top” understanding of community. Four disconnected burners, all burning separately, not realising the gas in each comes from the one sources. His image calls for a new way of being MSC in this time. A deep conversion or transformation is needed that connects us to our Source. Old wine splits new wine skins. There is a need for credible living of community witness, not just individualistic witness. A New Paradigm – challenging the questions; who are we? to whom are we answerable? Who is sending us?

In Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, we read,

I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).^[5]

He says that mercy is the first thing the Catholic Church is called to bring to those peripheries.

The Church must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel. ^[6]

SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART – a pathway for coming out of ourselves

A new paradigm of challenging questions, stirs us to consider how our own spirituality offers us an approach to this “coming out of ourselves”.

How does our spirituality shape the way in which we lead within the Church and within the wider society in these times?
How do we “come out of ourselves” to go to the peripheries?
How might we fan the flames of our missionary energy in this era? 
How do we speak to egocentrism and indifference?

We are to be missionaries who find the roots of our mission in deep contemplation of the love of God, manifest in the Heart of his son Jesus. We discover the animating Spirit of God behind all things; not mechanically living out of the security of structures. This shift in worldview requires a reimagining of the way in which we see ourselves and the world. Such a shift is already taking place today, within the Church and outside of it. Many of the complex realities of this technological era profoundly challenge the assumptions we have of our perceptions and judgements.

The following comparison comes from the methodology of Appreciative Discernment, an adaption by Fr. Bill Nordenbrock CPPS, of the scholarly work on Appreciative Inquiry pioneered by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva.^[7] It highlights some of the important shifts taking place today.

Current Scientific Paradigm

Emerging Paradigm

Copernican Revolution & Newtonian mechanics	Quantum physics; Self-organizing systems, Chaos theory; Complexity theory
Objectively perceiving the world	The complexity and subjectivity of the world.
Complex planning for a predictable world	Planning is a process of constant re-evaluation because the world is not predictable
We use language to describe reality	We understand language as the creator of reality
Information is power	Information is a primal creative force
Reductionism – things are best understood when they are broken into parts	Wholeness and the interconnectedness of all things
Dichotomous thinking – ‘black or white’ no gray	Harmony and the common threads of our dialogue
There is only one truth for which we must search	Truth dependent on context and the current reality
We believe influence occurs as a direct result of force exerted from one person to another – cause and effect	We understand that influence occurs as a natural part of human interaction
We live in a linear and hierarchical world	We live in a circular world of relationships and cooperation

How does a Spirituality of the Heart,
a uniquely MSC way of approaching life,
speak to the shift?

The following reflection suggests, that not only does our spirituality speak to the shift, but it guides us stepping stones to guide us, inviting us to be at the leading edge of the shift.  Let us say more as we explore the movements of a Spirituality of the Heart.

THE HEART OF JESUS – a new heart for a new world

Our unique mission is seen through the prism of a ‘spirituality of the heart’.  God’s love is embodied in a human heart. We believe that the coming of the Kingdom of God requires change, but we emphasize that this begins with the renewal of our own hearts. New structures and thinking can be introduced only when our hearts are in the process of renewal; otherwise, they would have to be imposed by force, which we know only results in superficial conformity rather than true interiorization of values. Furthermore, only hearts renewed by the compassion of Christ can envision a society in which justice dwells. Hence, MSC leadership and mission is about creating a new heart for a new world. If we want a new heart for a new world we have to listen to our own hearts, listen to the heart of the world, listen to the deep longings of our time, from within the Heart of Christ.

Our former Superior General, Fr. Cuskelly, made pioneering contributions to our understanding of Spirituality of the Heart.^[8] In the first place, he defined the meaning of the word ‘spirituality’, as distinct from devotional practice.  He said, “A person may have various devotions, but we speak of spirituality ‘when a person’s central intuition comes into a person’s life and under its special light transforms the whole of one’s spiritual life.” Cuskelly outlined how he saw that spirituality, describing a religion that has become interiorised and habitual. It indicates that:

1. We have to go down to the depths of our own souls in a realisation of our profound personal needs of life, of love and of meaning.
2. We must find, through faith and reflection, the answer to our own questioning in the Heart of Christ, i.e. in the depths of his personality, where man’s yearning and God’s graciousness meet in redemptive incarnation.
3. Then, fashioned by these forces, our own heart will be an understanding heart, open to, feeling for, and giving to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
4. We will not be discouraged in the face of difficulties.
5. We follow Christ who ‘loved with a human heart’ as Vatican II reminds us; he shared our humanness that we might know that over us all is the everlasting love of the Father. In God’s good time the omnipotent love of God will have its way. It is this love in which we have learned to believe.

The former Assistant General and Australian Provincial, Fr. Dennis Murphy MSC later wrote,

When Jesus began to preach, he called for conversion, for a change of heart. He continues to do the same today. His call for a change of heart is based on God’s coming to us as a Father who loves us. This love is revealed not only in the words and actions of Jesus, but particularly in his own deepest attitudes and values, that is in his ‘heart’. These two movements of revelation and conversion take place in the heart of an individual, but of necessity they go beyond the individual too, for they change relationships between people and hence should create a new form of society. Thus, there is a third movement in the teaching of Jesus – mission into the heart of the world.^[9]

The movements highlighted here, revelation, conversion and mission, do not take place in chronological order. Each implies the other and they continually interact. They sum up what Father Chevalier saw in the Heart of Christ and what we speak of today as a ‘Spirituality of the Heart.’

In the movement of revelation, we see two movements. There are moments of encounter when the experience God’s love breaks through into consciousness, or moments when we ‘wake up’ to the need for change, or times of being touched by the sufferings and joys of others, or when the grandeur of creation stirs deep emotions in us.

It is one thing to encounter these realities, but another when these encounters take root and shape or influence how I live my life and the choices I make. This influence is the result of a growing intimacy between oneself and the experience that prods me. The deeper I relate with God, with creation, or even to myself, the more reality reveals to me and the more I come to know who I am, and in the process, I glimpse more of the Mystery that is God. The Doctor of the Church, Catherine of Genoa once said, “My deepest me is God.” ^[10]

FOUR MOVEMENTS THAT BRING PARADIGM CHANGE

So, we might say that there are four movements[11] in a spirituality of the heart, Encounter, Intimacy, Conversion and Mission. The movements form a framework for all our undertakings. They parallel the “emerging paradigm” that we already briefly considered in the Appreciative Discernment model. The movements of a Spirituality of the Heart offer a process that differs from the familiar approach of “problem solving” as a “way of coming out of ourselves”.  Heart Spirituality, reflects the patterns of emerging paradigms which first invite us into deepening connection to the mystery inherent in people’s lives.

“We have situations today that are so complex that the existing solutions can’t solve.” R. Heifetz

Two Paradigms for Organizational Change

Prevailing Paradigm: Problem Solving	Emerging Paradigm: Relating to Mystery
Assumption: Organizing is a Problem to Be Solved	Assumption: Organizing is a Mystery to Be Embraced
1) Identify the Problem	1) Encountering “What is”
2)  Analyze the Causes	2)  Intimacy “What could be”
3)  Postulate Possible Solutions based on what we know	3)  Conversion “What should be”
4)  Plan the Action and Execute	4)  Mission “What will be”

“System level change from the Source is required, not change at the symptomatic level.”

The table above illustrates the two paradigms.^[12]

Spirituality of the Heart isn’t primarily an answer to the problems of the world.  Rather it is a way out of ourselves, that enables us to embrace the profound mystery that exists within and beneath the human experience.

Let’s tease this out a little further by exploring the four movements of the spirituality.

ENCOUNTER 

Through the chance encounters of each moment, opportunities are present to be aware of God’s unconditional love in the realities of our lives: that is, in what is.  I encounter the unconditional love of God, and I realise that God loves others in the same way.  God’s love beckons even if I don’t apprehend its voice and respond. We filter this experience according to already pre-existing dispositions within us and as a result, we don’t always hear what God is saying and when we do, we don’t always interpret it in the way it is given. Our human blindspots stop us from seeing revelation with clarity, limiting our freedom to choose and respond. And yet love makes itself known to us unexpectedly again and again, in fleeting moments of allurement ^[13].  I am left with an invitation.  Am I free to follow?  Or do I just continue with “life as normal”.

INTIMACY

In the story of Moses and the burning bush ^[14], there is first of all an allurement, a seduction and attraction, a fascinating experience (the bush that is burning but not consumed). Moses is attracted to it. Then Yahweh says, “Take off your shoes. Come no nearer.” God is not calling Moses to enmeshment or loss of his own self. Yahweh is telling Moses, “I know who I am, and you are about to enter into a sacred experience with me. Come no nearer.” God honours the other as distinct. So, love is not absorption, love is not a martyr complex where you let other people use you. When you know your inherent divine identity, you are truly ready to participate in the sacred dance of intimacy. And in the dance of love there must be at least two. ^[15]

To stand my ground in God, requires me to be at home with myself.  This is at the heart of authentic conversion; a foundation on which healthy growth and transformation can happen.  It is a process of self-awareness in which my real identity is confirmed and affirmed – that I am created in the image and likeness of God.  God’s identity is love, so my true identity is love.  “Between God and the soul there is no distance.” ^[16] This love makes personal transformation, professional development and spiritual growth sustainable and safe.  When we go into our depths, we will meet our vulnerability, we will meet our woundedness, but that is also where we meet God, for “God is more intimate to me than I am to myself”. ^[17]  Love demands that I be open in my vulnerabilities.  Love enlarges my perception of myself, God, others and all creation. 

The gaze of God receives me exactly as I am.  The love grows in and between us, gaining strength, and empowering for mission.  The God of surprises is in constant Self-revelation. The two essential elements of self-revelation are trust and faithfulness. Intimacy requires respect for the space that needs to exist within and between us. Mutual love is a participation in a greater love to which it points, allowing space to move, forming new patterns and seeing God, creation, other and my own self as always new.  There is a call to be grounded in ourselves and in God’s unconditional love which enables the kind of personal conversion (reorientation of perspective) that serves mission.

CONVERSION (TRANSFORMATION OR EVOLUTION)

We all want resurrection in some form. ^[18] Jesus’ resurrection is a potent, focused, and compelling statement about what God is still and forever doing with the universe and with humanity. Science strongly confirms this statement today with different metaphors and symbols: condensation, evaporation, hibernation, sublimation, and the life cycles of everything from salmon to stars—constantly dying and being reborn in different forms. God appears to be resurrecting everything all the time and everywhere. It is not something to “believe in” as much as it is something to observe and be taught by.[19] When we are guided by the principles of spirituality of the heart this resurrection, or conversion, is what takes place in those who participate in sacred intimacy.

The mutuality of intimacy demands vulnerability. Vulnerability in intimacy invites us often to step into the unknown, into the mystery of the other, or even the mystery of oneself.  The old small-self yields to a self now more capable of embracing the expanded mind, heart and will that the new understanding requires.  Our model of this openness is the Sacred Heart, who draws us to imitate the extent of his charity for all.  Imitating him, one’s life becomes more authentic and grows in moral and religious integrity.

MISSION (EMERGENCE)

When God wants something done, obstacles for him are means. He makes sport of human wisdom, upsets its expectations, calls to life what, in its view, should never see the light of day. He gives growth, strength and fruitfulness to what human wisdom had condemned to death. The foundation and growth of the little Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart is proof of this truth.^[20]

In conversion, we are expanded beyond self-interest by a love that extends us past our own boundaries. The “returning to our first love” ^[21] releases the energy, passion, and joy that gives inertia needed to undertake God’s mission in the heart of the world.  Anyone who has known this energy and seen it transforming their own life, cannot help but let go into the interior freedom it brings and want to share it by letting come what emerges on ahead of them ^[22].  This is how our spirituality can enable us to willingly accept whatever is asked of us, even when we have feelings of fear. We become other-centred, as Christ himself was, growing in our capacity for service without condition and giving our lives for others.  

In an interview the Martyr, St. Oscar Romero was

“asked if he was scared that he would be killed like his friends, Blessed Romero admitted that while he did have a “prudent concern” about threats to his life, he did not experience a “fear that inhibits me, that prevents me from working.” “I feel that while I walk along fulfilling my duty, while I go around freely being a shepherd to the communities, God is with me,” he said. “And if something happens to me, then I am prepared for everything.” ^[23]

Conversion of the heart, frees us from our deepest fears and anxieties.

A PROCESS FRAMEWORK

The four movements, encounter, intimacy, conversion and mission, create a framework for a process of transformation – strengthening capacity for mission and for a life of integrity.  In the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus we see a new world emerging, and this world is one guided by the Spirit proceeding from his heart. 

The diagram describes the circular process of renewal, inviting us into Divine encounter, through appreciating “what is”, deepening intimacy in which we envision what could be, leading us into the space of reorientation (conversion of heart or transformation) through which we build together what should be, and into the mission of sustaining what will be.

This comparative diagram draws together in one image the four movements of the heart, the movements proposed by Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva), and the expanding understanding of listening drawn from the four dimensions of listening (Otto Scharmer, Theory “U”).  Contemporary organisational theories echoing the wisdom of Heart of God.

And while we speak of the movements as going round, we are not simply engaged in repetitive pilgrimage, retracing our own steps.  Rather the heart of Jesus takes us down to newer dimensions of relationship, clarity, and truth.  Perhaps the following image of the descending stairs of the Vatican Museum can help us capture the deepening interiority and discernment of this wonderful spirituality.

As leaders we are indeed blessed to find in our own spirituality and charism the guidance, we need to carry out our ministry of service; a service of connection, awakening to new possibilities, of “letting go” and “letting come” as an inherent and precious value, enabling us and our members move into greater confidence and responsible freedom.

The journey of the heart puts living flesh onto our structures so that we serve with humanity and not by the sword of principle or ideology.  ‘If the structure is more important than the mission, we will never get anywhere.’ ^[24]

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[1] Father James Mallon. Divine Renovation Guidebook: A step-by-step manual for transforming your parish. The parish is dead, long live the parish! La Croix International. August 29, 2019.

[2] Jules Chevalier: Man with a Mission 1824-1907 E. J. Cuskelly, M.S.C.1975 ROMA Chapter XI. pp 285

[3] Jules Chevalier: Man with a Mission 1824-1907 E. J. Cuskelly, M.S.C.1975 ROMA Chapter XI. pp 292

[4] Francis: Pope of Good Promise: From Argentina’s Bergoglio to the World’s Francis. Jimmy Burns. Constable. UK. 2015.

[5] Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis. November 24, 2013. §49

[6] Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis. November 24, 2013.

[7] SEDOS Appreciative Discernment Workshop, Fr. Bill Nordenbrock CPPS, Rome February 2019

[8] Cuskelly EJ, A new heart and a new spirit: reflections on MSC spirituality. Roma: Missionari del Sacro Cuore, 1978. Chapter 3: From Contract to Covenant.

[9] Cor Novum, no. 1, 1983, pp. 8-9. & Murphy, Dennis, The Heart of the Word Incarnate, Bangalore: Asian Trading, 2003.

[10] Life and Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa by Christian Press Association Publishing Co. (1907)

[11] Cuskelly EJ, Jules Chevalier: Man with a Mission 1824-1907. Roma: Casa Generalizia Missionari del Sacro Cuore, 1975

[12] SEDOS Appreciative Discernment Workshop, Fr. Bill Nordenbrock CPPS, Rome February 2019

[13] The Jesuit scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), uses the word “love” to describe the cosmic allurement of everything toward everything, a structural, metaphysical shape to the universe, most visible in the basic laws of gravity, electro-magnetic fields, and reproduction, which is drawing the universe forward until a truly cosmic “Christ comes to full stature” (Ephesians 4:13).  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 107.  (See also Ilia Delio, Franciscan sister and theologian.)

[14] Exodus 3:1–12 (and continuing through chapter 4).

[15] Richard Rohr OFM. Intimacy: The Divine Ambush.

[16] Meister Eckhart, Sermon 92, “the soul receives God not as alien nor as being inferior to God, for what is inferior implies difference and distance. The masters declare that the soul receives as a light from the light, for in that there is neither difference nor distance.” The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, Trans Maurice O’C. Walshe, Herder & Herder. Crossroad Publishing Co, NY. p.448

[17] St Augustine, Confessions III, 6, 11.

[18] St. Oscar Romero said that he had not undergone a conversion but an ‘evolution of faith’.

[19] Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 86-88, 92-93.

[20] Jules Chevalier, c. 1870, Annales de la Petite Société des Missionaires du Sacré-Coeur: J. Bertolini MSC, Rome 1984 p.1

[21] Address of the Holy Father, Pope Francis to the members of the 2017 General Chapter.

[22] Both letting go and letting come are terms used in U-Theory discussed further in this article.

[23] New documentary reveals rare interview of Blessed Oscar Romero. Junno Arocho Esteves. Catholic News Service 10^th December 2018.

[24] Father James Mallon. Divine Renovation Guidebook: A step-by-step manual for transforming your parish. The parish is dead, long live the parish! La Croix International. August 29, 2019.