Learn from My Heart
Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew on the patience and humility of the Sacred Heart
What infinite love burned in that sacred heart of yours, Lord Jesus! Without uttering a single word you spoke to us; without a word you worked the mysteries you came to accomplish—teaching virtue to the ignorant and blind.
What our Lord did was no small thing. Where should we get patience and humility and poverty and the other virtues, and how could we carry each other’s burdens and cross, if Christ had not taught us all this first, and given himself as a living model of all perfection?
Our Lord became a spring of Living water for us so that we should not die of thirst among all the miseries that surround us. How truly he said in the Gospel that he came to serve and not to be served! What tremendous goodness! Can we fail to be shamed by your words and deeds, and the patience you show with us every day?
How truly, again Lord, did you say: Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart. Where can we obtain this patience and humbleness of heart? Is there any way to achieve it except by taking it from Christ as he taught it to us with those other virtues we need—faith, hope, and charity?
Without faith, we cannot follow that royal road of the divine mysteries. It is faith that opens our eyes and makes us see the truth; and where faith is wanting there is no light and no way leading to goodness.
— Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew
Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How would you respond to any of Blessed Anne’s questions?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.
Source reference
Catholic Church. Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites. Rev. and augm. Rome: Institutum Carmelitanum, 1993.
Featured image
Detail from a nineteenth-century stained-glass window of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Church of Saint-Pierre, Marols, France. Photograph by MOSSOT, July 2009. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons / MOSSOT (CC BY-SA 3.0, 2.5, 2.0, and 1.0).
If my daddy spoke to me and my friends as if he were an adolescent I would not believe him ( though my friend might be my daddy's new best friend and so easily be deceived. ) Jesus called to his Abba and in all humility asked Him to remove the cup He was about to drink. Jesus' Abba, for at least one believer, allowed the dead body of His Son to be desecrated and pierced through His heart. The mystery of Jesus' love for His Abba and God's loving plan for believers in His Son, I think is depicted in the image of the Sacred Heart. Jesus holding His thorn wrapped heart outside his own chest, exhibiting us His heart that is on fire for our love. Yes, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, I fail to be shamed by Jesus' words and deeds, and the patience showed me every day. Have mercy on me a sinner, Lord, and help me to see and trust in your truth