Each year, in the run up to her feast, I ask our founder Sophie what she would like me to say in my feast-day post. As I wait for her response, I am sure of two things. One is that there will be a response (even if it takes a long time to arrive); the other that it will not be about Sophie herself. In heaven, as on earth, Sophie's chief desire is to glorify the Heart of Jesus, and so whatever she wants me to say will invariably point away from herself and towards the God she served with love and fidelity throughout her long life.
I was still waiting yesterday morning when I attended Mass at the Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith, where we began our celebrations of Sophie's feast 24 hours in advance. And then, as the first reading was proclaimed - well-known, familiar words, read and heard many, many times - I felt these words being proclaimed by Sophie to all of us. Thus, this extract from St Paul's letter to the Colossians could just as easily be Sophie's letter to all in the family of the Sacred Heart...
So, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on new clothes; merciful compassion, goodness, humility, gentleness, patience, putting up with one another, and forgiving each other... On top of all these, put on love, which is the bond that unites perfectly. And may Christ's love referee in your hearts, to which you were called in one body - and become grateful!... Let Christ's word live richly in you... And everything that you do, in deed or word, do everything in the Lord Jesus' name, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I have used Nick King SJ's translation. In his notes, he writes of a consistent theme that being a follower of Christ makes a visible difference. The basic attitude is 'upwards', a heart set on God... And that, surely, is what Sophie would most wish for each one of us: a heart set on God, from which everything else will flow and overflow; not only upwards, but outwards as well, to a world so in need of love, gentleness and merciful compassion.
I was still waiting yesterday morning when I attended Mass at the Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith, where we began our celebrations of Sophie's feast 24 hours in advance. And then, as the first reading was proclaimed - well-known, familiar words, read and heard many, many times - I felt these words being proclaimed by Sophie to all of us. Thus, this extract from St Paul's letter to the Colossians could just as easily be Sophie's letter to all in the family of the Sacred Heart...
I have used Nick King SJ's translation. In his notes, he writes of a consistent theme that being a follower of Christ makes a visible difference. The basic attitude is 'upwards', a heart set on God... And that, surely, is what Sophie would most wish for each one of us: a heart set on God, from which everything else will flow and overflow; not only upwards, but outwards as well, to a world so in need of love, gentleness and merciful compassion.
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