Sophie's vision

Every year I ask Sophie what she would like me to say for her feast-day blog, and every year she leads me somewhere. And invariably, wherever she leads me points away from herself, and towards the Heart of Jesus, or her dream for the Society. God, the Heart of Jesus, the Spirit, prayer, mission, the life and spirit of the Society... these were what she centred and immersed herself in while on earth, and what she still wants to be central as we celebrate her feast, more than 150 years after her death.

This year was to be no exception. Yesterday she led me to a letter written to the Society in 1998 by our then Superior General, Patricia Garcia de Quevedo RSCJ. Its theme was our common mission, and it began - as our mission always should - from the heart; the deepest, most central part of ourselves, and the source of all our fruitfulness and concern. And then Patricia wrote...

Madeleine Sophie, woman of the heart, centred in the pierced Heart of Jesus, experienced in her time a thirst for God in a world wounded by injustice and lack of faith. From her contemplation of that world, her foundational experience, her vision was born... [her] vision was essentially a mystical one received from God, through which she entered into the Heart of God in order to go to the heart of the world with the attitudes of Jesus. This was the fundamental intuition that gave birth to our mission. 

And this has to be what led me, when creating a feast-day graphic, to place Sophie behind and gazing on the  world, embraced in God's Heart! 

(Which also happens to be the logo of the Society she founded and watches over...!)

Patricia's letter, written in 1998, but so relevant for now, continues...

Today, we too contemplate a world wounded by injustice and increasing violence, which, at the same time, hungers and thirsts for God... By our vocation we are called to communicate the love of God, that is, to go, like Madeleine Sophie, to the heart of life, recognising wounded humanity in the pierced Heart of Jesus...

Sophie's vision, as wide and deep as the world; and our vision too. And our inspiration, and ongoing, daily call; our contemplation of the world in the Heart of Jesus, and his Heart in our world, flowing into and out of our mission of love. 

As we celebrate her feast in a world still ravaged and scarred by Covid19, we know that Sophie is at the heart of her Sacred Heart family and of our world, praying for us all, and praying with us. May she continue to inspire and guide us, and keep us centred on the open, pierced and all-loving Heart of Jesus, at the heart of our broken and beautiful world. 

Happy feast everyone!