Pour our hearts anew

This Pentecost Sunday morning, we began Mass with a hymn* I've sung a few times before. Even so, as if seeing them for the first time, I was struck by these words: and pour our hearts anew with the fire and zeal of Pentecost. Was there some sort of typo? We speak and sing of the Spirit filling our hearts, and the Spirit being poured into our hearts... St Paul writes of the love of God being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5.5)... But the Spirit pouring our hearts...?

And in the same moment I knew this was utterly the right thing to be praying for. The Spirit which is poured into our hearts, which fills them, doesn't do so with any sort of limit. The Spirit does not stint, or hold back; the only limitations on the Spirit's gifts and generosity are the ones we place. There are no measuring lines drawn around our hearts, no rules about stopping an inch from the brim. And thus the fire and the zeal, the love and the grace and the gifts which are poured into our hearts brim over, so that our hearts do indeed pour out. 

And I was reminded of some words from one of our Society's formation documents... At this crucial point of history, Jesus is still calling us to be "Women of the Heart", giving us the possibility of listening once more to God's dream for humanity, which moves us to make each action of our lives brim over with love. (Life Unfolding: Offering the Gift). 

It is still a crucial point of history, and - more than ever - we are still being called to be Women - and men - of the Heart; people whose lives brim over with love, whose hearts overflow, pouring out the love we have received. And all this ties in with this tweet from Pope Francis, which struck me the other day by its simplicity and directness. 

We ask the Lord for many things, but how often do we forget to ask him for what is most important and what he desires most to give us: the Holy Spirit, the power to love. Indeed, without love, what can we offer to the world?

But with love, and with hearts overflowing with the fire of God's love, what can we offer the world...?

* The hymn was Come, and fill this temple, and looking online I've found a couple of variants - 'warm our hearts', or 'pour down your heart anew'. Both lovely, but they obviously weren't the words I was meant to sing this morning.