Every June, the Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of the Heart of Jesus: a heart that beats out of love for humanity, that gives itself without reserve and that continues to call us to live from compassion and mercy. On this day of the Sacred Heart, we wish to approach this devotion from two sources dear to us: Ignatian spirituality, the deep root of our charism, and the spirit of Mother Candida, who knew how to discover in that Heart the place of her consecration, her trust and her mission.
Today, when the whole world lives in times of uncertainty, violence, wars, forced migrations and social fractures, contemplating the Heart of Jesus is also an act of commitment and hope. It is to recognize in that wounded Heart the urgency to build paths of peace, to care for life and to be witnesses of a love that does not exclude, but embraces and heals. May this solemnity awaken in us the desire to be sowers of reconciliation and peace in the midst of our reality.
Devotion in Ignatian spirituality
When St. Ignatius speaks of “ever growing in devotion” what is meant by this word is familiarity with God and more precisely still, ease in finding God. The secret to this devotion is to seek and find God in all things. It is a contemplative devotion that finds God in everything, in everything he loves and serves, because an authentic devotion of affection leads to an effective devotion. In this sense, devotion is also an attitude of compliance and availability before the will of God. Devotion as joy or consolation is not a distinct devotion, it is a grace, a gift of God, to which the person can also dispose himself. The devotion by which one comes to discover, love and serve God in everything, also leads the person to experience ease, readiness, joy and gentleness in it. […] The characteristic of devotion lived in an Ignatian way is to seek it in all the actions and situations of life. 1
The Heart of Jesus in the spirit of M. Candida Candida
As a good daughter of her time, Mother Candida had a great devotion to the Heart of Jesus; no doubt she was encouraged by her contact with the Society of Jesus, which was in charge of propagating it.
The content of this devotion was very much in accord with her spiritual way of being: it is about moving us to love, consecration and reparation, having as its foundation the infinite love of Christ; Mother Candida is very simple and does not mind the sensitization of the supernatural by means of symbolism.
As for reparation, the M. Foundress has a very lively sense of sin, of faults. Foundress has a very lively sense of sin, of faults. In the face of her own failures in observance, her reaction was one of deep sorrow. And she unites herself to the suffering Christ of our redemption, full of compassion and desire to console him.
As for consecration, it is like a requirement of the redemptive love of Jesus; he is interested that his houses and the girls are consecrated to him. 2
She mentions this devotion in nineteen of her published letters. In the last one in which there is explicit mention of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, dated July 12, 1912, less than a month before her death, she encourages a young aspiring Daughter of Jesus to be constant and faithful in her vocation and to lean firmly on the Heart of Jesus and Mary, to overcome with them all the obstacles she encounters on her way. Throughout the letter she values the call to follow Christ.
“Be constant and faithful in your vocation, and, even if the enemy puts many obstacles in your way and stirs up others to try to take it away from you, take refuge in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and under the maternal mantle of our Most Pure Mother and do not fear”. (Letters MF 468)
And in another previous one to the same young woman she expresses to her:
You are very present in my prayers, and I truly ask the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate, our Most Pure Mother, to grant you all the necessary graces so that you may always and in everything fulfill the divine will. […] Here, the novices, let it not be said, for they are all very lively. Those who came from there are very well and very happy. That same day one took the habit […] and another will take it on the 23rd of this month, feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and some more are about to come; so they are all very lively. Ask in your prayers for all of them, that they may be true Daughters of Jesus, and continue to ask for this your mother, who does not forget you in her prayers (as you wish in yours) and blesses you, Hail in Heaven, Candida Maria de Jesus. 3
Like Mother Candida, may we know how to lean on the Heart of Jesus to continue to be true Daughters of Jesus today, joyfully announcing his love and mercy.
To contemplate, thank and live
- How do you live devotion in the Ignatian sense of the word “devotion”?
- What place does the Heart of Jesus occupy in your life today?
- How can you be a reflection of his love, compassion and mercy in the midst of your daily reality?
May this Solemnity be not just a date, but an opportunity to return to the heart of our lives, to allow ourselves to be looked at, embraced and sent from the Heart of Jesus. May his love renew us from within and give us the gift of peace: peace for our restless hearts, peace for our families, peace for our communities and for this wounded world that needs it so much.
- Vocabulary of the Constitutions. DAUGHTERS OF JESUS. Celia Amorós FI and María del Pilar Linde FI. 1989 ↩︎
- SPIRITUALITY OF THE MOTHER FOUNDER written by the Precapitular Commission on the Spirituality of the Institute. Special General Chapter – 1969 ↩︎
- Letter MF 420 to Miss Leocadia 3 June 1911 ↩︎
