The Sisters Of the Visitation of Tyringham

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THE SACRED HEART

Of His Fullness We Have Received Grace Upon Grace

by Sister Miriam Rose

August 2007

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Dear Friends of the Sacred Heart,

In God's great love and generosity, he has given us so very much from his infinite goodness. It is difficult to plumb the depths of such richness. The Lord has said to us: "It shall be given to you, good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over" all he asks is that we turn to him and then share the gifts we have received with others.

God's fullness of grace and love is everywhere and in everything. For example, we are surrounded by the fullness of August, the height of our garden-growing season. Our blooms are full and the lawns seem to need mowing a day after they have been trimmed! The fullness of sun, rain and care keep everything alive and well.
But fullness of growth comes about only after the lonely seed has died in the earth in darkness and then has sprouted after time, sun, and water. The potential for this fullness is all there in that tiny seed. Grace comes to us like the littlest seed--unseen, yet so full of potential--the fullness of growth also depends on us; all of the potential is there for us to use.

 
Our Lord lived out this pattern in his own life, in order to give us the fullness of redemption out of his love for us. It is in his path of pain, loneliness, and death resulting in his resurrection that we find the fullness of grace upon grace. "We only need to enlarge our hearts, our openness to receive this superabundance of love" as Pope John Paul II stated in one of his Angelus talks based on the Litany of the Sacred Heart.

In our community, we are celebrating fullness in two special ways this month: The Golden Anniversary of Profession of Sister Mary Ruth, first made on August 13, Our full potential is sainthood. We can see the fullness of God's outpouring of grace in the lives of the saints. Every age is an age of saints. We have seen Mother Theresa canonized in our own time; we have heard Pope John Paul II declared a saint by popular acclaim. Both were from oppressed countries, suffered hardships, left their homeland to follow where God had called them; they lived out their lives in total dedication and love. Because of their closeness to us through the media, we have watched them go about their works; we have an even greater opportunity to follow their example of love and giving, no matter who or where we are. Thomas Merton once wrote, in SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION, "The eyes of the saint make all beauty holy, and the hands of the saint consecrate everything they touch to the glory of God, and the saint is never offended by anything and is scandalized by no man's sin because he does not know sin. He knows nothing but the love and mercy of God, and he is here on earth to bring that love and that mercy to all men." The saint has the vision of that fullness God gives, and he or she has responded in kind--with a wholeheartedness and completeness of dedication.

 
August is a full month of wonderful saints-- men and women of a variety of walks of life who opened
themselves to the "sun" of growth--and to the Son who sends all the spiritual nourishment needed for
sainthood. As in our gardens, there is a great variety of saints represented, illustrating the individual fullness.  God has brought about in such a wide variety of souls. These are "ordinary" men and women who struggled and consistently turned to God for his shower of graces and his love, recognizing that they had been given abundant love and strength from God's fullness.

We find the founders of religious communities, starting with our own St. Jane de Chantal.
A widow with four young children, deeply in love with her husband, Jane had to accept what God had chosen for her. Instead of turning inward, protecting herself and family and harboring her sorrow, Jane reached out to God, giving herself wholeheartedly to his will. In so doing, she became the foundress of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary and in her life time, with co-founder, St. Francis de Sales, saw over 80 monasteries spring up!

 Other founders and foundresses were given different charisms: St. Clare and her concept of utter simplicity and poverty, remaining ever dependent on God's providence; (August 13). St. Dominic (August 8), a preacher who sent his men out, two by two, like the apostles to clarify and teach the truth-Veritas is the motto of the Order.

Many martyrs gave their lives for the truth and the faith and the love of Christ: St. Lawrence(August 10) was commanded to turn over all the treasures of the Church to the Roman Prefect. He gathered all of the poor he had been supporting and announced that these were the riches of the Church! He was martyred in 258. In our own times, St. Theresa Benedicta (Edith Stein), who chose the Christian faith as the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies. She died in the concentration camp of Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.St. Maximilian Kolbe, also a victim of the concentration camp, gave his life so that the father of a family might be saved. He died after two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect on August 14, 1941 also in Auschwitz. The man he saved was present at his canonization in Rome.

Kings have become saints by using their power and influence unselfishly, benefiting their people. St.
Stephen, the patron of Hungary, established peace with all neighboring nations and, through exhortation and persuasion, brought his people to Christianity. (August 16)St. Louis of France, for whom the city of St. Louis, of course, is named, defended the Faith and led a Crusade in 1267. His feast is celebrated on August 25.

 
Simple folk also have responded to the fullness of God's grace, using the talents God had given them to reach the heights of sanctity. St. John Vianney--the Cure of Ars-- spiritual advice, sometimes as long as 16 hours in a day. He had infinite patience, love of God and love of his people. He is celebrated on August 4th.  St. Rose of Lima refused to marry, seeking solitude in a small summerhouse on the property of her family. She served the poor of Lima, Peru, as well as helped to support her family through her needlework. She became a Dominican Tertiary, allowing her to move about the city and to live at home. She died in 1617. Her feast is celebrated on August 23.

 
At the end of the month, August 27 and 28, we have the great mother/son saints: St, Monica and St.
Augustine. St. Monica prayed for years that her son would give up his hedonistic life and become a
Christian. St. Augustine struggled emotionally and philosophically with the idea of giving up all he was
attached to, and yet feeling more and more drawn to Christ. St. Monica lived to see her son baptized by St. Ambrose in 386. St. Augustine became a Bishop and wrote a basic rule on religious life, along with many great writings of the Church.

 
What do the lives of all these diverse men and women have in common? At some point in their lives, these people turned completely to God, recognizing their own utter helplessness without God's generous and nurturing love and mercy. It was not enough to honor God only on Sundays; God became their life; they were open to receiving the fullness God was offering them.

 
As a relatively new young saint, Saint Riccardo Pampuri stated: "Whether our mind be oppressed by pain or disappointment, whether it overflow with holy joy, it finds in the Sacred Heart of Jesus what it needs, everything it could desire, the salve for its wounds and the comfort for its hurts, the confirmation of its hopes, the strength to persevere, the most effective urge to an ever greater perfection and the ineffable joy of the living feeling of the son-ship and friendship of God and of brotherly union with Jesus Christ." We know that the Sacred Heart represents that great outpouring of love and mercy that is available to anyone who merely approaches Our Lord and asks.
All of these saints and the many others represented in the month of August are like a huge bouquet in the garden of the Lord. Each one is unique, yet each was able to be totally dedicated to the Lord through their response to God's invitation--to the outpouring of God's fullness.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a great source of all this fullness of love and mercy. The Sacred Heart is the glorious fountain in the midst of the beautiful garden from which all draw their nourishment and strength. It is a never-ending fountain. In times of drought, in the winter of the soul, in times of alienation, this fountain is always available to those who approach and ask. It is inexhaustible because the love and mercy of the Sacred Heart is inexhaustible.

 
We find in the many parables of the gospels the repetition of God's desire to give in full measure to
overflowing. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the father goes out to meet his son as soon as he has been sighted, offering him, not only a place in the family again, but the gifts usually offered to dignitaries-a fine robe, a ring, and a sumptuous feast. The father doesn't wait until his son asks for forgiveness-he gives at the first sign of the converted heart.

 
In the parable of the laborers who are waiting to be hired, the one who is hired at the last working hour of the day is paid the same as the one who worked the entire day. Again, God the Father sees the intent of the heart, the desire to be hired in this case, and pours his abundant grace over him. God is the Prodigal Father! He is always giving more than is asked of him. This is the Sacred Heart on fire with a flame that does not consume. Can we even imagine what God has in store for us in this life, much less in eternity, if we but open our own hearts a bit more each day.

A biblical commentator states that the word FULLNESS in the Greek of the gospels meant "the sum total of all that is in God." The sum total of all that is in God is LOVE. Love is the content of our mission: to let ourselves be loved, to love in turn, and to pass on this love to others. Mission is lived from a fullness, not from an emptiness. A marriage or a religious profession, family or community life, a ministry or a project-if we do not live out of a fullness, these lead to nothing. To joyfully love, receive, and give-that is what it means to live in gospel fullness.

This presentation was given at the Monastery of the Visitation of Tyringham, MA on Wednesday August 1, 2007

God be Praised