The Seraphim, St. Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart (1)

St Margaret Mary with PUTTI, not Seraphim!
Carrado Giaquinto, 1765

The reading of St. Francis de Sales  naturally made me take the road to Paray-le-Monial again.  This was prompted by the timely arrival of a kind and thoughtful present from a friend: The Autobiography of St. Margaret Mary, Tan Books, 1986. (HERE )  ( So  thanks Maria!) Reading it today  I noted that she tells us that she imagined, whilst looking at a picture of St. Francis de Sales , that he called her his daughter and that she felt that he had become her ‘good father’: this appears to be before she decided to join the Convent of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial.   What I also find fascinating is that she describes the Sacred  Heart  using the idea of fire and a furnace of love.  I was expecting her imagery to be rather more anatomical, but no. Her description is all about fire and light.  All of this makes the subsequent imagery of the Sacred Heart which came out of the Paray-le-Monial experiences even more perplexing.  Did artists actually bother to READ her autobiography? This emphasis on the Sacred Heart as a fire and a furnace of love is made even clearer in her reference to her vision of the Seraphim.  Our icon is, I think quite a rare example of  showing the Sacred Heart and the Seraphim.  But what is puzzling is why the image of the Sacred Heart and the Seraphim is not more common, given what St Margaret Mary actually wrote : 

Seraphim in the fresco at the
Chapel of the Visitation, Paray-le-Monial

I felt myself wholly rapt in interior and exterior recollection, and at that time, the Adorable Heart of my Jesus appeared brighter than the sun.  It was surrounded by the flames of Its pure love, and encircled by Seraphim, who sang in marvelous harmony: ‘ Love triumphs, love enjoys, the love of the Sacred Heart rejoices!’ These blessed spirits invited me to unite with them in praising this Divine Heart, but I did not dare do so.  They reproved me, telling me they had come in order to form an association with me, whereby to render It a perpetual homage of love, adoration and praise, and that , for this purpose, they would take my place before the Blessed Sacrament.  Thus I might be able, by their means, to love It continually, and as they would participate in my love and suffer in my person, I on my part, should rejoice with them.  At the same time they wrote the association in the Sacred Heart in letters of gold, and in indelible characters of love.  This lasted from two to three hours, and I have  felt the effects thereof throughout my life, both by the assistance I received, and by the sweetness which it produced and continued to produce in me, although I felt overwhelmed with confusion.  From that day I addressed them by no other name, when praying to them, than by that of my divine associates. (pp 102- 103) 

Thus the Seraph in the top left once gain provides an important focus for reading the icon.  It draws our attention to the close association between the Seraphim and the Sacred Heart for St Margaret Mary - BUT, not for the imagery which dominated the devotion inspired by her experiences!!  I am, however, very puzzled as to why this association is not more widespread in the imagery of the Sacred Heart – especially in the light of the importance she attached to the role of the Seraphim??  Where they do make an appearance they tend to be represented by (dreadful, sentimental, cute and terribly kitsch) ‘putti’ rather than by six winged Seraphim.  I wonder How many artists bothered to include the Seraphim in pictures of the  Sacred Heart / St Margaret Mary?  I have not come across too many..thus far.  

A beautiful and powerful prayer by Saint Margaret Mary that  brings out the significance she attached to the Seraphim:

O most loving Heart of my only love, Jesus, not being able to love, honor and glorify Thee according to the extent of the desire which Thou hast given me to do so, I invite Heaven and earth to join with me; I unite myself with the burning Seraphim to love Thee. 


O Heart all burning with love, mayest Thou inflame Heaven and earth with Thy most pure flames and consume all that they contain, in order that all creatures may breathe only by Thy love! Grant me either to die or to suffer, or at least change me completely and make me all heart in order to love Thee, consuming myself in Thy burning ardor.


 O Divine fire, O all pure flames of the Heart of my only love, Jesus, burn me without pity, consume me and I will not resist. Oh! why dost Thou spare me since I deserve only fire and since I am fit only for burning? 


O Love of Heaven and earth, come, come, into my heart and inflame me! O devouring fire of the Divinity, come, descend upon me! Burn me, consume me in the midst of Thy most lively flames which make those live who die in them.


 Amen. *

I think that this is a prayer which is very much in keeping with a teilhardian understanding of the Sacred Heart.  I wonder if he knew it? Probably not,  but it is very close to his own prayers to the Sacred Heart. I feel the icon is reflecting the sentiments of this prayer in so many ways: if I were to put a list of prayers which help us to read this icon I would say this prayer would be high on that list.  A real find, and a real treasure.


(More of her prayers HERE.)*

This is so very nice: because when I see the Seraph in the icon I can remember St. Margaret Mary and recall the payer (above).  It is amazing how that Seraph has assumed such an important place in the icon!  

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*Taken from Prayers Composed in Honor of the Sacred Heart by St. Margaret Mary, edited by Monsignor Gauthey, Paris 1951.

Live Jesus! The icon through the lens of the Salesian Tradition.

I am coming to the conclusion that in order to read this icon you have to both go back and understand the evolution of the image and the devotion , whilst always remembering to go forward and think about the future of the  image and the devotion.  I think that Teilhard enables us to think of the future direction, and that St. Francis de Sales is an important person to enable us to understand the history of the devotion, but also he points the way forward.   St. Francis de Sales occupies a central position in the story of the Heart of Jesus.  He drew upon the earlier traditions and teaching of the church, but he was – with St Jane Chantal to have a defining influence of the devotion as it emerged from France in the 17^th century onwards and not just on St. Margaret Mary, but on many others, including St. John Eudes.  His influence on St Vincent de Paul and St Louise de Marillac and the Daughters of Charity should also be mentioned: but the spread of Salesian spirituality with its stress upon the heart is without doubt  one of the most significant aspects of the history of the Sacred Heart.  And yet, as I read through my little CTS booklet on the Sacred Heart I can’t find one reference.  This is a shame, because when you explore the Salesian tradition of the heart,  the meaning of the devotion  - and this icon - becomes much clearer.  Dr. Wendy Wright’s book  Heart Speaks to Heart  (see HERE) has been a real revelation and has opened the doors to me with respect to the profound relevance of St Francis de Sales to reading this icon.  Let me just quote a few passages.  She notes that the words we find in St Matthew (11:28-30) are central to St. Francis’s spiritual vision. It is here we learn that Jesus is ‘gentle and humble of heart’ and in whom we find rest.   Dr Wright explains that for St Francis:

Although in essence beyond human description, God can metaphorically be said to be possessed of a Heart that is the source of all love. God’s Heart is life giving, it is a womb, a fountain, a vital restless energy that breathes, pulses and beats..The Godhead itself is thus imagined as a relational dynamic.  In its fullness the Trinity, as it were, spills out of itself and overflows.  Indeed, creation itself is the intrinsic dynamic of Love  that spills out, that gives of itself in abundance.  In addition, the divine Heart imminent in creation acts relationally and dynamically.  As love gives it also receives and is intent on drawing to itself all that it has created.  Thus the Heart of God can be said to love human hearts and to long for union.  P 32

I have to say when I read that passage, I looked on the icon in a new light.  It lead me to explore the work and life of St Francis de Sales, and understand how his teachings had flowed into the devotion and how we need to follow these ideas back to their source in his writings.  Again, as Dr. Wright explains, it is important to remember that for:

Francis de Sales ‘heart’ does not connote merely sentiment, affection, or emotion. Instead it retains its biblical meaning as  the core or centre of the person. Thus ‘heart’ involves intellect and reason as well as affection and will. The human heart, created to know and love God is, like its divine counterpart, dynamic and relational.  It too breathes and beats.  Through inspiration it draws in love.  By aspiration it pours itself out towards its neighbour and its ultimate source.  The human heart, it might be said, is made to beat in rhythm with the heart of God… God’s eternal Heart and the created heart of humankind thus are designed for union. ‘ May God live in my heart for that is what it is made for’ , Francis was quoted as saying. P 33.

So from the perspective of the Salesian tradition we must contemplate the image of the Heart of Jesus as represented in this icon as with the words of Matthew 11: 28-30 always before us.  The heart we see glowing at the centre of a cosmos converging into unity with God’s love is a gentle and humble heart that calls us to be gentle and humble towards others, rather than seek power and domination over them.  Hence Dr Wright emphasizes that:

Salesian discipleship is thus first and foremost about an exchange of hearts.  It is about the practice of ‘living Jesus’ through the cultivation of the little relational virtues [ like gentleness and humility].  Discipleship is the lifelong opening of the heart to be transformed by and inhabited by Jesus’ own gentle heart. P33

 

St Francis de Sales calls us to ‘Live Jesus’ by allowing Christ to live in our hearts, and that in so doing our heart can become gentle and humble so that we can say, with St Paul, that it is no longer I that live, but  that  Christ lives in me.

As he prays in the Introduction to the Devout Life:

“LIVE JESUS. LIVE JESUS. Yes, Lord Jesus, live and reign in our hearts for ever and ever. Amen!”

This simple prayer perhaps sums up the whole message and meaning of the icon*.

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* Just a thought: in the course of writing the icon Ian mentioned his own regard for St Francis de Sales.  Perhaps the influence of the Salesian tradition on the writing of the icon is more significant than I have supposed!

Feast of St. John Bosco

When I can find the time I have been reading Dr. Wendy M. Wright's excellent book on the Salesian tradition, Heart Speaks to Heart.  (see HERE.)    So it is fitting therefore that today we remember a saint who was to be inspired by the life and writings of St. Francis de Sales, St. John Bosco. And I think if we want to see the Salesian tradition of the Sacred Heart in practice we have to look no further than St. John Bosco.

This has prompted me to remember that I was so fortunate to have a teacher in High School - Tom Keeley - who was very keen to promote our interest in the saint, and every class would start with  'Saint John Bosco pray for us.'  He was really the best teacher I  ever had, and when I began my own career in higher education I consciously decided to imitate his way of teaching: he taught with his head but also his heart. He was a demanding teacher, but was nonetheless gentle and kind. ( But you still would not want to cross him! ) No matter how hard the lesson was you would never feel that he was leaving anyone behind.  Despite his rather stern way, no-one was ever afraid to put up their hand and say ' I don't understand'.  Other teachers would shout or call you an idiot or 'pay attention', but he would always explain.  I learnt more mathematics from him than anyone else!  You could get it wrong time after time, but he would work through your problems.  He taught you to be highly rational and analytical, but at the same time he was a deeply spiritual man with a devotion to the rosary.  He would make them and repair them in his spare time.  Every time I pick up my rosary beads, I always think of him.  He was, I think, a model of teaching from the heart. With him you always thought that you had 'got it'.  It seemed to stay inside, whereas with other teachers in would go in one ear and out the other.   So today I have him in my thoughts as well as someone who I think embodied the kind of values which are to be found in the Salesian tradition.  So, God bless you Mr. Keeley, wherever you are!

The more I think about St John Bosco, the more do I appreciate his relevance to the world we face today. St. John lived (1815-1888)  at a time when Italy was going through  revolutionary economic, political and social change.  He realized that the people who were most   damaged by all this change were young people, and he devoted his life to trying to improve the welfare and education of the young.  Education, following the principles of St. Francis de Sales was a 'matter of the heart'.  You could  only teach the young through being kind and loving.  He believed that through education we could prevent problems developing : by giving the young employment skills and values to see them through life.  Education should be about three things: reason, religion and kindness.  In a world in which so many young people are bearing the brunt of the economic , social and political conditions  of our own times, St. John Bosco reminds us to have a care for the young: to make sure that they have a good education which will equip them for employment; so that they appreciate the complementary role of reason and religion; and above all through our hearts speaking to their hearts, they might experience kindness and gentleness.   He was intensely practical about this and believed that fear was not the way to shape and form the character of the young: and in this we see his devotion to the Sacred Heart shining through all his works and deeds. So today I pray for all those who have been inspired by the life of this saint to work for the education of our young people in these challenging times.

St. John Bosco pray for us. Let our hearts be as open to the needs of the young in our troubled world as yours was in your own time. 

Henry VIII, the Sacred Heart and the Five Wounds of Christ

There is a most remarkable exhibition in the British museum at the moment.  We spent a couple of hours yesterday  entranced by the illuminated manuscripts on show.  As we were on the way out I noticed the recently discovered ‘prayer roll’  that once belonged to a young  King Henry VIII - before he broke with Rome.  The discovery of the roll has caused much excitement as it shows what a devoted Catholic Henry was as a young man. READ MORE HERE.  and HERE.

As I looked at the prayer role I noticed something which is important to our understanding of the Sacred Heart. The roll contains a fascinating image of the five wounds which features the wounded heart of Christ.  The young Prince Henry would have been familiar with this popular devotion  (see HERE)   

Designs based on St Francis de Sales original idea.

St. Margaret Mary's drawing

 Henry’s prayer roll shows an image of the five wounds which is comparable to similar images found at this time – late 15^th century. And when we compare the five wounds image in the roll with other such images we can see a clear line of development between this symbol and that later proposed by  St. Francis de Sales in 1600 - (above right) .   In turn this design was to inform St. Margaret Mary's  drawing of the Sacred Heart - (left).  And like the Sacred Heart, later on  it was to be adopted as a symbol of opposition to anti-Catholicism.   It was used, for example, in the banner of the ‘Pilgrimage of Grace’ (below) in 1536 which showed public opposition to Henry's attack on the Catholic Church. (See  HERE. )

Henry must have  had an intense devotion to the five wounds of Christ as a young man.  As the British Library notes:

The five wounds on Henry's roll - click on image to enlarge. 

The prayer roll provides unique evidence of Henry VIII's early religious beliefs. It demonstrates that, as a young man, Henry practised the devotions characteristic of the late medieval popular piety that just twenty-five years later he would destroy as the Reformation King.

It is ironic that the symbol we find on his prayer role  - and which was once a focus of his devotion  - was to be subsequently used as a symbol to rally opposition to his destruction of the Catholic church in these islands.   When, however, we reflect on the parallels as between the image of the five wounds and the later images of St. Francis de Sales and St Margaret Mary, and the use of  both of these images to defend the Church the links between them become very important indeed - especially in Britain.  Perhaps British Catholics  should adopt the symbol of the five wounds as a banner for a new 'Pilgrimage of Grace': opposition to the marginalization of moral and religious values in the public square!

Henry VIII's prayer roll should thus serve to remind us that the Sacred Heart is rooted in the history of  Catholicism from the earliest times, and that the image of a God who loves us and suffered for us and suffers with us is as relevant to the 21st century as it was to the 15th and  16th centuries. And, that when we reflect on such images that were once a focus of prayer for a king who did so much to destroy the Church he once loved we can remember that, in the Heart  of the King of Kings - who shows us what the love of our neighbour really looks like -  we will all be ultimately united.

Banner of the Pilgrimage of Grace

Feast of Saint Francis de Sales

When you read about the history of the devotion to the Sacred Heart the name of Saint Francis de Sales shines out brightly.  His writings and teachings had an enormous influence on the evolution of the devotion and the image itself.  But I have to confess that I tended to read him in the shadow of Paray-le- Monial, and that is a great pity.    Today, of course, is the day when the Church asks us to focus on his life and the spiritual tradition which is associated with his name.


There is so much wisdom and insight in his writings that it is impossible to do his work any justice in this blog.   But this passage below  I find gives a sense of how the heart of Jesus was at the very heart of his spirituality and provides another way of reading the icon. 

God’s love is seated within the Saviour’s heart as on a royal throne.  He beholds through the cleft of his pierced side all the hearts of the children of men.  His heart is king of hearts, and he keeps his eyes fixed on our hearts.  Just as those who peer through the lattice see clearly while they are only half seen, so too divine love within that heart, or rather that heart of divine love, always sees our hearts and looks on them with his eyes of love, whilst we do not see him, but only half see him.   If we could see as he is, O God, since we are mortal men we would die for love of him, just as when he was in mortal flesh he died for us, and just as he would still die for us were he not now immortal.  Oh, if we could hear this divine heart singing with a voice infinitely sweet his canticle of praise to the divinity! What joy…..what striving within our heart to spring up to heaven so as to hear it forever!

Treatise on the Love of God, Tan Books, Rockford, Ill., 1975, Vol 1, Book V, p263. 


There is, of course, a wealth of scholarship devoted to Saint Francis de Sales and the Sacred Heart.  I warmly recommend the work of Susanne  A.K. Koch who has done a great job in exploring this literature.   Read her Here.

One piece of  St. Francis' wisdom which struck home to me today as I reflected on the plants and vines at the bottom of the icon.  It is a well known quote from the saint:

“Truly charity has no limit; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion and inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence.”

Jesus in the icon is shown as the source of living water that feeds our soul and enables it to grow.  This  element of the icon now makes me think that we are being invited to bloom where He has planted us! 


I think that  it is about time I read a little more about this gentle saint for whom the heart was such an important idea.  So on this his feast day let us pray:  that the love of God burning in our hearts will help us to grow and bloom where we are planted.  And let us keep in mind the prayer used in the mass today:

..O Lord kindle in our hearts that divine fire of the Holy Spirit with which you wonderfully inflamed the most gentle soul of Saint Francis de Sales.

The Sacred Heart as a Symbol for Christian Unity

Buxtehunde

We are now in day 5 of the week of prayer for Christian unity - which began on the 18th January. There are so many symbols which keep us apart rather than serve to unite us as Christians.  In many ways the Sacred Heart may be considered to be one of those symbols that divides rather than unites and yet this should not be so.  If we reflect on what the Sacred Heart symbolizes: the self-sacrificing love of the Word made flesh who suffered to redeem the world, and as a symbol of the energy of  love that comes from God and which fills all creation, then it should provide a focus of unity.  The Sacred Heart is a summary of what Christians believe: God became one of us.  Jesus, God from God and light from light has a human heart like us.  He wants to live in our hearts.  When Christians reflect on the central role of the heart in the Bible, and the fact that we are called to be meek and humble of heart -like Him -  then the Sacred Heart becomes a point of convergence and not divergence:  a symbol for the future, and not of the past.

So on this day let us listen to a wonderful piece of music written in the past, which might serve as a focus of future unity: Dieterich Buxtehunde's Membra  Jesu Nostri ( 1680).  (READ ABOUT IT HERE.)  This is a Lutheran oratorio - in Latin.  It reflects on the crucified body of Christ.  Part V deals with Christ's breast, and part VI with his heart ( ad Cor).  To listen go HERE. Buxtehunde (1637-1639) a German-Danish composer  was - of course- an influence on  none other than J.S. Bach.  Such works can serve to focus on minds on the wounded heart of Christ: a symbol to unite all Christians!

Vulnerasti cor meum,

soror mea, sponsa,

vulnerasti cor meum.

Summi regis cor, aveto,

te saluto corde laeto,

te complecti me delectat

et hoc meum cor affectat,

ut ad te loquar, animes

Per medullam cordis mei,

peccatoris atque rei,

tuus amor transferatur,

quo cor tuum rapiatur

languens amoris vulnere

Viva cordis voce clamo,

dulce cor, te namque amo,

ad cor meum inclinare,

ut se possit applicare

devoto tibi pectore

Ad Cor - To His Heart.
English Translation.

You have wounded my heart,

my sister, my bride,

you have wounded my heart (Song of Songs 4:9)

Heart of the highest king, I greet you,

I salute you with a joyous heart,

it delights me to embrace you

and my heart aspires to this:

that you move me to speak to you

Through the marrow of my heart,

of a sinner and culprit,

may your love be conveyed

by whom your heart was seized,

languishing through the wound of love

I call with the living voice of the heart,

sweet heart, for I love you,

to incline to my heart,

so that it may draw close,

devoted to you with the breast

The Sacred Heart as an integrative symbol

 I have been reading the icon for  awhile with the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner for company.  For Rahner as for Teilhard the Sacred Heart is an indispensible symbol of God’s love.  And yet, like Teilhard, he believed that it had been rather devalued as a result of certain aspects of the popular devotional practice.  Here are a few reflections on what I have taken from Rahner thus far.

Mosaic in Jesuit College Innsbruck

Rahner describes as a ‘primal word’ to be found in many cultures to signify ‘the whole man’ as a ‘person of body and spirit’( in J. Stierli (ed) Heart of the Saviour,  Herder and Co, New York, 1958, p 132.)  Given this centrality of the idea of heart, when we speak of the heart of Jesus we are referring to the love which Christ has for God’s creation as true man and true God.  So, it is not just any old devotion: it is the devotion above all others.   In the Sacred Heart we see a wounded and pierced heart: the love of God which has taken to itself the pain of our humanity.  The Sacred Heart is no mere  Christian cult: it is Christianity.  For  Rahner the Sacred Heart wholly encapsulates what Christianity is all about: God is with us, and has given himself wholly and completely.  In Jesus he has given us his all, his whole self: his heart.  It is a heart that was pierced for us, and it is this heart which desires to become one with our heart.  As a symbol it shows us that this love of God for us requires our response: we too have to overcome  pain, sin and death.  It is a symbol of triumph and redemption.  God is heart shaped.  Therefore, if we want to live the kind if life that leads to God, the Sacred Heart shows us how: God is love and God is all heart.  God’s love is self-sacrificing.  God’s love is forgiving and merciful. We are called in the Gospels to look at how Jesus loved and do likewise.  As a devotion therefore, it is calling us to have a personal – heart to heart  - relationship with God. The Sacred Heart is therefore a devotion which is deeply personal, and the organization or institutionalization of the devotion can ( and for Rahner has) serve to atrophy rather than stimulate the growth of the devotion.  For Rahner the Sacred Heart is to be understood as a symbol of the fact that God loves us personally.  God’s very centre, core or heart is love, and we are called to have a personal relationship to this centre by – in a sense – de-centering ourselves by practicing self-sacrificing, forgiving and merciful love.  For it is only in this way can the sin, pain and death of existence can be overcome.  Only through this kind of love symbolized in the Sacred Heart can humanity be redeemed.

 Because of this centrality of the Sacred Heart to the gospel message Rahner, like Teilhard wanted to see a renaissance in the devotion on these lines.   ( As I understand Rahner, that is.)  And like Teilhard, he also saw Sacred Heart as a pivotal aspect of  Ignatian spirituality.  Indeed, it seems to play a similar integrative role for both men.  For Teilhard it is a symbol which allowed to integrate his Ignatian  religious and spiritual beliefs with his scientific ideas.  For Rahner the Sacred Heart is described as  a ‘anti-toxin’ to the essentiall feature of Ignatian spirituality : indifference to the world.  Indeed, he argues tha: ‘ if not protected against itself it can be rationalistic, cold, calculating, skeptical, icy, exaggerating the relativism of all things other than God’ (Rahner, Mission and Grace, III: 189). 

The  sublime gift of indifference is saved from being a deadly poison only when it is received by someone with an adoring devotion to love: someone who dares to have a heart, being an adorer of the Heart. (193) … the ultimate source of love is the Heart of the Lord.  And hence Ignatian spirituality can only be healthy if it loves that Heart and loves union with it.  Otherwise all that is most sublime in it becomes most deadly.’ (199)

In other words, the Jesuit’s devotion to the Sacred Heart is not an option.  It is, as Rahner puts it: the ‘true flowering’ of the devotion.  As Fr. Philip Endean S.J. argues, therefore: 'Rahner’s intent was not to destroy Sacred Heart devotion, but to renew it.  In the aftermath of Vatican II, however, the Sacred Heart seems to have vanished from public Catholic rhetoric.'  (Read here.)  It seems to me that the need for renewal in the devotion to the Sacred Heart is more urgent and more necessary than ever before in the Church.  From the standpoint of this blog, that renewal must necessarily involve exploring the imagery which has dominated ( and perhaps  distorted) the devotion.