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March 24, 2017
Fr. Leo John Dehon: founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart
 Our blessed Lord is our brother, our pontiff, and our advocate with the Father. When we offer our prayers to God—and every good work is a prayer—we unite them to those of our brother whose Sacred Heart is a thousand times more loving than our own.
When with him we utter those loving words, “Our Father,” our hearts lose themselves in the tender Heart of that brother, of that priest, who in the tabernacle and in heaven takes care of all of our obligations to God and renders our homage to him.
As in him we offer up our prayers and our works, all of us—priests and faithful—share as it were in his priesthood: “a holy and priestly race” [cf. I Peter 2:9]. All the saints in heaven, all those on earth and in purgatory, all Christians, have but one Heart in Christ, one priestly Heart offering its praise, love, and sacrifice to God. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” [Philippians 2:5].
All the honor and glory that God receives from us passes through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Heart of our mediator and priest. All else is nothing in the eyes of God.
The Priestly Heart of Jesus, “Introduction”
Lived and Shared: contemporary expressions of Dehonian spirituality
 Prayer is one of the practices that the Church invites us to do more of during Lent. Praying can be oral, a conversation speaking and listening to God. I, along with many Catholics and my fellow SCJs, am concerned about the migrant crisis. In this case, prayer involves not only listening with our ears but also observing with our eyes.
Last December, I spent an afternoon in McAllen, Texas, at Sacred Heart Parish, where I saw the face of migration: children and mothers being dropped off, welcomed, and cared for at the parish center. It seemed to me the modern Ellis Island. This is what I have reflected upon this Lent.
I am left with a sense of doing something about this. Prayer sometimes leads to action.
On Monday, March 6, four SCJs and Mark Peters [Province Director of Justice, Peace, and Reconciliation] journeyed to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's office in Racine, Wisconsin, and shared our concerns about refugees and migrants with one of his aides. The Church invites us to pray more in Lent. This Lent, for the five of us, prayer meant giving testimony about Jesus's command to love one another.
Tony Russo, SCJ, Member of the North American SCJ Committee on Migration
Reflection Questions: seeds for personal understanding and growth
In what sense or under what circumstances is every good work a prayer?
What do you hear and observe in the world that finds its way into your prayer?
To what action(s) has your prayer led you?
Prayer: hands lifted in prayer; hands prepared to serve
In your kindness throughout the coming week, please remember in your prayers the migrant families that Sacred Heart Parish in McAllen, Texas, welcome and care for. You may find helpful the following Prayer of Oblation, adapted from the Prayer Book of the Priests of the Sacred Heart.
Lord Jesus, Christ,
we thank you
that through your death and resurrection,
you have redeemed the world.
We offer ourselves
for the renewal of this world,
which you have created
with the Father and the Spirit.
We confess that we, too,
stand continually in need of redemption.
In order to cooperate
with the redemptive work
you have begun among us,
we dedicate ourselves to you.
We make our own
your fidelity to your Father’s will.
Accept this day as we spend it in prayer
and in ministry on behalf of others.
Through this service
may we make your name known
as the source of all life.
Give us the strength to serve your people.
Amen.
Each week reflections and prayers based in the Dehonian charism are published on the Dehonian Spirituality page of the U.S. Province website of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. This is an email version of that update.
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