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From Fr. Mark:
Devotion to the Sacred Heart, thus understood, is a manifestation in
the Church of the Holy Spirit, "helping us in our weakness; for we do
not know how to pray as we ought" (Rom 8:26).5 The Sacred
Heart is, in the life of the Church, the organ by which "the Spirit
intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom 8:27).
Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: "We see who Jesus is if we see him at
prayer. The Christian confession of faith comes from participating in
the prayer of Jesus, from being drawn into his prayer and being
privileged to behold it; it interprets the experience of Jesus' prayer,
and its interpretation of Jesus is correct because it springs from a
sharing in what is most personal and intimate to him".6
This is the prayer of the Sacred Heart, the prayer that filled the
days and nights of Jesus' earthly life, the prayer that suffused his
sufferings and ascended from the Cross at the hour of his death, the
prayer that with him descended into the depths of the earth, the prayer
that continues uninterrupted in the glory of his risen and ascended
life, the prayer that is ceaseless in the Sacrament of the Altar....
The prayer of the Heart of Christ at the hour of his sacrifice passes
entirely into the heart of the Church, where it is prolonged and
actualized "from the rising of the sun to its setting" (Mal 1:11) in the
Liturgy of the Hours and in the mystery of the Eucharist.
Cardinal Ratzinger asks if, after the once-for-all Pasch of Jesus,
anything more is needed. "After the tearing of the Temple curtain and
the opening up of the heart of God in the pierced heart of the
Crucified, do we still need sacred space, sacred time, mediating
symbols? Yes, we do need them, precisely so that, through the 'image',
through the sign, we learn to see the openness of heaven. We need them
to give us the capacity to know the mystery of God in the pierced heart
of the Crucified".14
It is through the liturgy, first and above all, that we pass over
into the prayer of the Sacred Heart, the word to the Father forever
inscribed in his pierced side.
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1 comment:
To M-J and other readers: I realized that Father Mark's posts have been removed. I am so sorry. But I am leaving the posts up so that the monks will see that his site it still receiving hits. I have written and asked them to please restore Father's posts. This blog might be the only place left to read Father Mark so I am keeping the posts up so that he will not be completely silenced. Thank you for your concern and I apologize for the inconvenience. I wish I had copied more of his posts while they were available. Please go to Fr. Mark's site and write to the monks and ask them to restore his posts.
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