This contemplative attitude permeates our whole being, helping us to live ever more united to Christ in our relationships, our tasks and our ministry; it becomes a powerful force of conversion and transformation for mission.
Religious of the Sacred Heart are called to be wholly contemplative and wholly apostolic. Our prayer and our ministries are one and the same. Our prayer informs our action and vice versa.
As women rooted in the heart of Christ, we draw from our heritage of contemplation that springs from “a compelling love written in our hearts by the Spirit” (Constitutions #24). This urgent call challenges us to keep hope alive in a world of division, violence and woundedness that threaten the survival of our planet. The beauty and the suffering of our world and of nature, and the wisdom of other religious traditions touch and affect the quality and depth of our contemplation.
Many in our world today are searching for the meaning of life. This movement calls us to revitalize our spirituality of the heart and to discover the gratuitous presence of the love of God in humanity.
We are called to stop, to choose silence and to open and let ourselves be opened to our inner depths where the Spirit of God allows us to feel, see and understand life and reality with God’s heart. When we allow our bodies to be silent, our senses awaken, and we are able to hear the voice of the Spirit within us. Then in the secret place of the heart, the Spirit gradually transforms our feelings and responses, and draws us into an intimate relationship with God. The Spirit attunes us to the heartbeat of our people to discover the presence and love of God in everyday life. When we contemplate the heart of Christ we enter into the movement of the Spirit who develops in us a listening heart, bringing us closer to God’s reality, with the desire to promote justice, peace and the care of creation.
Contemplation is at the core of our spirituality and leads us to discover the depths of our humanity. Our contemplation allows us to hear the cry for relationships that reflect human dignity. Being contemplative women will give color and warmth to life.
The Society's call to contemplation, a compelling love written in our hearts by the Spirit, makes us seek and cherish prolonged times of prayer. Our relationship with Christ is nourished by the study of Scripture, by reading, reflection and daily examen, all of which are necessary for the deepening of our inner life; this relationship is further strengthened by periodic renewal and an annual retreat.
Within this common vocation, each one receives her own unique call. We respond to it personally in and through our diverse cultures. The demands of mission and our spiritual background necessarily influence rhythms and forms of prayer. Desiring to keep God at the centre of our lives we are drawn to give one hour each day to prayer, without this time being considered in any sense a limit. Each religious finds her own rhythm of prayer and will decide how best she is to be faithful
to what Christ asks of her and of the Society.