Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!
An annual fall tradition for students in the ECS program at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology is a visit to the Godsell Farm to share a meal, visit the animals, and – of course – carve a few pumpkins!
The students are pictured above with their creations; seated in the center is Fr. Yvon Sheehy, director of the ECS residential program. Please note that Fr. Yvon was hospitalized over the weekend for tests; there is the possibility that he will have a cardiac catheterization. Please keep him in prayer.
“Do I have a heart?”
“Everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the dwelling-place of love in all its spiritual, psychic and even physical dimensions,” writes Pope Francis in his newly released encyclical on the Sacred Heart, “Dilexit Nos.”
“In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved…
“Whenever a person thinks, questions and reflects on his or her true identity, strives to understand the deeper questions of life and to seek God, or experiences the thrill of catching a glimpse of truth, it leads to the realization that our fulfilment as human beings is found in love. In loving, we sense that we come to know the purpose and goal of our existence in this world. Everything comes together in a state of coherence and harmony. It follows that, in contemplating the meaning of our lives, perhaps the most decisive question we can ask is, ‘Do I have a heart?'”
Founder quoted in Dilexit Nos
A close reading of Dilexit Nos finds a citation from Ven. Fr. Leo John Dehon. It is at the end of paragraph 110, footnote No. 99:
“A number of holy women, in recounting their experiences of encounter with Christ, have spoken of resting in the heart of the Lord as the source of life and interior peace,” begins paragraph 110. “This was the case with Saints Lutgarde and Mechtilde of Hackeborn, Saint Angela of Foligno and Dame Julian of Norwich, to mention only a few. Saint Gertrude of Helfta, a Cistercian nun, tells of a time in prayer when she reclined her head on the heart of Christ and heard its beating. In a dialogue with Saint John the Evangelist, she asked him why he had not described in his Gospel what he experienced when he did the same. Gertrude concludes that ‘the sweet sound of those heartbeats has been reserved for modern times, so that, hearing them, our aging and lukewarm world may be renewed in the love of God’. [98] Might we think that this is indeed a message for our own times, a summons to realize how our world has indeed ‘grown old’, and needs to perceive anew the message of Christ’s love? Saint Gertrude and Saint Mechtilde have been considered among ‘the most intimate confidants of the Sacred Heart’. [99]
The citation:
99: LÉON DEHON, Directoire spirituel des prêtres su Sacré Cœur de Jésus, Turnhout, 1936, II, ch. VII, n. 141.
Cardinal celebrates SHSST Mass
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, was the main presider at last Wednesday’s all-school liturgy at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology. During the Mass, Didier Buwani, a seminarian from the Diocese of Lexington, was instituted as Acolyte.
The cardinal was at SHSST for several days last week to take part in the annual “Collegial Sharing Among Brother Bishops,” a time for dialogue in a small-group setting among bishops on common pastoral concerns.
Directory updates
Many thanks to the SCJs and coworkers who have already reviewed the draft of the 2024 North American Personnel Directory. It was sent on Friday via email to all SCJs in the US and Canada, as well as to lay staff representing various ministries.
We would like to send the updated director to the printer by Friday so that it can be distributed in early November. If you have received a copy of the draft, please take a moment to review your information, and if you have time, any other section of the directory. More eyes on the text will make for a more accurate directory.
Thanks for your help, and our apologies for omissions and/or errors in the draft. If you have questions, please contact Mary Gorski (414-427-4266)
Welcome Fr. Pat!
Speaking of directory changes, we have one for Fr. Pat Lloyd, SCJ, who moved from Pinellas Park, FL, last week, to the Sacred Heart Community at SHML. His address has been updated in the online directory.
November birthdays
Among those celebrating birthdays in November: Fr. David Szatkowski on Nov. 2, Br. Brian Tompkins on Nov. 4, Fr. Martin Antony Kadamattu on Nov. 10, Fr. Rafael Querobin on Nov. 13, Fr. Greg Schill on Nov. 14, Fr. Jan de Jong on Nov. 17, Fr. Tom Gray on Nov. 18, and Fr. Antonio Maria Resende Pereira on Nov. 22. Happy birthday!
Please remember
+ Fr. Nicolas Hansen, a member of the Congolese Province, died on October 24 in Luxembourg. He was born in 1939, professed in 1961 and ordained in 1968.
St. Joseph’s Indian School supports president’s apology
On November 25, President Joseph Biden apologized for “the U.S. government’s role in running hundreds of Indian boarding schools for a 150-year period that stripped Native American children of their language and culture.”
St. Joseph’s Indian School, one of the Dehonians’ oldest ministries in the United States, issued a statement of support of the president’s words.
“Native American families have too long suffered the effects of the boarding school era,” said Mike Tyrell, president of St. Joseph’s.”Though we were founded on a different model and were never a part of the government system, our early years reflected some similarity to the boarding schools of the era. We know from the Canadian experience that an honest apology and truth telling can open the pathway to healing. We want this for all those carrying the trauma and grief of the boarding school era.”
St. Joseph’s Indian School is a member of the American Indian Catholic Schools Network and a participant in its Truth and Healing Committee.
President Biden’s apology comes a little over two years since Pope Francis delivered an historic apology for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s residential school policy.
We remember and give thanks
This week the Church commemorates All Saints Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls Day, (Nov. 2). Reflecting on the gift of life, Ven. Fr. Leo John Dehon writes in his Daily Notes (March 26, 1868) that “Our life is a continuous dying. Every moment slips away from us until we have exhausted all the time that God has allotted to us. Our life is a short series of relations with God, with others, and with ourselves. Our actions have an almost infinite value if they are done in the grace of Jesus Christ because then they are united to his.”
As we remember those who have gone before us, we pray:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
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