If God Were a Soft-hearted Slob . . .Oh, That's Right He Is. . .Seventh Promise of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

                                         

                                        “Tepid souls shall become fervent.” 

I go to Sacred Heart Church at 116th & Church Street in Washington Heights just east of Morgan Park in Chicago.  The Mass is traditional and unself-absorbed and sung in English.  The Saying of the Memorare after the Nicene Creed was and is a huge selling point in my attendence at Sacred Heart - that and the people who attend.

It is a kid friendly place of worship free the more pious scolds who skunk-eye and 'hush and shush' families with little kids (infants -toddlers) who interrupt the sanctity of the liturgy, while celebrating the sanctity of Life. Little guys screw around and Mass can be brutal. Among the faithful in the pews there is nothing but simple dignity and smiling tolerance for the little guys.

Sacred Heart parishioners are salt of the earth blue-collar working women and men. A State of Grace after Mass includes a dose of pride knowing that you have been numbered among these people. No hand tossing Hosanna-types of the Church of Happy Horse-#$%^.   People who know hard work, hard times and hard prayer have a dignified

Sacred Heart worship is Divine -thanks to the likes of Father Gallagher, Father Vanecko and etc. Gallagher and Vanecko are brilliant and succinct homilists.  They do not need to hear the sound of their voices.  Mass is never like attending a Wagner Festival.  Thanks be to God.  The church building is understated beauty.

The French immigrants who paid for and built Sacred Heart at the turn of 19th Century did a great job on the stained glass windows that feature St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Christ. My favorite is Olde # 7  “Tepid souls shall become fervent.”

I am about as lukewarm/tepid/less than hot a soul ,as God ever cranked out. Mind you; nothing wrong with the parts and labor going into the making, but really poor maintenance by the owner.

If God were more of shiftless, lazy, excuse-laden slob, He'd allow me to be and act more like Joe Epstein, Skinny Sheahan, or Dan McGrath.  They are a Trinity of nice guys who toil at it.  God does too.  I do not.

I like to think that with a little more prayer and great deal more effort the Sacred Heart will deliver. Fervent beats tepid hollow.

St. Claude - Heart Matters: Sacred and Otherwise

Today is the Feast of Claude La Colombière, S.J. (1641-1682)


Claude packed some serious heart. In his forty one years, the scholarly Frenchman took Orders with the Jesuits, earned a reputation as one of the great preachers of the Post Reformation Catholic Church, acted as confessor to both St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Duchess of York during the 'Papist Plot' of Titus Oakes, and was imprisoned by the Parliament which led to his early death following banishment from England.

Claude La Colombière, S.J. is remarkable because he listened. I am gabby. That gets in the way of competent hearing too often. My Old Man used to admonish, "Jesus Christ, give your ears a chance! That mouth of your's moves like a duck's ass,"

St. Claude listened. Margaret Mary Alacoque was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church in 1920. She was from a well-off French family. As a young girl, she was stricken with an illness and vowed to devote her life to Christ, as we all do when faced with calamities. Her health improved and her Mom encouraged her to 'get out in the world' and meet some boys. She did. Returning from a dance, Margaret Mary was blessed with a vision of the Sacred Heart of Christ. The heart represents so many things - the physical power plant of our lives, love and courage.

Having a vision can mean a couple of things - you are gifted with an ability to make sense of the world as it is now and project the process to make things even better, or, you are nuts.

Margaret Mary confessed to Claude and he listened. By really listening, Claude heard the beat of the Sacred Heart through the words of Margaret Mary. The Devotions to the Sacred Heart are paths to better living. Some of them are severe. Margaret Mary would awaken at the 11 P.M. and line prostrate with her face to the ground offering prayers for intercession by the Sacred Heart of Jesus until Midnight. The devotions to the Sacred Heart continued from the 17th Century and rooted here in Chicago. The French lumbermen of Lake Township -down here on the south side along Vincennes Ave. built Sacred Heart Church at 116th & Church. One of the stained glass windows placed on the south wall in 1904 holds a promise from Christ to Margaret Mary ' I Shall Make Tepid Hearts Fervent.'

That promise continues because Claude, a gifted preacher and scholar, closed his mouth, and listened. Hearing - genuine listening opens the heart.