An explanation is in order for the absence of Daily Slices on Friday and Saturday. I prepared a piece on Friday regarding the Sacred Heart, but an error occurred and I could not publish it. On Saturday, I could not even access the blog nor my yahoo account at all. I hope this attempt succeeds.
On Friday and Saturday we celebrated two feasts which graphically portray the love of Jesus and Mary for us in the Solemnnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose images of Jesus and Mary with their hearts visible outside their bodies are familiar to all Catholics. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque described her vision of Jesus with his heart thus exposed and artists matched the image by placing the heart of Mary on her bosom.
Catholics love tangibles in their prayer and worship, hence the sign of the cross, bowing, genuflecting, folded hands in prayer, or hands crossed upon the chest, incorporate the body in actions which serve as aids to prayer and worship. The use of statues, mosaics, paintings, incense, stained glass windows, palms, crudifixes etc. help us in the act of raising our minds and hearts to God. Popular author of the 40's and 50's, Caryll Houselander, suggests that we can even make a prayer of our bodies themselves as a "total act of love for the world, a searching contemplation of Christ by offering our bodies as a sacrifice for mankind." Such an offering "needs no sweet meditation, no eloquence of words, no sensible fervor. It can be made in aridity, weariness, dullness, bordedom, pain, in temptation, in any circumstances at all, by anyone." What a simple prayer this can be, what a simple gift to match the love of the hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Bro. Rene
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