{"id":3809,"date":"2012-06-14T21:05:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T21:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2012\/06\/priests-in-pilgrimage-to-your-heart\/"},"modified":"2012-06-14T21:05:55","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T21:05:55","slug":"priests-in-pilgrimage-to-your-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2012\/06\/priests-in-pilgrimage-to-your-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Priests in pilgrimage to Your Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vicente_Lopez_Portana_Angel.jpg\"<\/a>
\nI preached this homily to the Reverend Fathers of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska, to mark the closing of the Year of the Priest on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 11 June 2010.<\/small><\/small>
\nAnd now, already, we have crossed the threshold,
\nnot only of Your feast, but also of Your mystery,
\nO Pierced One.
\nFor four days we, Your priests, have been in pilgrimage to Your Heart.
\nIt was the light of Your Eucharistic Face that drew us on,
\ncompelling us, impelling to seek in its radiance
\nthe wound in Your side.
\nNow before us lies the door
\nopened not by the turn of a key
\nbut by the thrust of a lance,
\nand beyond the door the abode of love.
\n“He has brought me to the banqueting house,
\nand is banner over me was love” (Ct 2:4).
\nWe opened our breviaries to First Vespers
\nand found there not the mere form of words
\nbut the traces of a burning, blazing Word
\n— Your Heart —
\nand beneath the text
\nembers glowing
\nwaiting to be fanned again into flame
\nby a mingling of Spirit-Breath with ours,
\nbreath well spent in the chants of Your Church.
\nThe Spirit came again to the help of our weakness,
\nloosing our tongues for the praise of Love wounded and wounding,
\nteaching Love’s own language:
\nstrange to those in exile from Your Heart
\nbut now become — O wonder!–
\nour native tongue.
\nStrange and blessed
\nthis language of Your Church,
\nspilling fire in antiphons
\nand rivers of light in psalms,
\ninfusing Your prayer, O Christ, Eternal Son, Eternal Priest
\n— nothing less than that —
\ninto all of us who know not how to pray as we ought.
\nYour Heart’s prayer
\npoured into every aching emptiness of ours.
\nYour Heart’s song
\nrising in our silence.
\nYour Heartbeat
\nmaking us bold
\nby a gift of words not of our making.
\nAnd in those words Heart speaks to heart.
\nIn them
\nYour Heart speaks to the Father;
\nand the Father’s heart to yours.
\nIn them Your Heart sings to Your Church, Your Bride;
\nand her heart sings to yours.
\nThis is Love’s exchange,
\nhidden from the learned and the clever
\nbut revealed to little ones,
\nsplashed like pure water on the lips of children
\nto delight the Father
\nand to fall all shining onto the cracked and dusty face
\nof a world grown old in thirst.
\nYou stood up once
\nas you stand before us now,
\n— it was the last day of the feast, the great day —
\nand cried out, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink;
\nout of His heart shall flow rivers of living water” (cf. Jn 7:37-38).
\nYou said this about the Spirit
\nthat blazes from Your face —
\nand rushes from Your open side
\nin water and in blood.
\nWhere is the heart held aloft,
\nthe heart become a chalice to catch the torrent in its flow?
\nWhere are hands to press that chalice
\nto the lips of those who, with weary step,
\nreturn from empty cisterns?
\nMy heart?
\nFor this I give it
\nand for this I give my hands.
\nMy heart to cup the flow of love,
\nmy hands to tip the chalice.
\nIt is Your Face, O Christ, that we came seeking,
\nthe Face that sought us first,
\nYour Eucharistic Face seen now as through a glass darkly,
\na polished monstrance crystal cut by faith.
\nAnd we all, with unveiled face,
\nbeholding Your glory veiled here,
\nare being changed into Your likeness (cf. 2 Cor 3:18)
\nand drawn beyond the threshold wound,
\nYour Heart’s pierced portal.
\n“Arise, my love, my fair one,
\nand come away.” (Ct 2:13-14).
\nIt is time for us to be like the nesting dove
\ntime for us to spread our wings
\nand, lifted by the Spirit, to hide in the cleft of the rock.
\nThere, “they shall hunger no more,
\nneither thirst any more;
\nthe sun shall not strike them,
\nnor any scorching heat” (Rev 7:16).
\nPass through the narrow gate.
\nPriests, apostles of the Sacred Heart,
\nsent out from that secret place,
\nbe a dove made white in the Blood,
\nand like the dove, after every mission far-flung or near
\nto it return to be silent and adore.
\nAdorers of the Sacred Heart
\nwe will all of us be in the end
\nfor adoration will have the last word
\nas it must have the first.
\n“The hour is coming and now is,
\nwhen the true adorers shall adore the Father
\nin spirit and in truth,
\nfor such the Father seeks to adore Him” (Jn 4:23).
\nAdoration then will be the only word,
\nan ocean of light dissolving every other discourse
\nand bathing a broken world
\nin the healing water and the cleansing blood.
\n“And He who sat upon the throne said,
\n‘Behold, I make all things new'” (Rev 21:5).
\n“And they shall see His face,
\nand His name shall be on their foreheads.
\nAnd night shall be no more;
\nthey need no light of lamp or sun,
\nfor the Lord God will be their light” (Rev 22:4-5).
\nO Eucharist, Sun of Life,
\nradiating the Heart’s flame of fire!
\nO Host burning and yet not consumed!
\n“And Moses hid his face,
\nfor he was afraid to look at God” (Ex 3:6)?
\nGentle Christ, humble hidden Bread,
\nto look at you is all refreshment.
\nIrresistible God.
\n“After this I looked,
\nand lo, in the heaven an open door!
\nAnd the voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said,
\n‘Come up hither'” (Rev 4:1).
\nAnd I looked and looked
\nand looked at Him whom they have pierced (cf. Zech 12:10).
\n“And the angel who talked with me came again,
\nand waked me, like a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
\nAnd he said to me, ‘What do you see?'” (Zech 4:1-2).
\n“A Eucharistic Face,” I said,
\n“and an Open Heart.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I preached this homily to the Reverend Fathers of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska, to mark the closing of the Year of the Priest on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 11 June 2010. And now, already, we have crossed the threshold, not only of <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacred-heart-of-jesus","category-year-of-the-priest-2009-2010"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-Zr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}