The Sacred Heart of Jesus: A Live Conversation

Shannon: We're in June, and we're Catholic. And that means during the whole month of June, we focus on this beautiful devotion in the church. And today, we've invited our friend Drago to be here, and Alfredo and Lisa Marie can help us out with some readings. So before we start, let me just say hello, Drago.

Drago: Shannon, what a what a fun day it is today. Good time to do the Sacred Heart.

Shannon: I couldn't imagine what you're talking about. Yeah. We're gonna focus on things above, not, disagreements that friends might have. I actually did a post, a thread a few minutes ago on the three types of friendship from Aristotle, friendships of utility, pleasure, and virtue. And we all aspire to be virtuous friends.

Alfredo, how's how's your mic?

Alfredo: All good over here. Thanks for inviting me for this.

Shannon: Sure. Lisa Marie.

Lisa Marie: Good afternoon. Good evening. And, thank you for inviting me also.

Shannon: Sure. And, if you're listening, we'll we'll be happy to invite you up a little bit later if you have any comments or wanna share your thoughts about, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Last year, pope Francis released an encyclical that inspired this space. We actually actually talked to Drago last year about doing this, even the week before. I think I think, Drago, you were in Rome when it came out.

We talked about we would do, like, a sort of a kinda you in Rome, me here, and a live report that we didn't quite get around to, to doing it. But it's it's the last encyclical from pope Francis before his death on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devotion about the boundless divine love of Christ. Now in this encyclical, pope Francis reminds us that the heart, has always been sort of the ultimate symbol of love. And we see it everywhere today in our modern culture, in art, in stories, in movies, in songs, in emojis we send each other. There's something about the heart that touches us all.

It transcends time and culture. It doesn't matter who we are, where we're from. It doesn't matter our race, our creed. Doesn't nothing matters. Everybody can relate to to love.

Think about how many songs in your playlist. Maybe you have a Spotify playlist. Maybe you have a bunch of songs you downloaded from Napster way back in the day. But think about how many talk about love. How many talk about the heart?

A lot of classic love songs have the word heart in the title. Right? And in these songs, we hear about love and longing and connection. The great singer songwriter, Lionel Richie, once gave an interview and said that love songs work because people fall in love every day, and they hurt every day. These are human emotions.

They they don't go away. Across history, across cultures, just created in the image of god, he's created us with this hole in our heart. Right? We're wired to want to seek love. And in our lives, we have a variety of different types of love.

Right? There's romantic love, eros. There's familial love, you know, your Aunt Sally. There's friendships. You love your friends.

You name it. There's different types. Right? And many of us can get to where our lives revolve around these people. And that can be dangerous.

It can be wonderful too. Saint Augustine, of course, of his most famous quote, our hearts are restless until they rest in you. So we are eternal beings. We were created. We had a point of beginning, but we will eternally live in heaven or hell.

And we had this infinite hunger for meaning and connection, for lasting love. Only God can fulfill that. That's represented in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Everything else in this world is finite, relationships. I wrote this I made these notes before today's big events where a famous friendship is is fractured.

But everything's finite. Your achievements will pass away. Your possessions will pass away. Even the greatest joys we have now aren't gonna last forever. Right?

They're gonna fade. Only god's love, which is revealed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, can satisfy forever. A love that never fades, never fails, and grants us eternal peace. Now as Christians, we hear this phrase all the time, god is love. And, of course, that's true.

Right? God is more more than that too. Right? He's holiness and justice and a and a million other things. He's the author of everything that's good.

But despite the and just think about what God has created in the universe. There are billions of galaxies that he's interested in us. Right? We're the only creatures created in his divine image. His heart longs for us, and he wants us to long for him.

But, of course, as flawed human beings, we have a distorted view and distorted, weakened ability to put things in their proper order in our lives. Many times, as I mentioned before, we put other people, other relationships before god. Even if you're married, god is supposed to be above your spouse, the most important relationship. Even if you have children, that is still supposed to be true. You know, especially when we're younger, we think, some kind of relationship is gonna fulfill us.

Right? We think about, oh, this girl's and this guy. Whatever it is, this is the one. Right? Bishop Barron recently gave a talk on the heart.

It wasn't specifically about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but he was talking about the heart. And he quoted the prophet Jeremiah. And, Jeremiah is kind of a a a doom and gloom kind of prophet, which we need sometimes. Right? But Jeremiah was warning about trusting too much on human relationships.

So this is bishop Baron talking about or or giving us this quote. Thus says the Lord, curse is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord. God says we're cursed if we turn away from him, putting our focus and trust too much on other humans, seeking our strength in flesh. I want you to think about the programming we receive in popular culture. Television programming.

That word programming is not an accident. They actually program how you think, how you feel. There's a in all the great there's so many great songs. Right? But they all sort of cause us to to go the wrong way sometimes, and they all cause us to think that our relationships with other people are the most important things.

Right? There's this great song from the eighties by Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart. It's a great song basically saying the whole world is ending. It's doom and gloom because this relationship is over. But every single human relationship is going to be over through death, through infidelity, through people moving on.

Everything's temporary. There's one relationship that's forever eternally fulfilling, and that's represented found in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Bishop Joseph Strickland describes the Sacred Heart like this.

Sound Clip: The Sacred Heart is not just an image or symbol. It is a living, glorified heart, still wounded, still bleeding, still burning with love for a world that too often turns away. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the center of the Christian mystery. It's not a poetic metaphor. It is the real beating heart of the son of God, now glorified in heaven and present in the Eucharist.

Shannon: A living heart still bleeding, still burning for the world who often turns away. It's not just a symbolic pretty pretty picture we retweet on x, which we we do retweet that pretty picture, and there's a lot of them. But, there's a reality there. Alright. I've been chattering on for a little bit.

Let me check-in with my cohost and see if any of this, resonates and, see, Drago, what your thoughts are as we talk about tonight the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Before you say anything, Drago, just let me invite everybody that's here. If you will please repost the space so we can get more people focused on the sacred heart. Drago.

Drago: I, I just I just reposted, Shannon. So, let let's all repost the space. I, speaking of heart, I've had a, heavy heart lately thinking about the future and the spiritual attacks that are inevitable coming our way. And without, you know, getting too much onto that, the solution is a return to the heart. And and I say this that that this is why, Shannon, what you're what you're doing here is really important, this reclaiming the language and the focus of the heart.

Because in our society, we we focus on the intellect, the will, the reason, or we go to the other extreme of instincts and just acting with the instincts. But but the heart is the unifying center. It's the all encompassing, you know, inner core where true sincerity and the authentic person actually exists. And what what's interesting and even difficult is to even talk about what is the heart because of the way our culture and the way our the philosophies. I mean, imagine talking to Richard Dawkins and talking about the heart.

He was like, the heart. What what is this heart? What are you talking about? You know, he he he would say something like this. And so I guess just the first thing I wanted to contribute is that in in this encyclical, there's really beautiful language describing what is the heart.

Because when we talk about the Sacred Heart of Jesus in in particular well, first, what do we even mean when we say the heart?

Shannon: Exactly. And, of course, Pope Francis is not the first pope to write about the Sacred Heart. There have been at least three other people in cyclicals. There was one way back in 1899, Pope Leo the thirteenth. We're hearing a lot about Pope Leo the thirteenth these days because now we have Pope Leo the fourteenth.

A lot of comparisons are made and but he wrote, an encyclical which focused on on this idea of consecrating the human race to the Sacred Heart. About thirty years after that, Pope Pius the eleventh had an encyclical about reparations. You've heard this sometimes reparations for the sins, for our sins, again, to the Sacred Heart. But maybe the most famous one before Pope Francis is, one from 1956, Pope Pius the twelfth. And the name of the encyclical because they always have names, and they're they're in Latin.

But I'll give you the English, name, and it's you will draw waters. And it comes from a verse in Isaiah. You will draw waters with joy from the fountains of the savior. You know, blood and water. Right?

The heart of, when they pierce Jesus' side, blood and water came out. So as we move through talking about some of these ideas from from cyclicals, this this notion of water, you're gonna hear that you're gonna hear that again. We're all familiar with who Scott Hahn is. Right? The great biblical scholar.

He read this encyclical when he first became Catholic, this one from the nineteen fifties. And here's what he said about discovering the beauty of the Sacred Heart by reading this encyclical by pope Pius the twelfth. I discovered this way back when I was a new Catholic and I read an encyclical by pope Pius the twelfth that came out in the late fifties. It was entitled Harietis Aquis and it's on devotion to the Sacred Heart. And there I found treasures of insight and wisdom into how it is that the heart of Jesus is the point of union, the bond between the divinity of our lord and his humanity.

The heart of Jesus is the bond, the point of union between the divinity of Jesus and his humanity. What was I don't know if you caught the phrase he said there, but talking about reading this encyclical, he he used a phrase called treasures of insights. And there are so many wonderful treasures in all the great encyclicals from many popes like John Paul the second and Benedict. And so we wanna try to over time focus more on pulling out some treasures and sharing them with you in in spaces like this. But the one we're really focused on, tonight is the one from pope Francis written in October.

Well, I'm sure it's written long before that, but released in October of twenty twenty four. What is that like? I don't know. Nine months ago, something like that. And let's start with a quote directly from this encyclical.

Alfredo, I think you're gonna read this for us, aren't you? Read this this, quote. Let's let's sort of get the heart of this encyclical.

Alfredo: Yeah. I think this is

Sound Clip: from paragraphs thirty two and thirty three from the Telexithnos. The heart of Christ as the symbol of the deepest and most personal source of his love for us is the very core of the initial preaching of the gospel. It stands at the origin of our faith as the wellspring that refreshes and enlivens our Christian beliefs. Christ showed the depth of his love for us, not by lengthy explanations, but by concrete actions. By examining his interactions with others, we can come to realize how he treats each one of us even though at times this may be difficult to see.

Shannon: I like that that, talking about that phrase, talking about that he shows the depth of his love not by his words, but by his actions. But there's something from I think it's James about, you know, living out your faith. Don't just be a, don't just say the words. Be a doer of the word. Obviously, I can't quote it.

I don't have it memorized. Can you tell? But I wanna talk about this, like, through our actions, we show love. And and and, Drago, I wanna tie in what you're doing. Your work with holy habits is about building virtue.

Talk about a little bit about this, about actions that we we take concrete actions that are right if we have the right heart, if we already have a virtuous heart. Talk about a little bit about that.

Drago: Yeah. Right. Well, I I I in some sense, it's like the Pharisees who were the whitewashed tombs who, you know, they were doing a lot of actions, which would we we would say with your commendable actions in some respect, but because their heart wasn't aligned with their actions, you know, it was really no no good at the end of at the end of the analysis. And so, yeah, we you know, a lot of times, it's like faith versus works, right, and all this stuff. And, really, this, it's like trying to separate the mind from the body.

You know, our the faith that illuminates our conscious should have a ripple effect into our actions. And then, of course, our actions help soften us to receive the grace and and deepen our faith even more so. Certainly, these things are, fundamentally intertwined. And, the more you know, ultimately, right, we're on a journey to becoming saints. We're on a journey of theosis becoming 100% partakers of the divine nature.

And as it relates to the heart, that's having 100% the heart of Christ, a % love of God, a % love of others. You know, I like to say, like, maybe on a good day. You know? Maybe on a good day, I can hit, like, a 70%, if that. Right?

And and on occasion. Right? But we we we have a journey to go from wherever we are right now as far as, you know, love of God and love of others and and habitually build the virtue so that we so that every second of our existence can exude through our pores this 100% love of God, love of others, it with the sacred heart of Christ, pulsing underneath our skin and our consciousness.

Shannon: You know, if you pull up these encyclicals from the Vatican website, I think they have them going back as far as as Leo the thirteenth, you know, back into the late eighteen hundreds. And to get older ones, you have to probably go to some other sources. But the the newer ones, you know, in the last, say, fifty years or so, they they've got chapters and and section headings. If you read some of the older ones from Leo the thirteenth, it's it's just a glob of you know, It's maybe a little harder to kinda kinda get through, but they were also dramatically shorter. An encyclical today could be thirty, forty, 50 thousand words.

But the very first, in the first chapter in the opening paragraphs, there's a in in pope Francis' encyclical, on the Sacred Heart, it's it's called the importance of the heart. We sort of think about what is what is the heart. And he sort of starts out by by looking back to ancient Greece. And they had a word, cardia, that referred to the deepest part of a person. Then he goes on to sort of look at what the different philosophers from from that time period thought about the heart.

For Homer, it was the center of the body and the soul where thoughts, feelings, desires come together. Plato thought of it is a place where reason and instinct come together, connecting the mind to the emotions, actually, through the veins. So from a long time ago, some of the smartest people who ever lived understood that there's more to us as humans than just, you know, being a a certain type of animal. Right? Just just, you know, able to move around and consume and and have certain skills.

But there's there's something deeper, and that the heart is it is our center that gives us life, that gives our life meaning, purpose. The Bible calls the word of God living and active, able to see the heart's true thoughts and intentions. That's comes from Hebrews four twelve. I'm gonna ask if Alfredo will read that that whole verse for us.

Alfredo: For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any dub double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints, and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Shannon: Judges the heart. The heart is deeper than the surface appearances. Think about the road to Emmaus. Remember that story where Jesus is killed and rises from the dead, but, you know, everybody doesn't know it at first. And so there's these two disciples walking on the road to amaze Emmaus.

And this guy starts talking and walking with him, and it's Jesus. But for whatever reason, it's sorta hard for us to figure out, well, you know, why couldn't they they recognize him? But for whatever reason, he didn't want them to, and he's god, so they didn't. Right? But they talked about after he he left, that their hearts were burning as he spoke to them.

Right? Their hearts were burning. Really, really, really, really interesting. Then you have the story of Samson and Delilah. Right?

So the heart in our hearts, we have our beliefs. We certainly have our desires. We also have our secrets. And when you look back at the story of Samson and Delilah, you know, she was trying to get the secret of his strength. And while she was trying to use him, obviously, it's not like she had zero feelings for him.

Right? She ultimately was gonna betray him, but she didn't have zero feelings. She did still bothered her that he didn't truly love her because he was hiding this secret. And this comes from the book of Judges, the secret of his heart. Judges sixteen fifteen.

Lisa Marie, I think you're gonna read this verse for us.

Lisa Marie: Then she said to him, how can you say I love you when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength.

Shannon: Of course, he does. And only when he tells her the secret of his strength did she know that he was sincere. Then, of course, he found out some things about her. In our hearts, you know, in our in our relationships with people, we all we we have layers. Right?

We have some people that we're very surfacey with. Even if something's wrong, we don't ever want them to know, hey. How are you? Good morning. Everything's great.

You know, your whole world could be falling apart, but you never tell them. We have masks. We we don't wanna let our guard down and and let everybody, into our hearts. And that's that's wise. That's that's not, that's not that's not not bad at all.

But sometimes our layers, like like with Delilah, you know, there's a there's a bad motive part. Right? The heart is devious above all else. Who can understand it? That's from Jeremiah.

Proverbs advises to guard your heart because it's the source of life. So when we deal with other people, we we will always want to be honest, but we have to, Proverbs talks about discernment. Right? We have to we have to see really look because the human heart can be deceitful and and leave us empty. Even if we get something we thought we wanted, some relationship.

How many relationships have you seen with yourself or with other people that they're so happy going in but doesn't last? Right? They're they're empty at the the end of it. The pope Francis in this encyclical points us to the heart of Jesus. That that is where we need to be trying to get our sense of self worth, our security, in him before anybody else.

And this comes from the encyclical, Lisa Marie is gonna read this paragraph for us.

Lisa Marie: Jesus Christ as the incarnate word embodies the ultimate revelation of God's love through his sacred heart, which pours forth grace from his pure side. His compassion, seen in encounters like healing the blind, reflects a heart that seeks out the broken. His humility and gentleness invites all to approach him without fear, making his heart the center of Christian devotion.

Shannon: He goes on to say the Sacred Heart unifies creation as its love reconciles humanity to God. Wanted to check-in with my cohost, Drago. Two questions really, Drago. One, what are your thoughts so far? But I I also wanna ask you something because both of us are Protestant converts.

And, you know, Protestants don't really have things like this. Like like, we have the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and we have the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and we have various other, devotionals. Let's get to that secondly. But first of all, I've been talking a long time, and you're the cohost. So, what are your thoughts so far as we discuss the Sacred Heart?

Drago: I I actually do wanna respond now that you you mentioned that. I I think it wasn't until I became a Catholic that I discovered my heart, and I don't think that's a coincidence. When we talk about truth, goodness, and beauty, the the hearts is really where all this kinda tasting of beauty really gets synthesized. When we talk about how Catholicism integrates everything and it is it's a united framework where everything achieves one unity. Like, whether it's a tiny grain of sand or the giant cosmos, we see the Catholic faith in all of it.

It's all interconnected. And so the heart is this integrity of the human being. You can't divide it into a piece. It's not like my thoughts. It's not my feelings.

You know, it it's actually the union of all these things. And so and I think because it's so hard to treat the heart as a clear and distinct idea, and, actually, pope Francis make this exact point. This is why we kinda struggle to deal with it and talk about it because we experience these movements of the heart in a different way. It's not just our thoughts. It's not just our feelings.

It's the full united person. And and what I would add I mean, there's a lot of ways to describe it, which are really beautiful, and I have bullet points, that I saved. But even without reading those, I would say the questions that they provide here and and pope Francis provides us these questions. And, let let just for the next, like, twenty seconds, let me read these questions off, and and they will get us in touch with our own hearts because then we know exactly the space that we're talking about here. So when we ask ourselves, who am I really?

Who am I? What am I looking for? What direction do I want to give to my life, to my decisions and my actions? Why and for what purpose am I in this world? How do I wanna look back on my life once it ends?

What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences? Who do I want to be for others? Who am I for God? And to the extent that we, quote, unquote, you know, open our hearts to this, that is where the true self emerges and and the true sincerity, not the layers, not the nonsense that we kinda put on top. Right?

We construct our personalities, identities sometimes with these extra layers that go on top of the heart. But when we really peel back all those layers, the heart sits at that core and it, and it wrestles with those types of questions. And and that's the kind of mental space we need to get into whenever we pray and are, you know, in the presence of Christ. And and because that is where we can find him and the voice of the spirit. And so, I think Just last thing to say on this note is that, you know, again, we are our society makes it so that we feel safer constructing our systems of thought in a way that we can control it, you know, through the domains of intelligence and will, because I can analyze my thoughts.

Right? I can I can even look at motivations in some level, but, you know, there's a massive failure in society of making room for the heart? And instead, we view the different parts of ourselves in isolation as opposed to going into that phenomenological space. It's it's an experience. Right?

When when you when you when you open the channel of the heart, it's like just a certain state of being that you're tapping into where, in fact, to pull from Pope Francis here, when we're the heart listens in a non metaphoric way to the silent voice of being, right? So that's when we, when we enter that, the heart state, let's say it's when we're directly being touched by the essence of existence itself. And unfortunately, there's no other way to talk about it except in poetic terms. Right? So if you're trying to look for a technical engineering type of thing, it's not gonna happen.

But but that's kind of the point. That's the missing layer that, has been stripped away from us and from our daily engagement with one another.

Shannon: I don't wanna put anybody in the spot, but, Alfredo and Lisa Marie are here, you know, helping us read some of the verses and a few key paragraphs, but I wanted to invite either one of you, if you was wanted to chime in anything about having a devotion to the sacred heart. You don't have to. I just wanted to offer that, opportunity. So now is the time, or we'll just keep going. Lisa Marie.

Lisa Marie: Me, personally, I was born baptized, raised Catholic, but I would say I was poorly cathacized, and I fell away from the faith and found all you beautiful people on x probably well, God called me back to the faith probably about three years ago, and I'll I'll be the first to admit. Nowhere as a child do I recall learning about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And so I guess you never say never. It's never too late to learn all this and to become deeper within the faith. So I I just say thank you.

Alfredo: It's funny. Lisa Marie, I had no idea our our stories were so similar. I'm also a creative Catholic. I'm also don't think I was really well. What's the word?

I don't know.

Shannon: That's it.

Alfredo: I'm sorry. I'm from Brazil. That part, we're not we're not similar. And and yeah. And I kinda had a reversal to my faith, like, three years ago, and Twitter has been very helpful in in this process and learning a lot from guys like, Shane and and Drago.

And, yeah, I'm more in a lecturer, position today, not in the position to give a a talk or a homily or anything. Just more learning. But, coincidentally, that this encyclical is actually the only encyclical I ever read in my life. So I had read it previously to this, talk, and I and I and I really liked it. So it's great to do a a deep dive in it.

Like,

Shannon: when Can I ask when did you read it?

Alfredo: Like, the the the week they released it.

Shannon: No. I'm curious as to, because you said you've never done that before. Like, what intrigued you to read a papal encyclical? That that it's an intimidating thought, I think, for most people. Right?

Alfredo: So that was probably, like, so I I so that reversal that reversal to to the to my to the faith happened, like, maybe three years ago as as well. And, it it went it was, like, deepened, through the last year because I was going through my confirmation because I was just confirmed as well. So yeah. A year ago, my mom told me that she forgot to send me to confirmation or something. And then so I got that sorted out.

So it was during my confirmation. So, when he released that encyclical, a few months ago, so I just thought, okay. Maybe this is part of the my new Catholic life now. Whenever the pope has something to say, he releases encyclical, so I better go and read it. So it wasn't really like, okay.

So it's the heart of the sacred heart that interests me or or whatever. It was more just like, okay. Our holy father, is speaking, and he he wrote, like, 50 pages of, what he thought, Catholics should learn about this. So I just went ahead and read it.

Shannon: Very beautiful. And what is even more beautiful is a couple nights ago, we were doing the rosary at 8PM. I'll be actually hosting for Steven tonight as well. And both Lisa Marie and Alfredo read you know, did rosary decades. But I asked them both if they wanted to help with the litany of the Sacred Heart.

And I can't remember I think I might have asked one of you, and you didn't get back to me. So then I asked the other one, and I thought it'd be me and and one of you. And then the other one got back, and I said, you know what? That'll be great if the two of them do it together. So it's so interesting how you guys did that together.

I think it was last night, wasn't it?

Alfredo: Yeah. Yeah. It was.

Shannon: And then here you are in this space talking about this topic, and we didn't really pre preplan this. And, I have to say that's beautiful.

Alfredo: True. Yeah. Let's let's keep going.

Shannon: No coincidences, Drago. Right? There are no coincidences. Very, very interesting for sure. And we will, probably do the litany of the Sacred Heart tonight after the rosary at 8PM.

Again, let me ask you, Drago. Do you do you have a habit of of oh, a pipe pipe cyclicals out. I'm gonna go read it. I mean, it really is something that in in our busy lives, it's you have to have such discipline to sit down and and do that. Is that something you've done since you became Catholic?

Or

Drago: The first time I did it was about four years ago when I was looking at the, relationship between church and state and post liberalism versus liberalism enlightenment. And so that took me you know, I I did a real deep dive in, you know, from visit Pope John Paul the second stuff. There's Pope Leo, Pope Saint Pius, you know, modernity, all that. So that's when I started taking a dive. And, of course, I, would seeing the richness and the clarity in these encyclicals on any of these topics, I'm like, okay.

Like, anytime there's a relevant issue, I need to look at the encyclical. So Dignitas Infinitas and Pope Francis released that. I'd I, you know, I read all of that, on on infinite human dignity. And, yeah, I did not read this one until, you know, actually, until you had mentioned, you know, this. So I'm always grateful for kinda your prompting in in that.

And, so for sure, it's these are wealths of knowledge where, I mean, you could just sit on on one paragraph, and the the language in these encyclicals is so like, it it's so perfectly engineered in some sense, and I don't mean to use that kind of word that but it's it's like I I can't even think of a better way to write the concepts than the way that they're written in the encyclicals. It's just it it it there's no filler. Right? It's not like they're not wasting space. And then each idea and sentence has so much density.

And so, it's it's definitely time well spent reading any of the encyclicals.

Shannon: I was looking back at the encyclical from the fifties that that Scott Hahn talked about reading, from Pope Pius the twelfth. And in there, there's a reference to, Saint Jerome, one of the quotes he had. He said, our lord, to prove the truth of the manhood he had assumed, experiences real sadness. We've all heard that phrase, a broken heart. We can have a broken heart if our if our dog dies or if we lose a romantic relationship or a loved one passes away.

We can have a broken heart if we get fired from our job. Broken heart if Drago won't take my phone call. You know, there's lots of ways in life we we experience broken heart. But the the point of what Saint Jerome is saying and and Pius the twelfth in reference referencing this, we have to remember Jesus, this hypostatic union that, yes, he's god. He's fully god with all of those powers, but he also poured himself out and came down from heaven and is fully man.

And so that means he's exposed to our emotions. He was sad. He was what the shortest verse in the bible, and Jesus wept. I think it's just Jesus wept. Two words, his friend, Lazarus.

So that's one of the great things about our faith is we have a high priest that can relate to our weaknesses and our challenges. It's not just that he's got up in the sky and he created galaxies, and he's actually walked the earth. He actually gave up that and came down here, gave up that glory. I heard a priest once say something interesting. We we think about the transfiguration and how miraculous that was, that Jesus transfigured and and started glowing almost.

But the real transfiguration is the opposite of that. The almost the miracle that he came down and took on this other appearance of a man, became fully man, that he gave all that up. So he's walked in our shoes, and that's why there's also in this this nineteen fifty six encyclical reference of, you know, this is not just sentimentality. We have, again, all these pretty picture of Jesus and the Sacred Heart. Isn't that isn't that beautiful?

Or it's not limited to this sort of superficial level of sentimentality. But Jesus knows what it's like to have been betrayed, been disappointed by people, to have people that he know that he knew die, Saint Joseph. Right? We see Saint Joseph, when they find Jesus in the temple, we never hear from him again. He's not at the foot of the cross because he's died before that.

So he's experienced, all the downsides of having a a heart. You know, we think about sometimes, you know, I'd like to harden my heart. So, it's a there's an eighties song about that. So that nobody can hurt me. But if you do that, you can't love.

Right? If your heart gets gets too so is it I think in our walk, we try to balance this where we we try to have some barriers, of course, to protect ourselves. That Jesus knows what it was like to be rejected by his own people. Some of his friends, some of his family. He he does the the bread of life discourse, and he gets rejected again.

So he knows what it's like to have, a broken heart. And so that's what we we have to remember in our, lives, which are wonderful sometimes, and we always should count our blessings, but sometimes we go through the dark valley. Right? Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And we have to remember this.

And that's why that litany we did the other night, the litany of the sacred heart, it has so many beautiful lines about the heart of Jesus. And I'm not gonna read them all now. We'll do it a little bit later. I'll put it, in a link. But it just talks about his his incredible qualities of being patient, full of mercy, reminds us that he was broken for our sins.

He was obedient even to death. And still he's the source of all consolation, our peace, and our reconciliation. So when we turn on the news, we scroll Twitter. There's always something we're not gonna like. Right?

When you hear the the, you know, there's deficit spending in Washington, there's war in Ukraine, there's this, there's that, there's this, there's that. It'll always be that way. They used to talk about in Jesus' time, the you know, we gotta feed the poor, we gotta solve poverty. And Jesus said that you're always gonna have the poor. There's be some problems that'll never be solved until he puts his foot back on the, mountain in in Jerusalem and sets it right, you know, with the firm right hand because people are broken and they're gonna continue to to, to mess this, mess this stuff up.

But coming back forward to Pope Francis and his encyclical, which is on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus. I won't try to say it in Latin. Alfredo, I heard I heard you say it in Latin. How do you pronounce that?

Alfredo: Delexipnos, I guess.

Shannon: Sounds good. Anybody anybody wants to say that's not right, you know, so

Sound Clip: so It

Alfredo: means it means he loved us.

Shannon: Yeah. Yeah. You had your hand up before I called in. You said did you wanna chime in?

Alfredo: Oh, yeah. I was while you were speaking about, like, more of the darker side, I I had my eyes in the paragraph in the of the encyclical that I thought it was a little bit related to that. I I I just wanna go ahead ahead and read it, if you don't mind. So it's paragraph paragraph 59. It says, on the other hand, love and the human heart do not always go together since hatred, indifference, and selfishness can also reign in our hearts.

Yet we cannot attain our fulfillment, as human beings unless we open our hearts to others. Only through love do we become fully ourselves, the deepest part of us created for love. We'll fulfill God's plan only if we learn if we learn to love, and the heart is the symbol of that love. Yeah. I agree with how this was one of one of the most beautiful paragraphs I had in my notes here, so just wanted to share.

Drago: Yeah. No. That's beautiful. When when you were talking when you guys were talking about the the passion of Christ, one thing that's over the years has kinda changed a little bit for high contemplate the passion is, you know, when I was younger, the the immediate thing is to think about the pain, the physical pain, you know, Christ being beaten and tortured. And, and and, you know, that is directly palatable.

And that that's a suffering, no doubt. I mean, that's excruciating. But then what what I contemplate, I I I guess I can't claim if it's deeper, if it's worse, but what what I imagine is not just that the suffering of you know, let's say someone if you're Christ, that these people are whipping you and and and and the pain your body feels, but it's also the the mental anguish that there are these people who you love, who you want the best for. You want these people to have happiness and peace, and they are delightfully wanting to destroy you. They are taking pleasure and and and just in your humiliation and your and your shame and mocking you and and thinking that you are below the the cockroach, you know, just the that you're completely worthless.

And so there's a certain layer, of that as well, so that the each blow of the whip or each, you know, strike of the hammer on the nail, it's not just the physical neurons of of hurt, but but there's also, like, this expression, this this relational expression where, you're you know, and then to me and it's harder to describe, but to me, that's, that that is the the piece in a practical day to day life that at least I can work on myself and connect to Christ's heart in that way because, you know, in a day to day life, we don't really experience anything close to the physical crucifixion. I mean, certainly, you know, there are, you know, for for those who do it, there's mortification of the flesh. There's there's intentional physical discomfort as a practice of, you know, understanding and becoming like Christ. But, certainly relationally, it's it's not it's not you know, for most of us, we don't have to look too far to find some of those experiences where, you know, as Christ had, where his his heart is open, but the people on the other side are responding and and not just in rejecting that openness, but even with an aggression and a desire to shame, a desire to humiliate you, you know, and and and and that that space there.

And then when, when people do that, to actually be grateful to God for that, to, to, to embrace and be grateful for the opportunity of humility and for people, you know, to use those occasions to to combat the pride within us, to use it to combat our vanity. It's just, these are partly the treasures that that Shannon, you know, alluded to earlier that that we can have access to when when uniting our hearts to to the sacred cry Sacred Heart of Christ. And so, yeah, I don't know. How do you guys feel? I mean, do you do you resonate with that aspect, as well?

Shannon: Absolutely. There when you're talking about, mortification, you know, people that try to, you know, not be comfortable in in life. Right? With luxury and and we see this in our society. As our society has become more prosperous over the last hundred years or so, it's become a lot less, Christian.

It's become a lot more secular. As we get comfortable, our hearts grow cold, grow lukewarm. And, yeah. And and I've heard about this this this this the mortification thing you were talking about to to, in some ways, put yourself in pain to to grow closer to Christ. I find that very interesting.

Drago: Oh, for sure. I mean, it was standard practice. I mean, for all the saints, for sure. And, I mean, this isn't you know, when when people hear this, if they've never heard about it before, as with most things, pop culture pops in our mind because they're the ones who teach us and and and program us. So you think, you know, Da Vinci Code, like, the dramatic thing of some priest yelling in agony, you know, beating himself or something.

It is is ridiculous. Right? It's absolutely nonsense. That's a comical joke, but that's the propaganda that, you know, unfortunately we're surrounded in. So it's more like, you know, it's, it's like wearing like a, bristly, like a sackcloth, right?

Like something that's just uncomfortable and prickly or you know, that, whatever there, I mean, there's different ways of combating the flesh, but you're not supposed to hurt yourself or cause wounds or a ridiculous, you know, just for what it's worth. But I mean, fasting, right? Fasting is a easily accessible way, you know, feel the hunger, like feel those hunger pangs. How often in society do people allow themselves to experience hunger even for like ten minutes before, like, running to, you know, give me the snack. I I gotta put something in there, you know?

So, there's there's plenty of ways for us to do that, in our in our modern life, for sure. But but, yeah, I mean, the the the relational things are certainly, the deepest because usually our deepest wounds are not physical, but but they're gonna be the emotional relational wounds. And of course it starts, typically from the first caretakers we have, you know, the mother and the father. But then even, you know, throughout life through different people who walk into our lives, friendships, love, you know, etcetera, there's there's there's plenty of occasion to, to kind of contemplate how those experiences and those people have impacted us and how we can let Christ into those spaces, into those wounds, and let him bring the redemptive work and peace that he promises to all who would let him do that.

Shannon: Yeah. I wanted to read a couple of paragraphs starting with, paragraph 37. It's talking about this, you know, when people have let us down. It says, and then, you know, the words of pope Francis, if we find it hard to trust others because we have been hurt by lies, injuries, and disappointments, the Lord whispers in our ear, take heart, son. He encourages us to overcome our fear and to realize that with him at our side, we have nothing to lose.

To Peter in his fright, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying ye of little faith, why did you doubt? Nor should we be afraid. Pope Francis says, let him draw near and sit at your side. There may be many people we distrust, but not him. And don't hesitate because of your sins.

Keep in mind that many sinners came and sat with him, yet Jesus was scandalized by none of them. It was the religious elite that complained and treated him as a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. And when the Pharisees criticized him for his closeness to people deemed sinful, Jesus replied, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. That same Jesus is now waiting for you to give him the chance to bring light to your life, to raise you up, and to fill you with his strength. Before his death, he assured his disciples, I will not leave you orphaned.

I am coming to you. In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Jesus always finds a way to be present in your life so that you can encounter him. Beautiful words from pope Francis from this encyclical. Of course, one of the ways Jesus is present in our life is the Eucharist, going to mass.

There is a mass being said every minute of the day somewhere on planet Earth. That's really an amazing thing to think about. You can go to adoration. You can also encounter him in others. A lot of missionaries, Catholic missionaries.

I I just came back from Guatemala on a mission trip. A lot of missionaries will tell you people think we're ministering to them, but they are actually ministering to us. What does what does that mean? There are people in the world that are materially poor. They don't have any money.

They don't have any house. They don't have electricity. They don't have plumbing. But they do have they are rich in the spiritual life. Because they have nothing, their eyes see clearly, and they're devoted to God in a way that we aren't.

Because we might drive a Mercedes, and we might have a nice job, and we might have these vacations planned. And and the none of these things are bad in in and of themselves, but sort of cumulatively. Oh, I'm so busy. I don't have time to go to mass. You know?

Oh, Drago called me to go that bible study. I don't think I'm gonna go you know, the world just sort of slowly with oftentimes without us even realizing it's happening. But one of the things I saw on this mission trip was a house. I'm I'm being generous. It's it's not really technically a house.

It had no floor. It was dirt. It was kind of on a sloped slightly you know, the the it wasn't completely level. And it was just kinda like sheets of metal. Like, this is not like a roof like we think of it.

But when it rains, the water runs across the floor. Like, if they drop something, it would literally be washed out of the house under the under the, kinda, quasi wall. And so we might be rich in money monetarily, but we're poor. All of us in the Western world are are spiritually poor compared to to people like that. So we can encounter and find Jesus in other people, and they actually have a lot to give us.

We or sometimes they think, well, they don't have anything to give us and you know? But they do. They have a lot a lot to teach us, and they're closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus than than we might ever be on this on this Earth because even the most faithful Catholic in the developed Western world, you know, can they be as close to Jesus as somebody with no house and and living out in the field? I don't know. Maybe.

But there's something about material poverty that sort of strips away the cares of the world and gets you closer. You you just you're at a starting point that's closer to to draw closer to the sacred heart of Jesus. So I might any of that resonate, Drago?

Drago: Yeah. I mean, look, the the beatitudes. Right? So to your point, there's a real richness. Right?

When we're when we remove the distractions from the material world, you know, then we can be free to to see things. And so, in in the first world, yeah, we are way more distracted. And there there is a spiritual wealth that, that others have that, you know, we we we in in in many ways are are poor and have spiritual poverty for sure. And, Yeah, so what a reminder, I mean, you know, hearing the experiences and then in your case, actually going and visiting, Yeah. What was that like for you?

I mean, the difference between into, you know, intellectually understanding that, Hey, there's a different way of life versus experiencing that firsthand and having the interactions and those those things. I mean, what's the difference between just having the thoughts versus experiencing it in life?

Shannon: Yeah. I mean, it's head knowledge and heart knowledge. Right? It's there's nothing quite it's funny because when I was a few minutes ago sort of recounting that story, I I had a thought. I was like, why don't I start telling this story?

And and I remember now because when I was in that house with the dirt floor, and I have to send you a picture, they had this beautiful picture of the blessed virgin Mary. And we went to another house, and we were visiting people. So so Caritas is a is a charitable organization within the church. It's it's all over the world. And in this particular country, in this particular area, Caritas is, through the generous donations of Catholics in The United States and other places, building houses for people.

And, again, not a house like we have in The United States. It might be cinder block house, you know, very small, but just in terms of, like, sheltering people from from the elements. And so we were visiting these houses where these people are are waiting on a list, you know, with hundreds of people or thousands of people, you you know, and this an organization like this might be able to build a hundred houses a year. Alright? And, it went to the second place, and they have this little votive candle on the table outside, you know, with Mary the virgin Mary's face on it.

So the faith is so alive in in these people. It's very beautiful to see. And, actually, there were, there was three bishops on this on this particular mission trip. And I'd I'd interviewed a couple of them at their cathedral, you know, over the years. And he just couldn't help but how beautiful it was that I've been with some of these bishops in other places, right, in in a grand cathedral, for example.

And now to see them here, one that they wanted to come, these guys are busy. Right? These guy the bishops are busy that they took a week out of their calendar to come where where it wasn't luxury. There's nothing like, you know, this was out all day long in the heat and, you know, on your feet a lot, and then this was not like some tropical vacation. These men and and, you know, bishops are, you know, they're older rather than younger.

This is not an easy thing physically. The fact that they wanted to do that was very beautiful and sort of reflected the beauty of of the universal church. And we went to some some very humble church. We went to to a cathedral there in Guatemala, One of the cathedrals, and the bishop was very welcoming. And then we went to little churches that, you know, is nothing more than than four walls, and and that's that's the church they have.

And it's just it's so beautiful that the I think sometimes we think of the church as as our church, you know, Saint Anne down the corner. That's like that's what Catholic life is like. No. It is so different in in many parts of the world and this beautiful universality. But in in all of us, to get it back to our topic, in all these places, there are people with heart heartbreak.

There are people longing to be loved. Right? Longing to find God. Sometimes some of those people know know that, and some people are longing. It's really a longing for God, but maybe they don't think it.

Maybe they they're they're chasing some material pleasure that's that they think is gonna fulfill that. But, we really just had to be grateful that we're Catholic and the beautiful just the church itself is beautiful. I mean, there's nothing like going into a beautiful cathedral. Drago, you've been to Rome, you've been to the Saint Peter's. There's there's nothing like walking in that basilica the first time, the largest church building on planet Earth.

It's absolutely stunning, and beauty elevates the soul and evangelizes and all that. But in every church, there's such a beauty. If the Eucharist is present, if the faith is present, We can appreciate the beautiful cathedrals, but one time somebody says, oh, I don't like that church. That's not as pretty as my church. You know, we we have to be careful to stay grounded in the heart and not not get caught up on, you know, just like, you know, we we can appreciate beauty, but we can't turn to lust.

You know, it's all about, you know, forgive the phrase, but balancing balancing the heart. But talk a little bit about going to Rome and and walking into that basilica for the first time.

Drago: Yeah. You can see that especially when people before people were literate, you know, before they had other ways of accessing how even just walking into a place like that, you can quickly become evangelized just through the experience and the awe, the beauty, the, the, the wonder of it. And so, yeah, it was, it's funny. I've traveled because I was born in, you know, born in Europe. So I had traveled before some reason.

I'd never, never been to Rome till last, last October for that Vatican trip. So, Yeah, it was, it was pretty special and I'm glad, you know, I'm glad I went there as a Catholic. I'm glad that that was my, my experience of it. But, I, as you're saying all this, and when we think about the heart and then, you know, evangelization, it does seem to me that objectively, the softer your heart goes, the more it's going to point you to Catholicism and the Catholic faith. Now that's not to say that every Catholic has a soft heart, not saying that at all, but what I am saying is that you're not gonna find someone who actively rejects the Catholic church also having a soft heart.

At least I've certainly I've never seen that. Right. And we've had enough of these discussions, especially if you do this a lot on whether in real life or in social media online, where you know that even people who are very kind and amicable, when you really wrestle with them on this Catholic stuff long enough, it's going, you know, some of that hard spots in their heart are gonna emerge, right? There's, there's a certain, it's a battle of the heart that that that's that's beyond just thoughts that they're just don't have the right beliefs that they're not thinking correctly. And so I wonder if, if in your experience, you would agree with that observation.

Is it that the softer your heart is, the more you're gonna gravitate towards the Catholic church. And, you know, likewise, the more you actively seek and gaze upon the Catholic faith, the more that's gonna call you to soften your heart in a way that no other path or walk in life will do.

Shannon: Well, that's a good question. I mean, I think there are people who grew up Protestant, who who have are have beautiful hearts, who, you know, they've they've grown up hearing that the church, you know, the church isn't really Christian or whatever. I don't know if if, you know, having a soft heart necessarily I I think there's a lot of things that that play into into that intellectually as well as the heart. But, yeah, you you mentioned that phrase earlier, truth, goodness, and beauty. The fullness of that is is god himself.

But but on the earth, the Catholic church contains truth fullness of truth, goodness, and beauty and uses the great cathedrals, the basilicas, the beautiful artwork, not as a brag, not as a, hey. We're gonna have some bling, but as a way to evangelize and to actually it's actually done to touch your heart. When you walk into, Saint Agnes in agony in Rome, when you walk into the Basilica Of Saint John Lateran, it takes your breath away. You know? A lot of times we might be walking in and as we're walking up the up the steps to go into the church I know I was.

I was checking my phone. Let me see if Drago sent me a text. Let me see what's going on on Twitter. But when you walk in, you're like it takes you outside of yourself. It touches your heart.

I've never said that phrase before. I I've said the phrase beauty evangelizes. Sometimes I'll post a a stunning picture from from Europe, church, but that's what it's doing. To evangelize is to reach somebody's heart, not just say, hey, Jesus died. And they say, okay, I believe it with their with their head.

But evangelization is about relationships. You cannot stand in the street corner and scream, everybody's going to hell, and reach people. Like, you reach people by having a relationship. When somebody you work with, maybe you're Christian and they're not, but maybe they see how you treat people and they appreciate it. Maybe you treat them well when they're down.

Everybody else is kicking them when they're down and you don't. You evangelize people through your through your small actions. Not, hey. It's nice to meet you. I've got a four hour speech, you know, that I wrote about, you know, Saint Augustine, and, I mean, you're gonna listen to it and convert, but it's in how you treat people.

It's in and and pope Francis talked about this a lot. He started this thing called World Day of the Poor. It's in November every year. And he would write though those are rather short. If you wanna read something beautiful, there I think there's seven of them because it you know, he started it basically seven or eight years before he died.

They're fairly short. And when I say short, I mean, you probably read the whole thing in ten minutes. But their message is about reaching out to people. They use this word a lot called accompaniment. You know, it actually became kind of a a cliche kind of in in church circles.

Like, here's that word again, accompaniment. This sort of means, like, for example, you don't help the poor just by throwing money at them, but by becoming a part of their life, accompanying them on the journey. Not Not just, I don't wanna be around the poor people. Here's here's 500. Get away from me.

But, you know, maybe make them a sandwich and take it to them every day, like like, that accompaniment. Jesus accompanied the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He well, he didn't let go of a company. He spent time with people like the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, you know, letting your guard down. Nicodemus came to him at night.

He could have said, look, Nicodemus. I'm tired. I'm open from nine to five. You can talk about anything you want. And then come back tomorrow.

Like, I mean, this is, like, nine or ten or whatever time it was. He was open to people. And that's what we have to and I think it's really hard in the in the modern world to especially in bigger cities. Right? Like like New York.

You walk down the street, nobody looks at you. You're just you you have this force field up to not look people in the eye. You know, again, because there's so many people that are gonna hustle you and that sort of thing. It makes it really hard to connect with people. I I remember it was I went to Tyler, Texas before when Bishop Strickland was still there to interview him in his cathedral.

And I flew into Dallas, and I spent the night in Dallas. And the next morning, I got up and drove, and I was maybe, like, an hour and a half, two hours to Tyler. And, you know, I I purposely got there super early in case I, you know, got lost or something. And I went into this, like, seven eleven kinda store, and I was just stunned at how friendly these people were. It and it wasn't like a, hey.

How are you kinda thing? It was like, I felt a connection. Like, there's this guy with a cowboy hat, and, like, it was so weird to me because you could tell these were I mean, these people, they had, like, you know, for again, forgive the the the phrase. They had, like, open hearts, but even just, you know, at at a 07:11 or something, somebody's saying nice to you, something nice. I I would I mean, I I remember it four years later.

It's just some very casual kinda comment, that wasn't, like, pro form a. Right? It wasn't shallow. I remember thinking, wow. These people are, like, really nice.

I must I must live in the wrong town or something. But, anyway, I I don't know how it is where where you live, Drago, in Southern California. But I I would imagine, certainly in Los Angeles, and I know you don't live there, but, you know, these bigger cities, people have a a hard time connecting heart to heart, I would imagine.

Drago: Yeah. I right. I I lived in New York City for five years, lived in Chicago for three years, and, for sure, there's, right. It it it it there's a certain barrier to it. And right.

So if it feels hard to make time for people, which, you know, I think for most people these days, it does certainly, you know, I I I I I can say for myself, it can be hard sometimes. I think the reason why it feels hard is, well, right, because we have goals. We have things we need to get done, and I have a mission, and I gotta, you know, I gotta make sure the day is productive enough and to achieve the goals I've set for myself, basically. But if our goal, whenever our goal is sainthood, relationship, fraternity, loyalty, justice, you know, all these kinds of beautiful things, it's actually not hard. It's not hard because what better thing could you do than engage in a at the risk of cliche, because we've said it a million times, a heart to heart with somebody else.

What what could be a better thing to do with your time than that if that is your ultimate purpose? Now, you know, with with, of course, the obligatory caveat that if we have a vocation of in in a family and and and certain obligations, fine. You you you need to make sure you're doing those. But, you know, we always have separate from our vocations, our our our goals that we assign to ourselves. And sometimes, you know, we need to reevaluate, like, what is the priority of the goal?

Why am I really doing this, thing? Yes, it's good. But am I keeping enough space open for some of these other things? Do I like, if the Holy Spirit was gonna move, is there even enough space in my life to let the Holy Spirit move me to do things? Or have I already kind of fully budgeted my time allocation and everything so that.

You know, even if the Holy Spirit would tell me something, I don't really have a time block to let it happen. Right. So I know that's not going to be, that's not going to resonate with everybody, but, certainly, that's kinda how society is pushing us is to optimize everything. Optimize. But that's how we have to fight that impulse and balance it.

Shannon: We're coming towards the end. And at the end, we we did sort of decide on the back channel. We are going to pray the litany to the Sacred Heart. Alfredo and Lisa Marie are gonna do that for us again. They did it last night, so they had practice.

So, that'll be that'll be nice. We, didn't really plan to, but I just kinda wanted to touch on it, sort of the modern, devotion to the Sacred Heart. And there's there's seeds of it. You see back in the early early early centuries of the church, Saint Justin Martyr and, focusing on on the love of Jesus in the heart. But with this devotion we have today really starts with a a nun.

Sister Mary I'm sorry. I always get this backwards. Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, and she had a series of visions. And she basically saw Jesus and saw this heart, you know, in his chest. She was able to see it and and saw the the sort of the imagery we associate with it.

And she anyway, she had a series of visions, and she convinced the local bishop finally to to have a feast. You know, it was just in that diocese. I don't actually have the story in front of me, but I believe that bishop of that diocese later became pope and because he had instituted it in that one diocese where he was that he later, you know, put that feast on the, the church calendar. But it's a very interesting story. If you have time, look it up.

It's sister Margaret Mary, Alacoque. I wanted to, just mention one more thing, and then I'll get a final comment from from Drago. But it's a good thing to to to sort of wind up on all this this with, with the blessed virgin Mary. We're talking about the sacred heart of Jesus, and we remember back to when Jesus is born. There's a hustle and a bustle.

There's a lot of things going on. The shepherds came. They were excited. The angels were, you know, singing proclamations in heaven. There was all this sort of stuff going on, but Mary sorta turns inward.

It's it comes from Luke 19, and it just sums up with this this line. Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. So I think when we think about the heart, There's a great need for silence when we wanna be introspective. Right? If I wanna make a decision and I really wanna think about something, the last thing I'm gonna do is turn the radio up really loud.

Right? You know, you might go for a drive or a walk and just sort of turn inward. This is what Mary did, ponder them in her heart. She I think she there's a similar reference when they find Jesus in the temple, and he's like, hey. What's up?

Didn't you know this is where I'd be in my father's house? And Mary and Joseph are like, Yeah. Well, we know that. And so the heart is such a it's it's our core. And this is where we have our greatest weakness, our greatest strength.

We have our secrets. We have our desires. We need virtue to make sure our heart doesn't do what the modern world is, which is pursue pleasure and freedom, where those two things are worshiped instead of, from classical education, seeking the common good, seeking virtue, being concerned about what the truth was. So I think we should all just carve time out for silence because it helps us get in touch with our heart. It helps us connect with God.

And the the world is noisy, and it's noisy for a reason. Because there are spiritual forces and there are temporal forces that don't like Christianity. And they they keep us fighting each other. They keep the the noise level high. I've said this before when I was growing up.

You go to a department store, and they would have this, like, soft piano instrumental kinda soothing kinda music. Today, you go in there and it's like rap music, and it's like I'm like, what the you know, I just wanna, like, find the stereo system and, like, hit it with a bat because it's so, like, obnoxious. But as we wind down before we do the litany to the Sacred Heart, let's circle back around to our cohost, Drago, and see if he has any final reflections.

Drago: Yeah. This was a a great space. I appreciate you hosting, Shannon, as always. And, this is the the month of the Sacred Heart for Catholics. Obviously, our our secular culture has, you know, dubbed it Pride Month.

I will say, you know, with within the Holy Habits community, at least, we're doing the, Combat Pride Challenge. So if you want to take a stand, and and pursue habits to to beat your pride, so, you know, one of my one of the cool ones we have is face down prayer, but another one is, you know, don't talk about yourself unless you're asked about it. So there's different ways to do that, or even if you do a devotion to the Sacred Heart, you could do that with a group. And so, just for those who wanna take next steps in community building, we do have that platform available for you as well. But, yeah, this is a really great topic, and I'm I'm glad you, took the initiative, Shannon.

Thank you.

Shannon: At 8PM eastern tonight in about forty minutes, we will come back and host the rosary. We'll be back tomorrow morning at 07:55AM eastern with the rosary. We'll be back tomorrow night at eight. We're doing the rosary tomorrow night as well, and then we're having Catholic trivia after that. On Monday night, we have session two of our book study, which is a book called Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist.

And also next week, I think it's Wednesday at 08:30. Drago, you're you're more than welcome to come, and cohost that. But we're doing one on online safety, how not to get hacked. I know several people who've had their Twitter accounts taken. Some of them have lost money.

Some of them have lost their account. And it's just just some basic e easy things to remember will have a space on that. Also, there's a big commotion today about two former friends that are fighting. And it's a reminder that if you're fighting with somebody, don't do it in public. It's really, really tacky.

But it inspired me to do a thread because I remember my friend Imperator talked about this one time. Aristotle writes about three levels of friendship. There's a friendship of utility, which is probably the level that the famous friends are fighting today was at. That's just mutual benefit. And when the mutual benefit's over, so is the friendship.

There's friendships of pleasure. That might be we like going to football games together or whatever. And there's friendships of virtue, which is the gold standard. If you get a chance, I I posted that thread a couple of hours ago. Read it or or repost it if you can.

But that third one that Aristotle talks about, friendships of virtue, the gold standard, rare bonds between people who admire each other's moral character. You push each other to be better, share values, and care for each other's sake. These are long lasting, usually lifetime friendships, but they take a long time to build. And friendships are virtue. I like to call them friendships of the heart.

Sort of ties in nicely with talking about the heart as we have been today in the encyclical from pope Francis on the Sacred Heart. With that said, we're going to go out tonight with the Litany of the Sacred Heart, and I will pass it over to Alfredo and Lisa Marie.

Alfredo: Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Sound Clip: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Alfredo: Christ, have mercy.

Lisa Marie: Christ, have mercy.

Sound Clip: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. God, our Father in heaven, have mercy on us. God, the Son, redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

Alfredo: God, the Holy Spirit,

Lisa Marie: have mercy on us.

Sound Clip: Holy Trinity, one God. Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, Son of the eternal Father.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, formed by the holy spirit in the womb of the virgin mother.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, one with the eternal word.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Sound Clip: Heart of Jesus, infinite majesty.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God.

Sound Clip: Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the most high.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, a flame with love for us.

Sound Clip: Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, source of justice and love.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love.

Sound Clip: Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, wellspring of all virtue. Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, worthy of all praise.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Sound Clip: Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts. Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, treasure house of wisdom and knowledge. Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, in whom there dwells the fullness of God.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us. Heart of

Alfredo: Jesus, in whom the father is well pleased.

Sound Clip: Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, from whose fullness we have all received.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, desire of the eternal hills.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, patient and full of mercy.

Sound Clip: Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, generous to all who turn to you.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, fountain of life and holiness.

Sound Clip: Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, atonement for our sins. Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, overwhelmed with insults.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, broken for our sins.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, obedient even to the death.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, pierced by a lance.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us. Heart

Alfredo: of Jesus, our life and resurrection.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Heart of Jesus, victim of our sins

Sound Clip: Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, salvation of all who trust in you. Have mercy on us. Heart of Jesus, hope of all who die in you. Have mercy on us.

Heart of Jesus, the light of all the saints. Have mercy on us. Lamb of god, you take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us. Lamb of god, you take away the sins of the world.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Sound Clip: Lamb of god, you take away the sins of the world.

Lisa Marie: Have mercy on us.

Alfredo: Jesus, gentle and humble of heart.

Lisa Marie: Touch our hearts and make them like your own.

Alfredo: Let us pray. Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who glory in the heart of your beloved son and recall the wonders of his love for us, may be made worthy to receive an overflowing measure of grace from that fount of heavenly gifts through Christ our lord. Amen. In the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. Amen.