Our Vision - “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved”
In every news broadcast we see and hear of a world marked by conflict, prejudice, racial and religious hatred, abuse, etc.
As Missionaries of the Sacred Heart we believe we have a way through.
Our founder, Jules Chevalier MSC, saw clearly that our Charism and our Spirituality is the answer to all the ills of our time.
More than ever, in our day, we do need a Spirituality of the heart; a spirituality of compassion, of love and of mission. Our constitutions, approved by our Universal Church, have given us a mandate:
A mandate to ‘be like Jesus who loved with a human heart’
A mandate to ‘lead others to God with kindness and gentleness’
A mandate to ‘unite all to Jesus and to free them from fear’
A mandate for ‘justice and concern for all, especially the very poor’.
For Jesus is our inspiration and driving force!
Unlike Franciscans who are named after Francis, or Dominicans who are named after Dominic, or Benedictines who are named after Benedict, or even Jesuits who follow Ignatian Spirituality, we are Missionaries of the Sacred Heart… we are not missionaries of Jules Chevalier!
Even he protested at the thought of even being called Missionaries of Issoudun – “let us simply say Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.”
We believe that nothing beats this; it’s what the Gospels point to, it is what our constitutions point to, it is what our Lady of the Sacred Heart points to: all point to the heart of Jesus! Our focus, our mission is one and the same as Jesus – we want to be like him who loved with a human heart – for he is our inspiration and driving force.
“If the Sacred Heart is to be loved everywhere, then we must practise this love of the divine heart first and foremost in our own life, and in the second-place work zealously for the promotion of this love.” [Fr. Linckens MSC - Co-founder of the MSC sisters - from a retreat he gave in 1913]
As a missionary of the Sacred Heart, we are about being sent – but not about being sent to a particular place or a particular type of work, rather, we are sent to live out in our lives the sentiments and love of the Heart of Christ - everywhere.
Our vision, “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved” sets before us our guiding principles and is a symbolic image of our MSC contribution to society at large and within the Catholic tradition of our time.
This vision is a challenge to all of us and continually challenges us to ask these questions: Why do we do what we do? Why does our organisation exist? Why are we MSC? What is our mission? To put it into a commercial context – what business are we in? What values will guide us? Whose values will guide us?
Our conviction is that our Vision answers this question. Symbolically, this image of the Sacred Heart for many of us we have grown up with – a burning heart of love, of forgiveness, of compassion symbolised by the burning heart of Jesus. In other words, our image/symbol is of the Sacred Heart – a heart on fire, a heart filled with love, a heart given and poured out to the world; it is a heart on the outside… a heart that we hope all will come to know, love and believe in – for God has first loved us – this is what really motivates us MSC in to mission together.
One can ask at any time - do we live this vision – May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved? Are we servants of the dream, the bearers of its truth? Do we tell and re-tell the story wherever we go; do we keep reiterating our dream, our vision for the future?
This is our challenge – to live it now – not tomorrow – NOW!
