Sketching in Nature the Work of the Sacred Heart
Meditations on the Heart of Jesus by Leo John Dehon, SCJ
The following are daily, one-minute meditations on how the natural world reflects the work of the Heart of Jesus; the reflections come from the writings of Fr. Leo John Dehon, SCJ, founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. Each day’s reflection has been sent by email from the Dehonian Associates Office of the US Province. The daily reflections are posted here a week at a time. Click here to subscribe to the daily e-blast.
June 1
Like Divine Wisdom, of which he is the symbol, the Sacred Heart of Jesus can say, “I was with God from the beginning, preparing everything and composing everything in the unity of divine love, playing there in creation and placing my joy there to live with humanity” [cf. Proverbs 8:30-31].
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 2
When God created the sun and plants, he intended them to be symbols of the Heart of Jesus. The sun by its invigorating light preaches to us the Savior’s action, his power, and the love of his Heart.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 3
What are the works of the sun? It enlightens, it warms, it invigorates. It is light, warmth and strength. These will be, in the spiritual order, the works of Christ Jesus, the works of the Sacred Heart. It is from the Savior, his merits, and his Heart that all light, all love, all supernatural life come to us.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 4
The sun is the life of the world. Where the sun is, vegetation and life appear. We owe to the sun all the charm of nature, the beauty of flowers, and the taste of fruit. God has enjoyed sketching in nature the work of the Sacred Heart, the beauty of his virtues symbolized by flowers, the excellence of his merits represented by fruit, the fruitfulness of his action represented by all the forces that the sun implements.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 5
The love of God is a spiritual sun that warms, enriches, and gives life without darkness, cold, or gloom. The light of creatures, particularly of the saints, is a light derived from the living sun. The more a mirror is turned precisely and consistently towards the sun, the more it receives light and warmth.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Daily Notes, February 5, 1868
June 6
What better analogy could exist between the human heart, the divine Heart, and the sun in the sky? The devotion to the Sacred Heart acts like the sun in the natural world. It warms and revives the spirits of those who understand it. Faith in the love of God for us will bring us back to life, and with it, hope and charity will be reawakened.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, “The Sacred Heart,” a Lenten sermon, 1885
June 7
What did our Lord want to present to us in this devotion to his Heart? He wanted to place before our eyes a visible sign, a glowing symbol of his love. How is the Savior going to present this symbol of love to us? Divine Wisdom is going to inspire him to show his Heart like the rays of the sun.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, “The Sacred Heart,” a Lenten sermon, 1885
June 8
The Sacred Heart is life and we find the most wonderful beginnings in plant life. In creating it, God had to see in it the image of supernatural life of which the Sacred Heart is the source. The sap circulates in the plant, like blood in the human body, like grace in the mystical body of Christ. The plant feeds, grows, reproduces. Thus grace, through the sacraments that are its organs, produces supernatural life, nourishes it, and develops it.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 9
We will know only in heaven how the thought of the Heart of Jesus dominated all creation. When God seeds the world with magnificent trees, does he not see everywhere the wood of the cross, on which Jesus will be suspended to present his Heart to the spear of the centurion? When he prepares iron for human industry, does he not see the sacrilegious spear of the centurion?
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 10
Olive trees and their fruit remind the Creator of Gethsemane, the garden of olive trees or the olive press, the sinister place where Jesus, pressed by sorrow, will shed his tears and the blood of his Heart, as the crushed olives give their oil.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 11
When God grows wheat and vines, does he not have in mind the Eucharist, the gift of the Heart of Jesus? Wheat is the symbol of human flesh that it will feed. Its grains will be ground like the flesh of Christ. The wine will be the figure of blood and it will become on the altars the very blood of the Redeemer.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 12
Every flower symbolizes Jesus, who is the flower of Jesse, the flower of humanity, the flower of heaven. The pistil of the flower is the Heart of Jesus. Every fruit is Jesus. Every fruit recalls the true fruit of life, the fruit that nourishes the soul in the Eucharist, the mystical fruit of paradise.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 13
What immense depth has the ocean! What breadth! What profundity! One tries sometimes to take a sounding of certain parts, but what we know of it, what we have been able to explore, is a mere nothing! And the Heart of Jesus is like that too!
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Retreat on the Sea, XII, “The Abysses of the Sacred Heart”
June 14
The ocean is the heart of the earth. It receives all the rivers with their filth, and it sends them back as rain to fertilize all the earth with its purified waters. One can see here a symbol of the Heart of Jesus, which receives all the rivers of our sins in its depths of reparation and expiation, and sends back to us all the currents of grace in order to distribute spiritual life, growth, strength, and joy to all souls.
Leo John Dehon, Daily Notes, September 1906
June 15
Nothing better represents the work of life and salvation of the Sacred Heart than these springs and rivers which are like the blood and veins of the earth. The grace of the Sacred Heart flows like rivers and carries fertility and life everywhere.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 16
It is the creation of humanity and the human heart that most directly prepares for the Savior’s coming. The flesh and blood of Adam are already the flesh and blood of Jesus. Adam’s heartbeats will spread to those of the Heart of Jesus, as the waves of the ocean move from one shore to another.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter One
June 17
In the catacombs, the dove is represented a thousand times with its olive branch, to symbolize the Savior who delivered us by the blood of his Heart. Wasn’t the dove also sacrificed daily in the temple with the lamb?
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter Four
June 18
On the disc of a lamp found in the Christian cemetery of St. Catherine, is a dove whose head is topped with a cross; it also carries an olive branch in its beak. There is no doubt that, presenting itself with the double attribute of the cross and the olive tree, this dove is here the symbol of Jesus Christ, of whom St. Paul said: “May he make peace by the blood of his cross, on earth and in heaven” [Colossians 1:20]. The little dove-victim giving his blood for peace, what a beautiful symbol of the Sacred Heart!
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter Four
June 19
The fish, symbol of Christ, is repeated a hundred times in the catacombs. The Greek word for fish [ichthus], consists of the first letters of this phrase: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. The fish appears in the Eucharistic bread, on the altar of sacrifice, and at the communion table: it is Christ. It is sometimes alongside of an anchor or pierced by the trident; it is the crucified Christ.
The symbol of the Sacred Heart is well marked by the signs of crucifixion, the anchor, and the cross that recall the opening of the Heart of Jesus.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter Four
June 20
For God, paradise itself—the garden of all delights, where the most graceful flowers and the most delectable fruit flourished—is the image of the Heart of Jesus. The Church calls the Sacred Heart the delight of all saints. In heaven, the paradise of souls is the Sacred Heart.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter Two
June 21
Paradise is the Sacred Heart. “The river of life,” said St. John, “is as splendid as crystal; it descends from the throne of God and the Lamb” [cf. Revelation 22,1]. It flows from the Sacred Heart and the salutary wounds of his hands and feet.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter Two
June 22
In the midst of the earthly paradise, says Genesis, there is the tree of life. At the center of the heavenly paradise, says Revelation, there is also a tree of life. It is the Lamb, it is the Sacred Heart, which is the tree of life in heaven. It grows on both banks of the river and it gives various fruit following the twelve months of the year, that is to say for the blessed, there will be a perpetual renovation of their immortal bliss.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter Two
June 23
The Lamb of God is the Savior with a sweet and humble Heart, the Savior with the Heart pierced by the sword. In Holy Scripture, in tradition, in Christian art, in the liturgy, we have met the Lamb of God who is none other than the Savior, with a Heart always loving and always immolated.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Studies on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Chapter Two
June 24
The Sacred Heart is the temple where his Father receives the adoration and praise that is befitting his infinite grandeur. The Sacred Heart is not only a temple; it is also the altar of divine love. On this altar, the sacred fire of this same love is always lit.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, The Retreat with the Sacred Heart, 39th Meditation
June 25
The Sacred Heart is the golden censer of divine love. It is in this censer that are placed all the adoration, praise, prayers, desires, and affections of all the saints, to be offered to the Father in the Heart of his beloved Son, as an acceptable fragrance. Therefore, take care habitually to place your prayers in it, your pious intentions, the affections of your heart, and even your hearts themselves, together with all that you are and all that you do.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, The Retreat with the Sacred Heart, 39th Meditation
June 26
The Sacred Heart is the divine harp which ceaselessly sings the praises of the Holy Trinity. Offer to God the songs of this harp and always keep the songs of your heart, your prayers, and your praises in tune with the divine harp.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, The Retreat with the Sacred Heart, 39th Meditation
June 27
The Sacred Heart is your refuge. Call on him in all your needs. He is a throne of grace and an inexhaustible treasure. Remember his promise, “Come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest” [cf. Matthew 11:28]. If you allow him to truly reign in you by means of the interior life, the Heart of Jesus will also be your resting place. Like St. John, you will rest on his chest.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, The Retreat with the Sacred Heart, 39th Meditation
June 28
The Heart of Jesus is open to receive us. May he be our refuge in times of danger. It is there that we will rediscover the advice and consolation that he had given to us in prayer. May God take hold of our entire heart.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Daily Notes, March 6, 1868
June 29
The Divine Friend invites the soul into a heart-to-heart relationship. Did our Lord not hint at this invitation by his conversation with the Samaritan woman? He is seated on the edge of Jacob’s well which symbolizes the Sacred Heart, the abyss of love and grace.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, Crowns of Love for the Sacred Heart III, 2nd Mystery, 6th Meditation
June 30
The Sacred Heart belongs to you, he is your treasure and your resting place.
Leo John Dehon, SCJ, The Retreat with the Sacred Heart, 39th Meditation
