Cosmic Christ by Annett Hanraha, RCSJ (Click on image for larger version)
Reflection for Day 4
Do we sometimes approach the Lord afraid that he will be miserly in mercy, hesitant to heal, reluctant in love? Where did we get this image of a stingy God?
The image above offers us the Divine Heart opened as a cardiac cataract feeding rivers of mercy streaming from an eternal source, inviting us to refresh, bathe and swim in an ocean of saving waters. The serenity of this muscular Christ promises peace in pools fed by the springs of his wounded heart, wounded that we might be healed...
Scripture
Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger, abounding in kindness. God does not always rebuke, nurses no lasting anger, Has not dealt with us as our sins merit, nor requited us as our deeds deserve. As the heavens tower over the earth, so God's love towers over the faithful. As far as the east is from the west, so far have our sins been removed from us.
- Psalm 103
Litany of the Sacred Heart
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
So loving
So humble
So gentle
So compassionate
So faithful
So wise
So patient
So steadfast
So tender
So spacious
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
God’s joy
God’s shalom
Harp of the Trinity
Wingbeat of the Spirit
Breath of God
Five-petaled rose
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Womb of justice
Birthplace of peace
Our dearest hope
Longing of our lives
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Freely flowing fountain
Spring of grace
Freshet of forgiveness
Merciful river
Mystical dew
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Warmth of our hearts
Transforming fire
Cosmic furnace
Enflamer of hearts
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Heart of evolution
Beginning and ending
Center of all
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Garden of virtues
Mystical dew
Table and food
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Our refuge
Our shelter
Our comfort
Our rest
Our welcoming breast
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Wounded by love
Pierced by our cruelty
Broken by our hardness
Mystic winepress
Poured out as gift
Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!
Have mercy, gracious heart,
Give us gratefulness
Teach us tenderness
Let us learn to love.
Hear our prayer!
- Wendy Wright
Let us pray...
God of all compassion,
open our hearts to the rivers of mercy
flowing from your heart.
Drench and all but drown us
in the oceans of your love
and let your peace become ours, too.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
* Hanrahan writes of her painting: I had long desired to paint a picture that expressed the love of God as revealed to us in the life and the love of Jesus Christ, as I had found the images of the “Sacred Heart” common in the ’50’s quite meaningless. They did not speak to me of the Christ I had met in Scripture study and during my retreat. There I found a powerful, loving God, with an all-embracing, all-forgiving love that we as human beings can open to and understand in our very humanness... Christ is seated in a posture similar to the prayer posture of many in the east, and of the Polynesian peoples of the Pacific. His features have a Polynesian quality. He is holding his cross, which is transparent, for it is part of, and dialogues with, the earth, but Christ has moved beyond it. Christ’s eyes are closed as he is one with His Father, and in that deep communication, he is a powerful and strong channel, river even, of the flow of the love of God to slake our thirst...
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