This coming Friday, June 19th, is the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Traditionally, it is a day when members of the Society of the Sacred Heart symbolically renew their vows and Associates renew their commitments. These, though, do not feel to me anything like ordinary times…so in addition to the formula that will be recited by RSCJ around the world, I felt called to add a bit more . This striking image of a wounded heart, rooted and grounded in the earth, testament to history, was taken just outside our house.

Feast of the Sacred Heart, 2020

I renew my vow to stand
within the fissure, within the wound;
to stand in defiance of hate and to
decry the sin of racism.

I renew my vow to love
within the fissure, within the wound;
to witness to that love though I might shake
and I might fall.

I renew my vow to speak, to preach,
to write, to teach, to learn, to listen,
to own my own failings and my own humanity.
To hope as I stand, and hope as I love.

I renew my vow to seek you and to open to you,
be found by you, formed by you;
shaped in your image and likeness,
conformed to your Sacred Heart.

Kimberly M. King, rscj