How Sacred Is Your Heart?
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a special devotion for Trinity Missionaries
As a missionary in Mexico I met Doña Guadalupe lying very sick on a cot in a little shack. She had put her hand, scarred and cracked, caked with dirt from a lifetime of hard work in the fields, into mine and asked: "Padrecito, why are you here? I am very poor. Why did you give up everything to be with me?" I looked at what some would have called an ugly old hand and saw the beauty of the life behind it. I said to her, "I am here because God sent me and because I love you. There is no other place I would rather be right now than here with you." With a tear of joy in her eye and a heart touched by Jesus' love she said, "Thank you, because now I know that God is here with me."
Later I thought how much a missionary heart is like the Sacred Heart. Jesus' answer to people was similar to mine: "I am here because the Father sent me and I love you." Jesus was sent by the Father to love us, to heal us, to save us. His Sacred Heart was open to all, it went out to all, it was a missionary heart.
We are all sent by God in one way or another. I was sent to be a missionary in Mexico. You are sent to be a missionary in the situation in which you now find yourself. We are sent to share Jesus' love with those around us, from a heart that is open to all.
As you give in your generosity to the missions, your heart is missionary in another way. Your heart is "sacred." Because of you, more and more of the Doña Guadalupes of the world can ask us her questions and we Trinity Missionaries can respond with even more love and faith.

Fr. Ray Riding, S.T. is currently the Vocation Director for Trinity Missions. Before this assignment, he served on missions in Mexico and Puerto Rico.