BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART, A

BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART, A

The human heart, with all its potential for good and bad, is given a rich variety of meanings in Sacred Scripture. As a symbol of the depths of a person, the heart can become hardened and foolish. But God, too, has a heart — one that is greater than ours. In his concern for our happiness and well being, he has offered to change our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. This promise was fulfilled in Jesus. Gentle and humble of heart, from whose pierced side flowed living streams of blood and water for the salvation of the world, Jesus invites us to give him our hearts that he might heal them and make them whole. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is based on this remarkable truth of our faith. For a time after Vatican II this devotion went into something of a decline. Now, with a new interest in every aspect of the saving work of Jesus being manifest throughout the Church, Father Bovenmars shows us how solidly rooted in Scripture is this devotion and how central it is to contemporary Christian spirituality.

About the Author: Jan G. Bovenmars was born in the Netherlands in 1923. In 1944, he took his religious vows in the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and was ordained in 1949. He obtained his doctorate in theology in 1952 from the Gregorian University in Rome and has spent many years teaching in the Philippines and in Papua New Guinea. Since 1986, he has been the Superior of a small group of MSC Fathers studying in Rome.