A Journey of the Heart

Nearly halfway through this Lenten season, I am reminded that it has been a journey of the heart, every step of the way - a journey of breaking the heart wide open!

 Every single day, I come across a reading, or  a quote that speaks of the primacy of the heart in all things...

 ... Psalms that proclaim the cleansing and creation of new hearts, or readings by a desert Christian monk speaking of the necessary circumcision of hearts, or other passages extolling the opening - or healing of hearts, the rending and mending of hearts, and the tilling of the fertile soil within hearts, culminating in the eventual reconciliation of the heart.

 Just this morning I read this passage:
"If you open your heart,
love opens your mind."
~ Charles John Quarto

If your heart opens - it heals, it transforms and transmutes all things, as difficult as this seemingly unending journey can at times be ...
"O that today you would listen
to God's voice!
Harden not your hearts!"
~ Psalm 95:7-8

 Henri Nouwen, whose writings I have been meditating on this season imagines God saying to us:
"Let my love touch the deepest, 
most hidden corners of your heart
and reveal to you your own beauty."

 This is a season for breaking hearts open. Rumi wrote:
"You have to keep breaking your heart
until it stays open."

 Nearly halfway through Lent, and only halfway through breaking the heart open!

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