Here is this week’s article for Integrated Catholic Life. Readers of the blog will notice that it is re-worked ideas that have been posted here previously.

The love of God is sweet and tender, but it is also astringent and tough. We have to be sweet and salty at the same time. We have to be flexible but not brittle.

The qualities we need are pictured in the sacred heart of Jesus. Meditate on the image for a moment. The heart is exposed so we must be vulnerable. The heart is red and warm so we must be passionate, but the heart is also entwined with thorns – which means we must endure the crown of thorns and gather up our suffering and the suffering of the whole world into this sacred heart. It is also a heart that is on fire — a fire that warms and inspires, but also a fire that purifies and burns away all that is wood, hay and stubble — all the worthless trash in our lives.

This is the heart of love for the Catholic, and any form of Christianity which offers only the sweet red glow and forgets the fire and the thorns is a false religion.

Read the whole article here at Integrated Catholic Life.