Today, 27 June 2025, we celebrate with deep joy and gratitude the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a day to return to the source of our identity, to rekindle our commitment to hospitality, and to contemplate the merciful Heart of Christ — the Heart from which our mission flows.
At the centre of this celebration shines a powerful phrase from our founder, St Benedict Menni:
“The Heart of Jesus is our model, our guide, our everything.”
(L. 348)
This affirmation does not just inspire — it anchors us. It encapsulates who we are as Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and today, we reflect on what it truly means to live it.
“We are Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In this Heart we were born, and in Him our identity is defined.”
These words from our Superior General, Sr. Idília Maria Carneiro, remind us that our charism springs from a deep experience of the mercy and compassion of Christ’s Heart. Our founders, St Benedict Menni, María Josefa Recio, and María Angustias Giménez, allowed themselves to be shaped by this Heart. They learned to think, to love, and to desire in union with Him.
To model our lives on the Heart of Jesus means to clothe ourselves in His mercy and to let His compassion flow through us in acts of care, presence, and hospitality.
The Sacred Heart is also our guide. In the brokenness of today’s world, His Heart leads us towards the margins, the vulnerable, the forgotten. It does not fear the wounds of humanity — it embraces them.
“The wounds of our world continue to challenge our hearts, our gaze and our actions,” the Superior reminds us. In community and in mission, we are called to respond with the same gentle and humble love that Christ showed: to see with His eyes and to serve with His Heart.
This guidance becomes especially concrete as the sisters of the Delegation celebrate today the handing over of the new Book of the Constitutions and Directory — a symbolic and spiritual act of renewal, lived from the Heart of Jesus towards the heart of the world.
For St Benedict Menni, the Heart of Jesus was not just a reference point — it was his everything. From that Heart came his strength, his passion, his faithfulness, and his courage.
We are invited today to return to that same Heart: to inhabit it, to rest in it, and to allow ourselves to be transformed by it.
It is a time of grace and mercy, as Sr Idília writes, a moment to rediscover our vocation “in the Church for the world.” As we are “mercified” by His love, we learn again how to love, how to serve, and how to let go.
“It is indispensable for me, and I feel in my heart like an impulse, to begin by admiring the mercies of the Lord in the marvellous works of His grace.”
Sr María Angustias
On this Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, may each one of us — sisters, collaborators, residents, friends — draw near to this Heart that welcomes, heals, guides, and transforms.
Let us walk hand in hand with Mary, our “Teacher,” toward the fountain of living water that flows from Christ’s pierced Heart.
And may His Heart remain always… our model, our guide, and our everything.