17 Jun 2021
It is with grateful hearts that we thank everyone who participated in this year’s Novena to the Sacred Heart, which took place in the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork, from June 3rd to June 11th 2021.
This year, ongoing COVID restrictions meant that our Sacred Heart Novena once again had to take place online; while our doors may have been closed, our hearts were open, and it is with sincere joy and gratitude that we welcomed members of our great family of faith from all over the world. Well over 1,000 people joined us daily to participate in our online Masses on each of the nine days of the Novena, close to home and in far-flung corners of the world. Together, we prayed with mission friends from Ireland, the UK, and America, as well as Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Jamaica, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Romania, Spain, and many more.
“The Way of the Heart”
Irish Provincial Fr Carl Tranter MSC opened the Novena on June 3rd, reminding us that “this year’s Novena has a special character for us as we begin to emerge from the long lockdown of the last months, and these long 15 months of living with COVID.”
“We’re conscious that we’ve all been changed by this experience,” reflected Fr Carl. “We have experienced an enormous disruption to our lives – loss, sickness, grief. People have felt isolated and lonely. People have been afraid and have had financial worries and business worries. We’ve been disconnected from each other, from friends and family. We’ve had so many hard and tough experiences this past year.”
“The theme for the Novena this year is ‘The Way of the Heart’,” he continued. “It invites us into the language of journey, a process, a way living, a way of praying, a way of walking our path in life: the way of the heart. So over these coming nine days we’ll be inviting you to embrace this time, this space that we’re given to allow our wounded hearts, our pained hearts, our grieving hearts, our confused hearts, but also our longing hearts and our hopeful hearts, to go on a journey, to be taken on a journey deep into the heart of Christ, that unique place where we discover the intimacy of God’s love, of God’s gentleness, of God’s embrace, of God’s care for each of us.”
Living as God’s creation
Fr Michael O’Connell MSC, Director of the Missions Office, celebrated the second Novena Mass, on the theme of Mission, where he spoke about “The Way of the Heart” and how it “it opens us up to a whole way of being, of really living as God’s creation”. “If you are living according to questions like, how can I make money, or how can I get a bigger house, or even how can I get my children to be the biggest earners or get the best qualifications – that’s really very narrow, and it’s very finite”, he said. “But when it’s the heart, when it’s the way of the heart – wow, that can go anywhere. COVID has shown us that questions like, when can I go on my next holiday, when can I buy my next car, or when can I go out for dinner… Living for those things that are just so finite, they can all be taken away at the stroke of a regulation. At a cough or an infection, they’re gone. But the way of the heart, that’s something inside us, that inner strength we have, that inner way of being – nobody can take that from us.”
Day three of the Novena, on the theme of Reconciliation, was celebrated by Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC, who spoke of the power of grace and love: of loving a person “exactly as they are, with all their rubbish and brokenness and all the rest… Not a pretended love, not an act put on, but an absolute giving.” Fr Seamus Kelly MSC also spoke of love on the fourth day of the Novena, which celebrated Corpus Christi, calling on the grace of the Holy Spirit “to be able to bring God’s love to people throughout the world”.
The fifth day of the Novena was celebrated by Fr John Finn MSC, who spoke at length about caring for our planet, and planets beyond. Bringing us from outer space back to our own earth, he reminded us that, “The earth is given to us by God as a gift, life is given to us by God as a gift, and we are called to a deeper appreciation, to a gratitude of heart for that gift that God has given to us, his blessing.”
Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC preaches a homily on reconciliation at the MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart 2021 at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart 2021 at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
Fr Seamus Kelly MSC celebrates the Corpus Christie Mass at the MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart 2021 at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
“A love that’s beyond our knowledge, more than our minds can grasp.”
On day six of our Novena to the Sacred Heart, Fr John Fitzgerald MSC led us in prayer for our dearly departed – “a special day,” Fr John observed, “because the dead visit us so many times in our memories.” Reading from a selection of beautiful poems, Fr John reminded us not to worry about those we have lost: “Our loved ones are at peace; that is the promise, and we need have no fear of them or for them.”
Day seven saw Fr Michael return to celebrate the theme of Healing, emphasising the power of compassion, of active compassion, not just passive pity, for others and for ourselves. The idea of compassion carried through to the following day’s Masses, where Fr John Fitzgerald led a service of thanksgiving for our front-line workers, and all who have worked behind the scenes during the COVID pandemic. Showing us an ornament of an open hand, sculpted from timber, he said, “If there ever was an apt ornament for today, it is this, in thanksgiving for the people who opened their hands freely to offer what they had freely for us and for the people around them, and we are very, very privileged to devote a day of the Novena in thanksgiving.”
“This is the time to pray a massive thanksgiving, lest we forget and take for granted.”
On the final day of our Novena, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Fr John Finn was joined by Bishop Fintan Gavin to celebrate the closing Mass. Reflecting on “The Way of the Heart”, Bishop Fintan spoke of Christ’s love, a “love that’s beyond our knowledge, more than our minds can grasp.”
“All we can do,” he said, “is place ourselves in love and in faith. And if we can do that, then Christ’s love begins to grow in our hearts, and so through faith our hearts will reflect something of the Sacred Heart, something of his love will flow into our human hearts, to bring life to us so that we can bring life to our world.”
“Our faith is a missionary faith,” Bishop Fintan continued, “and so our faith is never turned in on itself, it is always reaching out to others, always selflessly self-emptying so that we can share that love and that encounter with others – that’s the Christ we’re called to follow, that’s the Christ we hear about in this evening’s Gospel, that’s the Christ I invite you to take deeper into your lives, so that others, through our witness, may come to know the love of Christ.”
“Love begins to work its changes…”
At a time when we are beginning to slowly emerge from the fear, stress, sorrow, and uncertainty of the last 15 months, this year’s Novena to the Sacred Heart was a wonderful way to pause and to give thanks for the daily blessings that have meant so much, and continue to do so. “COVID has changed so much of our lives,” Fr Carl reflected. “It has had such an enormous impact on us, but as Pope Francis has wisely observed, it’s not just what COVID has done to us, but it’s also what COVID has revealed to us, about ourselves, about our lives, about our world.”
In the different ways the pandemic has impacted us, Fr Carl reassured us, “we bring that to the heart of Christ, and let him know how we are feeling and what it is we want and we need. And in that space, maybe if we just stop talking for a while, and allow him to hold us and embrace us and love us, and that love begins to work its changes. And as it works its change, we find ourselves opening that little bit more.”
As Fr John Finn closed our 2021 Novena, he said “I thank you, from our community house here at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, for joining us in this Novena. I thank you for praying for us, for praying with us, as we pray for and with you, and I pray that you will come to know ever deeper the love that God has for you, revealed in the heart of Christ.”
Our heartfelt thanks to all who took part in this year’s Novena celebrations. May the Sacred Heart bless you and your loved ones, now and always.
Celebrating the MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart 2021.
Celebrating the MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart 2021.
Celebrating the MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart 2021.
Watch our 2021 MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart:
June 3rd: Opening Mass by Irish Provincial Leader Fr Carl Tranter MSC
June 4th: Mission, celebrated by Fr Michael O’Connell MSC
June 5th: Reconciliation, celebrated by Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC
June 6th: Corpus Christie, celebrated by Fr Seamus Kelly MSC
June 7th: Care of Our Earth, celebrated by Fr John Finn MSC
June 8th: Pray for Our Dead, celebrated by Fr John Fitzgerald MSC
June 9th: Healing, celebrated by Fr Michael O’Connell MSC
June 10th: Thanksgiving for front-line workers, celebrated by Fr John Fitzgerald MSC
June 11th: Feast of the Sacred Heart, celebrated by Fr John Finn MSC (Morning Mass)
June 11th: Feast of the Sacred Heart, celebrated by Fr John Finn MSC and Bishop Fintan Gavin (Evening Mass)