Carrying God's Heart With Us

Today at mass, we sang a song by Marty Haugen that included the phrase “Return to me with all your heart.” However, the beginning of a poem by ee cummings offers another approach to being united with God: 

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere

i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling)

If we carry God’s heart with us, there is no need to return to God, for God is always with us. Indeed, as Psalm 139 reminds us, we are never without God; there is nowhere we can go where God is not present.

Perhaps a useful Lenten practice would be to find a small image of a heart (a pendant or pin, a stone, or clay in the shape of a heart) and carry it in our pocket throughout the day. In this way, we can be reminded,                                                                        as cummings says in his poem,

this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)