“A new heart I will give you, and a new Spirit I will put within you; I will remove from your body your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

“Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”  Jesus the Christ

“She gave her love to God as well. Her love was love returned.” From Celtic Daily Prayer

Where is your heart? That sounds like a silly question, doesn’t it?  Your heart is inside of your body.  It’s there, beating.  You can feel the pulse.  Yes, that’s the literal answer.  But what about figuratively?  Is your heart strictly in and FOR you?  Or is it with God?  And with others? 

And where is your treasure?  What do you treasure most?  Things?  Money?  Admiration?  Or . . .  God and others?  That’s what Brigid treasured . . . and where her heart was.  She had a Spiritual Romance with God and for others.  That is evident in the love she poured out for the poor, and what motivated her to start the monastery for both men and women at Kildare. 

What is your heart comprised of? On the surface this is another silly question.  It’s a muscle made of flesh and blood.  My daughter Molley, whose a cardiac nurse, told me it’s made up of myocardial cells.  Technical.  Impressive. Again, that may be the literal answer.  But for far too many people our hearts are made of stone.  As they are battered by life, bruised by the abuse of others, broken by love’s lost, betrayed by broken promises, one’s heart can too easily become like petrified wood.  Our hearts can too easily be beat up and beat down and stop pulsing with and for the love of God.  They can become hearts of stone, as the prophet Ezekiel puts it.  These hard hearts are hidden for a time, but they too easily become obvious in the hardened words and heart-less actions that can’t be concealed.  Hearts like these need a new Spirit, like the one that Brigid had.

Brigid was a woman.  A very woman.  A very compassionate woman.  A very hospitable woman.  A very loving woman.  A very big-hearted woman who had a heart of flesh.  A woman whose heart was filled with love for God and others.  Though she had no husband, she knew the love of a man; the man Jesus Christ.  Though she had no children, she knew the love of a child; The Child Jesus Christ.  Though she made no vows at a wedding, she promised her fealty to her Faithful Lord.  Though she had no house or home for her own family, she made a home for the family of God.  The strangers, the sick, the lepers, the hungry, the poor; all we were welcome in her monastery.  Her family was compromised of others like her whose hearts of flesh beat with love for God and for neighbor.  In their lives they were living the two greatest commandments:  Love of God with all their heart and soul and mind, and love for neighbor as themselves.  They set the example for The Celts not only on how women can venerate Christ, but how they themselves can and should be venerated as well.  They set the example for the Celts on what a true Spiritual Romance should look like, regardless of the calling, country or context in which it is practiced.  They set the example on what it means to have a new Spirit that turns hearts of stone to hearts of flesh, warm and welcoming of Christ The Beloved, who is seen and embraced in others. 

What, or whom, does your heart beat for?

Where is your treasure?  Your TRUE treasure?

How will the love of Christ shape and form your heart?

This is Brigid who loved the poor, who gave away all she could spare.

And would have given away everything, if everything were hers to share.

She gave her love to God as well, in her community at Kildare.