Living in His presence

The end of the journey: a habitual, ordinary, unceasing awareness that one lives in the Heart of Jesus.

Why this practice

Croiset says: "It is not enough that you should have a devotion to My Heart; you must enter into it and live there." This is the goal toward which every other practice has been pointing. Not a moment of intense feeling. A settled state: I live in Him. Always.

Br. Lawrence of the Resurrection called it the Practice of the Presence of God. The Sacred Heart devotion offers the same reality with a more particular location: not God in the abstract, but the Heart of Jesus as the place one lives.

It is not something one achieves. It is something one is given, after many years of asking. But it can be asked for from the beginning.

How to begin

1Throughout the day, briefly recall: "I am in His Heart." Three words; not three minutes.

2Make every transition — entering a room, beginning a task, picking up the phone — a small recollection of His presence.

3Read slowly, monthly, a chapter of Br. Lawrence or another writer on the practice of the presence.

4Ask for the grace, every day, simply: "Let me dwell in Thy Heart."

It is not enough that you should have a devotion to My Heart; you must enter into it and live there.

— Attributed to Our Lord, to St. Margaret Mary

A prayer for this practice

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I have nothing more to ask but this: that I may dwell within Thee, as Thou hast invited me. Take me into Thy Heart, and never let me leave.

Amen.

When you're ready

Meekness & humility →