by Alison Batley

Adorable Sacred Heart of Jesus, which so greatly loved men and has not spared anything for them, unite with the Immaculate Heart of Your loving Mother, so full of merciful love, and together be my help, my comfort, and my salvation. Amen.

Wrestling with moments of dark and light within the human experience is what theologian Alejandra Garcia-Rivera calls “wounded innocence.”In the sculpture below, the darkness represents the raw experience of brokenness, the sincere realization of a pierced heart deep within one’s soul. In life, this view is magnified in our negative interactions with others when we are used, abused, or treated with a lack of dignity owed to us as human beings. Conversely, being in the light is the moment when one experiences the joy of being offered redemption, when innocence is restored. This experience of redeemed sensibilities offered through the body symbolized in the heart is a glimpse into the wonderment and awe of humanity’s restored innocence through sanctifying grace.

Alison Batley, Hears of Love, (front) ceramics, metal, and wood, 2012

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are the visible manifestation of this wounded innocence and redemption incarnated. The initial wound or our first parents are visualized in masculine and feminine hearts that are punctured and mounted on a tree stump, representing the tree from which Adam and Eve ate in the garden, causing their fall.

Inside the rough heart reliquary is a man, trapped within the core of his wounded heart. His fetal posture is inward, showing loss of communion with God, himself, the woman, and creation. The glossy feminine heart reliquary has an image of a woman trapped within herself, in her smallness. Here, the battleground of these hearts is played out.

Alison Batley, Hears of Love, (detail) ceramics, metal, and wood, 2012

Only the Heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father’s love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in such a simple and beautiful way. – (CCC # 1439)

God looks on us in our brokenness with such tenderness and love that He sends His only Son to take on our wounded humanity. Christ with a heart of flesh came as one of us, allowed himself to be wounded, and in doing so, offered us His healing grace. Christ’s punctured Sacred Heart reveals the depth of God’s love for every man and woman offering the gift of a new life.

When we entrust our pain, anguish, and anxieties to his open heart, we are uniting our desires and sufferings with His redemptive mercy.

Our heart becomes his heart, our thoughts become His thoughts as we unite ourselves more and more to the divine healer.

As St Margret Mary states, “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”

Through God’s providential grace, Mary’s Immaculate Heart participated in this receptive process. Simeon foretold to Mary that “a sword will pierce through your own soul also– that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:35). At the foot of the cross, this piercing was fulfilled as she united herself with Christ’s suffering and she was entrusted to each of us, who are the beloved disciple. Together we unite our hearts to these two Hearts of Love as we pray for the healing of our lives and all those in the world.

Alison Batley, Hears of Love, (back) ceramics, metal, and wood, 2012

Healing prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary

Jesus, only Son of God, only Son of Mary, I offer Thee the most loving Heart of Thy divine Mother which is more precious and pleasing to Thee than all hearts.

O Mary, Mother of Jesus, I offer Thee the most adorable Heart of Thy well-beloved Son, who is the life and love and joy of Thy Heart.

Blessed be the Most Loving Heart and Sweet Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, in eternity and forever. Amen.

~~St. John Eudes