Genevieve: I think that there’s a little bit of a surprise about the devotion to the Sacred Heart because it seems a little dusty. When is the first time you encountered the Sacred Heart?
Dawn: That’s a great question. I can’t tell you the first time I encountered it. But it started to make sense to me when, as a new Catholic, my friend, Fr. Sean Raftis, SJ, shared with me the image of the Sacred Heart by Pompeo Batoni. It’s in the Church of the Gesu in Rome. I think I had to have a priest that I trusted tell me this is a holy picture. It’s just kind of strange to look at a picture of a human being where you can visibly see the heart. And in this case, Jesus’ heart is out of his body. He’s handing it over, he’s proffering it like a groom would proffer a wedding ring, only it’s his heart in his hands. And it’s even more anatomically accurate than the usual hearts in sacred art. So again, it took a priest to tell me, “Look at this, this is holy!”
When I did look at that picture, I found this kind of intimate space between me and Jesus in that painting. I found an invitation of love that I had not contemplated before in that way. And that was the beginning of the devotion that I describe in my new book, The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times.
The Sacred Heart by Pompeo Batoni (Wikimedia Commons)
Genevieve: Beautiful…and it’s interesting that it was the biological element that first got your attention.
Dawn: I suppose it was just the strangeness of it. We have images of bleeding saints, a part of that world of Catholic strangeness. But then it’s up to us to show people, well, we’re offering something more than just bizarro world. There’s a truth behind this. We’re not just setting out to shock people. It’s meant to reflect something that’s shocking in a good way, shocking because it’s about this wondrous, amazing love of our Lord, who suffered and died and rose to save us.
That’s what I’m trying to do–take this image that’s bizarre, a disembodied heart. Who wants a relationship with a disembodied heart?! And then to kind of connect it back with the body of the person, the body of Christ, and explain why we focus on His Heart.
I give people hearts every Valentine’s Day. I use heart emojis every day, several times a day. And I never think to myself, “Gosh, why am I sending this person an image of a bodily organ in this text?” The Sacred Heart is a symbol of love, and in this case, the Love of Jesus, then it just opens up this whole world of love and beauty.
Genevieve: You made an association very early in the book about the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. And how exercise has an immediate effect on the heart. And you say the spiritual exercises are meant to stretch our desire for God. It was so beautiful. Was that your idea?
Dawn: Well, I borrowed the idea of stretching our desire for God from St. Augustine. He spoke often of the need for us to let God stretch our hearts. Augustine used the analogy of a leather wallet. If you want your wallet to hold a lot of money, you have to stretch the leather. If the leather could talk, the leather would say, “What the heck are you doing to me? Stop this!”
But in fact, when the wallet gets stretched, it becomes more what it’s meant to be, which is something to hold money. Likewise for our hearts, it’s painful for our hearts to be stretched. Pope Leo XIV just spoke about this in his Wednesday audience. He spoke about how important it is for us to have a sensitive heart so that we can be awakened by God to become who God wants us to be.
That’s what Augustine means: allowing God to stretch us even when it’s painful, trusting that God will through this stretching of our heart give us the grace.
Genevieve: Well, you’ve touched on two things here. One is the pain in stretching, but even before the stretching begins, there’s a time when the heart is actually closed.
So just for those who might have an aversion to opening the heart or stretching the heart, can you give some hints on a good way to start?
Dawn: I think a good way to start in opening one’s heart is to find someone who is worse off than you in any way. One obvious way is just someone on the street who needs food. But more than that, you may know someone who’s hurting for any number of reasons. Find an opening where you can start to go out of yourself. And then through that, ask God for other ways that he can take you out of yourself so that there will be more room for him and for the people he loves in your heart.
Genevieve: That is not the answer I even wildly expected. I love it because there you become an icon of Christ handing over His heart. I was asking, “How is somebody going to heal me?” And you said, “No, go give yourself, give, give, give!” And it’s absolutely brilliant because when you give of yourself, you think less of yourself and become an image of Christ on the cross.
Dawn: Yes! That’s such an important insight to have, that Jesus goes out of himself every step of the way. And I’ve found that going out of oneself can bring joy.
Genevieve: This reminds me of the chapter in your book on Julia Greeley. Can you tell us a bit about Julia Greeley?
Dawn: Julia Greeley’s story is stunning. And her story affected me profoundly. Julia Greeley was African-American, and a convert attending the Sacred Heart Church there, which was an all-white church. And she had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Not only was she a former slave, but she was practically homeless herself. She had had a job for a couple who was divorcing, and the husband took out some of his anger against the wife on Julia, the wife’s servant. He spread false stories so no one would hire her and she was left destitute.
As she wandered the streets, she used a red wagon to collect donations for the poor. And then more than that, she would give the donations to the needy at night, so they wouldn’t have to acknowledge interacting with her because she was Black, crippled, and half-blind.
When she died on the feast of the Sacred Heart [in 1918], thousands of people came out to the funeral chapel. They had to move her body into the main Church to lie in state for all the mourners. So it’s just an amazing story and just a wonderful example of the outpouring of love of the Sacred Heart.
Genevieve: How our Lord must have absolutely cherished her and just delighted to go with her along her little journeys with her wagon. And you have some lovely anecdotes in your book about how this woman lived. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s called The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times is put out by Loyola Press.
Dr. Dawn Eden Goldstein at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, January 2025. Photo by Agaton Strom
Volume Three of My Secret is Mine newsletter includes essays and discussions on Mulieris Dignitatem, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, an apostolic letter written by St. John Paul the Great in 1988.
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