God wants our hearts, not our sacrifices. Isn’t that hard to swallow? God wants us to spend a lifetime nurturing a heart turned toward the Lord. God wants a spirit that knows it is free to love and show mercy. It all depends on how our hearts are centered. If the very center of our life turns to God, then the rest of us will do the same. Our concern will not be the fulfillment of prescriptions or legalities, but the direction and the movement of our hearts.
In writing to a Poor Clare, St. Bonaventure said, “Your heart is to be an altar of God. It is here that the fire of intense love must burn always.” If this is true then the first church is in the human heart. There is no sense going to church (a building) for prayer if one has not entered into the church (dwelling place) of one’s heart.
—from the book Friar Jack’s Favorite Prayers
by Jack Wintz, OFM
