Foghlaim de Chroí - Learning by Heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34

See, days are coming—oracle of the LORD—when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke my covenant, though I was their master—oracle of the LORD. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days—oracle of the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will no longer teach their friends and relatives, “Know the LORD!” Everyone, from least to greatest, shall know me—oracle of the LORD—for I will forgive their iniquity and no longer remember their sin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jABcYKhDrI

Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong

They are weak but He is strong

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes Jesus loves me,

for the Bible tells me so

This beginning no doubt have you really wondering where we are going today. What has a 160 year old poem written to comfort a dying child which was shortly thereafter turned into a wildly popular Protestant hymn loved around the world got to do with a mature group of Catholic guys taking a turn looking at Celtic Christian spiritual practices? The answer is it has everything to do with learning by heart. My grandmother taught it to me as a small boy and, in turn, my mother taught it to my boys. I hope to teach it to my granddaughter even if I have to do it on the sly. Where we are going to do is to understand how this simple little song makes a profound statement about learning by heart. The memories associated with this song compiled over 60 years don't live in my mind. They are etched into my heart.

When we talk of things learned by heart, we usually think in terms of rote memorization like the poetry we were required to cite in 6th grade. After 50 plus years all I can remember are a few lines. Here is one by Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Then this one by Noyes:

And the highwayman came riding—

 Riding—riding—

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

Beautiful poems, both of them, chock full of beautiful imagery and intent and yet they are largely lost in the dark tunnels of past time and yet the little song about the love of Jesus is there on the tip of my tongue ready to roll out when I have the thought to sing it. The Frost poem was particularly important to me at one time but I no longer understand why except to think I might have fancied I was called to take the less-traveled road. This is something that time has revealed to not be in my nature. Taking the less traveled road would leave unprotected from the lions and tigers eagerly awaiting my arrival if I were to foolishly start down that road.

We already intuitively understand that knowledge resides in our heads and wisdom lives in our hearts because that is where God records all things that he wants us to know. Recall the words of Jeremiah, "I will place my law within them and write it upon our hearts." When we speak from the heart or listen from the heart we communicate from the place where our divine souls and our human existence meet, unite and our eternal and temporal essence flows through a threshold of God's design.

Over the years we have been together, I have built up a large store of things written upon my heart. The words to describe what has inscribed are many, so many they don't form sentences but they bubble around in a pot filled with emotion, love, shared experience, service, support, sorrow, and gladness. Each of you has, at times, spoken prophecy mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians. We have shared the word, meaning, and intent of the risen Lord week by week, month by month and year by year so we have an endless store of memories recorded where when we leave this place and this world, we will be able to take those things of essence with us. The soul never forgets what is laid

down in the heart and it will pick up every little thing it finds and give all back to God with gratitude.

I don't need to tell you to seek to learn by heart. You already know that and live like you know that. The only difference is now you might have a different understanding of what it means to learn by Heart. I do.

Thank you. I take all of you and all we mean to each other with me. I love all of you in ways I can't describe but you already knew that and the knowledge resides in your hearts.