Interview with Fr. José Cristo Rey García Paredes, CMF of the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

During the Global Assembly, Father José Cristo Rey García Paredes, CMF, from the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, gave a lecture titled “The Spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
In his talk, he reflected on how devotion to the Sacred Heart can renew the synodality and mission of the Church, inviting us to live a spirituality of the heart capable of transforming the human being from within.
Below, we share the interview conducted after his lecture.

How can devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus improve synodality in communion and mission?
The word devotion means that someone goes beyond themselves to dedicate themselves to another, feeling a special commitment to someone else. Devotion is always anti‑narcissistic. A narcissist is self‑centered.
Devotion drives a person out of themselves to meet others. And what is synodality? It is walking together. Not a group of narcissistic individuals each thinking of themselves, but a community that cares for others, that looks at others, that engages with others, converses with them, and decides with them.
That is why synodality is anti‑narcissism. The same applies to mission. Mission is no longer just among our peers, but towards the world.
When one is not narcissistic, one thinks more of the world than of one’s own ego. And thus, like Jesus, one feels sent to others, because “God so loved the world that he gave his Son”: someone who is never narcissistic and always thinks more of others than of themselves.

How can the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus bring hope to today’s world?
The word spirituality already leads us to think of something invisible, intangible, yet real. We are enveloped by a reality we cannot see or touch. God created the visible and the invisible.
And God himself is part of that invisible reality we do not have direct access to. Thus, spirituality always carries a sense of absence, but at the same time of presence. When we love wholeheartedly someone, we discover that although they are not physically present, they are still present in our heart.
And we can be thousands of miles apart. The same happens with devotion to the Heart of Jesus. It is a devotion that takes us out of ourselves, even though an abyss may lie between us.
But spirituality is important for changing the human heart and teaching humanity a new art of loving.

A message for the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
To you, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, followers of Mother Cabrini, my hope and recommendation is that you become Mother Cabrini today in 2025‑2026. We live in a world not only shaped by artificial intelligence but by a multiplicity of intelligences.
We are discovering that we are not only intelligent with our minds, but also with our hearts. There are multiple forms of intelligence — for example, artificial intelligence. We are in an intelligent world, and therefore to be intelligent means to enter into the depth of reality.
You should be women above all guided by heart‑intelligence. That same heart‑intelligence that led Mother Cabrini to see what many others never saw.
Be women of cordial intelligence, heart‑intelligence that even enabled her to work miracles. These are the miracles that brought her from Italy to the United States, and from the United States to cross all of America, always seeking the poorest, the most needy, the migrants. And so my message is: be Mother Cabrini in this new century.