Synchronicity

Periodically I am awoken in the night by a heart arrhythmia which I have had for many years.

Within the experience of this condition The Lord has led me into very deep lessons , of the heart.

The sensation of an irregular heartbeat can be unsettling. This is where I have walked a difficult road in learning Trust.

Many times I go to battle with fear . And begin to wonder ..

what if something goes wrong this time.

One night while in this battle of the heart , fear took over.

I prayed and followed the doctor protocol , but the arrhythmia persisted . Fear pressed in on me, and I began to feel abandoned by God.

“Lord … where are you?”

Then, I sensed His presence.

I felt His heart with its great strength , drawing me in with an invitation. To unite my heart to His.

I sensed the union of our hearts deep within.

And the amazing part … my arrhythmia stopped.

Bcause our hearts became synchronized.

Fear and distrust, not part of His rhythm, disappeared as our hearts and rhythm became one.

His rhythm is love

There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:18

There was a recent study conducted on heart rhythms, which showed that when two people trust one another their heart rates become synchronized.

How much more true is this for us with The Lord!

Our good God has allowed me to experience arrhythmia on the spiritual and physical level, to help me interiorize their connection. And to learn love and trust.

I would like to share with you this lesson of the heart .

Before I was blessed to be a stay at home Mom , I worked for a time in the field of allied health and wellness . This is where I learned about the fascinating physiology of the heart.

After this I was called into the field of teaching, during which I began to experience some challenges in my own health . This spanned over a period of years in which I journeyed into healing through a variety of healthcare treatments in both traditional and natural medicine .

During this time as a patient, I learned more about the human person than I ever could have as a healthcare worker. I lived a deep experience of sickness and through healing began to understand how intimate the connections are between our spirits, minds and bodies.

This healing process naturally converged with my walk with The Lord, through which I have been healed most deeply.

He met me in my arrhythmia, where transformation began.

So what is an arrhythmia?

To understand what it is spiritually, first here is a summary of what it means in the physical heart:

This is the Intrinsic Conduction System.

It is the electrical communication system of the heart.

Within it is a natural pacemaker which tells the heart to beat in rhythm. This is how it works :

The Sinus Node initiates the first signal which tells the Atria to contract.

From there the signal travels through the pathway to the AV (Atrio-Ventricular) Node. Its job is to slow down the signal from the Atria before permitting it to pass down to the lower heart. It is the central relay station of heart communication .

The message is then relayed to the HIS Bundle. This is a group of nerve fibers named after a Swiss cardiologist: Wilhelm His . The bundle branches off to the left and right , transmitting the signal to the lower heart chambers for the ventricles to contract.

An arrhythmia is a disruption in this system , bringing either a delay or acceleration of rhythm. This causes the heart to beat off-pace.

It is a a mis-communication within the heart.

This is much like our spiritual heart. In this sense, an arrhythmia is when we are not in sync with The Lord.

God has woven such beautiful symbolism into our bodies, with every piece of us revealing His mystery .

“Our bodies are sacramental – they make visible the invisible.” Saint John Paul II : Theology of the Body Made Simple

I have felt The Holy Spirit showing me deep symbolism in the electricity of our hearts which I would like to share with you.

The name : Intrinsic Conduction System has great meaning . Intrinsic means coming from within , and conduction is the transmission of impulses : communication.

Spiritually I feel this symbolizes how our heart speaks : receiving messages, allowing them to flow through. and interiorizing to give the heart expression.

The first communication initiated in the physical heart takes place in the upper chamber : the Atrium . An atrium by definition is: an entrance to a larger passageway, or to a house.

A doorway to the inner heart.

While reflecting on the symbolism of this I sensed a question coming from The Lord:

What messages have I opened the door of my heart: my house, to ?

I shared two in the opening story of this post : fear and distrust.

What we open the door to will enter.

The message is then passed to the Atrioventricular Node as a central relay station. What I find interesting about its function, is the way it slows down messages before permitting them to pass down to the lower heart.

I see this as being like the discernment of our hearts. That point where we choose to accept or reject messages … beliefs in our hearts.

The message of the heart that is accepted, is then passed down to the HIS bundle. A bundle is a group of things: objects or materials, collected and tied or bound together.

I see this as being like a collection point of our spiritual hearts where we deeply internalize the beliefs we have accepted. Binding them together for storage , where it becomes a part of us. Our identity.

His Bundle. What beautiful symbolism in this name !

Our beliefs: thoughts , feelings should be one with Him … His bundle.

One day while in the midst of household activities , I paused as I felt this question spoken into my heart :

“Missy, what is in your bundle?”

This gave me much to pray and think about with The Holy Spirit.

Not long after this, while in prayer after Holy Communion , an image came to me.

Are you familiar with a Venn Diagram?

It is something used as a teaching tool for comparing/contrasting attributes or characteristics of two things.

The part where the circles intersect are for writing similarities. The outer part of the circle is for writing differences.

The image I saw was of two intersecting hearts :

After Mass, I felt The Holy Spirit lead me to draw this diagram in my journal and to begin writing what is in my heart.

What do I share in common, in union , with The Lord’s heart ? His Bundle .. rhythm .

What do I carry in my heart that is not in Him ? What beliefs are bound up together in my heart? Those which are not His? Arrhythmias

All of these things are what is in the bundle of my heart.

I found this to be a very enriching spiritual exercise . It was deeply convicting to see in writing the beliefs I carry in my heart .

Like the weeds among the wheat … in a bundle .

My prayer : “Lord, please restore my bundle, so it becomes yours. Remove the waste in the threshing floor of my heart. Send it away like winnowed chaff , with your breath. Store the good seed in my heart, as food for life. “

This is the goal : our hearts united.

In the last part of the electrical communication system the message then leaves the Bundle , spreading out to the left and right branches . Which helps propel the blood: life, out to and through the body.

This is when the heart speaks. A communication that spreads and gives life to the body.

As I was studying this picture with our youngest son, he pointed out to me, the bundle and branches of the heart are like: The Vine and the Branches .

Amen!

“As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches . He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit , for apart from me you can do nothing. ” John 15:5

When we remain in Him: The Vine, love flows from His Bundle through us: the Branches and out to the body. This bears the fruit of The Holy Spirit : love .

What we have collected and tied together in the bundle is communicated to The Body of Christ . It becomes a spoken language of the heart, which reflects how we love others.

“As face mirrors face in water, so the heart reflects the person.” Proverbs 27:19

It is so very important for us to carry Truth , goodness and beauty in our hearts.

Love : His Bundle

“Let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else.” St Therese of Lisieux

So, how can our bundle become His?

We can start with an examination of our heart’s communication.

We can ask The Holy Spirit to show us what we have let in through the door of our heart. What messages do we believe : Truth or lies?

“With all vigilance guard your heart, for in it are the sources of life.” Proverbs 5:23

So often, the kingdom of darkness can plant seeds in our mind and heart that fool us into believing what is not true. Lies about God, ourselves and others. Temptation to sin, selfishness, bitterness, unforgiveness … Arrhythmias

A very powerful way to combat this is to unite our hearts to the Heart of Jesus , our source of life.

And in He will come, to dwell .

Remember how fear left me that night when I united my heart to Jesus? This was because of the response of Love .

There is a beautiful saying: “Fear knocked, love answered … but no one was there.”

When the lies come knocking at the door of our hearts … unite with Jesus. And the door will be opened to Him, Love .

“Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

Another way to allow Him to restore our hearts is to ask The Lord what is in the bundle.

The diagram of the two hearts is a great way to do this.

When I did this I wrote things such as: fear, distrust and sinful tendencies on the outside part of my heart. This was directly opposite from the virtues in His Heart.

These are the areas in need of restoration. Where reconciliation and healing is needed. The weeds to be pulled out, the chaff ….

“Create in me a clean heart O God and put a new and steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

At first I began to also write those things related to wounds of the heart: pains, on the outside. Then something interesting happened . I felt Him gently guide me to place those in the center.

Where our hearts are one.

Yes . My brothers and sisters, He shares our pains.

Do you have wounds of the heart ?

Do you experience: grief, loss, sorrow, anguish, rejection, abandonment neglect, or any other kind of pain?

So has He. And shares this pain with you. He meets us most deeply in our afflictions.

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18.

There is no pain we experience that He does not .

He bore our pain .

He also has a wounded Heart … from the pains of Love .

“Behold the Heart that has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify to Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude” Jesus to St Margaret Mary

Unite your heart wounds to His. Ask Him to convert your pain to graces for others. For the conversion of sinners , or for the healing of those who have heart wounds.

Offering pain as intercession consoles the Heart of Jesus, the heart of humanity , and can heal our own wounds .

Through this union with Jesus I have been healed of many afflictions . Fears have been extinguished, wounds and physical ailments have disappeared.

I had an experience of heart arrhythmia in the night not long ago. This time I trusted. I united it to His heart and asked Him to convert it to graces for the healing of those suffering from heart wounds.

And the arrhythmia stopped .

Intercession is a language the heart recognizes as His rhythm : love.

Our hearts beat with His as we stand in the gap with Him for others.

Our hearts become one with His as we pray in His heart.

There was another arrhythmia recently I felt on the morning of the Feast of The Presentation of Our Lord , the Feast of Our Lady’s first sorrow.

The Holy Spirit led me to unite it to the pierced heart of Mary .

I did this … and the arrhythmia stopped.

The Blessed Mother is the surest way to the heart of her son , to His Rhythm.

Intercession is where our hearts are transformed and set on fire with The Holy Spirit and His love for souls .

And where we have synchronicity

This is when we live in the vine, and love flows through the branches.

And the good seed: The Son of God, is planted within us.

This is another image that came to me recently through prayer :

A bundle of flowers

In a bridal bouquet

I see this as a bundle in the heart that has been transformed, into a budding bouquet for God.

“Their loyalty like the flower of the field .” Isaiah 40:6

We carry with us what is in our hearts when we go to meet our Bridegroom.

At The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, when we walk down the aisle to meet Him in Holy Communion

And on that Glorious day we await, when we are joined with Him forever .

Does your heart ever skip a beat or race, when you come into Church and kneel before Him? Or after you receive Holy Communion?

People have shared with me about having this encounter. I also experience this at times, but I do not fear. Because it is not arrhythmia.

It is love.

Like a bride on her wedding day.

My brothers and sisters, may your heart beat in unison with His. May you live a life of synchronicity.

God bless you