What the ‘Hearts up!’ Practice is
An ancient command to orient your entire self - mind, body, spirit - toward God’s presence, used for 2,000 years at the Eucharist and available to you every moment of every day.
It’s our orientation towards God.
The Sursum Corda literally means ‘Hearts up!’
It’s the command to orient ourselves to God before celebrating and partaking in the Eucharist.
AND - we can orient ourselves towards God anytime.
This ancient phrase of devotion and attention is our constant call to turn to God with our whole lives.
The morning ‘Hearts up!’
It’s your spiritual warm-up.
You’re waking up your soul, orienting your mind to God, preparing yourself for the day.
You’re establishing your foundation.
Before the busyness starts, before the ‘have to’s’ pile up, before we get too distracted:
Hearts up!
Throughout the day
These are your reset moments.
Like pausing between sets at the gym, you pause to refocus. You shake off whatever is keeping you down and recommit to what matters.
Before that difficult conversation: Hearts up! When things are not going well: Hearts up! When you notice something beautiful: Hearts up!
It becomes automatic. You don’t have to think about it. You just turn toward God.
When things are going badly
My beloved dog died recently. I work from home. For the first few weeks afterwards, I rattled around the house without her, reaching for the leash before I realized I didn’t have to.
’Hearts up!’, I said. Out loud. Alone, through my tears.
When I didn’t know what to do with myself, I did what I knew how to do - I literally turned towards God.
To comfort and encourage others
I admit - at first it feels weird. It can feel a little bit like ‘buck up, little camper!’ Like something a tiny bit saccharine and even flippant.
But it’s not. It’s full of joy, but also seriously grounded in the Christian tradition - and God’s never-ending love.
It’s showing the way. God is with us - in our pain and suffering, in our loneliness and despair, in our moments of struggle - and also JOY.
We just need to turn to him.
’Hearts up!’
What Happens When You Practice
You might not feel anything - at least at first. And that’s ok!
You’re setting your intention. You’re saying: ‘God is above me, around me, calling me. I orient myself toward God’s presence and power.’
The practice becomes automatic. You don’t have to think about it anymore. You just turn your heart toward God.
Like the earliest Christians. Like billions of Christians over thousands of years.
The more you practice, the more you stretch and strengthen your soul. The more peace, connection, grounding, and JOY you feel.
The gym parallel (why we practice it at Trexo)
Think of ‘Hearts up!’ as your spiritual stretching.
At a physical gym:
Before we start, we make sure to gently move our bodies and get them ready for testing.
Hearts up! works like this for our souls.
It turns us gently back towards God - looking in the direction of our hope and our salvation.
It puts us in proper relationship with God - and each other.
We’re all side-by-side, lifting our hearts to God.
Just as a physically stretching prepares us for tests of endurance, a spiritually trained soul can live more consciously in God’s presence, and experience greater transformation and JOY.
The Complete ‘Hearts up!’ Practice
Ready for the next Practice?
Find all the Practices HERE.
Coffee with Coaches archive HERE.
The Trexo story HERE.
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