As I was writing this article I was also preparing a homily for the Eucharist of the 3rd Sunday of Easter. The Gospel tells of the disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. They didn't recognise Jesus because "they were slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke." As they reflected later on how they came to know Jesus they remembered that their hearts were burning when Jesus opened the Scriptures to them. Altogether the word "heart" occurs seven times in the prayers and readings of the Sunday.

In today's Gospel we are told that Mary "kept all these things in her heart." These things refer to the puzzling events that she had just experienced but did not yet fully understand. She kept them in her heart, though, just as earlier she had kept the shepherds' visit in her heart. Any wonder then that Mary was able to tell the waiters quite confidently to get the water ready for a wonderful happening in Cana and that at the end she stood by the cross of Jesus?

The French writer, Blaise Pascal, is famous for his "the heart has its reasons of which the reason knows nothing." After the tsunami a 48 year old Japanese engineer felt that he had to go back to the nuclear plant where he once worked in order to help with the job of making it safe. He told his old father of his plan. The old man said, "follow your heart."