Where Our Heart Is

Create a clean heart in me, O God:  and renew a right spirit within me.  This verse corresponds with, "Thou shalt wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow"; for he asks not only for a remission of his sins, but for such an infusion of grace as may renew his soul, and make it bright and beautiful, a petition, telling against those who make justification to consist solely in the remission of sin.  We are not to take it that a new heart is asked for, when he says, "Create"; the expression merely expresses a wish that his heart may be thoroughly cleansed and purified, and made, as it were, a new heart.  The meaning, then, is create cleanness in my heart; and there is a certain point in the word "Create," to imply that God finds nothing in the heart of a sinner, whence to form cleanness in it; but that entirely, through his own great mercy, without any merit on their part, it is that he justifies men; for, even though sinners are disposed to justification by faith and penance, still, faith, penance, and all such things are purely the gift of God...  "Creating a new heart" is nothing more than creating cleanness in the new heart...  a "right spirit" means a right affection, in other words, charity;  for by avarice or cupidity the affections of the heart become distorted, turn to creatures, especially to self, while charity or love directs them to the things above, especially to God.  "A right spirit," then, is renewed in me when the heart having been cleansed by grace, an ardent love of God, that had been displaced by sin, is renewed in the soul.

Saint John Fisher

-Saint John Fisher (1535) was chancellor of Cambridge University and a cardinal.  He was beheaded for the faith.