Cedric Pisegna - A New Heart (01/21/2026)
Father Cedric shares from Romans 8:28-29 that God's ultimate purpose isn't just what we do for Him, but what He does in us—conforming and transforming our hearts into the image of Jesus, like a potter reshaping clay. Through life's experiences, trials, and relationships, God softens our prideful, stony hearts, imprinting Christ's meekness, humility, and love, leading to a lifelong heart transplant of compassion, acceptance, and selflessness. In the end, this inner transformation into Christ's likeness is the true "good" God works in all things for those who love Him.
Opening and Scripture
Welcome to «Live with Passion». I’m Father Cedric Pisegna. In this episode, I’m going to be talking about our heart being transformed. It comes from Romans chapter 8, verse 28 and 29, «We know that in everything, God works for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters».
Visit with Aunt Val
I went to visit my Aunt Val one time when she was 90 years old. And here is her nephew who’s a Catholic priest and she poured her heart out to me.
And she said, «Father Cedric, I’m the last left in the family. And out of all my brothers and sisters,» and there were eight of them, she said she’s the last one left. She said, «I’m 90 years old and I’m not sure why I’m the last one left. God must have something for me to do». And I was thinking to myself, you know, she’s 90 years old, hardly ever leaves the house, and she’s wondering what God wants her to do. And this is what I told her, and I hope you get this. I said, Aunt Val, «I don’t think it’s so much what God wants you to do as what God wants to do in you». That’s what everybody thinks, «God left me here because he has something for me to do».
That may be true, but the primary purpose, and this is what God is after in everybody’s life, is he wants to do something, and I point this way toward our heart. God wants to bring about a change in us and a transformation in us. And oftentimes for elderly people, '70s, '80s, '90s, they’re at home, they’re alone, they have a lot of free time on their hands. This is the time when God the Potter and we the clay, God is at work, gaining patience, forgiving those who have hurt us, helping us to be creative in prayer, spend time with God. You have to understand the great work of God in us is conforming us. I hope you got this from Romans chapter 8. Conforming us, form, shape, mold, transform into the image of Jesus.
God as Potter and Sculptor
From the Scriptures, we know that God is our Creator. God is the one who breathed into the dust, into the clay of the earth, and we became a living being, but God’s not done just creating us. God has to perfect the sculpture, if you will. Michelangelo was that way. He wanted it to be perfect. Well, God is the Great Sculptor, and actually it says in Jeremiah that God is the Potter and we are the clay. And Jeremiah one time went to a potter’s shop, and he saw the potter working on the clay, and it spoiled in its hands. And so what he did is he continued to work on it and he reshaped it until it got right. And Jeremiah was talking about God is the same way. When we spoil in his hands, when things aren’t right, when we have sin, and brokenness, and rebellion, and a hard heart, and a prideful heart, God continues to work until he gets it right.
And that’s what he’s doing in us. He wants to conform us, to transform us, to mold us, and shape us into the image of Jesus. I too went to a pottery shop one time. It was down in Mexico. And I walked in there and I see the all the kinda… the bowls, and the dishes, and the various pottery that was there. Then I noticed a curtain in the back of the store, and I walked over by the curtain, and I peeked through the curtain. There was the potter working on some clay behind the scenes. I was standing there by the curtain, looking through. He never saw me because he was too focused on his work. And the other thing…and by the way, God is focused on you. He’s concentrating on you.
I know there’s 7.9 billion people on the face of the planet, but he’s got you on his mind. You’re in his heart. The other thing I wanted to say is that I noticed that the potter’s hands were very dirty. He was into his work as it was spinning, and he didn’t mind getting his hands dirty. What do I mean by that? Sometimes we mess up and we get kind of muddied by life. We get dirty, if you will. And God doesn’t mind getting his hands into the muck of our life so that our mess can become our message and our mistakes can become our miracles.
And that’s all because of God’s working. Trust me, God’s great plan that we heard from Romans 8:29, and that’s a key verse in the Scripture. I call it a hub verse. The wheel goes around and around this hub, and the hub is God is conforming us, conforming us, into the image of Jesus.
Formation in Religious Life
I remember joining religious life, becoming a Passionist, and then being ordained a priest. I had to be formed. We call it being formed in the life. When I joined the Passionists and when I was studying to be a priest, I didn’t know much about it. I felt a call toward it, but what happens is as you’re being formed in the life, you get educated. You meet people who are Passionists. You live the Passionist life. You come to learn about the traditions of the Passionists and priesthood.
All the while, you’re being formed. You’re becoming. They are helping you to understand what it is to be a religious, what it is to be a priest. And after a while, after all the education, after the years, after the patience, after the study, after the time, you’re different. Your heart has been changed. You’ve become transformed. They give you a microphone. They let you loose on the world. And that’s exactly what happens in our life. God is working in us. Maybe your call isn’t to be a Passionist or a priest, but a parent, somebody raising children. And God forms us through our life experience and he forms us through our call, whether it’s to be single, religious, priest, sister, married, whatever it is. God is at work.
And remember, God is after something, and what he’s after is to make us not just a Passionist or a priest, to make us like Jesus. That’s the key. You need to understand that. To be conformed to the image. When we think image, we think picture. There’s many pictures of Jesus going around in today’s society. I’ve got some hanging up my room that I really like. Hook’s Jesus, and The Sacred Heart of Jesus, and other pictures of Jesus. We’ve seen them all. That isn’t what God wants. He doesn’t want us to look like Jesus, to have a beard and long hair, that type of a thing. He’s not after that when he talks about the image of Jesus. When we talk about the image of Jesus, we’re talking about is a sacred heart, the heart of Jesus.
The Heart of Jesus
The core of Jesus. The word «core» means heart. The core of Christianity, that’s what discipleship is. Remember what Jesus said? He said, «Come, follow me». Yeah, it meant to go where he’s going, but it meant to be like he is. For years, they had that bracelet, «What would Jesus do»? That’s similar to what we’re talking about here, having the heart of Jesus in every situation, becoming like Christ. Jesus said, «Follow me,» and that’s really important. And then he said, «Learn from me, because I am meek and humble of heart». Not just learn about him, become meek and humble of heart. Meekness isn’t weakness, it’s strength, but it’s controlled strength. It’s kind of like a 12-cylinder Corvette that can go 180 miles an hour cruising down the street at about 20 miles an hour. It’s got the power, but it’s under control.
Jesus, as you know, when he was captured, he said, «Don’t you know that I can call upon legions of angels to come and free me»? But he didn’t. He was meek and humble of heart. And humility, I really want to speak about that. Humility is the opposite of pride. Humility is openness, the willingness to be worked on and to be changed. You ever see humus soil, it’s that black soil that you can plant seeds and seeds that will grow. Pride on the other hand is hardhearted. It’s stony-hearted. You can’t plant anything in it. And that’s where we need to be transformed. We need to go from selfishness, pride, selfishness, to humility, selflessness, openness, allowing God to work in us.
Humility is tolerance for others, accepting people where they’re at. That’s humility. Prideful people don’t accept people where they’re at. They want to change everybody. They’re opinionated. They’re in control. They want everything their way. And that’s not the way Jesus was. He said, «Learn from me, I’m meek and humble of heart». Gentle, open, accepting. Wow. And I’m praying that you will go through a heart transformation through this program.
A Heart Transplant Story
Speaking of heart transformation, how about a heart transplant? Chet Szuber, a man that lived in Indianapolis, I believe it was, had two heart attacks, three bypass surgeries. And finally, the doctor said to him, «That’s all we can do for you. You need a transplant».
But he couldn’t find a donor. And what happened was his daughter Patty went off on a camping trip and had a bad car accident and end up getting killed. She was a perfect donor for Chet. He didn’t want to take his own daughter’s heart, but as he thought about it, he figured that she would want him to have it. And they put the heart of his daughter into him. It was a perfect match. He said he was amazed when he woke up and felt his own daughter’s heart beating in his, beating in his chest. And he said it made him feel like she was always with him, even though she had passed away. And the truth is God’s heart is in us through the Holy Spirit. «I will give you a new heart. I will take out your stony heart and give you a natural heart. You will know me,» God said, «I will forgive your sins and I will give you a new heart».
That is so beautiful. I don’t normally hear that preached, that Jesus came to give us certainly rebirth. Paul said, «All that matters is that you are a new creation». He came for the new covenant to give us a new heart. I know that I know that in my life, I’m being transformed. It says in the Scripture we have the mind of Christ. We know that, being positive, and creative, and generous, and kind to people. We have that mind, but the heart is being transformed also. Mercy, honesty, purity, love, as I said, generosity. The mind and the heart go together. Give you a new spirit, a new heart. And I want you to know that it’s not all or nothing. It’s a process of transformation. You’re receiving that new heart.
Play-Doh Illustration
I want you to know what God is doing in you. He’s conforming us to the image of Jesus. I’m pretty left-brained. Left-brained means logical, black and white, that type of a thing. And in order to get creative, I get into my right brain more. And in order to do that, I play. This is Play-Doh. What I do is I’ll pull the Play-Doh out and start to play with it, but I noticed something about Play-Doh. It’s clay, and it’s hard when you first pull it out. And in order to soften it, you have to work on it, and play with it, and mold it, and shape it. By the way, it’s the same with our hearts. God said, «I’ll take out that stony heart, give you a natural heart».
Our stony heart is hard. It’s prideful. It’s opinionated. It’s selfish. So when God works on it, he has to spend some time softening it up. And how does he soften it up? Well, marriage, religious life, your job, your relationships, real life, physical sufferings. The experience of life softens us. God is at work through our real life experiences. And then in time, remember what he’s trying to do now. It’s kind of shapeless at first, but in time, he’s got a plan. Remember what his plan is, Romans 8:29, to conform us to the image of Jesus. So he takes that hard heart, that selfish, prideful heart, that opinionated heart, and then he gets the heart of his Son, and then he impresses the image of his Son in us. He imprints it into our heart.
And you can’t really see it, but it’s being transformed, but there’s stuff all around the edges still. Stuff like lust needs to be removed. Stuff like anger needs to be removed. Stuff like addictions needs to be removed. This is a process of time, but God is at work. And eventually in the real life experiences with God working, with pride, and lust, and the seven deadly sins being removed, eventually something happens. There’s a transformation into the very heart of Christ. And that’s what God is after. It’s a life-long process that God is making all things work to good. Most people when they see that quote, Romans 8:28, they think, «Oh yeah, God’s gonna make me prosper, and give me money, and give me success». Yeah, he will, but the good that God is after, «God makes all things work to good,» is his purpose. And his purpose is to mold us and shape us into the image of Christ.
God's Purpose and Pride
You must understand that. Most people don’t. They don’t put two and two together. They don’t understand that day in and day out, week in, week out, year in, year out, God is up to something so that finally by the end of our life, we’ll be something beautiful. You know the saying that I have in my ministry, «Who you are is God’s gift to you. Who you become is your gift to God». And life is all about becoming. My heart right here, you’ll see right over my heart I have a heart. That’s called my Passionist sign. I profess a vow to meditate upon the passion. That’s one of the ways I’m transformed, by meditating on the passion and God’s love for us, by proclaiming the passion. And we have a saying, «May the passion of our Lord be always in our hearts».
And that has softened me and made me compassionate toward others. And God works through our experience to soften our hearts, mold us and shape us into the image of Jesus. I want to tell you that the number one thing that God works on in our hearts is pride. All of us, as I say, we come out as little babies. We’re selfish. We’re prideful. What about me? Pride is that rigidness. And religious people can be so rigid, and inflexible, and intolerant, and unaccepting of people. I don’t know how you can have religion and be that way, but a lot of people are.
Example of Division in Christianity
For example, there’s one of the holiest shrines in the Holy Land, it is the holiest shrine. The church of the Holy Sepulcher.
That’s where the death and the Resurrection of Jesus took place in Israel. There’s a ladder there as you go in, up above the main entrance. That ladder has been there since the 1700s. Why? Because the three main denominations that are in charge of the Holy Sepulcher, which is Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodox, and the Armenians, they can’t decide who can move the ladder, and they’re arguing about it. They’re afraid that they’re gonna get into a fist fight if somebody starts to move that ladder. It’s crazy. Christianity is all about acceptance, and tolerance, and getting along in harmony, and yet they can’t decide. The ladder is still there. Over 200 years and nobody will touch it. That’s just one example of what… what about all the split in Christianity that has happened and the different denominations that have occurred?
Well, one thing I’ve noticed about my ministry, and you’ve noticed it too. People write me all the time, «Father Cedric, we love your ministry because you’re not just trying to make us Catholic. You’re trying to bring us to Christ». That’s exactly it. I’m in no way trying to make you Catholic, per se. Although if you want to, yes, and some people are becoming Catholic because of my programs. The main thing I want to do for you is to bring you to Christ, to a personal relationship with him. For years, Catholicism taught that you can’t be saved unless you’re Catholic, and for years other denominations teach that if you’re Catholic, you can’t be saved, and I think that’s crazy.
And what I’ve come to notice about my ministry and about myself is that have become very ecumenical. I reach out beyond the walls of the church, but also beyond denominations. We need to be inter-denominational, and quit being so rigid against each other, and find the commonalities. Find where we can agree with each other and be in harmony, because the bottom line is as long as there’s division, that’s what the word «devil» comes from. It means «diablo». It means division. There’s evil. And this is what I really believe. We have to stress harmony, and commonality, and where we agree.
Yes, there are differences. I understand that, but there’s so much commonality. For example, we believe no matter what denomination you are that Jesus is Lord. Salvation comes from the cross. The power of the Holy Spirit. God is our Father. We ought to be loving each other. Stress our commonalities, not the things that we necessarily disagree on. And that’s humility, that you don’t have to have people exactly like you. You can accept them the way that they are. And I accept that you go to different denominations, and I rejoice. Wherever you are fed, go there, but be fed.
I don’t know if you know this, but back in 1999, there was a joint declaration on the doctrine of justification between the Lutherans and the Catholics. That’s what started the Protestant Reformation in the first place, because the Protestants thought that Catholics were tryin' to be saved by their deeds, by works, and Catholics thought that faith alone wasn’t enough. And what they did is they finally came to commonality and a declaration. And here’s what they said, «Justification comes by God’s grace». This as Catholics and Lutherans. This is major. «Justification comes by God’s grace through faith in Christ». That’s what we believe. There’s commonality. There’s harmony. Together, we can change the world. Divided, all we do is bicker and be negative. God is at work in us individually and he’s at work in us as a church community.
Closing Prayer and Encouragement
And I’m so grateful that God is using my programs to reach out to all denominations. In fact, I’m the only minister that I know of on all three Christian networks, and that’s because I can accept everybody the way they are and not try to change 'em to be like me. Come to Christ. Let him change your heart. Transform your heart. Give you that heart transplant. That’s the new covenant. That’s what brings eternal life. What is God doing in your life right now? He’s making all things work to good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. And what is his purpose? To conform us into the image of Jesus. And that’s my prayer for you, that as a result of this program, you will realize that through your life experiences, God is the Potter, and we are the clay, and his purpose is to make us like Jesus. Who we are is God’s gift to us. Who we become is our gift to God. Don’t just live, live with passion.