Last Updated on August 28, 2020 by Editor
The month of June is dedicated in the Catholic calendar to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose celebrated on the Friday of the third week after Pentecost (June 19, 2020) . The Sacred Heart image often depicted in art and sculpture as a wounded heart, sometimes encircled by a crown of thorns and radiating light to suggest the intense power of love that Christ holds for humanity.
The use of Jesus’ heart to symbolize his love for humanity is not found in the Bible but rather in the writings of some medieval mystics and later fostered by Jesuit priests and promoted by St. Francis de Sales.
Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a well-known Catholic devotion wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of God’s boundless, passionate and compassionate love for humanity.
The Sacred Heart also is sometimes depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, or pierced by the lance-wound, or encircled by the crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross, and sometimes bleeding. Sometimes, the image is shown shining within the bosom of Christ with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Jesus’ death, while the fire represents the transformative power of divine love.
Early devotion
Historically the devotion to the Sacred Heart is an outgrowth of what is believed to be Christ’s sacred humanity. During the first 10 centuries of Christianity, there is nothing to indicate that any worship was rendered to the wounded Heart of Jesus. The revival of religious life and the zealous activity of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Francis of Assisi in the 12 and 13 centuries, gave a rise to devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ and particularly to practices in honor of his Sacred Wounds. (Note: Mount Carmel Church has stained glass windows of both of these St.s on its western side by the Sacred Heart altar where the tabernacle is found).
St. Bernard (d. 1153) said that the piercing of Christ’s side revealed his goodness and the charity of his heart for us. begins: “I hail Thee kingly Heart most high.”
From the 13 to the 16 centuries, the devotion was propagated but it did not seem to have been embellished. St Bonaventure championed devotion to the Sacred Heart writing: “Who is there who would not love this wounded heart? Who would not love in return Him, who loves so much?”
Christ Tenderly Holds Us — The Legend of St. Lutgarde
According to Thomas Merton, St. Lutgarde (d.1246), a Belgian Cistercian mystic, was one of the great precursors of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A contemporary of St. Francis, she “entered upon the mystical life with a vision of the pierced Heart of the Savior, and concluded her mystical espousals with the Incarnate Word by an exchange of hearts with Him.”
Sources say that Christ came in a visitation to Lutgarde, offering her whatever gift of grace she desired. She asked for a better grasp of Latin, so that she might better understand the word of God and sing God’s praise. Christ granted her request and Lutgarde’s mind was flooded with the riches of psalms, antiphons, readings, and responsories.
However, her painful emptiness persisted. She returned to Christ, asking to return his gift, and wondering if she might exchange it for another. “And for what would you exchange it?” Christ asked. “Lord,” said Lutgarde, “I would exchange it for your Heart.”
Christ then reached into Lutgarde and, removing her heart, replaced it with his own, at the same time hiding her heart within his breast.
Jesus’ Heart is Safety & Refuge — The Story of St. Mechtilde
St. Mechtilde of Helfta (d.1298) had many visions of Jesus’ heart. Mechtilde reported that Jesus appeared to her in a vision and gave her his heart as a pledge of his love, as a place of refuge during her life and as consolation at the hour of her death. From that moment, she had an extraordinary devotion for the Sacred Heart, and said that if she had to write down all the favors and all the blessings which she had received by means of this devotion, even a large book would not ever be able to contain them.
Jesus’ Beating Heart & St. Gertrude the Great
St. Gertrude lived in the 13th century-a time when the Church was rich in scholars and mystics including St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Dominic, St. Clare, St. Bonaventure, St. Francis of Assisi among many others.
Born in Germany on the Feast of the Epiphany, as an orphan she was raised by Benedictine nuns and eventually became a professed nun. When she was 26 years old when she began to have visions of Jesus and his Sacred Heart. Through prayer, work, fasting and the revelations of Jesus, St. Gertrude became detached from everything that would hold her back from loving and being loved by Him. She died on Nov. 17, 1301 and left behind a great testament of love and devotion as well in several major writings about the great love of Jesus.
On the feast of St. John, St. Gertrude laid her head near the wound in the Savior’s side and heard the beating of the Divine Heart. She asked John if he had felt these pulsations on the night of the Last Supper and why he had never spoken of this experience. John replied that this “… revelation had been reserved for subsequent ages when the world, having grown cold, would have need of it to rekindle its love.”
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and Sacred Heart Devotion
The most significant contributor to the devotion to the Sacred Heart as it is known today was St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, who claimed to receive apparitions of Jesus Christ in small French village in Burgundy — the first on Dec. 27, 1673, the feast of St. John the Evangelist, and the final one 18 months later. This vision revealed to her the form of what we now understand as the traditional devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – reception of Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a “Holy hour” on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart in June. Sister Margaret Mary claimed that Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of his heart, also saying that, he had appeared to her radiant with love.
The World Consecrated to Jesus’ Sacred Heart — the Legacy of Sister Mary
Sister Mary of the Divine Heart (1863–1899), was the former countess of Droste zu Vischering before she became a nun. Her first vision of Jesus happened during her youth in the Castle of Darfeld, near Münster, Germany.
Her last vision was reported to her Mother Superior confessor at the Good Shepherd Monastery in Porto, Portugal. Sister Mary of the Divine Heart died in her monastery in Portugal when the Church was singing the first vespers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 8, 1899. The following day, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (He later called this “the great act” of his pontificate.
According to the writings of Sister Mary of the Divine Heart, Jesus made this promise: “Know this, My daughter, that by the charity of My Heart I desire to pour out floods of graces through your heart over the hearts of others.” The body of Blessed Sister Mary of the Divine Heart, entombed for public veneration in the Church-Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Ermesinde, was found incorrupt at its first exhumation.
Pope Pius X later decreed that the consecration of the human race performed by Leo XIII be renewed each year. Pope Pius XII, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pius IX’s institution of the Feast, instructed the entire Latin Church at length on the devotion to the Sacred Heart in an encyclical letter dated May 15, 1956.
Fifty years later, on May 15, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) that reaffirmed the importance of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our modern times.
Worship and devotion
Since 1850, many groups, congregations, and countries have consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart.
The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic ceremony in which a priest or head of a household consecrates the members of the household to the Sacred Heart. An image of the Sacred Heart is then placed in the home. The practice of the Enthronement is based upon Pius XII’s declaration that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is “the foundation on which to build the kingdom of God in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations.”
Sacred Heart is a name used for many Catholic institutions, including schools, colleges, and hospitals in many countries. It is also the name of many Catholic parishes, and religious orders.
Promises of the Sacred Heart
Margaret Mary Alacoque said that Jesus promised these blessings to those who practice devotion to his Sacred Heart:
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To give all the graces necessary for their lives.
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To have peace within their families.
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To be consolation during times of trouble
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To be refuge in life and in death.
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To abundantly bless all undertakings.
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To be a source and infinite ocean of mercy.
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To bless places where the Sacred Heart image is exposed and venerated.
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To empower priests to touch the most hardened hearts.
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To have their names eternally written in his Heart.