Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Holy
Mother Church.
Heart of Jesus, Symbol of Love
The Church, governed and taught by the Holy Ghost, has approved and recommended
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In our age of religious indifference, when fervor
and charity have grown cold, Jesus exhibits to the world His Sacred Heart as the symbol
of God's infinite love - the symbol of His own generous self-sacrificing love for men.
Jesus shows His Divine Heart as a furnace whose burning rays of love are able to
reanimate faith and rekindle love in hearts grown cold and ungrateful.
But why His Heart? Because in every language, in every age, the heart is regarded as the
natural symbol of love and affection. What more natural and expressive symbol is there,
then, of the excessive love of Jesus than His Sacred Heart? The direct and material
object of devotion to the Sacred Heart is the real, physical Heart of Jesus - the Heart of
flesh, the living and loving Heart of our Blessed Lord; the Heart that beat in His Divine
breast at the moment of the Incarnation; the Heart that loved us during the life of Jesus
on earth, that poured forth its blood to the last drop on Mount Calvary; the beatified
Heart now glorious in Heaven and still dwelling among us in the Blessed Sacrament; the
Heart ever united to the Person of the Divine Word, to whom is due supreme homage
and adoration.
We the Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of
His heart as from a rock. – St. Justin Martyr (d. 165)
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall
find rest unto your souls. – Matthew 11:29
There is in the Sacred Heart the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus
Christ which moves us to love in return. – Pope Leo XIII
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to Jesus Christ Himself, but in the
particular ways of meditating on His interior life and on His threefold love – His divine
love, His burning love that fed His human will, and His sensible love that affects His
interior life. Pope Pius XII of blessed memory writes on this topic in his 1956 encyclical,
Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion To The Sacred Heart). Below are a few excerpts which
help explain the devotion:
54. ...the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign
and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His
eternal Father and all mankind.
55. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit
but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable
body, since “in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
56. It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches
the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect
knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused.
57. And finally – and this in a more natural and direct way – it is the symbol also of
sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of
the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than
any other human body.
58. Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture and the official teaching of the Catholic faith
instruct us that all things find their complete harmony and order in the most holy soul of
Jesus Christ and that He has manifestly directed His threefold love for the securing of
our redemption, it unquestionably follows that we can contemplate and honor the Heart
of the divine Redeemer as a symbolic image of His love and a witness of our
redemption and, at the same time, as a sort of mystical ladder by which we mount to the
embrace of “God our Savior.”
59. Hence His words, actions, commands, miracles, and especially those works which
manifest more clearly His love for us – such as the divine institution of the Eucharist,
His most bitter sufferings and death, the loving gift of His holy Mother to us, the
founding of the Church for us, and finally, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the
Apostles and upon us – all these, we say, ought to be looked upon as proofs of His
threefold love.
60. Likewise we ought to meditate most lovingly on the beating of His Sacred Heart by
which He seemed, as it were, to measure the time of His sojourn on earth until that final
moment when, as the Evangelists testify, “crying out with a loud voice ‘It is finished’ and
bowing His Head, He yielded up the ghost.” Then it was that His heart ceased to beat
and His sensible love was interrupted until the time when, triumphing over death, He
rose from the tomb.
61. But after His glorified body had been re-united to the soul of the divine Redeemer,
conqueror of death, His most Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat
with calm and imperturbable pulsations. Likewise, it will never cease to symbolize the
threefold love with which He is bound to His heavenly Father and the entire human race,
of which He has every claim to be the mystical Head.
The Two Elements of Devotion to the Sacred Heart:
Consecration & Reparation
We consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart by acknowledging Him as Creator and
Redeemer and as having full rights over us as King of Kings, by repenting, and by
resolving to serve Him.
We make reparation for the indifference and ingratitude with which He is treated and for
leaving Him abandoned by humanity.
To carry out these general goals of consecration and reparation, there are quite specific
devotions authorized by the Church.
History of the Devotion
From the earliest days of the Church, “Christ’s open side and the mystery of blood and
water were meditated upon, and the Church was beheld issuing from the side of Jesus
as Eve came forth from the side of Adam. It is in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that
we find the first unmistakable indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Through the
wound in the side, the wounded Heart was gradually reached, and the wound in the
Heart symbolized the wound of love.” (Catholic Encyclopedia)
General devotion to the Sacred Heart, the birthplace of the Church and the font of Love,
were popular in Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries, especially in response to the
devotion of St. Gertrude the Great (b. 1256), but specific devotions became even more
popularized when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a Visitation nun, had a
personal revelation involving a series of visions of Christ as she prayed before the
Blessed Sacrament. She wrote, “He disclosed to me the marvels of his Love and the
inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart.” Christ emphasized to her His love and His
woundedness caused by Man's indifference to this love.
He promised that, in response to those who consecrate themselves and make
reparations to His Sacred Heart:
1.He will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.
2.He will establish peace in their homes.
3.He will comfort them in all their afflictions.
4.He will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death.
5.He will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.
6.Sinners will find in His Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
7.Lukewarm souls shall become fervent.
8.Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
9.He will bless every place in which an image of His Heart is exposed and honored.
10.He will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11.Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in His Heart.
12.In the excessive mercy of His Heart, His all-powerful love will grant to all those who
receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of
final perseverance; they shall not die in His disgrace, nor without receiving their
sacraments. His divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.
The devotions attached to these promises are:
1.Receiving Communion frequently
2.First Fridays: going to Confession and receiving the Eucharist on the first Friday of
each month for nine consecutive months. Many parishes will offer public First Friday
devotions; if they do, you must perform First Fridays publicly. If it isn’t so offered in your
parish, you can do this privately, going to Confession, receiving the Eucharist, and
offering your prayers for the intention of the Holy Father.
3.Holy Hour: Eucharistic Adoration for one hour on Thursdays. (“Could you not watch
one hour with me?”) Holy Hour can be made alone or as part of a group with formal
prayers.
4.Celebrating of the Feast of the Sacred Heart
Feast of the Sacred Heart
The Friday that follows the Second Sunday after Pentecost is the Feast of the Sacred
Heart which brings to mind all the attributes of His Divine Heart mentioned above. Many
Catholics prepare for this Feast by beginning a Novena to the Sacred Heart on the Feast
of Corpus Christi, which is the Thursday of the week before. On the Feast of the Sacred
Heart itself, we can gain a plenary indulgence by making an Act of Reparation to the
Sacred Heart.
Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart
Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much
forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to
repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving
Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we
now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our
readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but
also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their
obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the
promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.
We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against
Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against
Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to
ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays,
and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also to
make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected,
for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very
Sacrament of Thy Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the
rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.
Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now
offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor, the satisfaction Thou once
made to Thy Eternal Father on the Cross and which Thou continuest to renew daily on
our Altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all
the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make
recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect of Thy great
love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live
a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of
the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to
prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to follow Thee.
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in
reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and
by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the
allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where
with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and ever.
Amen.
Enthronement of the Sacred Heart
Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, a South American priest of the Congregation of the
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, was inspired by God, after his instantaneous cure at
Paray-le-Monial, to preach everywhere the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart to verify
this promise of the Savior given to St. Margaret Mary: "I will bless every dwelling where
an image of My Heart is both exposed and honored."
According to Father Mateo: The Enthronement is the Official and Social Recognition of
the loving Kingship of the Heart of Jesus in a Christian family. This recognition is made
manifest by giving the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus a place of honor in the home
which is thus solemnly offered Him by an act of consecration. The God of infinite mercy
said in Paray-le-Monial: "Being Myself the fount of all blessings, I will distribute these
abundantly wherever the image of My Heart has found a place, to the end that it may be
loved and honored." And further: "I shall reign in spite of My enemies and all those who
attempt to oppose Me."
The Enthronement then is simply the realization, not of this or that one of the requests
made by Our Savior to St. Margaret Mary, but the complete and integral realization of all
of them, calling forth the fulfilment of the splendid promises with which the King of Love
has enriched them. Note that we say "integral realization of all the requests made in
Paray, for the supreme end of the Enthronement is not, and ought not to be, to further a
new pious practice, but to sanctify the home, and convert it into a living and social
throne for the divine King."
During the Enthronement ceremony, a blessed image of the Sacred Heart is hung in the
most prominent place in the home, and Sacred Scripture is placed before it. Formal
prayers are prayed and then each member signs a certificate of the Consecration.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus / Sacred Heart of Jesus Medal
Sacred Heart of Jesus Framed Prints
Sacred Heart of Jesus Plaque
Book: The Devotion to the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart of Jesus Badge
Sacred Heart of Jesus Chaplet
© 2008 Carmelite Monastery
