The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a special form of devotion to the physicalheart of Jesus. It is the love He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit for humanity. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, devotion to the Sacred Heart arose in Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries. Passages from the published work “Vitis mystica” inspired the devotion and were used by the Church for the lessons of the Second Nocturn of the feast. From the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries the devotion was practiced by different congregations such as Franciscans, Dominicans and Carthusians but remained an individual or private devotion. St. Eudes made the devotion public in the seventeenth century, gave it an Office, and established a feast for it. He shared devotion to the Sacred Heart along with his devotion to the Immaculate Heart. Little by little the devotions separated and the first feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was celebrated on August 31, 1670. On December 27, 1673, on the Feast of St. John, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a sister at the Visitation convent in France, began to have visions of Jesus. He [Jesus] asked her to promote devotion to His sacred heart, symbolic of His love for humanity. Jesus attached twelve promises to those who practiced devotion to His Sacred Heart including peace in families, consolation in time of trouble, abundant blessings, and refuge at the hour of death. By order of Pope Leo XIII in 1899, all of mankind was solemnly consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus’ Sacred Heart is typically pictured as a flaming heart, pierced, surrounded by a crown of thorns and bleeding. The wounds and thorns symbolize the manner of His death, and the fire represents His burning undying love.
Sacred Heart of Jesus