History of the Sacred Heart Devotion
"Although many pious souls had been accustomed, in the silence of their secluded lives, to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus with great devotion, still our divine Saviour desired that the boundless love of His Heart might be known by all men, and that a new fire of love should thereby be kindled in the cold hearts of Christians. For this purpose He made use of a frail and little-known instrument in the person of Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation, at Parayle-Monial, France.
One day, when, according to her custom during the octave of Corpus Christi, she was deeply engaged in devotions before the Blessed Sacrament, the divine Saviour appeared to her, showed her His Heart burning with love, and said: 'Behold this Heart, which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this sacrament of love. And what is most painful to Me is that they are hearts consecrated to Me. It is for this reason I ask thee that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be appropriated to a special feast to honor My Heart by communicating on that day and making reparation for the indignity that it has received. And I promise that My Heart shall dilate to pour out abundantly the influences of its love on all that will render it this honor or procure its being rendered.'
Margaret obeyed, but met everywhere the greatest opposition, until finally, when she became mistress of novices, she succeeded, by the help of her divine Spouse, in animating her young charges to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus. But this twas not sufficient for her zeal. She persevered until she softened the opposition of the nuns, and kindled in all an equal devotion towards the most sacred Heart. Thence the devotion spread to the adjoining dioceses, where confraternities in honor of the most sacred Heart of Jesus soon sprung up. Pope Clement XIII., after having instituted a most rigorous examination of the whole affair, commanded that the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus should be solemnly celebrated throughout the whole Catholic Church every year, on the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi."
Explanation of the opening of His side
"...but when they found that Jesus was dead, one of the soldiers, whose name was Longinus, opened His side with a spear as had been predicted by the prophets. Jesus permitted his most sacred Heart to be opened
1. To atone for those sins which come forth from the hearts of men, as Christ Himself says, "For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies" (Matt. xv. 19).
2. To show the infinite love with which He first loved us, and to which the spear should point us.
3. To show that there was nothing so dear to Him that He would not give it to us, since, for our salvation, He shed the last drop of His heart's blood.
4. To provide, as it were, an abode in His opened side, according to the words of St. Augustine: 'The Evangelist is very cautious in his language; for he said, not the soldier pierced or wounded His side, but he opened it, that thereby there might be opened to us the door from which flow into the Church those holy sacraments without which we cannot enter into true life.'"
CALL TO ACTION: "When temptation assails us, or sorrow depresses us, let us flee to this abode, and dwell therein until the storm has passed away; according to the words of the Prophet, " Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit " (Isaias ii. 10). For what is the rock but Christ, and the pit, but His wound?"
Source of Quotes: "Goffine's Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels" by Father Leonard Goffine; sermon for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, pages 264-266, 269; Benziger Brothers (copyright 1896); Imprimatur: Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York; Nihil Obstat: Thomas L. Kinkead, Censor Librorum
Photo by Jonathan Dick