The universal Church celebrates today, June 7, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the explicit request of Christ himself, revealed in a particular way to Saint Margaret Mary of Alacoque. Pope Saint John Paul II noted that “this feast remembers the mystery of the Love that God harbors for men of all times.”
Because it is a first-class feast, according to the liturgical reform of Pope Saint John XXIII, the celebration of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus has the rank of ‘Solemnity’.
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Saint Mary Margaret Alacoque (1647-1690)
“I ask you that on the first Friday after the octave of the Corpus (Christi) a special party be celebrated to honor my Heart, and that communion be held on that day to ask for forgiveness and make reparation for the outrages received by him during the time he has remained exposed on the altars,” said the Lord to Saint Margaret of Alacoque in June of 1675 to, later, establish a very solemn promise:
“I also promise you that my Heart will expand to spread in abundance the influences of his divine love on those who do him that honor and seek to pay him tribute.”
By virtue of revelations like this, of a private nature, Saint Margaret would become the great disseminator of the messages of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to humanity and the main promoter of the devotion that was born from them. Margaret of Alacoque was accompanied in this holy purpose by her spiritual director, the Jesuit priest Saint Claudius de la Colombiere.
Later the Society of Jesus would take the lead in spreading devotion to the Heart of Jesus, a task that made it possible for it to become very popular among the people of Latin America.
Intervention of the papacy in recent centuries
Blessed Pope Pius IX, in 1856, was the one who officially established the feast of the ‘Most Sacred Heart of Jesus’ for the entire Church. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical “The Sacred Year” (the holy year) about the consecration of the human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an act that would take place that same year.
Likewise, Pius XI, in 1928, wrote the “Most Merciful Redeemer” (Merciful Redeemer), an encyclical that deals with the reparation that all the faithful owe to the Sacred Heart of Jesus because of the sins committed by the human race. For his part, his successor, Pope Pius XII, published the encyclical “You will draw the waters” (“You will drink the waters…), whose text suggests the proper guidelines of the cult of the Sacred Heart.
Saint John Paul II, finally, established that on the day of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus the “World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests” should always be held.
In the heart of the Church
Many religious groups, movements, orders and congregations, for centuries, have placed themselves under the protection of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In Rome there is the Basilica of the “Sacred Heart” (Sacred Heart) whose construction was commissioned to Saint John Bosco by Pope Leo XIII. The realization of this project was possible thanks to the donations of devotees around the world.
Happy day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
Central Editorial
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