What is the meaning of this party?
With the cult to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Catholic Church intends to honor the Heart of Jesus Christ, One of the organs symbolizing his humanity, which for the intimate union with the divinity, has the right to the adoration and love of the Savior for men, of which his heart is symbol.
The last encyclical of Jesus is also dedicated to the heart of Jesus Pope Francis, Dilexit nospublished in 2024, in which the Pope underlines that treating this topic is not “mere religious romanticism” (DN 46), a resurrected a past sensitivity, but means really drawing on that uniform center of the entire believing existence and, at the same time, of the whole person of Jesus Christ: thus “The sacred heart is a synthesis of the Gospel.”
The sacred heart of Jesus, oil on copper, the work of the painter Pompeo Batoni (1767) which is located in Rome in the Church of the Jesus
When does devotion come about?
Already practiced in Christian antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the cult spread in the seventeenth century by San Giovanni Eudes (1601-1680) and above all of Santa Margherita Maria Alacoque (1647-1690). The feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated for the first time in France, probably in 1685.
Who was the messenger of the heart of Jesus?
Santa Margherita Maria Alacoque, French nun, entered June 20, 1671 in the convent of the visuals of Paray-Le-Monial (Saone-Et-Loire), lived with great simplicity and mysticism his experience of religious and died on 17 October 1690 at just 43 years old. Even before entering the convent, he was equipped with mystical gifts that accentuated with his new condition of religious; He had numerous mystical manifestations, but in 1673 the great visions that made his name began; They were four main revelations, beyond numerous other less importance.
How many and what were the mystical visions of Santa Margherita?
The first vision took place on December 27, 1673, feast of St. John Evangelist, Jesus appeared to her and Margherita felt “All invested with the divine presence”; He invited her to take the place that San Giovanni had occupied during the Last Supper And he said to her: “My divine heart is so passionate about love for men, that not being able to enclose the flames of his ardent charity in itself, I have to get them. I chose you to fulfill this great design, so that everything is done by me”.
A second vision appeared to her at the beginning of 1674, perhaps a Friday; The divine heart manifested itself on a throne of flames, more radiant than the sun and transparent as a crystal, surrounded by a crown of thorns symbolizing the wounds inflicted by our sins and surmounted by a crossbecause from the first moment that had been formed, it was already full of all bitterness.
Also in 1674 the third vision appeared to her, also this time on a Friday after the Corpus Domini festival; Jesus presented himself to the whole blatant saint of glory, with his five plagues, brilliant as alone and from that sacred humanity, flames came out on all sidesbut above all from its admirable chest that resembled a furnace and having opened, she discovered the lovable and heartfelt heart, the real source of those flames.
Then Jesus complaining about the ingratitude of men and the carelessness compared to his efforts to make them good, he asked her to make up for this. Jesus urged her to make communion on the first Friday of each month and to prostern himself with his face on the ground from eleven to midnight, on the night between Thursday and Friday. The two main devotions were thus indicated, the communion on the first Friday of each month and the holy hour of adoration.
In which revelation was the party established?
The fourth mystical vision took place on June 16, 1675 during the octave of Corpus Domini. Our Lord told her that he felt wounded by the irreverences of the faithful and the sacrilegi of the Emppi, adding: “What is even more sensitive to me is that they are the consecrated hearts that do this.”
Jesus still asked that on Friday after the octave of Corpus Domini, he was dedicated to a particular party to honor his heart and with communions to repair the offenses he received. Furthermore, he indicated as an executor of the spread of this devotion, the spiritual father of Margherita, the Jesuit San Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682), superior of the nearby Jesuit house of Paray-Le-Monials.
Margherita Maria Alacoque. Saint proclaimed on 13 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV, he obeyed the divine appeal made through visions and He became the apostle of a devotion that was to transport to the adoration of the faithful to the divine heart.
The first two ceremonies in honor of the Sacred Heart, present the Holy Mystical, had themselves in the context of the Novitiate of Paray on 20 July 1685 and then on June 21, 1686, which was attended by the whole community of the visits.
Was the cult to the sacred heart be hindered? And by whom?
Yes, especially in the eighteenth century. In 1765 the sacred congregation of rites stated being the heart of flesh symbol of love; Then the Jansenists intended this as an act of idolatry, considering a cult only to the not real but metaphorical heart to be possible.
Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) in the bubble Auctorem fideiconfirmed the expression of the congregation noting that the heart “inseparably united with the person of the verb” is worshiped.
February 6, 1765 Pope Clement XIII (1758-1769) agreed to the Poland and the Roman archconfraternity of the Sacred Heart the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; In the Pope’s thought this new party was to spread in the Church, the main steps of the message of Santa Margherita, which had been the privileged tool of the spread of a cult, which had always existed in the Church in different forms, but however giving it a new orientation.
With her it would not have been just only A loving contemplation and adoration of that “heart that has loved so much”, but also a repair for offenses and fattening received, through the improvement of our existences.
The saint said that “love makes souls compliant”, that is, the Lord wants to inspire a generous love in souls who, responding to his, assimilates them internally to the divine model.
Which Pope officially established the feast of the Sacred Heart?
The devotion to the Sacred Heart triumphed in the nineteenth century and the convent of paray-le-monial became a destination for continuous pilgrimages; In 1856 with Pope Pius IX the feast of the Sacred Heart became universal for the entire Catholic Church.
On the wave of devotion that now involved the whole Catholic world, chapels, oratories, churches, basilic and sanctuaries dedicated to the sacred heart of Jesus arose; We remember one of all the “Sacro Cuore” sanctuary in Montmartre in Paris, which began in 1876 and finished building after 40 years; All the social and military categories of France contributed to the imposing expense.
What are the most common devotional practices?
That of Eucharistic adoration every first Friday of the month and the “litanies of the Sacred Heart”. The month dedicated to the cult of the Sacred Heart is June.
What is the act of consecration to the sacred heart?
In order for the cult of the Heart of Jesus to come out and penetrates the social life of the peoples, he began, On the exhortation of Pope Pius IX of 1876, all a movement of “acts of consecration to the heart of Jesus”, Starting from the family to that of entire nations by episcopal conferences, but also of illuminated and devoted rulers; including the president of Ecuador, Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-1875).
It was so much the fervor, that for the whole nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth century, it was dedicated to the cult of the Sacred Heart, which were reflected Numerous religious congregations, both male and female.
Among the main ones, we remember the “Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart” founded in 1874 by Blessed Leone Dehon (Dehoniani); i “FIgli of the Sacred Heart of Jesus “ o African missions of Verona, congregation founded in 1867 by San Daniele Comboni (Comboniani); the “Dame of the Sacred Heart” founded in 1800 by Santa Maddalena Sofia Barat; the “Anche of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” Founded in 1865 by Blessed Caterina Volpicelli, several female institutes bring the same name.
How did the cult of the Immaculate Heart of Mary be born?
The promoter was San Giovanni Eudes (1601-1680) who already around 1643 began to celebrate with the religious of his congregation. In 1668 the feast and liturgical texts were approved by the cardinal linked throughout France, while Rome refused several times to confirm the party.
It was only after the introduction of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1765, that the faculty of celebrating that of the heart of Mary will be granted here and there, so much so that the Roman Missal of 1814 also includes it still among the “Pro Aliquusbus Locis” holidays.
Pope Pius XII extended in 1944 the feast to the whole church, to perennial memory of the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Marymade by him in 1942.
The cult of the Immaculate Heart of Mary received a strong impulse after the appearances of Fatima of 1917, when the Madonna expressed demand to consecrate Russia to her immaculate heart, a celestial request still disregarded.
