A Brief History of the Devotion
Devotion to the Sacred Heart
of Jesus is a devotion that focuses
attention
on the physical Heart is the symbol of His redemptive love. Although
tradition
often situates the beginning of the practice of the devotion to the
year
1000, it might be more accurate to place its birth during the time of
the
great mystics [St. Anselm and St. Bernard] between 1050 and 1150. By
the
middle ages, because of a strong emphasis on the Passion of our Lord,
and
because of the efforts of St. Bonaventure and St. Gertrude the Great,
the
devotion became popularized as a means of worshipping the mystery of
Christ,
living in the Church.
This devotion was promoted
by great Saints, including St. Albert the
Great, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis de Sales, as well as the
great
religious orders, such as the Benedictines, the Dominicans, and the
Carthusians.
However, it must be recorded that the Saint who is most often
associated
with this devotion is St. Margaret Mary Alacoque [1647-1690]. After she
received the Vision of the Sacred Heart, which popularized the
devotion,
she was scorned by her mother superior who thought her to be
delusional.
The Saint took ill. Mother superior told St. Margaret Mary that she
would
believe the miracle of the vision if the Saint were cured. She was and
St. Margaret was able to promote the devotion under the guidance of her
spiritual director, St. Claude Colombiere. Several books have been
published
on her extensive letters, sayings and the revelations given to her by
Our
Lord.
Her private revelations
promoted the establishment of a liturgical
feast
day and the practice of offering reparation for the outrages committed
against the Blessed Sacrament on the First Fridays and the Promises of
the Sacred Heart.
St. Alphonsus was heavily
influenced by St. Margaret Mary in his own
devotion to the Sacred Heart.
In modern times it was Pope
Pius IX who, in 1856, established the
Feast
of the Sacred Heart and encouraged the efforts of the Apostleship of
Prayer-------a
confraternity of faithful Catholics who encourage groups, families, and
communities to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart.. In 1928 Pope
Pius XI issued his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor on
reparation
to the Sacred Heart. In 1956 Pope Pius XII published his encyclicalHaurietis
aquas on the nature of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
The devotion is usually
practiced in preparation for the Feast of
the
Sacred Heart following the Second Sunday after Pentecost. It is also
practiced
in conjunction with the monthly
First Friday observance that is traditional in many parishes.
First Friday observance that is traditional in many parishes.
Introduction to the Devotion
The devotion of all
devotions is love for Jesus Christ. A devout
author
laments the sight of so many persons who pay attention to various
devotions,
but neglect devotion to the Sacred Heart. there are are many preachers
and confessors who say great things, but speak little of love for Jesus
Christ.
The love of Jesus Christ
ought to be the principal devotion of a
Catholic.
Lack of devotion to the Sacred Heart is the reason for frequent
relapses
into serious sin, because people pay scant attention, and are not
sufficiently
encouraged to acquire the love of Jesus, which is the golden cord which
unites and binds the soul to God. . . The Father will love us in the
same
proportion as we love Jesus Christ. . . We will never be formed in the
image of the Lord, nor even desire to be formed in His image, if we do
not meditate upon the love which Jesus Christ has shown us.
For this purpose it is
related in the life of Saint Margaret Mary
Alacoque,
a nun of the Visitation Order, that our Savior revealed to this servant
His wish that the devotion and the Feast of His Sacred Heart should be
established and propagated in the Church. In this way, devout believers
would, by their adoration and prayer, make reparation for the injuries
His Heart constantly receives from ungrateful humanity when He is
exposed
in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. It is also related that while
this
devout nun was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus Christ
showed
her His Heart surrounded by thorns, with a cross on the top, and in a
throne
of flames.
"Behold the Heart," she
reports that Jesus spoke to her, "that has
loved
humanity, and has spared nothing for them, even to consuming itself to
give them pledges of Its love, but which receives from the majority of
people, no other return but ingratitude, and insults toward the
Sacrament
of Love."
The devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus, is nothing more than an
exercise
of love toward our loving Savior. Therefore, the principal object of
this
devotion, the spiritual object of this devotion, is the love with which
the Heart of Jesus is inflamed toward all. Let us now attempt to
satisfy
the devotion of those who are enamored of Jesus Christ, and who desire
to honor him in the Most Holy Sacrament, by a novena of holy
meditations
and affections to His Sacred Heart.
IT was the special desire of
our Lord Jesus
Christ, revealed to Blessed Margaret Mary, that the first Friday of
each
month be consecrated to the devotion to and adoration of His most
Sacred
Heart. In order to better prepare for it, it would be well to read, the
evening before, some book treating of this devotion, or of the Passion
of Our Lord, and to make a short visit to the Blessed Sacrament. On the
day itself we should, on awaking, offer and consecrate ourselves, with
all our thoughts, words, and actions, to Jesus, that His Sacred Heart
may
be thereby honored and glorified. We should visit some church as early
as possible; and as we kneel before Jesus, truly present in the
tabernacle,
let us endeavor to awaken in our soul a deep sorrow at the thought of
the
innumerable offenses continually heaped upon His most Sacred Heart in
this
Sacrament of His love; and surely we cannot find this difficult if we
have
the least degree of love for Jesus. Should we, however, find our love
to
be cold or lukewarm, let us consider earnestly the many reasons we have
for giving our hearts to Jesus. After this we must acknowledge with
sorrow
the faults of which we have been guilty through our want of respect in
presence of the Blessed Sacrament, or through our negligence in
visiting
and receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion.
The Communion of this day
should be offered
by the adorers of the Sacred Heart with the intention of making some
satisfaction
for all the ingratitude which Jesus receives in the Most Holy
Sacrament,
and the same spirit should animate all our actions during the day.
As the object of this
devotion is to inflame
our hearts with an ardent love for Jesus, and to repair thereby, as far
as lies in our power, all the outrages which are daily committed
against
the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, it is evident that these
exercises
are not confined to any particular day. Jesus is equally deserving of
our
love at all times; and as this most loving Savior is daily and hourly
loaded
with insults and cruelly treated by His creatures, it is but just that
we should strive each day to make an the reparation in our power.
Those,
therefore, who are prevented from practicing this devotion on the first
Friday can do so on any other day during the month. In the same manner
they may offer the first Communion of each month for this intention,
consecrating
the whole day to the honor and glory of the Sacred Heart, and
performing
in the same spirit all the pious exercises they were unable to
accomplish
on the first Friday.
Moreover, Our Lord suggested
another feature
in this consoling devotion of the first Friday, by the faithful
practice
of which he led Blessed Margaret Mary to expect the grace of final
perseverance,
and that of receiving the Sacraments of the Church before dying, in
favor
of those who should observe it. This was to make a novena of Communions
in honor of the Sacred Heart on the first Friday of the month for nine
successive months.
ADORABLE
Heart of Jesus, glowing with love for
us and Inflamed with zeal for our salvation: O Heart! ever sensible of
our misery and the wretchedness to which our sins have reduced us,
infinitely
rich in mercy to heal the wounds of our souls, behold us humbly
prostrate
before Thee to express the sorrow that fills our hearts for the
coldness
and indifference with which we have so long requited the numberless
benefits
that Thou hast conferred upon us. With a deep sense of the outrages
that
have been heaped upon Thee by our sins and the sins of others, we come
to make a solemn reparation of honor to thy most sacred majesty. It was
our sins that overwhelmed Thy Heart with bitterness; it was the weight
of our iniquities that pressed down Thy face to the earth in the Garden
of Olives, and caused Thee to expire in anguish and agony on the Cross.
But
now, repenting and sorrowful, we cast
ourselves
at Thy feet, and implore forgiveness. Adorable Heart of Jesus, source
of
true contrition and ever merciful to the penitent sinner, impart to our
hearts the spirit of penance, and give to our eyes a fountain of tears,
that we may sincerely bewail our sins now and for the rest of our days.
Oh, would that we could blot them out, even with our blood! Pardon
them,
O Lord, in Thy mercy, and pardon and convert to Thee all that have
committed
irreverences and sacrileges against Thee in the Sacrament of Thy love,
and thus give another proof that Thy mercy is above all Thy works.
Divine
Jesus, with Thee there are mercy and plentiful redemption: deliver us
from
our sins, accept the sincere desire we now entertain, and our holy
resolution,
relying on the assistance of Thy grace, henceforth to be faithful to
Thee.
And in order to repair the sins of ingratitude by which we have grieved
Thy most tender and loving Heart, we are resolved in the future ever to
love and honor Thee in the most adorable Sacrament of the Altar, where
Thou art ever present to hear and grant our petitions, and to be the
food
and life of our souls. Be Thou, O compassionate Jesus! our Mediator
with
Thy Heavenly Father, Whom we have so grievously offended; strengthen
our
weakness, confirm these our resolutions of amendment, and as Thy Sacred
Heart is our refuge and our hope when we have sinned, so may It be the
strength and support of our repentance, that nothing in life or death
may
ever again separate us from Thee. Amen.
