The Month of the Sacred Heart

This June is a month filled with many solemn feasts of the Church: Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and the combined solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. Our Sisters love all of these joyous occasions for prayer and celebration but there is one that, in a way, we celebrate each month: the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. ​

L'Apparition du Sacré-Coeur

Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary in the late 16th century and shared with her twelve promises for those who would honor His Sacred Heart by attending Mass and receiving Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month. He also asked for the institution of the Feast of His Sacred Heart to be added to the liturgical calendar. ​

St. Margaret Mary was a cloistered Visitation nun so she was able to share these devotions with her community but did not have the means to carry it out into the world. Her confessor, St. Claude de la Colombiere fulfilled that role by taking her message first to the local people of France, then as a missionary to England. ​

 The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was officially established by Pope Pius IX in 1856 and is celebrated on the Friday after the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (also known as Corpus Christi).

St. Claude on the Sacred Heart:

“The love of Our Lord’s Heart was in no way diminished by the treason of Judas, the flight of the apostles, and the persecution of His enemies. Jesus was only grieved at the harm they did themselves; His sufferings helped to assuage His grief because He saw in them a remedy for the sins committed by His enemies. The Sacred Heart was full of most tender love: there was no bitterness in it; no cruelty or injustice that He received moved it to feelings other than those of compassion and affection.

  I turned to Mary and asked her to obtain for me the grace to imitate Our Lord’s Heart. I saw how perfectly her heart copied His: she loved those who put her Son to death and offered Him to God the Father for them. This enkindled a very great love of virtue in my heart.

Sagrado Coração de Jesus

O Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, truly worthy of possessing all hearts and of reigning over men and angels, you shall be my models; I will try to copy you. May my heart live always in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and may their hearts live in mine, so that I may never do anything that is not in accordance with them.”
​-from St. Claude’s Retreat Notes. London, 1677​