During the month of June and after the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus becomes popular for us Catholics. Such a devotion reminds us that we must come to the Lord in prayer and humility to the divine heart that is on fire for His creation. We are reminded that “we love because he first loved us” (1. Jn. 4:19). This month should be a reflection for all of us to love God with our whole heart and mind and to love our neighbor.
On December of 1674, Saint Margaret Mary received the first visitation from our Lord Jesus regarding His unconditional love through His sacred heart. St. Margaret Mary didn’t have the best life at home and had rheumatic fever off and on for four years until pledging a vow to the Blessed Virgin Mary to enter religious life. She was humble and had a fondness for Eucharistic adoration at an early age. Her work La Devotion au Sacre-Coeur de Jesus or Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a popular work among many Catholics. (https://www.newmanministry.com/saints/saint-margaret-mary-alacoque).
It is customary to start a novena to the Sacred Heart at the beginning of the Feast of Corpus Christi.
The Sacred Heart Solemnity and reparation to His sacred Heart reminds us of His merciful love where we unite our sacrifices for another. It was through Jesus’s redemptive suffering and amazing love that he bore the weight of sin for all mankind. Throughout this month we can fast and pray a rosary for someone. We can do a charitable act for someone. We can visit the tabernacle & offer our heart to His divine heart. We can perform an examination of conscience and look at our sins and ask God to instill in us the virtues for which we should strive to abide by.
The Sacred Heart reminds us of the true essence of love which is one of sacrifice and mortification for the love and good of one another. Such a love is not superficial, but a love surrounded by thorns symbolizing the agony of our Lord’s passion & death. Pierced by a lance, his blood was shed for the sin of all. Surrounded by the flame of the Holy Spirit, a heart that burns for all humanity. The cross on top of the heart symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice for all. His sacred heart beats to the eternal drum of merciful love for all. Making reparations to His sacred heart is akin to making merciful love offerings for the good of our soul & our neighbor’s soul as members of the Body of Christ, the church. We are called to share in His redemptive suffering. St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians states “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24). The prophet Joel reminds us of the following as well: “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God, For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in punishment.” (Jl. 2:13). Truly, our suffering in this life is nothing unless lifted up to His Sacred heart.
Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Annum Sacrum has the following to reflect upon:
“ Jesus Christ, our God and our Redeemer, is rich in the fullest and perfect possession of all things: we, on the other hand, are so poor and needy that we have nothing of our own to offer Him as a gift. But yet, in His infinite goodness and love, He in no way objects to our giving and consecrating to Him what is already His, as if it were really our own; nay, far from refusing such an offering, He positively desires it and asks for it: “My son, give me thy heart.” We are, therefore, able to be pleasing to Him by the good will and the affection of our soul.”
“And since there is in the Sacred Heart a symbol and a sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love one another, therefore is it fit and proper that we should consecrate ourselves to His most Sacred Heart – an act which is nothing else than an offering and a binding of oneself to Jesus Christ, seeing that whatever honor, veneration and love is given to this divine Heart is really and truly given to Christ Himself.” (https://www.papalencyclicals.net/leo13/l13annum.htm).
Let us humbly unite our hearts to His Saving Heart this month. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops advised the faithful to make a reparation to His Sacred Heart and pray this beautiful Litany: https://www.usccb.org/prayers/litany-sacred-heart-jesus
A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque:
I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart.
This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him.
I therefore take You, O Sacred heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.
Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger.
O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty.
Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let Your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart, that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You.
May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You. Amen.
StreetEvangelist 