The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Origins

Devotion to the Sacred Heart began in the eleventh and twelfth centuries but became prominent through Jesus' private revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun at Paray-le-Monial, France, between 1673 and 1675. Christ revealed his Heart as a symbol of his boundless love and asked people to return that love through devotion and prayer.

The First Fridays and the twelve promises

In the First Friday Devotion, Catholics receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months, as Jesus requested of St. Margaret Mary. It makes reparation for sins against his Heart and draws us closer to him. Jesus promised those who complete it twelve graces:

1. The graces necessary for their state of life.
2. Peace in their families.
3. Comfort in their trials.
4. A secure refuge in life and above all in death.
5. Abundant blessings on their undertakings.
6. For sinners, an infinite ocean of mercy in his Heart.
7. Lukewarm souls will become fervent.
8. Fervent souls will quickly rise to high perfection.
9. A blessing on every place where an image of his Heart is honored.
10. For priests, the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who promote the devotion will have their names written in his Heart.
12. For those who receive Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in his displeasure nor without the sacraments.

The symbols of the image

• The exposed Heart, often crowned with thorns: his suffering and love.
• The flames: the purifying, transforming power of his love.
• The cross above the Heart: his redemptive sacrifice.
• The wound: the wound inflicted by the soldier and by all of us through our sins.

The Church's encouragement

Blessed Pius IX extended the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the universal Church in 1856. Leo XIII (Annum Sacrum) and Ven. Pius XII (Haurietis Aquas) encouraged the devotion and consecration to the Sacred Heart, and St. John Paul II urged the faithful to embrace it. The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart falls on the Friday after the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, and the whole month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart. A traditional novena is prayed in the nine days before the solemnity.

A traditional prayer

O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love you, and with a lively sorrow for my sins, I offer you this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure, and wholly obedient to your will. Grant, Good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you. Protect me in the midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions; give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen.