June: Devotion to the Sacred Heart
The month of June is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A French nun named St. Margaret Mary Alacoque experienced visions of Jesus and his Sacred Heart, which led to a popular devotion. His Heart appeared with a cross above it, a crown of thorns around it, and on fire. Through Margaret Mary, Jesus communicated his mercy and love and that he wanted to give his entire self to everyone.
During an apparition, Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary to dedicate a feast honoring his Heart which would take place the Friday after Corpus Christi. So, Pope Pius IX named the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart in 1856 and, as a result, the entire month of June is dedicated to it!
However, the devotion didn’t originate with Margaret Mary. St. John Eudes was called the Father, Doctor, and Apostle of the hearts of Jesus and Mary by Pope Pius XI. He even wrote the Mass and Divine Office for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. He also promoted devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which comes the day after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.
A heretical theological movement called Jansenism originated in France around this time (1600s). Proponents of Jansenism taught that God gives grace to the chosen elite but withholds giving it to others. And those without grace cannot overcome sin and so are condemned to hell. Those blessed elect would be saved if they “followed the rules.”
As mentioned above, this sort of teaching is heretical; the Catholic Church has rejected Jansenism. It neglects that God’s love knows no limits, is incomprehensible, and burns endlessly for every human person.
That is what we see in the image of the Sacred Heart depicted outside of Jesus’s chest.
The Sacred Heart is depicted with the cross, crown of thorns, fire, and the wound from the spear. The cross and the crown represent the wounds, or our sins, which hurt Jesus during his Passion. They also represent the victory over death, for the crown of thorns shows kingship and victory which was accomplished through the cross. The fire in Jesus’s heart represents the burning love of Christ. Fire is also a sign of divinity.
Pope Pius XII explained that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is connected to our worship of Christ as God incarnate:
"It is altogether impossible to enumerate the heavenly gifts which devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has poured out on the souls of the faithful, purifying them, offering them heavenly strength, rousing them to the attainment of all virtues."
This September will be the 350th anniversary of the first apparition to St. Margaret Mary of Jesus’s Sacred Heart. Pope Francis will release a new document on the Sacred Heart to "illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, but also to say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart."
Prayer to the Sacred Heart by St. John Eudes:
O Heart all loveable and all loving of my Savior, be the Heart of my heart, the Soul of my soul, the Spirit of my spirit, the Life of my life and the sole principle of all my thoughts, words and actions, of all the faculties of my soul and of all my senses, both interior and exterior. Amen.
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:29-30)