Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart and today is the day on which we commemorate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This Feast has been a Solemnity in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar since 1856, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost.

The most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form it is known today was revelation to St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), who received visions of Jesus Christ. St Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Visitation Order, was praying in the Chapel (Paray le Monial) of her convent. Jesus appeared to her several times and opened up to her the revelations about the devotion to the Sacred Heart. One of the important revelations is the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Jesus opened His heart wide and invited Margaret to see the heart which loved people so much and yet in return it received only ingratitude.

In another apparition, Jesus wanted Margaret Mary to open up to people to devotion to His Sacred Heart. Jesus told Margaret Mary that Jesuits would be entrusted with the work of spreading this devotion. He wanted the feast of the Sacred Heart to be celebrated by the whole Church on a Friday after the Octave of the feast of the Corpus Christi. Margaret Mary was told by Jesus that St. Claude de la Colombière (Superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray) was His trusted friend and faithful witness. These revelations are the foundation on which the devotion to the Sacred Heart is based. The Church has approved of these apparitions and revelations. And therefore, today all over the world the Jesuits celebrate the feast as a means of spreading this devotion to the Sacred Heart all over the world. As the Church celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the wounded heart of Christ symbolizes love that God has shown to us through Jesus and is an example for us to love God and fellow human beings in return.