Devotion to the Sacred Heart

No history of the Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart would be complete without mentioning St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, patron saint of our chapel.  Born in 1647, Margaret Mary  was a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, who received apparitions of Jesus Christ in the Burgundian French village of Paray-le-Monial, the first on 27 December 1673, the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, and the final one 18 months later, revealing the form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a Holy Hour on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. She said that in her vision she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on Jesus’ Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

During the Octave of Corpus Christi in 1675, probably on June 16, the vision known as the “Great Apparition” took place, where Jesus said: “Behold the Heart that has so loved men. […] Instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of mankind) only ingratitude,” and asked Margaret Mary for a feast of reparation to be celebrated on the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi, bidding her to consult her confessor Claude de la Colombière, then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray-le-Monial.

In 1899, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII decreed that the consecration of the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should take place on 11 June of that year. The encyclical letter also encouraged the entire Roman Catholic episcopate to promote the First Friday Devotions, established June as the Month of the Sacred Heart, and included the Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart. The idea of this act, which Leo XIII called “the great act” of his pontificate.  Pope St. Pius X further decreed that this consecration of the human race should be renewed each year.  Pius XI later affirmed the church’s position with respect to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s visions by stating that our Lord had “manifested Himself” to her and had “promised her that all those who rendered this honor to his Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces.” His encyclical reaffirmed the importance of consecration and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Margaret Mary Alacoque said that in her apparitions Jesus promised these blessings to those who practice devotion to his Sacred Heart.

• I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
• I will give peace in their families.
• I will console them in all their troubles.
• I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.
• I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.
• Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
• Tepid souls shall become fervent.
• Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
• I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.
• I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
• Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart.
• In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.