Being fully God and fully human, Jesus has a human heart and that human heart is the heart of God.
For centuries, devotion to the wounded heart of Jesus has allowed faithful Catholics to focus on his passion and death. The Sacred Heart represents his infinite love and mercy for all men.
In 1675, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque had a vision of Jesus’ heart and began to spread the devotion. All of humanity was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Pope Leo XIII in 1899.
The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated by the Church nineteen days after Pentecost, always falling on a Friday.
The entire month of June and the first Friday of each month are also dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The heart that loved so deeply:
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus consists of love and reparation:
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
John 19: 32-34
The heart is the seat of love:
His heart is literally on fire with love for you:
More than a metaphor for the love of Jesus:
Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his Passion, and gave Himself up for each one of us: “The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me.” He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, “is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings” without exception.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 478
“Make my heart like unto thine.”:
The bond between Jesus’ humanity and his divinity:
When the Church, in the days immediately succeeding her institution, was oppressed beneath the yoke of the Caesars, a young Emperor saw in the heavens across, which became at once the happy omen and cause of the glorious victory that soon followed. And now, today, behold another blessed and heavenly token is offered to our sight – the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a cross rising from it and shining forth with dazzling splendor amidst flames of love. In that Sacred Heart all our hopes should be placed, and from it the salvation of men is to be confidently besought..
Pope Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum, 25 May 1899
The Cross, fire, thorns and wound of the Sacred Heart:
An indication of who Jesus truly is:
The month of June is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
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