The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Sacratissimi Cordis Iesu
This feast honours the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus — the human Heart of Our Lord, wounded for our sins and burning with love for mankind — kept on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.
On the Friday following the octave of Corpus Christi the Church keeps the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. In honouring the physical Heart of Our Lord, the Church adores the whole Person of the Word made flesh, and venerates that Heart as the living sign and symbol of the boundless love with which the Son of God has loved us — a love that gave itself wholly upon the Cross, and that abides still in the Blessed Sacrament.
A Heart that loved us to the end
The devotion rests upon the Gospel itself. From the pierced side of Christ upon the Cross there flowed blood and water, which the Fathers of the Church saw as the wellspring of the sacraments and the birth of the Church from the Heart of her Lord. To venerate the Sacred Heart is to contemplate the love that moved God to become man, to suffer, and to die for our salvation — a love at once divine and truly human, beating in the breast of the Saviour.
This worship is no mere sentiment. The Church adores the Heart of Jesus because it is the Heart of a divine Person; she sees in it the measure of a charity that, in return, is too often met with coldness and forgetting. Hence the devotion has always carried a twofold note: trust in the mercy that pours from that open Heart, and the desire to make reparation — to console with love a love so little returned.
The spread of the devotion
Though rooted in the Scriptures and cherished by saints of every age, the devotion to the Sacred Heart received a particular impulse in the seventeenth century through the revelations granted to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial, and through the labours of her director, Saint Claude de la Colombière. In those revelations Our Lord made known the riches of his love and asked for the devotion of his people, with particular promises to those who would honour his Heart.
The feast was approved for various places and at length extended to the whole Latin Church by Pope Pius IX in 1856, and was raised to the highest rank by Pope Pius XI in 1928, who set forth its meaning in the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor. The collect of the Mass thanks God, who deigns mercifully to bestow upon us the boundless treasures of love in the Heart of his Son, wounded for our sins, and prays that we who offer it the devout homage of our piety may render the worthy reparation we owe.
The Collect
O God, who in the Heart of thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost mercifully vouchsafe to bestow upon us the boundless treasures of thy love: grant, we beseech thee; that we, rendering unto it the devout homage of our piety, may also fulfil our duty of worthy reparation. Through the same Lord.
Deus, qui nobis in Corde Fílii tui, nostris vulneráto peccátis, infinítos dilectiónis thesáuros misericórditer largíri dignáris: concéde, quæsumus; ut, illi devotum pietátis nostræ præstántes obséquium, dignæ quoque satisfactiónis exhibeámus officíum. Per eúmdem Dóminum.
Patronage
The feast is devoted to the love of Christ for mankind, symbolised by his Sacred Heart; the month of June is consecrated to this devotion, and the first Friday of each month is kept in its honour.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this feast is likewise kept on the Friday after the second Sunday after Pentecost, under the title of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, ranked as a solemnity.
Common Questions
When is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
It is a movable feast kept on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi — that is, the Friday of the third week after Pentecost. Its date changes each year with the date of Easter. The whole month of June is also dedicated to the Sacred Heart.
What does devotion to the Sacred Heart mean?
It is the worship of the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, symbolised by his physical Heart, wounded on the Cross for our sins. To honour the Sacred Heart is to adore the whole Person of Christ and to contemplate the boundless charity with which he has loved us. The devotion carries a special call to love in return and to make reparation.
Where does the devotion come from?
It is grounded in the Gospel — especially the piercing of Christ’s side on the Cross — and was cherished by saints through the centuries. It received a great impulse in the seventeenth century through the revelations to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial. Pope Pius IX extended the feast to the whole Church in 1856, and Pope Pius XI raised it to the highest rank in 1928.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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