June: The Month of the Sacred Heart

The Friday that follows the Second Sunday in Time After Pentecost is the Feast of the Sacred Heart which brings to mind all the attributes of His Divine, and thereof Christ’s extraordinary love. Many Catholics prepare for this Feast by beginning a Novena (a special set of prayers said over a period of days) to the Sacred Heart on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is the Thursday of the week before.
Devotion arose first in late-medieval monasteries, especially in response to the devotion of St. Gertrude the Great, but specific devotions became popularized when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a Visitation nun, had a personal revelation involving a series of visions of Christ as she prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. She wrote, “He disclosed to me the marvels of his Love and the inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart.” Christ emphasized to her His love — and His woundedness caused by Man’s indifference to this love.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus,
living and life-giving fountain of eternal life,
infinite treasury of the Divinity, and glowing furnace of love,
Thou art my refuge and my sanctuary.
Let my heart be so united with Thine,
that our wills may be one,
and mine may in all things be conformed to Thine.
Amen