JUNE72024

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most beloved devotions in the Catholic Church. The image of the Roman soldier piercing the side of Jesus imagines that the lance went through the body and into his heart to cause the “flow of blood and water.” Throughout the history of the Church preachers would continually refer the the Heart of Jesus as worthy of veneration. In the twelfth century with St. Bernard and the thirteenth with St. Francis the heart of Jesus as the image of God’s love became prominent. In the seventeenth century a French nun, St. Margaret Mary Alocoque, had a vision of the Sacred Heart which raised a new awareness of its importance in the life of faith. She lived in a time when God was more an object of fear than of love. By focusing on the Sacred Heart she helped the Church recognize the unconditional love that God has for creation. In the twentieth century, a Polish nun, St. Faustina, had a vision of Divine Mercy spewing forth from the heart of Jesus. It seems that Christians constantly need to be reminded that Jesus came because of God desires to enfold us in bonds of intimate affection.