Friday Following the Second Sunday After Pentecost—Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

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“The veneration of the Sacred Heart is a summary of all our religion and, moreover, a guide to a more perfect life. It more easily leads our minds to know Christ the Lord intimately and more effectively turns our hearts to love him more ardently and to imitate Him more perfectly” (Pope Pius XI, 1928). So that is all you need to know.

But wait, there’s more! The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus came from devotion to the humanity of Jesus, but it developed from the devotion to the Passion of Jesus and the Sacred Wounds. Many saints fostered this devotion, including St. Bonaventure, St. John Eudes, and the mystics St. Lutgarde, St. Mechtilde and St. Gertrude the Great. But the saint who promoted it in its modern form is St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. She had a vision of Jesus showing his heart in flames—“a sign of his burning love for the souls He had ransomed with his sacrifice on the Cross.” With the help of the Jesuit, St. Claude de la Colombière, she fostered the devotion to the point where it was liturgically celebrated in 1670, established as a feast for the whole Church in 1856, and raised to the highest rank of solemnity in 1928. Since 2002, it is also a special Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests.

That’s the theology and history, but what about its place in our hearts? Jesus’ Sacred Heart is a sign of his complete love for us. Further, the entire month of June is the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This guides us away from the secular celebration of “Pride” month, pride being the worst of the seven deadly sins! Love is about humility, service, and sacrifice, all of which are shown through Jesus’ Sacred Heart.

*https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/18704992416

November 16--St. Gertrude the Great, Virgin

There are few saints that are called “the Great”, four popes; Gregory I, Leo I, Nicholas I, and John Paul II; as well as a Dominican bishop, Albert. But today’s “the Great” was a woman, the only woman so designated in the Catholic Church. 

St. Gertrude the Great was a Benedictine nun who was a mystic and theologian. She was born in 1256 in Germany and went to the Cistercian monastery school at the age of five. She excelled in her education, especially “in literature, philosophy, song, and the refined art of miniature painting.” After time in the monastery school she entered religious life and became a nun. When she was 24 she had a crisis of faith and at the age of 25 she saw Jesus as an adolescent who said to her: “I have come to comfort you and bring you salvation.” It was after this that she dedicated her studies to Scripture, the Church Fathers, and theological writings. She died in 1301 and was elevated to sainthood through equivalent canonization in 1677.

She wrote many works, but her primary influence is as an early devotee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her writings on the Sacred Heart are “notable within the history of Christian devotion because of their vivid descriptions of her visions, which show a considerable elaboration on the long-standing but ill-defined veneration of Christ’s heart.”

The devotion to the Sacred Heart has a long history in the Church, promoted in its earliest form by St. Gertrude and others. It is about the absolute and complete love Jesus has for each one of us, so much so that he gave his life in sacrifice for our sins and to attain for us salvation. It is love that kept Jesus on the cross, not the nails! Thank you St. Gertrude the Great, for this insight.