SODALITY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Each spiritual family in the Church, while rooted in the authentic teaching and unity of the Church, has its own particular gift and contribution to make. The gift of the Sacred Heart Sodality is to unite Catholic men and women, 18 years and older, who wish to honour the love and compassion of the Heart of Christ in a special way through a life of worship and service.
During the seventeenth century in France, St. Margaret Mary was instrumental in the gradual movement towards having the devotion to the Sacred Heart, publically approved by the Church.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart is one of the most widely practiced and well-known Roman Catholic devotions, taking the heart of the resurrected body as the representation of the love by Jesus Christ God, which is “his heart, pierced on the Cross”, and in the texts of the New Testament is revealed to us as “God’s boundless and passionate love for mankind”.
The devotion is especially concerned with what the Church deems to be the long-suffering love and compassion of the heart of Christ towards humanity. The popularization of this devotion in its modern form is derived from a Roman Catholic nun from France, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, who said she learned the devotion from Jesus during a series of apparitions to her between 1673 and 1675, and later, in the 19th century, from the mystical revelations of another Roman Catholic nun in Portugal, Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart, a religious of the Good Shepherd, who requested in the name of Christ that Pope Leo XIII consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Predecessors to the modern devotion arose unmistakably in the Middle Ages in various facets of Catholic mysticism, particularly with Saint Gertrude the Great.
The Sacred Heart is often depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, encircled by the crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross, and bleeding. Sometimes, the image is shown shining within the bosom of Christ with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Jesus’ death, while the fire represents the transformative power of divine love.
The most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form it is known today was Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, who claimed to have received apparitions of Jesus Christ in the Burgundian French village of Paray-le-Monial, the first on 27 December 1673, the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, and the final one 18 months later, revealing the form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a “Holy Hour” on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. She said that in her vision she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night meditating on Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
In probably June or July 1674, Sister Margaret Mary claimed that Jesus requested to be honoured under the figure of his heart, also saying that, when he appeared radiant with love, he asked for a devotion of expiatory love: frequent reception of Communion, especially on the first Friday of the month, and the observance of the Holy hour.
During the Octave of Corpus Christi in 1675, probably on June 16, the vision known as the “great apparition” reportedly took place, where Jesus said: “Behold the Heart that has so loved men. Instead of gratitude, I receive from the greater part (of humankind) only ingratitude,” and asked Margaret Mary for a feast of reparation of the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi, bidding her consult her confessor Father Claude de la Colombière, then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray-le-Monial.
Father de la Colombière directed Sister Margaret Mary to write an account of the apparition, which he discreetly circulated in France and England. After his death on 15 February 1682, his journal of spiritual retreats was found to contain a copy in his handwriting of the account that he had requested of Margaret Mary, together with a few reflections on the usefulness of the devotion. This journal, including the account – an “offering” to the Sacred Heart in which the devotion was explained – was published at Lyon in 1684. The little book was widely read, especially in Paray-le-Monial. Margaret Mary reported feeling “dreadful confusion” over the book’s contents, but resolved to make the best of it, approving of the book for the spreading of her cherished devotion.
PROMISES MADE TO SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE
Margaret Mary Alacoque said that in her apparitions Jesus promised these blessings to those who practise devotion to his Sacred Heart. In 1890 Cardinal Adolph Perraud deplored this circulation of the promises in tabular form, which he said were different from the words and the meaning of the expressions used by Saint Margaret Mary, and wanted the promises to be published in their original words.
- I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
- I will give peace in their families.
- I will console them in all their troubles.
- I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.
- I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall become fervent.
- Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
- I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.
- I will give to Priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
- Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart.
- In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.