MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS,

HAVE MERCY ON US !

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   The month of June is dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.  This is primarily because the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on the Friday following the Octave of Corpus Christi, placing it somewhere within the month of June.  But how did this Solemn Feast come about?

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   The story behind the modern iteration of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus begins on Dec. 27, 1673, at a monastery belonging to the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines) in eastern France. There, a nun named Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque began experiencing visions of the Sacred Heart. Those visions continued for 18 months. During her visions, Sister Margaret Mary learned ways to venerate the Sacred Heart of Christ. These devotions included the concept of a Holy Hour on Thursdays, the creation of the feast of the Sacred Heart after Corpus Christi, and the reception of the Eucharist on the first Friday of every month.

 

   As with many mystics, many people were skeptical of Sister Margaret Mary’s claims of visions. Her confessor, the then-Jesuit Father Claude La Colombière,  (now St. Claude La Colombière) believed her and eventually the mother superior of her community began to believe as well. The first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated privately at the monastery in 1686. Sister Margaret Mary died in 1690 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on May 13, 1920. Initially, the Vatican was hesitant to declare a feast of the Sacred Heart but did allow the Visitandines to celebrate a Mass special to this day. As the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765.

 

   In 1856, after much lobbying by French bishops on behalf of the feast of the Sacred Heart, Pope Pius IX designated the Friday following the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the entire Latin Rite Church!

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These are the promises the Sacred Heart of Jesus made to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque for those who devote themselves to Him:

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1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.

2. I will give peace in their families.

3. I will console them in all their troubles.

4. I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.

5. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.

6. Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.

7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.

8. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.

9. I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.

10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.

11. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart.

12. 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.

 

   It is the unfortunate situation that, in many parts of western society, June has now been labeled as "Pride Month". Under the guise of positively embracing human diversity, the concept of "Pride Month" is in fact no more than a celebration of human sexual depravity, which robs human persons of their intrinsic dignity by reducing their value and whole identity to their most base (and often perverse) sexual desires.  The "Sexual Revolution" of the 20th century continues to twist and pervert the ways in which we relate to one another and, most gravely, the way in which we relate to God.  This scourge on human society has produced much poison fruit--discouraging marriage; divorcing procreation from the sexual act; fueling the use of pornographic material; normalizing perverse sexual behavior in our children; and bringing great scandal among those who serve and lead the Church as ordained ministers and vowed religious. There has never been a greater time in which we have needed the divine love and mercy which pours forth from the Sacred Heart of our Lord!

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   I encourage you to develop a greater devotion to that Heart that was pierced for our offences out of love, and which now beats eternally for each one of us out of love, that we might receive greater healing in our wounded world.

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Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

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Oremvs Pro Invicem!

Father Albert Beltz, Pastor

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