JUNE – MONTH OF THE SACRED HEART

JUNE – MONTH OF THE SACRED HEART

The Month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart.
The Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost.
In addition to the liturgical celebration, many devotional exercises are connected with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Of all devotions, devotion to the Sacred Heart was, and remains, one of the most widespread and popular in the Church.

Understood in the light of the Scriptures, the term “Sacred Heart of Jesus” denotes the entire mystery of Christ, the totality of His being and His person considered in its most intimate essential: Son of God, uncreated wisdom;  infinite charity, principal of the salvation and sanctification of mankind.   The “Sacred Heart” is Christ, the Word Incarnate, Saviour, intrinsically containing, in the Spirit, an infinite divine-human love for the Father and for His brothers.  Excerpted from the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy

Devotion to the Sacred Heart was also an essential component of Pope John Paul II’s hopes for the “new evangelisation” called for by the Church.

“For evangelisation today,” he said, “the Heart of Christ must be recognized as the heart of the Church:  It is He who calls us to conversion, to reconciliation.  It is He who leads pure hearts and those hungering for justice along the way of the Beatitudes.   It is He who achieves the warm communion of the members of the one Body.   It is He who enables us to adhere to the Good News and to accept the promise of eternal life  . It is He who sends us out on mission. The heart-to-heart with Jesus broadens the human heart on a global scale.”

Here are some of the relevant documents: Leo XIII in his Encyclical Letter Annum sacrum (1889) on the consecration of mankind to the Sacred Heart; Pius XI in Caritate Christi Compulsi (On The Sacred Heart) and Miserentissimus Redemptor (On Reparation To The Sacred Heart); Pius XII in his Encyclical Letter Haurietis aquas; Paul VI in his Apostolic Letter Investigabiles divitias Christi (1965) and John Paul II in Message on the centenary of the consecration of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1999), in L’Osservatore Romano, 12 June 1999.