Tell Out My Soul

In the Catholic liturgical calendar, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart is held this year on June 12th. The Sacred Heart is a symbol of the everlasting, all embracing love, mercy and compassion of Jesus. Our school motto was, “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved,” and before we wrote anything else down, we would write at the top of each new page the letters SHJ, as a constant reminder of this great love. My love for the Sacred Heart has been unwavering ever since.

The imagery of the Sacred Heart is so powerful: it includes the flames of love, and the crown of thorns representing the suffering that Jesus went through out of love for us. It sits in the middle of his chest in full view and Jesus looks straight at us, gesturing towards his heart as a sign of offering. HIs love is freely given. How can we turn away from this great love?

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus began after Margaret Mary Alacoque of the Order of the Visitation in France had a vision in 1675 in which Jesus asked her that a day every year be dedicated to a feast honouring his heart. This day is the Friday after the Second Sunday of Pentecost. But the devotion to the Sacred Heart had been a thread running through the prayers and thoughts of believers for a very long time before 1675. St Bonaventure wrote touchingly about the veneration of this aspect of Jesus love and sacrifice:

“Beloved brethren, since it had been ordained by a merciful Providence that the Church should be formed from the side of the crucified Christ and that the words of the Scriptures be fulfilled: They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced — a soldier armed with a lance opened the sacred Breast. The Blood mingled with water, which was shed from that pierced side, was the price of our salvation. Flowing from the hidden fount of the Sacred Heart, it gave to the sacraments their power of conferring the life of grace, and to those already living in Christ a draught of the living fount, gushing forth unto life eternal.

“Arise, therefore, O soul friendly to Christ! Cease not your vigil; bring close your lips, that you may draw waters from out the Savior’s fountain. Oh, how good and how pleasant it is to dwell in this most Sacred Heart. Your Heart, dearest Jesus, is the great treasure, the precious jewel which we will find in the dug field of Your sacred Body. Who is there who would throw away this jewel? Rather would I throw away all my own jewels, my thoughts and my affections, and cast my cares upon Your Sacred Heart, which will nourish me without fail. I beg of You, sweet Jesus my God, place my prayer among those that You will answer. Draw me wholly into Your Heart. For unto this end Your side was pierced, that an entrance would lie open to us. Unto this end Your Heart was wounded, that detached from worldly tumult, we would be able to dwell in it.

“But above all, Your Heart was wounded so that a visible scar would enable us to see the invisible wound of Your love. For how could the ardor of Your love be better shown than by this, that not only Your Body but even Your very Heart was pierced with a lance? Truly the wounds of the flesh showed forth the wounds of the spirit. Who is there who would not love One so loving? My dearly beloved, let us pray that the Sacred Heart may deign to wound our heart still so hard, still so impenitent, and bind it with the sweet bonds of His love.”

Ever since then the institution of this devotion has allowed it to grow in power, drawing believers even closer to God’s infinite love.