Looking for Love? It’s in the Sacred Heart of Jesus 

“The Heart of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of God’s mercy, but it is not an imaginary symbol, it is a real symbol, which represents the center, the source from which salvation of all humanity gushed forth.” (Pope Francis Angelus 9 June 2013) 

Traditionally, the Church dedicates the month of June to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Solemnity, which is celebrated today, June 16, is held on the First Friday after the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). Many parishes in our Archdiocese celebrated this past Sunday with processions, adoration, Forty Hours devotions, and even the singing of a special poem written by St. Thomas Aquinas when Corpus Christi entered the church calendar in the year 1264. 

The Sacred Heart Devotion is in fact, much older than Corpus Christi. Traditionally we look to the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a 17th-century Visitation nun, as the beginning of the widespread devotion to the Sacred Heart. But recognition of the importance of the Sacred Heart is a much older Catholic devotion, originating with the five Holy Wounds that Christ suffered in His passion. The wounds from the nails of crucifixion in each hand and foot, and the wound in the side inflicted by St. Longinus’s lance, were recognized in a vision of Pope Boniface II (d. A.D. 532) who established the Golden Mass. Devotion to the Five Holy Wounds has influenced our liturgies from the use of five incensed nails in the blessing of the Easter candle at the beginning of the Easter Vigil. It is important in the spiritual life of so many of the saints, especially stigmatics, including St. Francis of Assisi, as well as St. Clare, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Gertrude the Great and St. Faustina Kowalska.  

The 12 Promises of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus hold all the answers we are searching for to heal the wounded, embittered and broken within our own hearts, our families, our Church, our community, and our nation. I believe this to my core, because I know what devotion to the Sacred Heart has done to transform my own life. That is why the Office for Evangelization podcast “Heart of the Ark” has been working so hard to offer four different perspectives this June to introduce devotion to the Sacred Heart to you.  

In conversation with Emily Jaminet, author, and the engine behind The Sacred Heart Enthronement Network, we spoke about the ways in which devotion to the Sacred Heart can transform families with more loving fruitful relationships. Her recent book “Holy Habits from the Sacred Heart” includes practical advice for turning your home into a School of Virtue.” Jaminet is also spearheading the Sacred Heart Revival, which aims to get 50,000 households to consecrate their homes to the Sacred Heart in the next year.

We traveled to the only cloistered monastery in the Archdiocese because monastic life has been called “the heart of the Church,” where I had the pleasure to speak with a young novice at the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. A 20-something with a college degree, Sister Marie Paul said, the nuns “live in an adoration chapel” and their true vocation is to pray on behalf of all of us, unceasingly before the Lord in His Blessed Sacrament. As a Desert Father put it “Tell them, On Christ’s behalf, I am holding up the walls.” I wanted to gain insight into what a pure “Vocation of Love” looks like in the modern world. 

In conversation with Fr. John Gordon, the Secretary for Evangelization, we spoke about the incarnational aspect of Christ’s Sacred Heart and how it can be a tangible entry into deeper Eucharistic devotion. This very real heart of Jesus beats for all of us in every age, even right now, and longs for us to unite with His heart more closely. In his homily this past Holy Thursday, Cardinal Joseph Tobin C.Ss.R. said of the Eucharist “he is offering us nourishment, strength, eternal life, and full union in divine love.” Father Gordon and I explained the idea of Catholic prayers of reparation and prayed the Litany of the Sacred Heart and the Solemn Act of Reparation. 

Further into the month, we will have at least one more episode dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as we pray as Pope St. John Paul II asked us in 2002 for the sanctification of our priests. In a letter from Holy Thursday 2001, the saint highlighted the interconnectedness of the Eucharist, the priesthood, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus when he asked priests to reconsider their relationship with Jesus. “Chosen to proclaim Christ, we are first of all invited to live in intimacy with him: we cannot give to others what we ourselves do not have!” (Pope John Paul II Letter) 

For those who only know the Sacred Heart devotion as a dusty painting on your grandma’s wall: wherever you are on your spiritual journey, God wants to give you more of His Love. You only need to say yes, and the ocean of love can be yours as well. It’s not a sales pitch. It is the Truth of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine. 

Jennifer D. Behnke is the Associate Director of Evangelization at the Archdiocese of Newark.