Celebrating the feast of the Sacred heart of Jesus

The Marian shrines are taken down in our homes when the month of May comes to an end. The feast of the Sacred Heart falls on the second Sunday after Pentecost, this year on Friday, June 3. There may be one day to mark the feast of the Sacred Heart, but the entire month of June is devoted to this. The Sacred Heart is one of the most popular and widespread devotions in the Church and takes Jesus’ heart as a symbol of his divine love for humanity.

The feast of the Sacred Heart has been celebrated since the 11th Century. The very first liturgical feast day wasn’t celebrated until August 31, 1670, in Rennes, France. From here, the devotion spread, but it only became universal after the visions of St Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th Century. It was in these visions that Jesus told St Margaret Mary that the feast should be celebrated on the second Sunday after Pentecost. In 1856, Pope Pius IX made the feast of the Sacred Heart mandatory for the whole Church.

Flaming heart

The Sacred Heart is most commonly painted as a flaming heart surrounded by light, pierced with a lance wound and wrapped in thorns. Make your own shrine for the Sacred Heart of Jesus at home, the same as you did for Our Lady in May. To make the shrine, find a quiet spot where you would usually pray and set up a picture of Jesus.

Make a flaming heart out of red and yellow card and glue the portrait of Jesus to this. At the foot of the shrine, fill a small box with prayers to the Sacred Heart and take one out each time you go to pray.

Another way to honour the Sacred Heart is to attend – if you haven’t already – the First Friday Devotions. These devotions involve receiving Communion for nine consecutive first Fridays.

In one of Margaret Mary Alacoque’s visions, Jesus said: “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.”