Devotion to the Sacred Heart
The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Wendy Grace explores how families can bring the devotion to the Sacred Heart into their homes.
By Wendy Grace
A statue of the Sacred Heart in a church in Georgia. (Credit: Ismael Martínez Sánchez / Aid to the Church in Need)
The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus falls 19 days after Pentecost on a Friday. It was in 1856 that Pope Pius IX established the feast of the Sacred Heart to be celebrated by the faithful. However, devotion to the Sacred Heart goes back much further than this, in the 13th century the Franciscan St Bonaventure wrote “With you is the source of Life” which tried to point to Jesus' heart as a fountain of love for us. It was in the late 18th century after the visitation of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque that the devotion really spread. Jesus revealed to her how he desired souls to have a particular devotion to His Sacred Heart. Saint Margaret Mary had visions over a period of 18 months between 1673 and 1675 where Jesus communicated to her His sorrow over the indifference people had to His great love for them.
In these visions, one of the things Jesus asked was for people to foster a special devotion of adoration for an hour on Thursdays and to receive the Eucharist on the first Friday of each month. Is this something you can do? I know life is hectic with small children and Jesus understands this, but can you start small? For example, my husband and I take it in turns to go to Thursday adoration, one prays while the other stays home and puts the children to bed.
So how do we teach our children about the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Responding to Jesus' message, we as parents have to ensure that indifference to Jesus' Sacred Heart never creeps into our own hearts and homes. As always with these teaching moments, it is an opportunity to grow in and renew our own faith. Let's start with the basic question – why is Jesus' Heart showing over his clothes? It’s because Jesus is trying to remind us of how much He loves us. He is both God and man so He has a heart like you and me, His heart is literally burning with love for us.
What else do we see in Jesus' heart? Light and firelight to the darkness and the warmth coming from the fire, the warmth of His love for you. Jesus wants us to remember that at every moment He is with us, He wants your friendship, and He wants us to love Him back. You can keep it simple to get children thinking about Jesus' love, like asking them to draw a love heart and write in the words that come to mind when thinking of Jesus' love for us. It’s good to get children thinking about what happens to Jesus' heart when we hurt Him or others. You can write the words on sticky notes covering His heart with these examples, but then do the exercise of pulling them off to show the power of his forgiveness.
Then you can move onto ways that we can love Jesus. As always with teaching our children, simple is beautiful. Your children can pray to have a heart like His, you can encourage your children to talk to Jesus every day, talking to Him like a best friend. It's a great time to start introducing children to simple prayers to Jesus. “Dear Lord Jesus, please help me to be patient and kind” is one that is often said in our house! Make the celebration of the feast of the Sacred Heart a special family day. Together you could watch the cartoon that EWTN has available on YouTube which tells the story of St. Margaret Mary. You could also teach your children the prayer to the Sacred Heart.
I think Pope Benedict's words written in May 2006 are a fitting synopsis of the importance of instilling this devotion in our families:
“By encouraging devotion to the Heart of Jesus, the Encyclical Haurietis aquas exhorted believers to open themselves to the mystery of God and of His love and to allow themselves to be transformed by it. After 50 years, it is still a fitting task for Christians to continue to deepen their relationship with the Heart of Jesus, in such a way as to revive their faith in the saving love of God and to welcome Him ever better into their lives.”