June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A devotion long practiced privately, it was officially approved in the 1800s. Devotion the Sacred Heart encourages participation in Holy Hour Eucharistic Adoration and to receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of every month.

History of the Devotion

Prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are a wonderful part of a devotion to His Sacred Heart that goes back centuries, practiced by such luminaries in our faith as St. Gertrude the Great, St. Bonaventure, St. Francis De Sales, and St. John Eudes. When St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a 17th century French nun and mystic, received messages from Jesus in various apparitions concerning this devotion, and became a driving force behind spreading it publicly in the manner we know today.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart was approved for specified dioceses by Pope Clement XIII in 1765 and extended to the whole Church by Pope Pius IX in 1856. Pope Leo XIII dedicated the whole world to the Sacred Heart in 1899.

This devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a powerful way of drawing closer to our Lord by joining our hearts to His Sacred Heart in a spirit of love, trust, adoration, and most importantly, reparation for the many sins and insults He has endured.

“He disclosed to me the marvels of his Love and the inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart.” -- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

In our age of religious indifference, when fervor and charity have grown cold, Jesus exhibits to the world His Sacred Heart as the symbol of God's infinite love - the symbol of His own generous self-sacrificing love for men.  Jesus shows His Divine Heart as a furnace whose burning rays of love are able to reanimate faith and rekindle love in hearts grown cold and ungrateful.

But why His Heart?  Because in every language, in every age, the heart is regarded as the natural symbol of love and affection.  What more natural and expressive symbol is there, then, of the excessive love of Jesus than His Sacred Heart?  The direct and material object of devotion to the Sacred Heart is the real, physical Heart of Jesus - the Heart of flesh, the living and loving Heart of our Blessed Lord; the Heart that beat in His Divine breast at the moment of the Incarnation; the Heart that loved us during the life of Jesus on earth, that poured forth its blood to the last drop on Mount Calvary; the beatified Heart now glorious in Heaven and still dwelling among us in the Blessed Sacrament; the Heart ever united to the Person of the Divine Word, to whom is due supreme homage and adoration.

Through His Most Sacred Heart, Jesus provides a remedy for such spiritual anemia in what has been called His Great Promise, a special devotion to His Sacred Heart he revealed to St. Margaret Mary that involves faithful Catholics taking Communion in a state of grace on nine consecutive First Fridays of each month.

The Church, governed and taught by the Holy Ghost, has approved and recommended devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart by Holy Mother Church. Speaking of Fridays, the Church also has a Feast day marking the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus that falls 19 days after Pentecost, on a Friday.

We have some prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the next section that can help strengthen your relationship with our Lord.  

The Two Elements of Devotion to the Sacred Heart

• We consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart by acknowledging Him as Creator and Redeemer and as having full rights over us as King of Kings, by repenting, and by resolving to serve Him.
• We make reparation for the indifference and ingratitude with which He is treated and for leaving Him abandoned by humanity.

To carry out these general goals of consecration and reparation, there are quite specific devotions authorized by the Church. 

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