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Twelve Promises of Our Lord:

1. “I will grant them the graces necessary for their state of life.”
2. “I will establish peace in their families.”
3. “I will comfort them in their difficulties.”
4. “I will be their safe refuge during life, and especially at death.”
5. “I will give abundant blessings on all their undertakings.”
6. “Sinners will find a fountain and a boundless ocean of mercy in My Heart.”
7. “Tepid souls will become fervent.”
8. “Fervent souls will quickly achieve great perfection.”
9. “I will bless every place where the picture of My Sacred Heart is exposed and honoured.”
10. “I will give to priests the power to touch the hardest hearts.”
11. “I will grant to all those who receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance.”
12. “They will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the Sacraments, and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.”

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

"Know that if you wish to possess Jesus Christ and to dwell in His Sacred Heart, you must have no other desire and be content with Him alone." Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

picDevotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the oldest and the most widely practiced Catholic devotion in the world. It is believed that the earliest known practices of this devotion can be traced back to the 11th and 12th centuries in the Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries. Saint John Eudes has been called the ‘Apostle of the Sacred Heart’. In 1659 he wrote the first liturgical Office in honour of the Sacred Heart and in 1670 he obtained the permission of seven French Bishops to celebrate a special feast using the Office. Saint Augustine, Saint Bonaventure, Saint Albert the Great, Saint Gertrude, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Peter Canisius, and Saint Francis de Sales were some of the early promoters of this devotion.

The present form of this devotion is mainly attributed to the series of apparitions of Our Lord to Sister Mary Margaret Alacoque, a French nun of the religious Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lord appeared to Sister Margaret Mary, in 1673 in France and revealed to her his Sacred Heart – a heart pierced, enthroned in flames, surrounded by a crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross.

Our Lord said to her; “My Divine Heart is so full of love for men, and especially for you, that, unable any longer to keep within Itself the flames of its burning love, It needs must spread them abroad through means of you, and It must make Itself known unto them in order to enrich them with the treasures which It contains. I make known to you the worth of these treasures. They contain the graces of sanctification and of salvation which are needful to free them from the abyss of perdition. I have chosen you, who are an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance, to carry out this great work, so that it may be seen that everything has been done by Me.”

Over a series of apparitions from 1673 to 1675, Our Lord revealed to Sister Margaret Mary that he desired that the first Friday after the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi be observed in a special manner as a feast of His Heart, by offering of Holy Communion with a reparation of honour for all the insults and indignities His Heart had received since the institution of the Holy Eucharist. She said that in her vision she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. He also revealed twelve promises that he would fulfil to those who practice devotion to His Sacred Heart.

Beginning of the devotion in the Church:

As directed by Our Lord, Sister Margaret Mary revealed these apparitions to her confessor Father Claude de la Colombière, then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray le Monial. Father de la Colombière directed Sister Margaret Mary to write an account of the apparition. After his death 1682 and the death of Sister Margaret Mary in 1690, the devotion spread rapidly in France with the efforts of the Visitation and Jesuit Orders. In 1730 the sudden end of the plague in Marseilles after the consecration of the city to the Sacred Heart gave further impetus to the spreading devotion throughout France. The devotion was approved by the Holy See in 1765 and the bishops of Poland, the Arch-confraternity of the Sacred Heart at Rome and the Visitation Order obtained permission from Pope Clement XIII to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart with its own Office and Mass.

In 1815 Pope Pius VIII granted a plenary indulgence to all the faithful who on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, having confessed and communicated worthily, visit a Church or public oratory and pray for the intentions of the Pope. In 1856 Pope Pius IX ordered the Feast to be celebrated on the first Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi in every church throughout the world.

In 1875 Pope Pius IX consecrated the Catholic Church to the Sacred Heart. In 1899, Sister Mary of the Divine Heart, a nun from the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd reported to Pope Leo XIII that she received revelation from Our Lord Jesus to request the Pope to consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart. This request was initially ignored by the Pope but again on 06 January 1899 she again sent another letter communicating that in addition to the consecration of the whole world to the Sacred Heart, Our Lord also desired that the first Firdays of the month be observed in honor of the Sacred Heart. In 1899, after a solemn Triduum held throughout the world, Pope Leo XIII dedicated the whole of mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and raised the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the rite of Double of the First Class.

In 1956, on the centenary of the extension of the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the Universal Church, Pope Pius XII wrote that “Christians in paying homage to the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer are fulfilling a serious part of their obligations in their service of God and at the same time, they are surrendering themselves to their Creator and Redeemer with regard to both the affections of the heart and the external activities of their life; in this way, they are obeying that divine commandment : “Thou shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.”

Modern day pracitice of the Devotion:

The month of June is dedicated by the Church as the month of the Sacred Heart and special prayers to the Sacred Heart are prayed in Catholic homes. In addition to this, the Church has consecrated the first Friday of each month to the Sacred Heart, so that the faithful may receive Our Lord in Holy Communion on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months and receive the graces he promised to Saint Margaret Mary. In many churches around the world, the first Friday devotion begins with the faithful making a good confession in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance, followed by an all night Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Holy Mass on Friday.

Another form of devotion to the Sacred Heart is the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in Catholic homes where a priest or head of the household consecrates the members of the household to the Sacred Heart. An image of the Sacred Heart that has been blessed by a priest is then placed in the home. The practice of the Enthronement is based upon Pius XII's declaration that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is "the foundation on which to build the kingdom of God in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations. Also among the twelve promises revealed to Sister Margaret, Our Lord said “I will bless every place where the picture of My Sacred Heart is exposed and honoured.”

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