June, the month of the Sacred Heart

As we enter into the month of June, we are reminded that this is the month of the Sacred Heart with the feast day falling this year on the 12^{th of} June   when we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a date which is traditionally on the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost. Last year Archbishop Eamon Martin reconsecrated Ireland to the Sacred Heart in a celebration at Knock Shrine to mark the 350^th anniversary of the apparitions to Saint Mary Margaret Alacoque in which the Sacred Heart appeared.

The importance of these apparitions in reminding the faithful that God was a God of love with a heart bursting to embrace all of us, a God who sent His Son on earth to suffer and to die for us. The devotion to the Sacred Heart was adopted by the Church especially in France as an antidote to the Jansenist heresy that was rampant at the time. This taught that only those who lived rigidly by the rules would be accepted into the Kingdom by a judgemental God.

The Church reminded us that that this Heart, the Heart of the Divine Saviour, is the incarnation of the love of God the Father, in its entirety, and reflected on Earth though the life and death of Christ. Of all devotions, devotion to the Sacred Heart was, and remains, one of the most widespread and popular in the Church.

In Ireland we had so many of those practices, especially that of keeping the Sacred Heart lamp lighting in the house. It was also the custom to place each family under the protection of the Sacred Heart, and older homesteads had the Sacred Heart pledge hanging on the wall with each family member inscribed on it.

The particular devotion to the Sacred Heart originated in the Burgundy region of France in the late sixteenth century, following the visions of a young woman, remembered now as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. The town of Paray le Monial is now the centre of that devotion, which has spread worldwide.

Each year many parishes have novenas to the Sacred Heart which attract large congregations drawn to these days by a devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Our Mass liturgy is also graced with Hymns which celebrate this Heart of Jesus. Each Sunday in June do listen as our Parish choir sing the beautiful hymn to the Sacred Heart, remembering that it still means something special to many of us in Ireland still, and around the world, where this devotion to mercy and love brings so much peace and hope to so many souls.

Click on the video below to hear our choir sing the hymn to the Sacred Heart.