The Sacred Heart of Jesus (2026)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here. That you see me, and that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart already existed in the Middle Ages as a private devotion. It appears as a liturgical feast in 1675, following the apparitions of Our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. In these revelations, the saint was given to know with special depth the need to make reparation for her personal sins and for the sins of the whole world, and to respond to Christ’s love.

Our Lord asked her to extend the practice of frequent Communion, especially on the first Friday of every month, in a spirit of reparation. He asked for the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi to be dedicated as a special feast to glorify His heart.

The feast was celebrated for the first time on the 21st of June, 1686. Pius IX extended it to the whole Church. In 1928, Pius XI gave it the splendor that it has today.

Beneath the symbol of the human heart of Jesus, we consider above all the infinite love of Christ for each individual soul. This is why devotion to the Sacred Heart stems from the principles of Christian doctrine, as Pope John Paul II has made clear in his abundant teaching about this consoling mystery.

In the entrance antiphon, we’re told that the designs of His heart shall endure from age to age, to rescue our souls from death and nourish us in our hunger.

There’s a twofold aspect to the solemnity that we celebrate today. On the one hand, there is thanksgiving for the wonder of God’s love for us. On the other, there is reparation. Because this love is often poorly responded to, or scarcely repaid. Even by those who have so many reasons for loving and thanking God.

The basis of Christian piety has always been the consideration of Christ’s love for all men. This is why devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus stems from the principles of Christian doctrine, says Pope Pius XII.

This devotion received a special impulse from the devotion and piety of many saints to whom Our Lord disclosed the secrets of His most loving heart, moving them to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart and to foster a spirit of reparation.

On the Friday after the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi, Our Lord asked Saint Margaret Mary to promote love for frequent Communion, especially on the first Friday of every month, in a spirit of reparation. He promised that He would let her share each Thursday to Friday night in His suffering in the Garden of Olives.

One year later, Our Lord appeared to her, laying bare His most Sacred Heart. He spoke to her in words that have nourished the piety of many souls. He said, “See this Heart that has loved men so much and has spared itself nothing, until it has exhausted itself and consumed itself in order to show them its love. I receive in return scarcely anything but ingratitude because of their irreverence and sacrileges, and because of the coldness and disdain they show towards Me in this Sacrament of Love.”

“But what hurts me still more is that it is hearts who are consecrated to Me who treat Me in this way. This is why I ask you that on the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, a special feast may be dedicated to the honor of My heart, by receiving Communion on that day and making reparation with some act of atonement.”

Pope Saint John Paul II has said that in many parts of the Church, there exists the private custom of making reparation on the first Friday of the month with some Eucharistic act or by saying the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Moreover, the month of June is dedicated in a special way to the veneration of the Divine Heart. Not just on one day, the liturgical feast which generally falls in June, but every day.

The heart of Jesus is the source and expression of His infinite love for each person, whatever the person’s situation may be. Our Lord seeks out each one of us.

A beautiful text taken from the prophet Ezekiel says, “I am going to look after my flock myself, and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in sight when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep, so shall I keep my sheep in view. I shall rescue them from wherever they may have been scattered during the mist and darkness” (Ezek. 34:11–12).

Each person is an individual whom the Father has entrusted to the Son, so that he or she shall not perish, even though they may have strayed far away.

Jesus, true God and true man, loves the world with a human heart, says the Second Vatican Council. A heart that serves as a channel for God’s infinite love. Nobody has ever loved more than Jesus does. Nobody ever will love us more.

Saint Paul said to the Galatians, “He loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). Each one of us can repeat those words. His heart is full of the Father’s love, full in a way that is at once both divine and human.

Christ’s heart loved as no other heart has ever loved. He experienced sadness and joy, compassion and sorrow. The Evangelists frequently tell us of the feelings of Jesus. As in Saint Mark where he says, “I have compassion on the crowd” (Mark 8:2). He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

The successful outcome of His apostles’ first venture into evangelization made Him feel as we do when we receive some good news. Saint Luke says, “He rejoiced” (Luke 10:21). In Saint John, He weeps when death takes His friend from Him. Neither does Our Lord hide His disappointment—“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets. How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood, but you did not want to” (Matt. 23:37). How often.

Jesus sees the whole history of the Old Testament and of mankind, a portion of the Jewish people and of the Gentiles of all times, who will reject God’s love and mercy. We can say that in this passage, God is somehow weeping with human eyes for the sorrow He feels in His human heart. This is the real meaning of devotion to the Sacred Heart, to translate God’s nature into human terms for ourselves. It’s not a matter of indifference to Jesus, any less than is our daily relationship with Him at the present time. That some lepers fail to return to thank Him, after they had been cured.

He’s not indifferent to the hospitality and consideration shown towards a guest, as He told Simon the Pharisee. On many occasions, He experienced the great joy of seeing someone repent of his sins and become His disciple. Or also of seeing the generosity of those who left everything to follow Him.

He was affected by the joy of blind men who are able to see perhaps for the first time in their lives. Before celebrating the Last Supper, He was already thinking that He would remain with us forever by means of the Blessed Eucharist that He was about to institute. “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).

This emotion must have been even stronger when He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This is My body” (Luke 22:19). Who shall ever be able to express the feelings in His most loving heart, as He gave His mother to us on Calvary to be our mother?

When He had already surrendered His life to His Father, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water (cf. John 19:34). This open wound reminds us today of the immense love that Jesus has for us. Because He willingly gave the very last drop of His precious blood for us. As though each of us were alone in the world.

Are we not then going to approach Christ with confidence? What amount of wretchedness can prevent our loving Him, so long as our heart is big enough to ask for forgiveness?

After He had ascended into Heaven in His glorified body, Christ did not cease to love us. He doesn’t stop calling us now, to live always close to His most loving heart. Even in the glory of Heaven, in His hands and feet and side, He bears glowing marks of the wounds which represent the triple victory gained by Him over the devil, sin, and death.

Pius XII says He likewise has in His heart, placed as it were in a most precious shrine, those treasures of merit, the fruits of His triple triumph. These He bestows generously on redeemed mankind.

Today, on this solemnity, we adore the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Since that heart of His participates in and is the natural and most expressive symbol of the inexhaustible love with which our divine Redeemer still loves mankind. That heart indeed, although it is no longer liable to the disturbances of this mortal life, still lives and beats. It is now inseparably joined with the Person of the Divine Word, and in it and through it with His divine will.

Wherefore, says Pope Pius XII, since the heart of Christ overflows with divine and human love, and since it is abundantly rich with the treasures of all the graces our Redeemer acquired by His life, His sufferings, and His death, it is truly the unfailing fountain of that love which His Spirit pours forth into all the members of His mystical body.

As we meditate today on the love that Christ has for us, we will feel a desire to thank Him for such a great gift and for so much unmerited mercy. As we consider how so very many turn their backs on God, let us remember that often we ourselves are not altogether faithful. That we have many personal weaknesses.

We should turn then to His most loving heart, where we shall find peace. We often need to have recourse to His merciful love, and to seek that peace which is one of the fruits given us by the Holy Spirit.

We can say that aspiration Saint Josemar’a liked so much: “Cor Iesu Sacratissimum et Misericors, dona nobis pacem.” Most sweet and merciful heart of Jesus, grant us peace. As we see Jesus so close to our concerns, to our problems, to our ideals, we can say to Him in the words of the Furrow: “I give you thanks, my Jesus, for your decision to become perfect man, with a heart which loves and is most lovable. Which loved unto death and suffered. Which was filled with joy and sorrow. Which delighted in the things of men, and showed us the way to Heaven. Which subjected itself heroically to duty, and acted with mercy. Which watched over the poor and the rich, and cared for the sinner and the just alike. I give you thanks, my Jesus. Give us hearts that will measure up to yours.”

We are told in Saint John that after Jesus had taken the wine, He said, “It is fulfilled” (John 19:30), and bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. We are reminded that joy is compatible with mortification and pain.

Chesterton said that of all the accounts that are given of Jesus on the cross, one that is missing is the account of the joy of Jesus on the cross, in the fact that it is accomplished.

The prophet Isaiah says, “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her” (Isa. 66:10). Joy is essentially a Christian characteristic. The Church does not fail to remind us that it should be present at every moment of our lives. As we look at the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we can be reminded that that’s the place for us to find our joys.

All people with broken hearts can find solace in the broken heart of Christ on the cross. Fulton Sheen liked to say that when God allows hearts to be broken, it’s because He wants to enter into them a little more. But you just have to give Him all the pieces.

We get a profound joy of being united to Christ. Only in Him can each of us say with Saint Paul, “He loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). John Paul II said this should be the source of our greatest happiness, as well as the source of our strength and support, should we have the misfortune to encounter sorrow, undergo suffering, experience misunderstanding, or even to fall into sin.

We can always turn to the one who always loves us. With His infinite love as God, He overcomes every trial, fills our emptiness, forgives all our sins, and eagerly impels us toward a new path that is safe and joyful. The Church wants to remind us that joy is perfectly compatible with mortification and pain.

It is sadness and not penance which is opposed to happiness. The Church can be filled with joy, and each one of us. “Rejoice with Jerusalem,” we’re told, “and be glad for her, all you who love her” (Isa. 66:10). The mortifications that we do do not cast a shadow over our interior joy. We can feel very closely united to Our Lord, so that our lives may reflect once more the suffering that He underwent for our sakes. As well as experiencing great happiness in the attainment of the glory and joy of the resurrection through His passion and cross.

Joy has a spiritual origin, arising from a heart that loves and feels itself loved by God. Saint Paul says to the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). This with a cheerfulness that is real happiness. An interior joy which cannot fail to be shown outwardly as well.

Saint Paul VI says it is well known that there are different degrees of this joy. Its most noble expression is the cheerfulness or happiness in its strict sense. When someone at the level of his higher faculties finds satisfaction in the possession of a good which is recognized and loved. All the more reason then that such a one should experience spiritual joy and happiness when his spirit enters into the possession of God who is known and loved as his supreme and immutable good.

Saint Paul VI goes on to say, “Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the occasions of pleasure, but finds great difficulty in giving birth to happiness. For happiness has its origins elsewhere, it is a spiritual thing. Money, comfort, hygiene, material security may often not be lacking, but nevertheless, despite these advantages, boredom, suffering and sadness are frequently to be found supervening in the lives of many people.”

Christians understand these thoughts of the Pope very well. They’re aware that joy and happiness stem from a heart that knows itself to be loved by God, and which in its turn is madly in love with Him. It will be a heart that strives to express its love in deeds. Since it knows that deeds are love, not sweet words. It knows itself to be that of a sinner, so it goes to the source of all forgiveness, to Christ in the sacrament of penance.

When we go to confession, we could think particularly of how the Sacred Heart of Jesus is reaching out to us. Something flowing from His heart into our heart to wash away our sins. Saint Paul says, “Lord, it is with great joy that we offer You the sacrifice that brings everlasting healing.”

Suffering and tribulation are inevitably the lot of everyone on this earth. Everybody needs the consolation coming from the heart of Christ. But suffering of itself alone neither transforms nor purifies. It may even be the cause of rebellion and hatred. Some Christians abandon Our Lord when they meet the cross, because they seek a purely human happiness, free from pain, and accompanied by material wealth.

Our soul will then be more purified, our love stronger. We will realize that joy is inseparable from the cross. It can be useful to remember that Saint Paul’s life was in no way easy or comfortable. Five times he said, “I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been adrift at sea. On frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren. In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure” (2 Cor. 11:24–27).

Still, in spite of all this, Saint Paul speaks the truth when he tells us, “I am filled with comfort, with all our affliction I am overjoyed” (2 Cor. 7:4). Saint Josemar’a comments: “If at times we’ve been afraid of penance and atonement, we will be filled with courage at the thought of how short is the time involved, and how great the reward. A prize entirely disproportionate to our own little efforts. Let us cheerfully follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to Calvary, to the cross.”

After all, is it not true that as soon as you cease to be afraid of the cross, of what people call the cross, when you set your will to accept the will of God, then you find happiness, and all your worries, all your sufferings, physical or moral, pass away? During the Mass of this solemnity, we pray: “Father, we rejoice in the gifts of love we have received from the heart of Jesus your Son. Open our hearts to share His life, and continue to bless us with His love.”

We can draw from these moments of prayer the immense joy of considering once again the deep love that Jesus has at this moment for each one of us. A God with a heart of flesh like ours. Jesus of Nazareth still goes about the streets and squares of our cities doing good, just as when He was clothed in mortal flesh among men, helping, healing, consoling, forgiving, and through His sacraments conferring eternal life on us.

Saint Josemar’a says these are the infinite treasures of His heart, which He continues to pour out copiously upon us. Saint Paul teaches that “when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8). Every day we receive immeasurable graces, inspirations, and all types of material and spiritual help from the loving heart of Jesus.

However, He does not lord it over us. He begs us to give Him a little love, as He silently shows us His wounds. There may have been times when we have refused Him that love. Maybe often He has hoped that we would show more love, greater fervor, as we make that visit to the Blessed Sacrament or receive Holy Communion.

We need to make a great deal of reparation and atonement to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus for our past life, for so much wasted time, for so much roughness in the way we have dealt with Him, for so much lack of love.

We can say to Him in the words written by Saint Bernard: “I beg you to receive the offering of the years remaining to me. Do not despise, O my God, this heart which is contrite and humble because of all the years that I’ve spent so foolishly. Give me, Lord, the gift of contrition, despite being so clumsy in the way I talk to you and show my love for you. Increase my aversion for my deliberate venial sin. Teach me to offer you in expiation all the physical and moral setbacks of each day, my tiredness at work, and my efforts to finish off my daily tasks the way you would like me to.”

When we see so many people who seem set on fleeing from grace, we can’t remain indifferent. Don’t be content, says Saint Josemar’a, in the way you ask Jesus for pardon for just your own faults. Don’t love Him with your heart alone. Console Him for every offense that has been, that is, or that will be done Him. Love Him with all the strength of all the hearts of all those who have most loved Him. Be daring, telling Him that you are crazier about Him than Mary Magdalene, and either of his two Teresas. That you love Him madly, more than Augustine and Dominic and Francis, more than Ignatius and Xavier.

As always, we go to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, asking her to take us little children by the hand, to lead that life of atonement and companionship with Jesus.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW