Worship of the Sacred Heart is a long-established tradition in this faith
community. In 1905 an oak confessional near the altar was removed so
that a beautiful marble statue of the Sacred Heart could be installed in the
church as a permanent shrine. At that time an active Sacred Heart Society
existed in St. James Parish, and its members participated in regular devotions.
Adoration to the Sacred Heart is but a special form of reverence to Jesus. His
human heart symbolically represents and recalls God’s love among us made flesh,
as a human being in Jesus. By calling Jesus the “Sacred Heart” we mean
that Jesus is all loving and lovable, and that God’s love is everywhere manifest
in Jesus, in all his words, and actions. While God’s love is everywhere manifest
in Christ, nevertheless, it shines forth more resplendently in certain mysteries.
It is made more lavish and more complete in His gift of self in the
Incarnation, in the Passion, and in the Eucharist.
Worship of the Sacred Heart
has been present in the church from ancient times and is highlighted in the
teaching and spirituality of many saints. It was to Margaret Mary Alacoque
(1647-1690), a humble Visitandine of the monastery at Paray-le-Monial, that
Christ chose to reveal the goodness of His Heart and to her the task of
imparting new life to the devotion.
St. Margaret Mary's revelations
indicated that Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of His Heart of
flesh. In addition, He asked for a devotion of expiatory love -- frequent
Communion, Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the observance of the
Holy Hour. These revelations probably occurred in June or July 1674 and the
revelation known as the "great apparition" took place during the Octave of
Corpus Christi, 1675, probably on June 16 when Christ said, "Behold the Heart
that has so loved men . . .instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part
(of mankind) only ingratitude..." Then Christ asked St. Margaret Mary for a
feast of reparation of the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.
After the death of Margaret Mary, 17
October 1690, the devotion continued to grow. In 1856, at the urgent entreaties
of the French bishops, Pope Pius IX extended the feast to the universal Church.
The acts of consecration and of reparation were everywhere introduced together
with the devotion. On June 11, 1899, by order of Leo XIII, and with the formula
prescribed by him, all mankind was solemnly consecrated to the Sacred Heart. The
idea of this act, which Leo XIII called "the great act" of his pontificate, had
been proposed to him by a religious of the Good Shepherd from Oporto (Portugal)
who said that she had received it from Christ Himself. The traditional image of
the Sacred Heart, derived from Margaret Mary’s revelations, depicts symbolically
the savior’s heart as wounded, representing Jesus’ invisible wound of love, His
endearing and enduring concern for His people. His visible heart is also a sign
of invitation and welcome: all are called and welcome to the heart of the savior
to find living water and unquenchable mercy.
