Sacred Heart

 The Sacred Heart is among the most familiar and moving of Catholic devotional images.   The image was inspired by the apparition of Jesus, under the title of the Sacred Heart, to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque (1647-1690).  In 1673, on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, Our Lord came to St. Margaret Mary while she was in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. The saint describes His Sacred Heart with the following words: “The Divine Heart was presented to me in a throne of flames, more resplendent than a sun, transparent as crystal, with this adorable wound. And it was surrounded with a crown of thorns, signifying the punctures made in it by our sins, and a cross above signifying that from the first instant of His Incarnation, […] the cross was implanted into it […].”  

St Margaret’s account continues with the words that Jesus said to her, “My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for thee in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning charity, It needs to spread them abroad by thy means, and manifest itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious treasures which I discover to thee, and with contain graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition. I have chosen thee as an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance for the accomplishment of this great design, in order that everything may be done by Me.” Jesus asked Margaret to place her head on His breast asking her to give Him the gift of her small heart to be placed in the furnace of His Divine Heart, before returning to her inflamed by His love. 

“Jesus meek and humble of heart make my heart like yours”