The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

                             Sacred Heart of Jesus Devotion

Father Miles Walsh  of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Baton Rouge has allowed us to reproduce his brochure which is below.  Please accept his invitation to make a nine-month novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I invite you to join me in making a pilgrimage over nine months, but more importantly, to undertake a journey of faith with Jesus Christ.  I am speaking about a nine month Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus...

Why a pilgrimage? Why a novena? Why a period of nine months?

The entire purpose of our lives on earth is to journey to God, and it is the Lord Himself who invites us to come to Him.  A “novena”  (the Latin word for “nine”) is nine special,  consecrated days of prayer for the sake of advancing along the way, and the One who shows us the way is God’s Son, Jesus Christ.  In Acts 1:4, we read that on the day Jesus ascended into heaven, He told the Twelve to remain in Jerusalem and to wait for the fulfillment of the Father’s promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit.  St. Luke records for us a precise chronology of these events.  He says that Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after He rose from the dead, and ten days later the Spirit came.  During the intervening days, nine in number, the Apostles joined with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in the Upper Room, and waited in prayer until the fiftieth day, the Jewish feast of Pentecost.  At the end of those nine days, the Holy Spirit came upon them in power:  When the day of Pentecost came, they were all in the same place, and suddenly a noise like a strong driving wind came from the sky, and it filled the entire house.  Tongues as of fire appeared and came to rest upon each of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit...(Acts 2:1-2)  From that time on, the Apostles’ lives were changed, and the infant Church was born.  By the gift of the Holy Spirit, these first disciples had literally been “born from above.” (cf. John 3:1-12.)

The nine days of prayer which the Apostles spent in the Upper Room with Mary during the time between Jesus’ Ascension and the Day of Pentecost constituted the very first “novena,” and it set the pattern for every subsequent novena in the history of the Church. 
Every novena is meant to be a participation in that first Pentecostal event, a plea for the Spirit of God to change our minds and our hearts, to transform our very lives.  And yet if Jesus invited the first disciples to spend nine days in prayer on the day that He ascended into heaven, throughout history, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and through private revelation to the saints, He has issued this same invitation to the Church anew.
Such an event occurred in the course of Our Lord’s appearances (“apparitions”) to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Visitation nun, to whom He confided the mysteries of His Sacred Heart during the years 1673-1675. 
During one of these apparitions, Jesus showed her His heart, wounded by sin, pierced by thorns, yet on fire with love for sinful mankind.  He said to her:  Behold the Heart which has so loved mankind, even to the point of exhausting and consuming itself in order to testify to its Love; and in return, I receive from the greater part of humanity only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love.  But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me that treat me thus...  Our Lord went on to make twelve promises to St. Margaret Mary describing how He would help those who honor His Sacred Heart to spread His love throughout the world and also grant to them the graces necessary for their own salvation at the hour of death. 

The following are the Twelve Promises which Jesus made to those who honor His Sacred Heart:
  1. I will give to those who honor my Sacred Heart all the graces necessary for their state of life.
  2. I will establish peace in their families.
  3. I will console them in all their troubles.
  4. They shall find in my Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of their death.
  5. I will pour out abundant blessings on all     their undertakings.
  6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
  7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
  8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
  9. I will bless the homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
  10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
  11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart never to be effaced.
  12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving the Sacraments; My heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.*
(*Concerning the twelfth and final promise, which is known as “The Great Promise,” it should be noted that the Lord specifically asked that Communion be received for nine consecutive months on the first Friday of the month; that those who receive Him in this way should be in the state of grace and have the intention of honoring His Sacred Heart; that Our Lord does not dispense those who receive Him in this way from any of their normal obligations or from exercising the vigilance necessary to lead a good life and overcome temptation; rather, He implicitly promises abundant graces to those who “make the nine first Fridays” to help them carry out their obligations and persevere to the end.)
One final question:  why did Jesus spread these nine days—the first Friday of nine consecutive months over such a long period of time?  In answer, a verse of Scripture comes to mind:  Can anyone tell the Lord what to do?  Who can teach him or give him advice? With whom does God consult in order to know and understand and to learn how things shall be done? (Isaiah 40:13-14.)  Given that caveat, if I could hazard an opinion or a guess, it is this:  It took nine months of gestation in our mother’s womb for each of us to be born. God knows us well, for He “knit us in our mothers’ wombs.”  Could it be that Our Lord wants to give us time, to give the Holy Spirit time, to form us and bring us to birth anew?  Could it be that He is inviting us to enter the womb of His Sacred Heart for the next nine months in order to draw nearer to Him?
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

In Christ,

Where does the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus come from?

 Click on the following link to read what Kathy Schiffer, of the National Catholic Register believes.

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and Nonco...

The Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most widely practiced and well-known devotions in the Church.  It takes the physical heart of Jesus as representation of His Divine love for humanity.  The Feast of the Sacred Heart has been part of the Church’s liturgical calendar since 1856, and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost Sunday.  The devotion especially emphasizes the unmitigated love, compassion, and long suffering of the heart of Jesus towards humanity.  

Join the Nonco Foundation in our devotions to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on The Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in June of each year at St. John Francis Regis Catholic Church.

On the First Friday of every month, a meeting of the Nonco Apostleship of Prayer, Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, is held at J. M. Morrow Memorial Nursing Home in Arnaudville, Louisiana, Nonco's hometown, at 9:30 a.m. This meeting is followed by the First Friday Communion Service and then by the Novena to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Please join Members of the Nonco Foundation, along with the amazing residents of the nursing home and all Apostles of Prayer throughout the world as we pray for the Intentions of the Holy Father.

Likewise, on the First Friday of every month, at 9:00 a.m., Allen Stelly, a  volunteer, leads the St. Agnes Nursing Home residents in the Novena to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Father Nicholas DuPré celebrates the First Friday Mass immediately after the Novena.  Everyone is invited to attend and to join in prayer.

Should you wish to establish a Nonco Apostleship of Prayer Group in your location, please let us know and we will be happy to share our program information with you.
Born in the Diocese of Autun, France, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque consecrated her heart, while yet a child, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In order to dedicate herself wholly to her Divine Spouse, she joined the
Visitation Order of nuns at twenty-three years of age at Paray-le Monial in Chareleroi.  She was subjected to many trials and sufferings, but she underwent all for the love of Jesus.

In 1675, she was chosen by
God to reveal to the Christian World the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Saint Margaret and Saint Claude de la Colombiere, S.J., were the chief instruments of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  She died in1690 and was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

Lives of the Saints pages 432-433
Did you know?

In Saint Margaret Mary’s vision she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Holy Hour practice later became widespread among Catholics and is still practiced here in Saint John Francis Regis Catholic Church on the First Friday of every month following 6:00 a.m. Mass.

Read more about Saint Margaret Mary below.

Did you know? Nonco was well aware of Saint Margaret Mary and the part she played in spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Read Seola Arnaud Edwards memoirs of how her little sister came to be named "Margaret Mary." Click this link - How My Sister Got Her Name

From Wikipedia:

In this monastery Alacoque received several private revelations of the Sacred Heart, the first on 27 December 1673 and the final one 18 months later. The visions revealed to her the form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a "Holy Hour" on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. She stated that in her vision she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Holy Hour practice later became widespread among Catholics.

On 27 December 1673, the Feast of Saint John, Margaret Mary reported that Jesus permitted her to rest her head upon his heart, and then disclosed to her the wonders of his love, telling her that he desired to make them known to all mankind and to diffuse the treasures of his goodness, and that he had chosen her for this work.

Initially discouraged in her efforts to follow the instruction she had received in her visions, Alacoque was eventually able to convince her superior, Mother de Saumaise, of the authenticity of her visions. She was unable, however, to convince a group of theologians of the validity of her apparitions, nor was she any more successful with many of the members of her own community, and suffered greatly at their hands. She eventually received the support of Saint Claude de la Colombière, S.J., the community's confessor for a time, who declared that the visions were genuine. In 1683, opposition in the community ended when Mother Melin was elected Superior and named Margaret Mary her assistant. She later became Novice Mistress and saw the monastery observe the Feast of the Sacred Heart privately, beginning in 1686. Two years later, a chapel was built at Paray-le-Monial to honor the Sacred Heart.

Alacoque died on 17 October 1690.

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