06/12/2026
Sacred Heart of Jesus
Reveals His Love for Us All
“My Divine Heart is so passionately in love with humanity….” - Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673.
Christ appeared before St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French nun, several times between 1673-1675. Each time he appeared he shared his love for us – a love that is not just words, but real and obvious, pouring out from His pierced Heart on the Cross.
These visions lead to the Feast Day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we celebrate on Friday, June 12th. It is always the Friday after Corpus Christi Sunday - the second Sunday after Pentecost.
The Church records references as early as the second century through St. Justin Martyr and in the 7th century by Pope Gregory the Great.
Both preached that John 19:34-35 is a metaphor for the divine graces that will forever flow from the heart of the crucified Jesus: “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth—that you also may believe.”
It was in 1765, when Pope Clement XIII named the feast day in France. However, it wasn’t until 1856, when Pope Pius IX declared the feast day should be extended to the universal Church.
Pope Pius IX wrote, “(Jesus) showed His Heart to us bearing about it the symbols of the passion and displaying the flames of love, that from the one we might know the infinite malice of sin, and in the other we might admire the infinite charity of Our Redeemer, and so might have a more vehement hatred of sin, and make a more ardent return of love for His love.”
Imagery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
• Flames - represent the infinite fire of love that Christ has for each soul.
• Crown of Thorns - “And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe”. (John 19:2). Although Christ suffered the crown of thorns on His head, all that He suffered in the crucifixion He suffered in the depths of His Heart.
• Wounded Heart - the wound of the guard’s sword is visible – the wound in which blood and water flowed. “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.” (John 19:34). Both the water and blood are very symbolic to our Church - our faith – with the water of Baptism and the Blood of the Eucharist.
• The Cross - The cross at the top of the Heart seems dwarfed by the Heart and almost implanted at the top. St. Margaret Mary said, “The entire reality of the crucifixion derives its meaning from and cannot be understood apart from the Heart of Jesus.” It is His Heart that supports the weight of the cross!”
Last year, Pope Leo XIV shared his prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
Lord, I come to your tender heart today,
to you who have words that set my heart ablaze,
to you who pour out compassion on the little ones and the poor,
on those who suffer, and on all human miseries.
I desire to know you more, to contemplate you in the Gospel,
to be with you and learn from you
and from the charity with which you allowed yourself
to be touched by all forms of poverty.
You showed us the Father’s love by loving us without measure
with your divine and human heart.
Grant all your children the grace of encountering you.
Change, shape, and transform our plans,
so that we seek only you in every circumstance:
in prayer, in work, in encounters, and in our daily routine.
From this encounter, send us out on mission,
a mission of compassion for the world
in which you are the source from which all consolation flows.
Amen.