Origins of the Sacred Heart Devotion (2)

The Mystics of the Late Middle Ages

Toward the end of the 12th century, in 1199, St. Lutgardis (also called Lutgarde) experienced the first reported apparition of the Sacred Heart, with the phenomenon of the exchange of hearts: “’What does it matter to me, rustic and unlettered, a nun and not in Holy Orders, to know the secrets of Scripture?’ And God said to her: ‘What, then, do you want?’ ‘What I want,’ she said, ‘is Your Heart.’

“And the Lord said: ‘Rather, it is I who wants your heart.’ She responded to Him: ‘Let it be so, Lord, in such a way, however, that you grant to my heart the love of Your Heart, and that I possess my heart in You, well sheltered and forever under your care.’ And so the exchange of hearts took place” [1].

But it was from the first half of the 13th century onwards that this kind of experience multiplied. We should mention here--to mention only the saints and blessed, whose authenticity as mystical phenomena cannot be called into question: St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297), Blessed Ida of Louvain (1243-1300), Blessed Angela of Foligno (1248-1309), Blessed James of Blacon (+1301), Blessed Clare Agolanti (of Rimini) (1282-1346), St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), St. Frances of Rome (1384-1440), St. Jeanne de Valois (1464-1505), Blessed Camilla Battista Varani (1458-1527), St. Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562), St. Catherine de Ricci (1522-1590), St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi (1566-1607), St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617), and Blessed Giovanna Maria Bonomo (1606-1670).

Let us take a brief look at three 13th-century mystics, nuns of the Helfta Monastery in Saxony, one of whom played a key role in the history of devotion to the Sacred Heart. The first, in the second half of the 13th century, is St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn, who received numerous revelations.

We can quote this beautiful prayer taught to her by Our Lord: “One day, the Lord said to Mechtilde: 'On the morning of your rising, greet the tender and strong Heart of your most gentle Lover, for it is from Him that all good, all joy, all happiness have flowed, flow, and will flow without end in heaven and on earth. Use all your strength to pour your own heart into this divine Heart, saying to It:

“Praise, blessing, glory, and salvation to the most sweet and benevolent Heart of Jesus Christ, my most faithful Lover! I thank you for the faithful care you have surrounded me with, during this night when you have not ceased to offer to God the Father the thanksgiving and homage I owed Him. And now, O my only Love, I offer you my heart like a freshly bloomed rose, whose charm attracts the eyes all day and whose perfume delights Your divine Heart.

"I also offer You my heart as a cup in which to serve You drink of Your own sweetness and the works You deign to perform in me today. I offer You my heart as a pomegranate of exquisite taste worthy of appearing at Your royal feast, so that You may absorb it so well into Yourself that it may henceforth feel happy within Your divine Heart. I beg you to direct all my thoughts, words, actions, and good will today according to the good pleasure of Your will. Amen” [2].

Her contemporary, Mechthild of Magdeburg, had the privilege of seeing Our Lord's Heart. A little later, St. Gertrude received many extraordinary mystical graces, in which the Sacred Heart presented itself to her as the object of her desires, the source of all grace, and the intercessor with the Father. Let us quote two extracts from a book widely read in the Middle Ages in monasteries, Herald of Divine Love:

“Behold, I offer to your soul's gaze my Sacred Heart, a melodious instrument whose sweet accents always charm the infinite Trinity. Ask it to make amends for your faults, for the weaknesses of your life; your works will then become perfect and pleasing before My eyes...

“In any time, It can repair your negligences... My Sacred Heart waits, with a devouring thirst, for you to invite It, either with your words or with a sign, to urge Him to complete, to perfect the deeds of your life, something you are incapable of achieving on your own” [3].

The second excerpt is one of the major texts on the Sacred Heart before the apparitions at Paray-le-Monial, which, in a certain way, it foreshadows. In it, we read of God's ardent desire to make this devotion known to the world. St. Gertrude has a vision of the Apostle St. John:

"As she was, according to her custom, enveloped in prayer, the disciple whom Jesus loved so well, and who for that reason must be loved by all, appeared to her... She said to him: ‘And what grace shall I, lowly me, obtain on this your feast day?’ He replied: ‘Come with me; you are my Lord's chosen one; let us rest together on His breast, in which are hidden all the treasures of all bliss!’

“And, taking her with him, he led her to our tender Savior, placed her on the right, and withdrew to place himself on the left. And as they both thus rested sweetly on the breast of the Lord Jesus, the blessed John, touching the Lord's breast with his finger with reverent tenderness, said:

“‘Behold the Holy of Holies, which draws to Itself all the good of heaven and earth.’... And he added: ‘I have placed You at the opening of the divine Heart, so that you may easily draw from It the sweetness and consolation which, in its perpetual overflowing, divine love impetuously pours out on all those who desire it.’

“As she experienced an ineffable delight in the most holy pulsations that made the divine Heart beat without interruption, she said to St. John: 'Have you not, beloved of God, felt the charm of these sweet palpitations, which have for me, at this moment, so much sweetness, when you were resting, at the Last Supper, on this blessed breast?’

“He replied: ‘I confess that I felt it and its effects, and the sweetness of it penetrated my soul, as sweet mead permeates a mouthful of fresh bread with its sweetness; moreover, my soul was as warmed by it as a boiling kettle over a blazing fire.’ She continued: ‘Why, then, have you kept such an absolute silence on this that you have never written anything, however little, that gave it away, at least for the benefit of our souls?’

“He replied: 'My mission was to present to the Church, in its first age, on the uncreated Word of God the Father, simple words that would suffice until the end of the world to satisfy the intelligence of the entire human race, without nevertheless anyone ever managing to fully understand it. But to tell the sweetness of these pulsations has been reserved for the present times, so that, in hearing these things, the aging world, whose love is growing dull, may be warmed’” [4].

The 17th Century

Devotion to the Heart of Jesus intensified from century to century, particularly in the 17th century. St. Francis de Sales, whose influence is considerable, took part in this trend.

To a nun, he wrote these lines: “O my daughter! if you look at this Heart, it is impossible that you should not like It; for It is a Heart so gentle, so sweet, so condescending, so in love with lowly creatures, provided that they recognize their miseries, so gracious to the wretched, so good to penitents! Eh! Who would not love this royal Heart, so paternally maternal towards us?” [5].

He wanted to place the congregation he founded with St. Jane Frances de Chantal under this patronage: “God gave me the thought last night that our house of the Visitation is, by His grace, noble enough and considerable enough to have its own coat of arms, blazon, motto, and rallying cry.

"I therefore thought, my dear Mother, if you agree, that we should take for our coat of arms a single heart pierced by two arrows, enclosed in a crown of thorns, this poor heart serving as an enclosure for a cross which will surmount it, and will be engraved with the sacred names of Jesus and Mary. My daughter, I will tell you, at our first meeting, a thousand little thoughts that came to me on this subject; for truly our little congregation is a work of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

"The dying Savior gave birth to us through the opening of his Sacred Heart, so it is only right that our hearts should remain, through careful mortification, always surrounded by the crown of thorns that will remain on the head of our Head, while love holds him bound to the throne of his mortal sorrows” [6].

Thus, the Order of the Visitation, of which St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was to be a member, was fully disposed to receive the treasure of the apparitions at Paray-le-Monial. In the course of the century, many Visitandines (Visitation nuns) were also favored by the Sacred Heart with numerous mystical graces.

Shortly afterward, Fr. Jean-Jacques Olier founded the Society of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice to train priests; he was blessed with the vision of the Sacred Heart. His influence had a profound effect on the clergy, with the French School of Spirituality that he initiated with Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle and Fr. Charles de Condren, who also spoke of the Heart of Jesus. This School would have a considerable influence on the French clergy.

St. John Eudes

It is, finally, St. John Eudes who receives the honor of having been the apostle of the liturgical worship of the Heart of Jesus. Indeed, until his time, devotion to the Sacred Heart had remained in the realm of private devotion.

In 1641, he founded the Order of Our Lady of Charity, to receive penitent women. The Order's proper purpose was “to imitate the most ardent charity with which the Hearts of Jesus and Mary are enkindled towards the souls of girls and women who have fallen.”

In 1643, he founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, about which he wrote: “All the ecclesiastics of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary have great cause for consolation and a very special obligation to give thanks to Our Lord and his most holy Mother for having called them and received them into a Congregation which belongs, in a very special way, to their most loving Hearts.

“Firstly, because this Congregation is entirely dedicated and consecrated to this divine Heart, and one of the principal ends for which it is established is to honor in particular this most august Heart, which it regards and respects as its first and principal Patron, and as the rule and example that it offers to its children, so that they may strive to conform to it the sentiments and affections of their hearts.

“Secondly, because all the churches and chapels of this Congregation are dedicated and consecrated to the honor of this most holy Heart...

“Thirdly, because it was in this Congregation that the solemn celebration of the feasts of the admirable Hearts of Jesus and Mary began.”

After having written an Office in honor of the Heart of Mary, approved in 1648 by the Bishop of Autun for his diocese, he composed an Office in honor of the Heart of Jesus. In 1670, he obtained permission from the Bishop of Rennes to celebrate the Feast of the Adorable Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in his seminary. In the years that followed, several dioceses followed suit. He instructed his congregation to celebrate this feast with dignity:

“My dearest and most beloved brothers,

It is an inexplicable grace that our most lovable Savior has given us, to have given us in our Congregation the admirable Heart of his most holy Mother; but His goodness, which is boundless, did not stop there, and went much further by giving us His own Heart to be, with the Heart of His glorious Mother, the founder and the superior, the principle and the end, the heart and the life of this Congregation. [...]

“Let us embrace with joy and jubilation the solemnity of the Divine Heart of our most lovable Jesus. Here is the Office and the Mass, which I am sending you, approved by all our Prelates. Let us use all possible care, diligence, and fervor to celebrate it well.

“To this end: First: Invite all our friends and devotees to come. Second: Have it published... It should be preached. Third: Fast on the vigil of the feast. Fourth: Have twelve poor people dine in the refectory on the eve or two days before.

“Finally, I beseech you, my dearest brothers, to celebrate this feast with all the devotion and solemnity that you can” [7].

Paray-le-Monial: Culmination and Beginning

With St. John Eudes, who died in 1680, we come to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. She entered the Monastery of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial in 1671 and received numerous revelations from the Sacred Heart, particularly between 1673 and 1675. Reserving these apparitions for other articles, we will not dwell on them here, but we can already raise the question of their place in the devotion to the Sacred Heart. What did they add to all that had already been said?

We have already shown that this devotion was not born in Paray-le-Monial. Already in the Gospel, then by numerous Church Fathers, doctors, saints, and mystics, the Heart of Jesus had been designated as the symbol of the love of the Incarnate Word, as the object of all desires, as the place of rest for weary souls, the inexhaustible fountain of mercy, the model and source of all virtues. All this, we find in St. Margaret Mary.

It seems first of all that one aspect of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, without being entirely original or new, had been particularly emphasized and explained at Paray-le-Monial: that of reparation. The Heart of Jesus is a heart suffering from the ingratitude, contempt, and indifference of man, and it awaits reparation from souls of good will.

On the other hand, the apparitions at Paray-le-Monial have greatly contributed to the popularity of devotion to the Sacred Heart. For the first time since the Gospel, it is all mankind that He is addressing through a humble nun, and to whom He wants to make known “this Heart which has so loved men.” What is new is the explicit mission given to St. Margaret Mary to work for His reign and to spread His worship everywhere.

Thus these apparitions, whose anniversary we are celebrating, are both the culmination of a powerful current rooted in the Gospel, and the starting point of an immense surge of fervor, thanks to which the feast of the Sacred Heart has been made to be celebrated throughout the universal Church. Countless individuals, societies, religious communities, and countries have consecrated themselves to the Heart of Jesus, and the practice of the Holy Hour and Communion of Reparation have spread everywhere.

We can therefore make our own these lines by Fr. Jean Ladame: “Paray and the revelations made to St. Margaret Mary generated extraordinary momentum in the Church in favor of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. It was not a spontaneous generation, because everything was ready, in a way, for a vast development of this devotion.

“But an impetus was still needed, and it was Christ Himself who provoked it through the intermediary of his confidante and through the apostolic zeal of those who, after her, agreed to pass on the message she had received.” [8
 

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[1] Acta Sanctorum, Iun. IV (1707), 193.
[2] St. Mechtilde, Livre de la grâce spéciale [The Book of Special Grace].
[3] St. Gertrude, Le Héraut de l’Amour divin [Herald of Divine Love].
[4] Ibidem.
[5] St. Francis de Sales, Lettre à une religieuse [Letter to a nun], February 18, 1618.
[6] St. Francis de Sales, Lettre à sainte Jeanne de Chantal [Letter to St. Jane Frances de Chantal], June 10, 1611.
[7] St. John Eudes, excerpts from Circulaire aux Instituts [Circular to the Institutes].
[8] Fr. Jean Ladame, Les Faits de Paray [The Events of Paray], p. 14.