Sacred Heart of Jesus icon

The Sacred Heart of Jesus
© Cecilia Lawrence
September 2nd 2016
4.5 x 6 inches
Ink, watercolor, gold leaf

"Behold this Heart which has so loved men
that it has spared Itself nothing,
even to exhausting and consuming Itself,
in order to testify Its love.”
~ Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

“The designs of His Heart are from age to age,
to rescue their souls from death,
and to keep them alive in famine.”
~ Pslam 33: 11, 19

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of Heart;
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
~ Matthew 11:28-30

This icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus depicts Our Lord facing the viewer with His right wounded hand raised in blessing while the other pulls back His tunic and mantle in order to reveal His Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart is symbolically represented as being ringed about in piercing thorns while flames (representing His ardent, infinite love for souls) pour out of His Heart which is crowned with a cross. The wound in His Heart from the lance gapes open wide while the rays of Mercy pour out form His Heart, the interior of which is like a white-hot furnace. In this image I have combined and synthesized both the traditional symbolism associated with the Sacred Heart as well as adding that of the image of Divine Mercy. In the Divine Mercy image: "The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls. These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross." (Diary 299) The words "I AM" are written in His halo, signifying His Divinity, referencing the words spoken by God to Moses when He revealed His Name as "I AM." (Exodus 3:14) The "IC XC" is the traditional Greek abbreviation of "Jesus Christ" (ΙΗϹΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟϹ). The titlos above which indicate a sacred name I have turned into a decorative alpha and omega, as a reference to Revelations 22:13: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."



:+: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus :+:

"There is in the Sacred Heart the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return." - Pope Leo XIII

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a special form of devotion paid to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God. It is a devotion that is Incarnational in character, since Jesus Christ—being both God and man—has a human heart which is united to His Divine Nature, and it is in this human vessel that the love of God is concretely and symbolically manifested. This devotion also emphasizes the sufferings and Passion of Christ, for it was in this sacrifice that His plan of salvation and love were fulfilled to save the human race. It is depicted as a wounded Heart, a Heart that has been wounded by love for mankind and which is on fire for the salvation of men.

In his encyclical Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion to the Sacred Heart) published on May 15th 1956, Pope Pius XII wrote this:

“For these reasons the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal Father and all mankind. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since "in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily." It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused. And finally—and this in a more natural and direct way—it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body. Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture and the official teaching of the Catholic faith instruct us that all things find their complete harmony and order in the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, and that He has manifestly directed His threefold love for the securing of our redemption, it unquestionably follows that we can contemplate and honor the Heart of the divine Redeemer as a symbolic image of His love and a witness of our redemption and, at the same time, as a sort of mystical ladder by which we mount to the embrace of "God our Savior." …Likewise we ought to meditate most lovingly on the beating of His Sacred Heart by which He seemed, as it were, to measure the time of His sojourn on earth until that final moment when, as the Evangelists testify, "crying out with a loud voice 'It is finished.', and bowing His Head, He yielded up the ghost." Then it was that His Heart ceased to beat and His sensible love was interrupted until the time when, triumphing over death, He rose from the tomb. But after His glorified body had been re-united to the soul of the divine Redeemer, conqueror of death, His most Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat with calm and imperturbable pulsations. Likewise, it will never cease to symbolize the threefold love with which He is bound to His heavenly Father and the entire human race, of which He has every claim to be the mystical Head.” (w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii…)

 
:+: A Brief History of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus :+:

Christians have always paid homage to the incarnate love of God that was manifested in His Passion and Death, and have recognized the mystical symbolism of the blood and water flowing from the side of Christ from which the Church—as Eve came from the side of Adam—sprang from the wounded side of the Lord. During the Middle Ages—and especially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries—as more pilgrims visited the Holy Land due to the Crusades, the veneration and remembrance of the Passion of the Lord and devotions related to His sufferings became increasingly prominent. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus began with the devotion to the five wounds of Christ, in which the wound in His heart symbolized the wound of Love. A work attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) called Vitis Mystica says this:

“They dug therefore, and they dug through not only His hands, but also His feet, yea, and His side also; and the very recesses of His most Sacred Heart, they pierced with the spear of rage, though it had already been wounded with the spear of love. ‘Thou hast wounded,’ says the Spouse in the Canticles of love, “thou hast wounded my Heart, my sister, my spouse.’ O Lord Jesus, Thy spouse, Thy love, Thy sister has wounded Thy Heart. Why then was it necessary that that Heart should be wounded further by Thine enemies?”

By the thirteenth century devotion to the wounds of Christ was widespread, and St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde of the Benedictine monastery of Helfta further spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through their mystical writings. On the Feast of St. John the Apostle (December 27th), Jesus invited Gertrude to come and repose on His Heart, along with the beloved disciple. After listening to the beatings of the Heart of Christ, Gertrude asked the Apostle why he had never written in his Gospel of the loving secrets of the Heart of Jesus. And St. John replied: “My mission was to write of the Eternal Word . . . but the language of the blissful pulsations of the Sacred Heart is reserved for latter times , that the time-worn world, grown cold in the love of God, may be warmed up by the hearing of such mysteries”.

In 1673, on the Feast of John the Apostle, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and revealed to her the desire that devotion to His Sacred Heart be made a universal devotion throughout the Church. Jesus said to her: “My Heart is so full of love for men that It can no longer contain the flames of Its burning love. I must discover to men the treasures of My Heart and save them from perdition.” St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s diary and revelations were widely circulated and became very popular, especially in France.

Finally, in 1856, Pope Pius IX extended the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the universal Church.

On June 10th 1898, Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart received a message from the Lord in which He expressed His desire for the whole world to be consecrated to His Sacred Heart. She duly had a letter written to Pope Leo XIII, in which the request was made to not only consecrate all Catholics to the Sacred Heart, but also all people, baptized or unbaptized. To this end she wrote:

“One might find it strange that Our Lord should ask for this consecration of the entire world and not content Himself with [that of] the Catholic Church. But His desire to reign, to be loved and glorified, and to set ablaze all hearts with His love and His mercy is so ardent that He wants Your Holiness to offer Him the hearts of all those who belong to Him by Baptism to facilitate their return to the true Church, and the hearts of those who have not yet received spiritual life by Holy Baptism, but for whom He has given His life and His Blood, and who are equally called to be one day children of the Holy Church, to hasten by this means their spiritual birth.”

On June 11 1899, Pope Leo XIII solemnly consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

"When [Gertrude was sick in bed] she saw the others assembling for the sermon, she complained within herself and said to the Lord:"You know, my dearest, how gladly I would now hear the sermon with all my heart, were I not held back by sickness." To which the Lord answered: "Would you like me to preach to you, my dearest?" She answered: "I would, very much." Then the Lord made her lean against His Heart, with the heart of her soul close to His Divine Heart. When her soul had sweetly rested there awhile, she heard in the Lord's heart two wondrous and very sweet pulsations.

The Lord said to her: "Each of these two pulsations brings about man's salvation in three ways. The first pulsation effects the salvation of sinners; the second, that of the just. With the first pulsation, first, I address God the Father, ceaselessly appeasing Him and leading Him to have mercy upon sinners. Second, I invoke all my saints, excusing the sinner with brotherly fidelity, and urging them to pray for him. Third, I address the sinner himself, calling upon him to repent, and awaiting his conversion with ineffable longing.

"With the second pulsation, first, I address God the Father, inviting Him to rejoice with Me for having shed My Precious Blood to such good purpose for the redemption of the just, in whose hearts I now find so many delights. Second, I address all the heavenly hosts, inviting them to praise the lives of the just, and to thank Me for the benefits I have already bestowed upon them, for those I will bestow upon them in the future. Third, I address the just themselves, lavishing various favors on them for their salvation and admonishing them to progress from day to day and from hour to hour. And just as the pulsations of the human heart are not impeded by seeing or hearing or by any manual work, but always maintain their regular motion, so the government and disposition of heaven and earth and the whole universe can never affect in the very least these twofold pulsations of My Divine Heart, still them, modify them, or in any way hinder them, till the end of time."

~ from The Herald of Divine Love by St. Gertrude the Great, Chapter 59

"We must know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge

It seems to me that our Lord's earnest desire to have his Sacred Heart honored in a special way is directed toward renewing the effects of redemption in our souls. For the Sacred Heart is an inexhaustible fountain and its sole desire is to pour itself out into the hearts of the humble so as to free them and prepare them to lead lives according to his good pleasure.

From this Divine Heart three streams flow endlessly. The first is the stream of mercy for sinners; it pours into their hearts sentiments of contrition and repentance. The second is the stream of charity which helps all in need and especially aids those seeking perfection to find the means of surmounting their difficulties. From the third stream flow love and light for the benefit of his friends who have attained perfection; these he wishes to unite to himself so that they may share his knowledge and commandments and, in their individual ways, devote themselves wholly to advancing his glory.

This Divine Heart is an abyss of all blessings, and into it the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need.

Therefore, you must unite yourselves to the Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, both at the beginning of your conversion in order to obtain proper dispositions, and at its end in order to make reparation. Are you making no progress in prayer? Then you need only offer God the prayers which the Savior has poured out for us in the sacrament of the altar. Offer God his fervent love in reparation for your sluggishness. In the course of every activity pray as follows: "My God, I do this or I endure that in the heart of your Son and according to his holy counsels. I offer it to you in reparation for anything blameworthy or imperfect in my actions." Continue to do this in every circumstance of life. And every time that some punishment, affliction or injustice comes your way, say to yourself: "Accept this as sent to you by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in order to unite yourself to Him."

But above all preserve peace of heart. This is more valuable than any treasure. In order to preserve it there is nothing more useful than renouncing your own will and substituting for it the will of the Divine Heart. In this way His will can carry out for us whatever contributes to His glory, and we will be happy to be His subjects and to trust entirely in Him."
~ From a letter of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

:+: Prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus :+:

Most loving Jesus, when I consider your tender Heart and see it full of mercy and tenderness toward sinners, my own heart is filled with joy and confidence that I shall be so kindly welcomed by You.  Unfortunately, how many times have I sinned!  But now, with Peter and with Mary Magdalene, I weep for my sins and detest them because they offend You, infinite Goodness.  Mercifully grant me pardon for them all; and let me die rather than offend You again; at least let me live only to love You in return.  Amen.


TO You, most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I devote my life. To You I consecrate all my thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings. My whole being shall be employed henceforth in loving, serving, and glorifying You. Be Thou, most blessed and adorable Heart, the sole object of my love, the protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou my advocate at the throne of Divine Justice, and screen me from the wrath which my sins deserve. I trust entirely in your mercy. I place all my confidence in You. Destroy in me all that is displeasing to You. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine. Imprint Thyself like a seal upon my heart in order that I may never be separated from You. May I be a victim forever consecrated to your glory - ever burning with the flames of your pure love in time and for eternity. This is my whole desire - to live, in You: This shall be my happiness, to live and die as your devoted servant. Sweet Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may love You more and more. Amen.


Prayer of St. Gertrude to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

I salute thee, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, living and vivifying source of eternal life, infinite treasure of the Divinity, ardent furnace of Divine love; Thou art the place of my repose and my refuge. Enkindle in my heart the fire of that ardent love with which Thine own is all inflamed; pour into my heart the great graces of which Thine is the source, and grant that my heart may be so closely united to Thine, that Thy will may be mine, and that my will may be eternally conformed to Thine, since I desire that henceforth Thy holy will may be the rule of all my desires and all my actions. Amen.



The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on the Friday after the Feast of Corpus Christi.

O God, who in the Heart of your Son,
wounded by our sins,
bestow on us in mercy
the boundless treasures of your love,
grant, we pray,
that, in paying Him the homage of our devotion,
we may also offer worthy reparation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.