The Statue of the Sacred Heart.

The statue of the Sacred Heart was, literally, rescued from a skip in a very sorry state with a detached right arm. Successfully restored it was placed on a plinth in the church.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus draws upon the popular sense of the heart as the seat of a person’s inner life, both natural and supernatural. Christ’s threefold love for human beings – human, infused and divine – is epitomised by the pierced heart of Jesus hanging on the cross. Although the revival of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been ascribed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a humble Visitandine of the monastery at Pary-le-Monial devotion to the love of God, Who so loved the world as to send His Son to redeem it, can be traced to the early years of the Church’s existence – although, during the first ten centuries there is nothing to indicate that there was any worship of the wounded heart.

The Heart of Jesus appears to us as the embodiment of His love while the wound recalls the invisible wound in Christ’s love. A visible heart is necessary for an image of the Sacred Heart. The devotion to the Sacred Heart, directed as it is to the living heart of Jesus, leads to one becoming familiar with the whole person of Jesus who thus becomes infinitely loving and loveable. A first extension of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is to an intimate knowledge of Jesus – to His sentiments and virtues and to His whole emotional and moral life. Devotion to the Sacred Heart, while being directed to the Heart of Jesus as the emblem of His love for mankind does not exclude the Son’s love for the Father which is included in His love for humanity.

The worship paid to the Heart of Jesus extends further than the anatomical organ, it is directed to the love of which this Heart is the living and expressive symbol.

From the Apostolic Era, the times of St. John and St. Paul, there has always been within the Church a devotion to the love of God who sent His only-begotten Son to redeem fallen humanity. Although Christ’s open side and the blood and water that flowed from it were meditated upon, and the Church was held as flowing from that side there is nothing to indicate that during the first ten centuries there was any worship rendered specifically to the wounded Heart.

It is only in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that the first unmistakable indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart appear. To St. Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St. Gertrude (d. 1302) it was a familiar devotion which was translated into many beautiful prayers and exercises. In a vision on the feast of St. John the Evangelist, St. Gertrude was allowed to rest her head near the wound in Christ’s side and heard the beating of the Divine Heart. However, devotion to the Sacred Heart remained private, of the mystical order.

The development of the public devotion to the Sacred Heart is due to the influence of St. John Eudes (1602-1680). An apostle of the Heart of Mary there was, in his devotion, there was also room for the Heart of Mary’s Son, Jesus. Gradually the devotion to the Sacred Heart became separate from that to the Heart of Mary and on the 31^st of August 1670 the first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated with great solemnity in the Grand Seminary of Rennes.

However, it is to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that Christ gave the task of imparting new life to the devotion to his Sacred Heart. In a series of revelations, during which Christ permitted Margaret Mary, as he had done St. Gertrude, to rest her head on His Heart, He disclosed to her the wonders of His love, telling her that He desired to make them known to all humanity. He also asked for a devotion of expiatory love – frequent Communion, Communion on the First Friday of the month and observance of the Holy Hour. During the "great apparition" that took place during the octave of Corpus Christi in 1675, probably on the 16^th of June, Jesus is reported as saying: "Behold the Heart that so loved men ... instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of mankind) only ingratitude ...". He asked Margaret Mary for a feast of reparation on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi bidding her to consult the then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray, Father de la Colombière. This she did and the latter, recognising the action of the Spirit of God, directed Margaret Mary to write an account of the apparition and, until his death in 1682, made use of every available opportunity to discreetly circulate this account through France and England. The death of Margaret Mary on the 17^th of October 1690 did little to dampen interest in the devotion despite the apparent slowness of the Holy See to officially recognise the feast. It would not be until 1856 when, as a result of urgent entreaties by French bishops, that Pope Pius IX granted the feast to the universal Church. Finally, on the 11^th of June 1899, by order of Pope Leo XIII, all mankind was solemnly consecrated to the Sacred Heart.

Litany of the Sacred Heart.
	Lord have mercy	Lord have mercy
	Christ have mercy	Christ have mercy
	Lord have mercy	Lord have mercy
	Christ hear us	Christ hear us
	Christ graciously hear us	Christ graciously hear us
	God the Father in heaven	Have mercy on us
	God the Son, Redeemer of the world	Have mercy on us
	God the Holy Spirit	Have mercy on us
	Holy Trinity, one God	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Word of God	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, sacred temple of God	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the most high	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, wellspring of all virtues	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, King and centre of all hearts	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, in whom are all treasures of wisdom and knowledge	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, in whom dwells the fullness of divinity	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father is well pleased	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, patient and most merciful	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, enriching to all who invoke you	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, fountain of love and holiness	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, atonement for our sins	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, overwhelmed with insults	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, bruised for our offences	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, obedient unto death	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus pierced with a lance	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, victim of sins	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in you	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in you	Have mercy on us
	Heart of Jesus, delight of all the Saints	Have mercy on us
	Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world	Spare us O Lord
	Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world	Graciously hear us O lord
	Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world	Have mercy on us
Jesus, meek and humble of Heart
Make our hearts like unto Thine
Let us pray. Almighty and Eternal God, look upon the Heart of your dearly beloved Son and upon the praise and satisfaction He offers you in the name of sinners and for those who seek your mercy; be appeased, and grant us pardon in the name of the same Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever. Amen

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690).

I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honour, love and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take you, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death. Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me all the strokes of His righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in you, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from your goodness and bounty. Remove from me all that can displease you or resist your holy will; let your pure love imprint your image so deeply upon my heart, that I shall never be able to forget you or to be separated from you. May I obtain from all your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in your hearts, for in you I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to you.

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890).

Most sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, you are concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and you bear for us still. Now, as then, you say: "With desire I have desired." I worship you with all my best love and awe, with fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will. For a while you take up your abode within me. O make my heart beat with your Heart! Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, of all perversity, of all disorder. So fill it with you, that neither the events of the day, nor the circumstances of the time, may have the power to ruffle it; that in your love and your fear, it may have peace. Amen.