Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

As we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart on 7th June 2024, we are reminded of our calling to love each other as Jesus loves us. 

In many contexts, hearts are commonly used as a symbol of love.  This is also the case with the image of the Sacred Heart.  As a key symbol of our living faith, the Sacred Heart offers a representation of Jesus’ love for us, and his new commandment that we must love one another. 

The image of the Sacred Heart is also a reminder that Jesus lived life among us in a manner that was fully human. He walked on earth, like us. He had joys, hopes, griefs and anxieties, like us. He enjoyed telling stories, and hearing about the lives of others, like us. And he experienced suffering like us, and was deeply moved by the suffering of others.

When we contemplate the Sacred Heart, we remember that Jesus lived his early life on the margins of society. That he was born into vulnerability and fragility. That his parents were internally displaced, and experienced forced migration. That with his family he left his homeland, fleeing persecution and violence, to live as a refugee in a foreign land. That his adult life was reliant on the hospitality of others, and that he had nowhere to lay his head.  Yet His love for God and others never ceased to shine.

Let us pray:

“Sacred Heart of Jesus, burning with love of us, 

inflame our hearts with love of Thee.”