Feast Of The Sacred Heart Of Jesus. The Friday After The Octave Of Corpus Christi.

Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal or, where indicated, 
      Abbot Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year".

Images from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
      unless otherwise stated.

Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi.

Double of the First Class with Privileged Octave of the Third Order.

White Vestments.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and 

Saint Louis Gonzaga (circa 1770).

Artist: José de Páez, Mexico, 1727-1790.

Source: http://arttattler.com/archivelatinamerica.html.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Annum Sacrum

Annum Sacrum (meaning Holy Year) is an encyclical by Pope Leo XIII on the consecration of the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was delivered in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome on the 25th day of May, 1899, the twenty-second year of his pontificate.

The consecration in the encyclical entered new theological territory by consecrating non-Christians. The encyclical, and the consecration, were influenced by two letters written to the Pope by Sister Mary of the Divine Heart, who stated that, in visions of Jesus Christ, she had been told to request the consecration.

The encyclical includes the Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart, composed by Leo XIII.

English: Coat-of-Arms of Pope Leo XIII.

Français: Armoiries du pape Léon XIII : D'azur au cyprès de sinople planté sur une plaine de même accompagné au francs quartier d'une comête d'or et en pointe de deux flaurs de lys d'argent, à la fasce d'argent brochant sur le tout.

Date: 11 August 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Odejea.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Protestantism, in the 16th-Century, and Jansenism, in the 17th-Century, had attempted to spoil one of the essential dogmas of Christianity, namely, the love of God for all men.

It became necessary that the Spirit of Love, which directs the Church, should by some new means counteract the spreading heresy, in order that the Spouse of Christ, far from seeing her love for Jesus diminish, should feel it always increasing.

This was made manifest in Catholic worship, which is the sure rule of our faith, by the institution of the Feast of The Sacred Heart.

Yet, in early-Middle-Ages, the Doctors and Saints used to see, in the wound of Jesus' side, the source of all graces. Saint Bonaventure invites us "to enter this wound and to dwell in the quiet of this Heart" (Third Nocturn).

English: Saint John Eudes, 1673.

Nederlands: Portret Jean Eudes ca. 1673 -

publiek domein, ouderdom.

Source: Transferred from nl.wikipedia

Author: Original uploader was Besednjak at nl.wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

Jean Eudes (14 November 1601 - 19 August 1680) was a French missionary, founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, and author of the Propers for Mass and the Divine Office of The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

The two Benedictine Virgins, Saint Gertrude and Saint Mechtilde, in the 13th-Century, had a clear vision of the grandeur of the devotion to The Sacred Heart. Saint John the Evangelist, appearing to Saint Gertrude, announced to her that "the meaning of the blessed beating of the Heart of Jesus, which he had heard whilst his head rested on His breast, was reserved for the latter times, when the world, grown old and cold in Divine Love, would require to have its fervour renewed by means of this mystery of burning love".

English: 

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Italiano: 

Santa Margherita Maria Alacoque

Contempla il Sacro Cuore di Gesù.

Polski: 

Św. Małgorzata Maria Alacoque adoruje Najświętsze Serce Jezusa.

Artist: Giaquito Corrado.

Date: 1765.

Source: Lib-Art.com

(Wikimedia Commons)

This Heart, say these two Saints, is an altar on which Christ offers Himself to the Father as a perfect and most acceptable victim. It is a golden censer from which rise, towards the Father, as many clouds of incense as there are kinds of men for whom Christ suffered.

In this Heart, the praise and thanks we give to God and all our good works are ennobled and become acceptable to the Father.

But, in order to make this worship public and recognised, Providence first raised up Saint John Eudes, who, in 1670, composed an Office and a Mass of The Sacred Heart for the so-called Congregation of the Eudists.

Providence then chose one of the spiritual daughters of Saint Francis of Sales, Saint Margaret-Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus showed His Heart at Paray-le-Monial, on 16 June 1675, the Sunday after Corpus Christi, and asked her to institute a Feast of The Sacred Heart on the Friday following the Octave of Corpus Christi.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus,

(Sacro cuore di Jesu),

painting on the Altar in the Northern Side Chapel

of Il Gesu, in Rome, circa 1767,

by Pompeo Batoni.

Source: http://www.enid.uib.no/texts/achen_l.htm

(Wikimedia Commons)

Lastly, God employed, for the propagation of this devotion, Blessed Claude de la Colombiere. He belonged to the Company of Jesus, "the whole of which inherited his zeal in the propagation of the devotion to The Sacred Heart" [the quoted portion is from Dom Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year, Volume 10, Book 1: The Feast of The Sacred Heart"].

[Dom Gueranger writes, in the above tome, on The Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus: "A new ray of light shines today in the heaven of Holy Church, and its light brings warmth. The Divine Master given to us by our Redeemer, that is, the Paraclete Spirit, who has come down into this world, continues His teachings to us in the Sacred Liturgy. The earliest of these, His Divine Teachings, was the Mystery of the Trinity; and we have worshipped the Blessed Three: We have been taught Whom God is, we know Him in His own nature, we have been admitted, by faith, into the sanctuary of the infinite Essence.

Image of Prosper Gueranger

by Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard (1874).

Date: 2007-05-07 (original upload date).

Source: Transfered from en.wikipedia

Author: Original uploader was Ikanreed at en.wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

"Then, this Spirit, the mighty wind of Pentecost, opened to our Souls new aspects of the truth, which it is His mission to make the world remember; and His revelation left us prostrate before the Sacred Host, the Memorial which God Himself has left us of all His wonderful works.

"Today, it is the Sacred Heart of the Word made flesh that this Holy Spirit puts before us, that we may know and love and adore it."]

In 1765, Pope Clement XIII, gave his approbation to the Feast and the Office of The Sacred Heart, and, in 1856, Pope Pius IX, extended it to the universal Church. In 1929, Pope Pius XI composed a new Mass and Office for this Feast and gave it a Privileged Octave of the Third Order.

The Solemnity of The Sacred Heart sums up all the phases of the life of Jesus, recalled in the Liturgy from Advent to the Feast of Corpus Christi.

It constitutes an admirable triptych, giving us, in abridgment, all the Mysteries (Joyous, Sorrowful and Glorious) of the Saviour's Life devoted to the love of God and men. This Feast is, indeed, placed on a height from which may be contemplated the redeeming labours of the Saviour on Earth and the glorious victories He will, by the working of the Holy Ghost, achieve in Souls until the end of the world.

Pope Leo XIII

in 1880.

Source: 1880 book on Pope Leo XIII.

Author: Karl Benzinger.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Pope Leo XIII wrote the Encyclical, "Annum Sacrum", on the Consecration of the entire world to The Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was delivered in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome on 25 May 1899.

Coming after the Feasts of Christ, this Feast completes them, concentrating them in one object, which is materially Jesus' Heart of flesh, and formally the unbounded charity symbolised by this Heart. This Solemnity, therefore, does not relate to a particular Mystery of the Saviour's Life, but embraces them all; indeed, the Devotion to The Sacred Heart celebrates all the favours we have received from Divine Charity during the year (Collect), and all the marvellous things that Jesus has done for us (Introit, Tract, Alleluia).

It is the Feast of the Love of God for men, a love which has made Jesus come down on Earth for all by His Incarnation (Epistle), which has raised Him on the Cross for the Redemption of all and which brings Him down every day on our Altars by Transubstantiation, in order to make us benefit by the merits of His Death on Calvary.

Deutsch: Schwester Maria Droste zu Vischering

English: Mary of the Divine Heart

Español: Beata María del Divino Corazón

Portrait of Blessed Sister Mary of the Divine Heart,

Countess of Droste zu Vischering

and Mother Superior of the Good Shepherd Convent

in Porto, Portugal.

Date: Circa 1890.

Source: KIRCHENSITE.DE

Author: Unknown.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Blessed Mary of The Divine Heart (1863 - 1899).

Born Maria Droste zu Vischering, she was a German Roman Catholic Nun, who was best known for influencing Pope Leo XIII's Consecration of the World to The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Pope Leo XII called this Consecration "the greatest act of my Pontificate".

These three Mysteries, which manifest to us the Divine Charity in a more special way, sum up the spirit of the Feast of The Sacred Heart. It is "His love which forced Him to put on a mortal body" (Hymn at Matins). It is His love which willed that The Sacred Heart should be pierced on the Cross (Gospel and Communion), in order that, from the wound, should flow a spring (Preface) we might draw from, joyfully (Versicle at Second Vespers), whose water cleanses us from our sins in Baptism and whose blood nourishes our Souls in the Eucharist.

And, as the Eucharist is the continuation of the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Calvary, Jesus asked that the Feast should be placed immediately after the Octave of Corpus Christi.

As these manifestations of Christ's Love only show the more the ingratitude of men, who only answer by coldness and indifference (Offertory), this Solemnity has a character of reparation (Collect) demanded of us by the Wounded Heart of Jesus and by His Immolation in the Crib, on the Cross and on the Altar.

Let us learn from the Heart of Jesus, whose gentle and humble Love turns no-one away, and in it we shall find rest for our Souls (Alleluia).

The Mystery of Advent (Part Four)

Italic text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal is obtainable from Carmel Books, Blackford House, Andover Road, Highclere, Newbury, Berkshire, England RG20 9PF. Tel: (01635 255340).
E-Mail: enquiries.carmelbooks@gmail.com

Illustrations are taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe “at St. Bernard.”, 328 West 14th Street, New York.

Taken from the Blog of The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny at http://sthughofcluny.org

In this way, the Church makes pass before our eyes the magnificent procession which, all down the ages, goes before Jesus Christ. There we see Jacob, Judah, Moses, David, Micheas, Jeremias, Ezechiel, Daniel, Joel, Zacharias, Habacuc, Osea, Aggeus, Malachias, and, above all, Isaias, Saint John The Baptist [with whom three out of the four Advent Gospels are concerned], Saint Joseph, and the glorious Virgin Mary, who sums up in herself all Messianic hopes, seeing that their fulfilment hung on her Fiat. "Be it done unto me according to Thy word. All these holy Souls yearned for the Redeemer, and in their fervent longing they besought Him to hasten the day when He would come.

As we follow the Masses and Office of Advent, we are impressed by these urgent and pressing appeals to the Messias:

"Come, Lord, nor tarry longer [Gradual for the Fourth Sunday]". 

"The Lord is nigh, come, let us adore Him." 

"Come, Lord, and save us." 

"The King who is to come; O come, let us adore Him." 

"Show forth Thy power, O Lord, and come [Collect for the Fourth Sunday]." 

English: Stained glass, St John the Baptist's Anglican Church, 

Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia. 

Illustrates Jesus' description of Himself: "I am the Good Shepherd" 

(from the Gospel of John, Chapter 10, Verse 11). 

[This version of the image shows a vertical section focusing on Jesus.]

The memorial window is also captioned: 

"To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. 

Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70."

Français : Vitrail de l'église anglicane Saint Jean Baptiste d'Ashfield (site de l'église), 

en Nouvelle Galles du Sud (Australie). 

Le vitrail illustre la description de Jésus par lui même dans le livre de Jean (chapitre 10, verset 11). On lit aussi sur ce vitrail: (« Dédié à la gloire de Dieu, et à la mémoire de William Wright, 

mort le 6 Novembre 1932 à l'âge de 70 ans »).

Source: A derivative work of File: St. Johns, Ashfield. StainedGlass, GoodShepherd.jpg

Author: Stained glass: Alfred Handel, d. 1946[2], Photo:Toby Hudson.

(Wikimedia Commons)

[All the following are from the Greater Antiphons] [the Great O Antiphons]

"O Wisdom, come and teach us the way of Prudence." 

"O God, guide of the House of Israel, come, stretch forth Thy hand and redeem us."

"O Root of Jesse; come to deliver us and tarry not."

"O key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel, come and release the captive plunged in darkness and the shadow of death."

"Morning Star; brightness of Eternal Light, come and enlighten those who are plunged in darkness and the shadow of death."

"O King and Desire of nations, come and save man whom Thou hast made from the slime of the Earth."

"O Emmanuel [God with us], Our King and our Lawgiver, O Lord, Our God."

Our Lady of Coromoto, 

(Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Coromoto,)

Patroness of Venezuela.

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe “at St. Bernard.”, 328 West 14th Street, New York.

Taken from the Blog of The Society of St. Hugh of Cluny at http://sthughofcluny.org

The longed-for Messias is the Son of God, Himself, the Great Royal Deliverer, who is to conquer Satan and reign over His people for ever, whom all nations shall serve. The very reason why we should utter "Come", crying to Our Lord, "O, Thou corner stone, uniting in Thyself the two peoples, come," is that the Divine Mercy extends, not only to Israel, but to all the Gentiles as well.

"And when He comes, we shall all be guided together by this Divine Shepherd." "He shall feed His flock," says Isaias, ". . . He shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom." He, even our Lord God.

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON THE MYSTERY OF ADVENT.

Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

Illustration taken from the Web-Site of the Transalpine Redemptorists

The following text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for 16 July, The Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

Greater-Double

White Vestments

According to a pious tradition authorised by the Liturgy, on the day of Pentecost a number of men who walked in the footsteps of the holy prophets, Elias and Eliseus, and whom John the Baptist had prepared for the advent of Jesus, embraced the Christian faith, and erected the first Church to the Blessed Virgin on Mount Carmel, at the very spot where Elias had seen a cloud rise, a figure of the fecundity of the Mother of God (Lesson of Second Nocturn at Matins).

They were called: Brethren of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel (Collect). These Religious came to Europe in the 13th-Century and, in 1245, Pope Innocent IV gave his approbation to their rule under the generalship of Simon Stock, an English Saint.

On 16 July 1251, Mary appeared to this fervent servant [Simon Stock] and placed in his hands the habit which was to be their distinctive sign. Pope Innocent IV blessed this habit and attached to it many privileges, not only for the members of the Order, but also for those who entered the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. By wearing the scapular, which is in smaller form than that of the Carmelite Fathers, they participate in all their merits and may hope to obtain through the Virgin a prompt delivery from Purgatory, if they have faithfully observed abstinence, chastity (according to their state), and said the Prayers prescribed by Pope John XXII, in the Sabbatine Bull, published on 3 March 1322.

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, at first celebrated only in the Churches of the Order, was extended to all Christendom by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726.

Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus (Part Three)

Italic Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal or, where indicated,
      Abbot Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year".

Non-Italic Text and Images taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
      unless otherwise accredited.

[This Feast was held on Friday, 15 June 2012 - Editor].

Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi.
Double of the First Class with Privileged Octave of the Third Order.
White Vestments.

Pope Leo XIII wrote the encyclical, "Annum Sacrum", on the consecration of the entire world to The Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was delivered in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome on 25 May 1899.

Coming after the Feasts of Christ, this Feast completes them, concentrating them in one object, which is materially Jesus' Heart of flesh, and formally the unbounded charity symbolised by this Heart. This Solemnity, therefore, does not relate to a particular mystery of the Saviour's life, but embraces them all; indeed, the devotion to The Sacred Heart celebrates all the favours we have received from Divine Charity during the year (Collect), and all the marvellous things that Jesus has done for us (Introit, Tract, Alleluia).

It is the Feast of the love of God for men, a love which has made Jesus come down on Earth for all by His Incarnation (Epistle), which has raised Him on the Cross for the Redemption of all and which brings Him down every day on our altars by Transubstantiation, in order to make us benefit by the merits of His death on Calvary.

Blessed Mary of The Divine Heart (1863 - 1899).

Born Maria Droste zu Vischering, she was a German Roman Catholic nun, who was best known for influencing Pope Leo XIII's consecration of the world to The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Pope Leo XII called this consecration "the greatest act of my pontificate".

These three mysteries, which manifest to us the Divine Charity in a more special way, sum up the spirit of the Feast of The Sacred Heart. It is "His love which forced Him to put on a mortal body" (Hymn at Matins). It is His love which willed that The Sacred Heart should be pierced on the Cross (Gospel and Communion), in order that from the wound should flow a spring  (Preface) we might draw from joyfully (versicle at Second Vespers), whose water cleanses us from our sins in Baptism and whose blood nourishes our Souls in the Eucharist.

And, as the Eucharist is the continuation of the Incarnation and the sacrifice of Calvary, Jesus asked that the Feast should be placed immediately after the Octave of Corpus Christi.

As these manifestations of Christ's love only show the more the ingratitude of men who only answer by coldness and indifference (Offertory), this Solemnity has a character of reparation (Collect) demanded of us by the wounded Heart of Jesus and by His immolation in the Crib, on the Cross and on the Altar.

Let us learn from the Heart of Jesus, whose gentle and humble love turns no-one away, and in it we shall find rest for our Souls (Alleluia).

THIS CONCLUDES THIS ARTICLE

Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus (Part Two)

Italic Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal or, where indicated, 
      Abbot Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year".
Non-Italic Text and Images taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia,
      unless otherwise accredited.

[This Feast was held on Friday, 15 June 2012 - Editor].

Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi.
Double of the First Class with Privileged Octave of the Third Order.
White Vestments.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647 - 1690)

English: 

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque Contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Italiano: 

Santa Margherita Maria Alacoque Contempla il Sacro Cuore di Gesù.

Polski: 

Św. Małgorzata Maria Alacoque adoruje Najświętsze Serce Jezusa.

Artist: Giaquito Corrado.

Date: 1765.

Source: Lib-Art.com

This Heart, say these two Saints, is an altar on which Christ offers Himself to the Father as a perfect and most acceptable victim. It is a golden censer from which rise, towards the Father, as many clouds of incense as there are kinds of men for whom Christ suffered.

In this Heart, the praise and thanks we give to God and all our good works are ennobled and become acceptable to the Father.

But, in order to make this worship public and recognised, Providence first raised up Saint John Eudes, who, in 1670, composed an Office and a Mass of The Sacred Heart for the so-called Congregation of the Eudists.

Providence then chose one of the spiritual daughters of Saint Francis of Sales, Saint Margaret-Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus showed His Heart at Paray-le-Monial, on 16 June 1675, the Sunday after Corpus Christi, and asked her to institute a Feast of The Sacred Heart on the Friday following the Octave of Corpus Christi.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Sacro cuore di Jesu, painting on the altar in the Northern side chapel 

of Il Gesu, in Rome, circa 1740,

by Pompeo Batoni.

Source: http://www.enid.uib.no/texts/achen_l.htm

Lastly, God employed, for the propagation of this devotion, Blessed Claude de la Colombiere. He belonged to the Company of Jesus, "the whole of which inherited his zeal in the propagation of the devotion to The Sacred Heart" [the quoted portion is from Dom Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year, Volume 10, Book 1: The Feast of The Sacred Heart"].

[Dom Gueranger writes, in the above tome, on The Feast of The Sacred Heart of Jesus: "A new ray of light shines today in the heaven of Holy Church, and its light brings warmth. The Divine Master given to us by our Redeemer, that is, the Paraclete Spirit, who has come down into this world, continues His teachings to us in the Sacred Liturgy. The earliest of these, His Divine Teachings, was the mystery of the Trinity; and we have worshipped the Blessed Three: We have been taught who God is, we know Him in His own nature, we have been admitted, by faith, into the sanctuary of the infinite Essence.

Image of Prosper Gueranger by Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard (1874)

"Then, this Spirit, the mighty wind of Pentecost, opened to our Souls new aspects of the truth, which it is His mission to make the world remember; and His revelation left us prostrate before the Sacred Host, the Memorial which God Himself has left us of all His wonderful works.

"Today, it is the Sacred Heart of the Word made flesh that this Holy Spirit puts before us, that we may know and love and adore it."]

In 1765, Pope Clement XIII, gave his approbation to the Feast and the Office of The Sacred Heart, and, in 1856, Pope Pius IX, extended it to the universal Church. In 1929, Pope Pius XI composed a new Mass and Office for this Feast and gave it a Privileged Octave of the Third Order.

The Solemnity of The Sacred Heart sums up all the phases of the life of Jesus, recalled in the Liturgy from Advent to the Feast of Corpus Christi.

It constitutes an admirable triptych, giving us, in abridgement, all the Mysteries (Joyous, Sorrowful and Glorious) of the Saviour's life devoted to the love of God and men. This Feast is, indeed, placed on a height from which may be contemplated the redeeming labours of the Saviour on Earth and the glorious victories He will, by the working of the Holy Ghost, achieve in Souls until the end of the world.

PART THREE FOLLOWS