Posted on 11/05/2003 3:21:46 PM PST by Canticle_of_Deborah
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has an ancient history. At the beginning of devotion to the Sacred Heart we find references of the Fathers of the Church to the Sacred Wound of the Side of Jesus. In time devotion to this Sacred Wound led to devotion to the Sacred Heart. From this Sacred Wound, with the Blood and Water, the Church and the Sacraments were born. The Blood symbolized the Holy Eucharist and the Water symbolized Baptism. As St. Ambrose (d.397) stated: "The Water cleanses us, the Blood redeems us." This was also the teaching of St. John Chrysostom (d.407).
Another theme that the Fathers of the Church contemplated was that, at the Last Supper, St. John leaned upon the breast of Our Lord and thereby received Divine Wisdom. St. Augustine (d.430) explains that St. John drank in "sublime secrets from the innermost depths of Our Lord's Heart." St. Paulinus of Nola (d.431) taught that this was how St. John received the wisdom to write His Gospel and the Apocalypse.
In a later age another theme that was considered by William of St. Thierry (d.1148) was that we should spiritually "enter wholly into the Heart of Jesus, into the Holy of Holies." St. William's friend, the great St. Bernard (d.1153) explained that the piercing of Our Blessed Lord's side reveals His goodness and the charity of His Heart for us. Another writer of the Middle Ages, Richard of St. Victor (d.1173) taught that no sweetness or tenderness could be found that could be compared to that of the Heart of Jesus.
The earliest known hymn to the Sacred Heart, "Summi Regis Cor Aveto" is believed to have been written by the Norbertine, Blessed Herman Joseph (d.1241) of Cologne, Germany. This hymn begins beautifully with, "I hail Thee kingly Heart most high."
St. Lutgarde (d.1246) the Cistercian mystic of Aywieres, Belgium had visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When once asked by Our Lord what gift she wanted, she replied: "I want Your Heart." To which Jesus responded: "I want your heart." Then Our Blessed Lord granted the Saint a very special grace. He mystically exchanged hearts with her. St. Lutgarde is the first known mystic to receive this grace.
Of St. Clare (d.1253) we read that she greeted many times a day the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. St. Bonaventure (d.1274), the Franciscan and a great theologian, wrote: "Since we have reached the most sweet Heart of Jesus, and it is good for us to abide in It, let us not readily turn away from It. How good, how sweet it is to dwell in Thy Heart, O good Jesus! Who is there who would not desire this pearl? I would rather give all else, all my thoughts and all the affections of my soul in exchange for It, casting my whole mind into the Heart of my good Jesus." St. Bonaventure also wrote: "Who is there who would not love this wounded Heart? Who would not love, in return, Him Who loves so much?"
St. Gertrude the Great (d.1301 or 1302) is a very important saint in the history of devotion to the Sacred Heart. She was born on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1256. She joined the Benedictine Nuns as a boarding student at Helfta, Germany at a very early age and later became a nun there. She was blessed to have as her friend in the community, St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn (d.1298). The community at Helfta was Benedictine—however they followed customs of the Cistercians—hence sometimes St. Gertrude is said, incorrectly, to have been a Cistercian.
St. Gertrude was a Saint blessed with many mystical experiences and her devotion to the Sacred Heart was so great that she truly is the St. Margaret Mary of the Middle Ages. St. Mechtilde of Hackeborn also had a very special devotion for the Sacred Heart.
So great was St. Gertrude's love for the Sacred Heart that once, when St. John the Apostle appeared to her, she asked him why he did not write of the Sacred Heart. He replied, "Because I was charged with instructing the newly-formed Church concerning the mysteries of the Uncreated Word." St. John then told St. Gertrude that the grace of learning of the Sacred Heart was reserved to her century, to rouse it from its lethargy so that it would be inflamed with the great worth of Divine Love.
St. Gertrude prayed: "Through Thy Wounded Heart, dearest Lord, pierce my heart so deeply with the dart of Thy love that it may no longer be able to contain earthly things but may be governed by the action of Thy Divinity alone."
Once, when St. Gertrude's friend, St. Mechtilde, was praying for a woman who was suffering, Our Blessed Lord said to St. Mechtilde that the woman should, with childlike simplicity, bring each of her troubles to Him and that she should seek consolation in His Compassionate Heart. St. Mechtilde taught that Jesus has given us the gift of His Sacred Heart so that, when suffering, we can seek our refuge and our consolation there.
Let us now consider three hymns from the Middle Ages. One, by the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi (d.1306), refers to Christ writing the names of devout souls upon His Heart. Another hymn, written by the English hermit, Richard Rolle (d.1349?), speaks of how it was for us that Our Lord's Heart was pierced. And in a hymn of one of Richard Rolle's followers we read of "Jesus, Sweetheart," and then the hymn explains that the Lord "carest for naught but love of me."
Two of the mystics from the group known as the "Rhineland Mystics" in Germany referred to Our Lord's Heart. The Dominican Johannes Tauler (d.1361) encourages one to take refuge in this sweet Heart which is open to those who give their hearts to Jesus. Blessed Henry Suso (d.1366), also a Dominican, once had a vision of an Angel taking his heart from him and uniting it in rapturous love to the Heart of Jesus.
The Carthusian monks were among the earliest religious orders to be devoted to the Sacred Heart. The Carthusian, Ludolph of Saxony (d.1378), wrote: "Our Lord's Heart was wounded with the wound of love for our sake, so that, loving Him in return, we might enter through that open wound into His Heart and there live inflamed with His love, just as iron cast into the fire becomes incandescent."
The great Dominican mystic, St. Catherine of Siena (d.1380), one day said to Our Lord: "Sweet, Spotless Lamb, You were dead when Your Side was opened. Why, then, did You allow that Your Heart should be thus wounded and opened by force?" Our Lord answered: "For several reasons, of which I will tell you the principal. My desires regarding the human race were infinite and the actual time of suffering and torture was at an end. Since my love is infinite, I could not therefore by this suffering manifest to you how much I loved you. That is why I willed to reveal to you the secret of my Heart by letting you see It open, that you might well understand that It loved you far more than I could prove to you by a suffering that was over."
Julian of Norwich (d.1416), the English anchoress and mystic, tells us of the following vision she had: "Then Our Lord looked into His Side and rejoiced. By this sweet look He had me gaze within this Wound. He showed me a fair, delectable place, and large enough for all mankind that shall be saved to rest in peace and in love. And therewith He had me recall His dear-worthy Blood and precious Water which He let pour out for love and He showed His blissful Heart."
A Carthusian, Dominic of Treves (d.1461), wrote: "In this most sweet Heart of Jesus, is found all virtue, the source of life, perfect consolation, the true light that enlightens every man."
The Italian Poor Clare Nun Blessed Baptista Varani (d.1527) honored and also shared in the sufferings of the sorrow-filled Heart of Jesus. When she asked Jesus how great was the sorrow of His Heart His answer was: "as great as the love which I bear toward my creatures." Our Blessed Lord told Blessed Baptista that the sorrows of His Heart were so great because so many people are in mortal sin.
The Carthusian, called Lansperguis (d.1539), recommended that people have a picture of the Sacred Heart to foster their devotion. He encouraged that the picture be placed where it would be easily seen so that by seeing it holy love would be kindled in the soul. He also encouraged that this picture be kissed with affection. This is perhaps the first reference to encouraging people to have a picture of the Sacred Heart.
St. Teresa of Avila (d.1582), the great Spanish Carmelite mystic and "Doctor of Prayer," explained that we should make the Sacred Wound our place of refuge as also did the Spanish Dominican, Venerable Louis of Grenada (d.1588).
Another reference from the 1500's to an image of the Sacred Heart is by the daughter of the English martyr, Sir Thomas Percy, who founded an abbey for English Benedictine Nuns at Brussels in 1596. Lady Mary Percy had the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus placed over the door of the abbey. Years later, this abbey was to have the first altar in Belgium dedicated to the Sacred Heart.
St. Francis de Sales (d.1622), who with St. Jane de Chantel (d.1641) founded the Visitation Nuns, explained that this congregation was truly "the work of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary." And St. Jane, herself, stated: "May God give us the grace to live and die in the Sacred Heart."
In 1629, Mathias Hejnal published a book about the Sacred Heart and Gospor Drusbichi, in 1662, published another one. In 1642, the Puritan Protestant, Thomas Goodwin, published a book about the Sacred Heart which was later, in 1819, reprinted by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodists.
St. John Eudes (d.1680) was a great apostle of devotion to both the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In the religious community that he founded, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, he brought about—for the first time ever—the celebration of a feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and one for the Immaculate Heart of Mary. St. John Eudes taught that the Sacred Heart is a Furnace of Divine Love. Those who desire to be united to this most loving Heart are purified, inflamed and transformed by this Divine Fire.
(All quotations in the above section are taken with permission from "The Sacred Heart in the Life of the Church" by Mother Margaret Williams, R.S.C.J. published by Sheed & Ward, New York and "Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus—The Doctrine and Its History" by Father J. V. Bainvel, S.J. published by Burns & Oates Ltd., London.)
Sacred Heart bump on 06-04-04!
Thanks. I forgot about this thread.
BTTT on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 3, 2005.
BTTT!
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