Reconnecting With Mary . . . Devotion To The Sacred Heart: The Role Of The Popes

By DONAL FOLEY

Part 3

The final article in this series will look at the role of recent Popes in promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart, and it is particularly appropriate to look at this topic now, as June is traditionally seen as the month of the Sacred Heart.
In his encyclical on reparation to the Sacred Heart, Miserentissimus Redemptor, published in 1928, Pope Pius XI said: “There is surely no reason for doubting, Venerable Brethren, that from this devotion piously established and commanded to the whole Church, many excellent benefits will flow forth, not only to individual men, but also to society, sacred, civil, and domestic, seeing that our Redeemer Himself promised to Margaret Mary that ‘all those who rendered this honor to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces’.”
In 1956, the next Pope, Pius XII, likewise published an encyclical on this topic, entitled Haurietis Aquas, with the intention of promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart. In this he wrote:
“It is altogether impossible to enumerate the heavenly gifts which devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has poured out on the souls of the faithful, purifying them, offering them heavenly strength, rousing them to the attainment of all virtues. We are perfectly justified in seeing in this same devotion, which flourishes with increasing fervor throughout the world, a gift without price which our divine Savior the Incarnate Word, as the one Mediator of grace and truth between the heavenly Father and the human race imparted to the Church, His mystical Spouse, in recent centuries when she had to endure such trials and surmount so many difficulties.”
In his homily at Fatima on May 13, 1982, just over a year after the failed assassination attempt, Blessed Pope John Paul II, echoing St. John Eudes, linked the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the Immaculate Heart of Mary as follows:
“Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means drawing near, through the Mother’s intercession, to the very Fountain of life that sprang from Golgotha. This Fountain pours forth unceasingly redemption and grace. In it reparation is made continually for the sins of the world. It is a ceaseless source of new life and holiness. Consecrating the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother means returning beneath the cross of the Son. It means consecrating this world to the pierced heart of the Savior, bringing it back to the very source of redemption.”
And just over 20 years later, on June 24, 2002, John Paul II spoke of the Sacred Heart devotion at an angelus address in St. Peter’s Square as follows:
“To celebrate the Heart of Christ means to go to the inner center of the Person of the Savior, the  center which the Bible identifies as His Heart, the seat of the love that has redeemed the world. If the human heart is really an unfathomable mystery known only to God, how much more sublime is the Heart of Jesus in whom the very life of the Word is pulsating. Echoing the Scriptures, the beautiful Litany of the Sacred Heart suggests that we find in the Heart of Jesus all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and the whole fullness of divinity.
“To save man, the victim of his own disobedience, God wanted to give him a ‘new heart’ that would be faithful to His loving will. This heart is the Heart of Jesus, the Holy Spirit’s masterpiece, which began to beat in Mary’s virginal womb and was pierced by the spear as Jesus hung on the cross, becoming for all an inexhaustible source of eternal life. That Heart is now a pledge of hope for every man and woman.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was issued during the Pontificate of John Paul II, has this to say about the devotion:
“The Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that . . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings without exception” (CCC, n. 478).
More recently, Pope Benedict XVI, in a letter dated May 2006, wrote to the superior general of the Jesuits on the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius’s encyclical, saying: “By encouraging devotion to the Heart of Jesus, the encyclical Haurietis Aquas exhorted believers to open themselves to the mystery of God and of His love, and to allow themselves to be transformed by it. After 50 years, it is still a fitting task for Christians to continue to deepen their relationship with the Heart of Jesus, in such a way as to revive their faith in the saving love of God and to welcome Him ever more fully into their lives.”
And Pope Francis, a Jesuit, like St. Claude de la Colombière, who was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1992, has also been keen to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart. In his June 9, 2013 angelus address at the Vatican, he said:
“The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the highest human expression of divine love. Just this past Friday, in fact, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: The feast that sets the tone for the whole month. Popular piety highly prizes symbols, and the Heart of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of God’s mercy — but it is not an imaginary symbol, it is a real symbol, which represents the  center, the source from which salvation for all humanity gushed forth. . . .
“The Lord is always watching us with mercy, always awaits us with mercy. Let us be not afraid to approach Him! He has a merciful heart! If we show our inner wounds, our sins, He always forgives us. He is pure mercy! Let us never forget this: He is pure mercy! Let us go to Jesus!”

Abundant Blessings

Finally, we have below, our Lord’s twelve promises to St. Margaret Mary, promises which become operative in the lives of those who honor the Sacred Heart by undertaking a novena of nine Holy Communions on nine successive First Fridays of the month, with the right dispositions, and especially with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of Jesus for one’s own sins and the sins committed by others:
I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
I will establish peace in their homes.
I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
I will be their secure refuge during life, and especially at the hour of death.
I will bestow abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and ocean of infinite mercy.
Tepid souls shall become fervent.
Fervent souls shall rise rapidly to a high degree of perfection.
I will bless every place where a picture of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honored.
I will give to priests the power to touch the hardest hearts.
Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in my Heart, never to be blotted out.
I promise you, in the excessive mercy of my Heart, that its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of every month for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance, and that they shall not die without receiving the sacraments, and that my Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in that last moment.

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(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian Apparitions, and maintains a related web site at www.theotokos.org.uk.)