An Abyss of Joy

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is coming up fast -- how much do you know about this devotion?

As a child I was frightened of the picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary that hung in my grandmother's bedroom. Long into adulthood I knew little more about the Sacred Heart than it was a frequent subject of tacky art and of tattoos (there are 99 at www.rankmytattoos.com -- a site not for the faint hearted).

The symbolism of the heart as it's typically depicted is powerful, even if you don't understand what it means; hence its popularity on tattoos. The heart -- either shown on top of Jesus's breast or by itself -- is usually depicted as on fire with love and shining with divine light. It's bleeding from the lance-wound recounted in the Gospels, ringed by a crown of thorns, and topped with a cross. Together these symbols mean the transformative power of the love of the crucified Christ, which is what devotion to the Sacred Heart is all about.

Devotion to Christ's heart dates to the middle ages, when it was popular among saints and religious orders, particularly the more mystical ones, although it was also a favorite of the fiercely practical Jesuits. But in the 1600s, the visions of French nun Margaret Mary (now St. Margaret Mary) spread the devotion among lay people.

From St. Margaret Mary's visions came the feast itself, a feast of reparation for all the ungrateful people of the world, and some beautiful images like this one: "This divine heart is an abyss filled with all blessings, and into it the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need."

Other prayers and traditions, such as enthroning one's house to the Sacred Heart (that's where my grandmother's picture came from) date to the 1890s, when the feast was declared for the universal Church.

Enthronement, still very popular in some areas and rare in others, is a ceremony consecrating the house and everyone in it to the Sacred Heart. It can be done by a priest or the homeowner, and ends with a picture or statue being "enthroned" or placed in a prominent spot to serve as a daily reminder of the consecration. You can get the prayers, and send away for a commemorative certificate, here. If you like to think big, there's a national organization that works to consecrate whole parishes at a time.

But if you hate to wait, don't worry -- in 1899 Pope Leo XIII consecrated the whole world to the Sacred Heart, and later St. Pius X decreed that the consecration be renewed every year. So you're already covered.

And that's why I love the Catholic Church. The picture that scared me as a child was gruesome, because the death that saved the world was gruesome. It was sad, because it is sad that no one can ever be grateful enough for salvation, and many never try. What I couldn't see was that it was also full of joy. But the Church saw. She took care of it, as she always does. Whichever way you turn, whatever you discover, you find that the Church is already there, waiting for you.

Oh, and one more thing. There's a pretty good radio station named for the Sacred Heart, which produces the Son Rise Morning Show. And right now it could use some donations. No amount is too small.