The Month of June - Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart. The Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost. I love the month of June and I like to find ways to make Ordinary Time special after all the Easter celebrations! The Sacred Heart reveals himself as "gentle and humble of heart" (Mt 11, 29).
Apart from this solemnity, June has in store three special feast days. First, we celebrate the solemnity of the Holy Trinity on June 7th and Corpus Christi on June 14th followed by the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19th. Finally the Immaculate Heart of Mary on June 20th! It is such a wonderful time to focus on God’s love for each of us, especially through the gift of the Blessed Sacrament and the pious practice of the first Fridays of the month which derives from the "great promises" made by Jesus to St. Margaret Mary.
The Devotion to the Sacred Heart was also an essential component of Pope John Paul II’s hopes for the “new evangelization” called for by the Church. “For evangelization today,” he said, “the Heart of Christ must be recognized as the heart of the Church: It is He who calls us to conversion, to reconciliation. It is He who leads pure hearts and those hungering for justice along the way of the Beatitudes. It is He who achieves the warm communion of the members of the one Body. It is He who enables us to adhere to the Good News and to accept the promise of eternal life. It is He who sends us out on mission. The heart-to-heart with Jesus broadens the human heart on a global scale.”
Adding to that, since we are the Congregation of the Fathers and Brothers of the Sacred Heart, we have a further motive to celebrate. This is what our founder, Saint Michael Garicoits says: “Why is our Society called The Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Because it is specially united to the Divine Heart saying to His Father: ‘Here I am’ so that we are His co- operators for the salvation of souls. Because it is committed to imitate Our Lord in a particular way; because it forms its members to live in a spirit of humility and love with one another, following the example of the disciples of Our Lord in order to become like this divine Saviour especially in his obedience to the Father and in his zeal for souls.”.
We place each one of you and your families under the protection of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here below I suggest a special prayer to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus during this pandemic time
O SACRED HEART OF JESUS,
Fountain of eternal life,
Your Heart is a furnace of love.
You are my refuge and my sanctuary.
O my adorable and loving Saviour,
consume my heart with the burning fire
with which Yours is inflamed.
Pour down on my soul those graces
which flow from Your love.
Let my heart be united with Yours.
Let my will be conformed to Yours in all things.
May Your Heart bring healing for the world
during this COVID 19 pandemic.
May your Heart especially bring healing to the sick
and protection and care to the many health-care
workers and service providers in our communities.
May Your will be the rule
of all my desires and actions. AMEN
Dear Friends,
Our Superior General, Fr Gustavo Agín scj, has just launched the “Year of Fr Etchecopar”, (the third Superior General of the Congregation of the Fathers and Brothers of the Sacred Heart), whose cause of beatification is underway.
In the month of June we are invited to say this prayer to the Sacred Heart, written by Fr Auguste Etchecopar:
Heart of Jesus, tender as the heart of a mother,
the most tender of all hearts,
fill me with sweetness, patience, kindness, charity.
Heart of Jesus, humble like a child's heart,
free me from pride, teach me the humility of heart and spirit
that makes us worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Finally, sweet and tender Heart, we bow down at your feet;
receive us all from the hands
of our good and revered Founder.
Divine Heart, you inspired the idea of this work,
you entrusted him with the hard task of starting it,
of continuing it despite all the obstacles.
Receive us, bless us, fill us with your strength
and your tenderness,
fill us with your Spirit, fill us with your love.