June 8, 2025
My dear Kirkland Catholics,
The Month of June for Catholics is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I have to admit that I didn’t think about this devotion at all growing up, after my conversion as a freshman in college, or even up and through most of seminary. You could say the devotion came looking for me, or more precisely – Jesus wanted me to pay attention and to think about this devotion starting my final year in seminary.
This devotion was really popularized through revelations given to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque beginning in December of 1693. The Catholic devotional climate and popular mindset in France during the 1600s had been infected by Jansenism, a heresy that adopts Calvinistic concepts of God that depict Him as either very distant or very angry. The Sacred Heart devotion was Jesus’ counter move. Jesus reveals that His love for us is threefold: a Divine Love that is infinite, a human love that is sacrificial and willing to give everything for us, and an affectionate human love that Jesus is capable of because He is human and experiences all the legitimate emotions we experience.
In St. Margaret Mary’s writings of what He told her it seems that the thing that most hurts Jesus is indifference. Both indifference to His love and sacrifice, and our indifference to the way that our sins hurt – not Him – but ourselves and even our neighbors. Hence, Jesus does call for reparation. That is – as much as possible in this life repairing harm that our sins and those of others have done to ourselves, others and the world. How do we make reparation? Attending Mass on First Fridays when able, offering prayers and devotions specifically in reparation for our sins, fasting and almsgiving for the same intention, and acts of charity and mercy.
The following prayer is a classic prayer of reparation to the Sacred Heart:
O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore You, I love You, and with a lively sorrow for my sins, I offer You this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure, and wholly obedient to Your will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in You and for You. Protect me in the midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen.
With love in Christ,
Fr. Brad