14 days of Love - A day late and a couple of Valentine's short

So I didn't do a very good job with my posts for my inaugural 14 days of Valentines, but thought I'd wrap it up with one that all may not be familiar with, one that scares some, and brings others to their knees in joy...

I give you...

The Sacred Heart



In Catholic churches and homes, one of the most popular images of Jesus is the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is the image of God’s love revealed in the pierced heart of His Son. It is the symbol of a love that conquers sin and transcends death, the symbol of the One who loved us to the end.
Love has always been associated with the heart, so it was only natural that the love of God became represented by a heart, the heart of his Son Jesus. In him, God the Father revealed his infinite love for us. On the Friday after the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

On an educational note, the devotion to the Sacred Heart began with St. Margaret Mary:

St. Margaret Mary was born in 1647 at Janots, a small town of Burgundy, the fifth of seven children, of Claude and Philiberte Alacoque. Her father was a prosperous notary; the family owned a country house and farmland, and had some aristocratic connections. At the age of twenty, inspired by a vision, she put aside all such thoughts and resolved to enter a convent. While awaiting admission, she tried to help and teach certain neglected children of the village. At twenty-two she made her profession at the convent of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial. The nuns of the Order of the Visitation, founded in the early years of the seventeenth century by St. Francis de Sales, were famed for their humility and selflessness.

Some years passed quietly in the convent, and then Margaret Mary began to have experiences which seemed to be of supernatural origin. The first of these occurred on December 27, 1673, when she was kneeling at the grille in the chapel. She felt suffused by the Divine Presence, and heard the Lord inviting her to take the place which St. John had occupied at the Last Supper. The Lord told her that the love of His heart must spread and manifest itself to men, and He would reveal its graces through her. This was the beginning of a series of revelations covering a period of eighteen months. When Margaret Mary went to the Superior, Mother de Saumaise, with an account of these mystical experiences, claiming that she, an humble nun, had been chosen as the transmitter of a new devotion to the Sacred Heart, she was reprimanded for her presumption. Seriously overwrought, Margaret Mary suffered a collapse, and became so ill that her life was despaired of. Now the Mother Superior reflected that she might have erred in scorning the nun's story and vowed that if her life were spared, she would take it as a sign that the visions and messages were truly from God. When Margaret Mary recovered, the Superior invited some theologians who happened to be in the town -they included a Jesuit and a Benedictine-to hear the story. These priests listened and judged the young nun to be a victim of delusions. Their examination had been a sheer torture to Margaret Mary. Later a Jesuit, Father Claude de la Columbiere, talked to her and was completely convinced of the genuineness of the revelations. He was to write of the nun and to inaugurate this devotion in England.

Now you know...

And knowing is half the battle.

If you want to know more, check out the Catholic Encyclopedia online...

Onward!