FLORES Santa Marta by Juan J. Prieto Iglesias

The image varies in its details, although Mary's heart is always externally perceptible and is generally wreathed with roses and radiant with fire or light. The image sometimes includes a small sword driven through her heart or seven smaller daggers piercing her heart. These recall the prediction of Simeon at the presentation of Jesus in the Temple that a sword of sorrow would pierce Mary's heart in her union with her son. The multiplication of swords to seven recalls a tradition of Mary's seven sorrows from medieval times popularized by the Servite order.

Seventeenth-century French missionary Saint John Eudes linked the devotion to that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Eudes wrote of the mystical union between the hearts of the Son and his Mother: "You must never separate what God has so perfectly united. So closely are Jesus and Mary bound up with each other that whoever beholds Jesus sees Mary; whoever loves Jesus, loves Mary; whoever has devotion to Jesus, has devotion to Mary." As a result of his teachings we often find these two images paired in portraits of open and accessible hearts on fire in similar poses.

The feast was first celebrated liturgically in 1648 as a result of Eudes' promotion. Pope Pius VII authorized the devotion altogether in 1805. Attraction to the Immaculate Heart soared after the Fatima apparitions in 1917 in which it was reported that the Virgin Mary herself invited the church to contemplate this image and its implications. The feast of the Immaculate Heart was originally added to the universal calendar in 1944 on August 22—although that date is now reserved for the memorial of the Queenship of Mary. The memorial of the Immaculate Heart has been moved to the Saturday immediately following the solemnity of the Sacred Heart in June.

Just as Sacred Heart devotions involve commemorations on the First Fridays of every month, Immaculate Heart devotions are celebrated on the First Saturdays. The practice includes receiving the sacrament of reconciliation and Holy Communion on five consecutive First Saturdays as well as reciting five decades of the rosary and meditating on the mysteries.

Scripture
• Luke 2:22-35, 43-45; 1:46-55; Matthew 2:13; John 19:26-27

Online
• "Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary" by Father Matthew R. Mauriello

Books
• Into the Heart of Mary: Imagining Her Scriptural Stories by Rea McDonnell, S.S.N.D. (Ave Maria Press)
• The Seven Sorrows of Mary: A Meditative Guide by Joel Giallanza, C.S.C. (Ave Maria Press)

The image of the open, accessible heart of Jesus on fire and often pierced by thorns is both ancient and modern. Since the Middle Ages mystics like Julian of Norwich, Frances of Rome, Bonaventure, Mechtild, and Gertrude had ecstatic experiences of the love of Jesus described as both fiery and wounded.

These aren't fanciful or subjective descriptions. In the gospels Jesus presents his heart as the focus of instruction for his disciples: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart" (Matthew 11:29). Jesus also tells them he's come to set the earth on fire: "And how I wish it were already blazing!" (Luke 12:49) Later in the Passion stories Mark and Matthew depict Jesus bruised by a crown plaited from thorns, and John's gospel reports the heart of Jesus being pierced with a lance to ensure he's dead before his body can be removed from the cross. The image of a fiery, wounded heart is a conflation of these details that have come to embody the love of God as incarnated by Jesus.

Scripture scholar Stephen Binz notes: "In the biblical writings, the heart is the center of the person, the core of one's inner life and personality. It is the source of one's deepest motivation, decisions, memories, and desires. For this reason, the heart is the place in which a person encounters God." By means of the image of the Sacred Heart, the encounter between the divine heart and ours is mutual.

Carthusian monks of the 16th century and missionary Jesuits promoted the image. Religious orders dedicated to the Sacred Heart sprang up everywhere on the mission trails. Seventeenth-century French missionary Saint John Eudes was the first to give a substantial theology to the devotion, and so the image as we know it today is often attributed to him. In the same century cloistered sister and mystic Margaret Mary Alacoque began having visions which included private revelations of a devotional regimen dedicated to the Sacred Heart. The reception of Holy Communion on the First Fridays of every month, a holy hour of Eucharistic adoration on Thursdays, and honoring the image of the Sacred Heart in every Catholic home grew from the popularity of her revelations.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was first officially celebrated in 1765. This solemnity is observed on the Friday after the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus in June. The entire month of June is also dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

Scripture
• Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:26; Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 11:29; 27:29; Mark 15:17; Luke 12:49; John 19:33-37; Revelation 1:7

Online
• "The Sacred Heart of Jesus" and "An Introduction to the Spirituality of the Heart" from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
• "History of Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus"

Books
• The Sacred Heart of Jesus (Threshold Bible Study) by Stephen J. Binz (Twenty-Third Publications)
• A Heart on Fire: Rediscovering Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by James Kubicki, S.J. (Ave Maria Press)