Today, June 23, the church is celebrating the Solemnity of Sacred Heart of Jesus. According to the Liturgical calendar, the feast placed on the Friday after Solemnity of the body and Blood of Christ. Devout Catholics prepare for this Feast by beginning a Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Feast of Corpus Christi which is the Thursday of the week before. Traditionally, June is observed as the Sacred Heart of Jesus month.
On this Feast, we can obtain plenary indulgence by making an Act of Reparation. Jesus gave instructions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque on how the faithful can offer sacrifices in reparation for the offenses imposed on His Sacred Heart. It involves receiving Holy Communion every first Friday of the month, an hour vigil every Thursday night in memory of His agony in Gethsemane, and by celebrating the Feast of the Sacred Heart every year on the Friday after the Feast of Corpus Christi.
In the Philippines, the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Makati City commemorates masses, processions, and novenas in honor of the said Feast. Hourly masses were held at the shrine and a high mass at 12:15 p.m. was presided by Manila Archbishop Emeritus Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales. A solemn procession bearing the venerated image of the Sacred Heart was held after the 6 p.m. mass.
From the Church, in this month of June, giving us the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, whishes us to be fully informed in the consequential devotion to Our Lady traditionally lived in the Marian month par excellence: the month of May.
The Heart of Jesus is the See and Throne of Divine Mercy, revealed to the world in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. (Michaela Acilo)
