Dear Parishioners,

This Friday (19^th June) is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a very special day in the Church’s calendar and particularly for us at Sacred heart Church, Aston. The love of God for us shown supremely in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is central to the Gospel. There have been many devotions to the loving Heart of Jesus through the Christian millennia, especially those of St. Gertrude and St. John Eudes, but the devotion as we know it goes back to an obscure nun in a convent in the small French town of Paray le Monial in the 17^th century. This nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, experienced visions of Jesus who told her to start devotion to his Sacred Heart on the first Friday of every month and to celebrate a feast on the 19^th day after Pentecost. Private revelations are always treated with extreme caution by the church, but eventually they were recognised as authentic and the feast of the Sacred Heart instituted as a major feast in the whole church by Pope Pius IX in 1889. St. Margaret Mary herself was canonised in 1920 just before our church was built so it’s dedication was changed from the Sacred Heart and St. Thomas of Canterbury to the Sacred Heart and St. Margaret Mary. In the beautiful mosaics in the apse we see St. Margaret Mary having her vision of Jesus who is appearing on a cloud. The devotion to the Sacred Heart became very popular and today you will find a statue of the Sacred Heart in most Catholic Churches and nearly every Catholic home will have at least one picture or statue.

We are all very familiar with the statue of the Sacred Heart. Jesus is portrayed in a very physical way in which he would have been seen during his life-time on earth, but on his breast is a stylised red Heart with the crown of thorns around it, a gash in the side of it where the spear penetrated is Heart and through which blood and water flowed symbolising baptism and the Eucharist. On top of the Heart there are flames symbolising the Holy Spirit and above that the cross. It speaks to us so clearly about the love of Christ for us and how much he suffered for us and our hearts cannot fail to be moved as we gaze and meditate on it. We are deeply moved and want our hearts to be in tune with his Sacred Heart. We love him and are prepared to die for our love of him.

More recently another obscure nun has had similar visions from Our Lord and she too was asked to bring about devotions to Jesus and a new feast into the Church’s calendar. She is, of course, St. Faustina and the feast now established is the Divine Mercy Sunday on the Sunday following Easter Sunday. She was asked to have a picture painted of Jesus as he appeared to her in her visions. That is the Divine Mercy picture of Jesus and again copies of that picture are to be found in most Catholic Churches and most Catholic homes. In this picture red and blue light streams form Jesus’ Heart again signifying blood and water, baptism and the Eucharist. The most striking difference between this picture and the and the Sacred Heart statue is that Jesus in the picture is clearly the risen Christ. He has a translucent quality and appears from a mysterious background. These two devotions complement one another.

During lockdown we have had to renew our private devotions and our family prayers. One of the unintended consequences of the second Vatican council and the following reduction of the Eucharistic fast to just one hour to enable Masses to be said later in the day or even in the evening has been that Catholic devotions have been almost abandoned and we have had Mass at every gathering. We know that in the coming years there will be a lot fewer priests in the diocese and so the celebration of Mass will become something much more special. For a vibrant Catholic life of faith we shall need to be rediscovering these devotions, both in the home and in the church. Mass will remain the source and summit of the Christian life but all our devotions will feed into it in the way that they have in the past and, I am sue, will make us more intentional disciples. Praise the Lord!

I wish you a very Happy and Vibrant and Spirit filled Feast of the Sacred Heart on Friday. Of course, it is not a Day of Abstinence so you can celebrate it in style with an appropriate and delicious meal at home.

God bless

Fr. Stephen Pimlott