Year for Priests
June 19th Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
It is no coincidence that the Church's Year for Priests will begin on June 19th, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which is also set aside as a world day of prayer for the sanctification of priests.
"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in my disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment" (Jesus to St. Margaret Mary).
Sixteenth century Calvinism and seventeenth century Jansenism preached a distorted Christianity that substituted for God's love and sacrifice of His Son for all men the fearful idea that a whole section of humanity was inexorably damned.
The Church always countered this view with the infinite love of our Savior who died on the cross for all men. The institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart was soon to contribute to the creation among the faithful of a powerful current of devotion which since then has grown steadily stronger. The first Office and Mass of the Sacred Heart were composed by St. John Eudes, but the institution of the feast was a result of the appearances of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1675. The celebration of the feast was extended to the general calendar of the Church by Pius IX in 1856….for more, visit the following:
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?id=389
CatholicCulture.org will keep you informed of the rich spiritual resources the Church plans to place before us during this coming year, all flowing from the Heart of Jesus. For those who need a review, a good primer on the Sacred Heart devotion is Fr. Richard Neilson's 1988 article The Sacred Heart and the Eucharist.
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