The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on the Friday following the second Sunday of the Pentecost. Aside from the liturgical celebrations, many devotional exercises are connected with the Sacred heart of Jesus has remained one of the most widespread and popular in the church.

According to the scriptures, the "Sacred Heart of Jesus" denoted the entire mystery of Christ, the totality of his being, and his person considered in its most intimate essential: Son of God, uncreated wisdom; infinite charity, principal of the salvation and sanctification of mankind. The "Sacred Heart" is Christ, the Word Incarnate, Saviour, intrinsically containing, in the Spirit, an infinite divine-human
love for the Father and for his brothers.

Jesus, who is one with the Father invites his disciples to live in close communion with him, to model their lives on him and on his teaching. He, in turn, reveals himself as "meek and humble of heart" . It can be said that, in a certain sense, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a cultic form of the prophetic and evangelic gaze of all Christians on him who was pierced , the gaze of all Christians on the side of Christ, transfixed by a lance, and from which flowed blood and water , symbols of the "wondrous sacrament of the Church".

The Gospel of St. John recounts the showing of the Lord's hands and his side to the disciples and of his invitation to Thomas to put his hand into his side. This event has also had a notable influence on the origin and development of the Church's devotion to the Sacred Heart.

For more information on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and our spiritual life, kindly click on the following links:

• Miserentissimus Redemptor
• Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
• Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
• Consecration to the Sacred Heart
• Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Home
• Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
• Twelve Promises of Jesus to Saint Mary Margaret
• Nine First Friday Devotions to the Sacred Heart of
  Jesus