The Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paray-le-Monial, eastern France, is preparing for a three-day celebration during the Jubilee period, from December 27, 2024 to June 27, 2025. On June 5, Pope Francis announced that a new papal document dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is in preparation and is due to be published in September. His announcement comes as the Church commemorates 350 years since Christ appeared to the Visitation nun, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), of Paray-le-Monial, when Christ asked her to establish the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Between December 1673 and June 1675, she received messages that highlighted three main points: Jesus’ passionate love for humanity, his lament for the ingratitude and indifference he had suffered, and his request for love in return. The French nun also had a vision of Jesus’ heart, bearing a cross on a throne of fire and covered with thorns. The nun recalled that Jesus took her heart and gave it back to her “burning with fire.”
The Spirit of Love
The Sanctuary will celebrate the anniversary June 6-9 with the launch of “Consecrate to Jesus: The Fiery Furnace of Charity,” a campaign encouraging the consecration of individuals and families to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The initiative has been proposed by sanctuary pastors for several years, but parish priest Father Etienne Kern described it as “a response of love from man who follows the love that Christ has for all people.” Offering oneself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is “a way of renewing Baptism.”
“Jesus is the first to be sanctified,” Father Kahn explained. In Luke 4, Jesus, quoting Isaiah, declares in the synagogue: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has sanctified me to be a proclaimer of good news to the poor.” Through Baptism, Jesus leads us to sanctification. This baptismal sanctification can be renewed more consciously by making ourselves sanctified to the Will of Jesus.
Simple process
Starting on June 7, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, the Sanctuary’s website will offer a 12-step preparation course for consecration (sacrecoeur-paray.org). The site will present Christ’s message at the Paray-le-Monial and the steps of the consecration process. “It’s very simple,” Father Kahn assures. “It can be done after Mass with a prayer to the Holy Spirit and a consecration prayer. There are different prayers, including the Jubilee prayer that the Sanctuary proposed this year. It can also be done with a prayer to Mary or the Lord’s Prayer to intensify the consecration process, and conclude with a hymn.”
For Father Kahn, this process is “the culmination of a journey that leads to the profound decision to give Christ ‘love for love.'” It can be undertaken alone or in groups, by individuals, families or communities such as parishes and schools. It can also be renewed on feast days or daily. During the Jubilee in Paray, a consecration ceremony for individuals and families will take place under the dome of the sanctuary on June 9.
A faith regaining popularity
The three days will also feature films, shows, processions, nights of adoration and teachings on Sacred Heart spirituality, which is not about increased prayer or faith but about “a transformative encounter with Christ so that our hearts become Christlike — humble, gentle and full of mercy toward the world.”
Devotion to the Sacred Heart, which fell out of favor in the second half of the 20th century and was often associated with certain political currents or suspected of being sentimental, is currently experiencing a revival. “We are rediscovering the power and freshness of this message,” the parish priest said. “The experience of the Sacred Heart of Margaret Mary is one of the fire of the Holy Spirit, not of a flow of blood.”
Another aspect of this spirituality that resonates today, according to Father Kahn, is “the ability to find rest in the Heart of Jesus, as St. Margaret Mary and St. John did. People need to experience God comforting them with their affections, their guilt and their wounds. But this is not a personal faith; it is practiced in the Church and concerns the whole of human society.”
