DELRAY BEACH | St. Vincent Ferrer in Delray Beach and Holy Family in Port St. Lucie honored the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 7, 2024, by making an effort to rekindle devotion to the Sacred Heart and making reparation for a world that has become lukewarm or indifferent to God’s abundant love and mercy.
“This is an old feast and it is something that we need to bring back into the church,” said Kelly Liguori, president of the St. Vincent Ferrer Legion of Mary. The feast day “teaches us to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but it also teaches us to have that love of Jesus in our own heart so we can share that love of Jesus with other people.”
According to Catholic News Service, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was “a cloistered nun of the Visitation order” in 17th-century France who received “several private revelations of the Sacred Heart.” The first vision revealed to her was “the form of the (Sacred Heart) devotion,” with the “chief features being reception of holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a holy hour on Thursdays, and the celebration of the feast of the Sacred Heart.”
The Sacred Heart of Jesus devotion has a long history in the universal church, but it was not until Pope Pius IX in 1856 established the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as obligatory for the entire church, to be celebrated on the first Friday after Corpus Christi and 19 days after Pentecost.
The solemnity at the Delray Beach and Port St. Lucie churches included celebration of the Eucharist, followed by a holy hour with prayers of reparation and consecration to the Sacred Heart before the Blessed Sacrament.
Opportunity for veneration of the Sacred Heart image and veneration of a first-class relic of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was offered to the faithful, and at St. Vincent Ferrer there were first-class relics of St. Monica and St. Pius X.
Father Danis Ridore, resident priest at the Delray parish, celebrated Mass in honor of the solemnity. “We have to come back to our true faith in the presence of Jesus in the bread and wine consecrated during Mass,” he said.
Reflecting later on the feast day, Sister Elizabeth Halaj said, “Today’s celebration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of those moments when you cannot use words, but in silence you allow your heart to come as close as possible to Jesus and, without words, you are in the loving presence of Jesus and you feel his love, have a heart-to-heart conversation, and deep down in your heart you want to be more like him.”
At Holy Family, the solemnity was celebrated with a presentation on the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Katalin Filtranti. Included in her presentation were the 12 promises given to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque by Jesus to all who honor his Sacred Heart.
The 12th promise states: “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 Friday for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance,” Filtranti read.
Mass at the Port St. Lucie Parish was celebrated by Father Tri Pham, pastor. During exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, he blessed the faithful individually while holding a statue of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque containing her first-class relic.
“Every time you pray before the Blessed Sacrament, you are looking at the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the heart of Jesus is the church and his people,” Father Pham said.
Catherine Shrake, a member of St. Bernadette in Port St. Lucie, said her family believes they have received miracles due “to the intercession of St. Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart,” especially the healing of her brother’s cancer. After a difficult birth, Shrake named her daughter Margaret in honor of the saint.
For more information on the Legion of Mary, call 561-702-5148 or email KellyLig7@gmail.com. To learn more about the Sacred Heart of Jesus devotion, call Filtranti at 978-376-7778 or visit www.sacredheartofjesus.net.
