June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.   The Friday following Corpus Christi Sunday (Last Friday)  was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  While many Christians from early on in Christianity have reflected on the Heart of Jesus, it was the French Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque that gave us the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as we know it.  Jesus appeared to her in a vision and showed his Heart as surmounted with a Cross, on fire with love, and wounded and bound in thorns.  It was to give an image to help us understand more deeply the profound Divine Love Christ has for us and especially for sinners.

While on pilgrimage, I had the opportunity to visit this humble convent of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, which is still an active convent to this day.  We prayed Morning Prayer with the nuns and were able to offer Mass there in the Chapel, in this very space where Jesus showed His Heart to St. Margaret Mary.  St. Margaret Mary is entombed there in a glass casket.  I was deeply moved praying in this place.  This simple humble nun, who desired to be anonymous, unknown by the world, and to “disappear in the Heart of Christ,” was whom the Lord used to help reveal His Divine Live more deeply to us.

In the city of Paris my favorite place to visit was another place dedicated to the Sacred Heart. “Sacra Coeur,” the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, is built on “Montmartre,” that is, “the hill of martyrs.”  This is a high hill with a beautiful scenic view overlooking the city of Paris.  It is the hill where St. Denis, the first bishop of Paris, was martyred.  It was also the place where St. Ignatius of Loyola formally began the missionary order known as the Jesuits.

This Basilica was built in reparation for the violence and the damage of the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon Bonaparte.  The French Revolution was a violent time in France that was not only a rebellion against the Kings and Queens of France, but against Christianity and the Church.  Many priests and nuns were killed and many churches were destroyed.

So the faithful Catholics of France were inspired to build a place of prayer for healing in their land.  Inspired by the visions and writings of St. Margaret Mary they turned towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus to find healing for France and the world.  This Basilica has been a place of perpetual Eucharistic Adoration since 1885!  That’s 140 years of perpetual prayer before the Blessed Sacrament!

While Sacra Coeur is not as famous as Notre Dame Cathedral, I found Sacra Coeur to be the most inspiring place of sincere prayer in all of Paris.  When I visited there, there were many people there not merely to see a beautiful church (as they do at Notre Dame), but to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

Peace,

-Fr. Kevin