JUNE IS THE MONTH OF THE SACRED HEART

                The sixth month of the year is named after Juno, the Roman goddess of hearth and home. Juno’s month was lucky for weddings. In years past among Christians, weddings were rarely held during Lent and Eastertime. After Pentecost the time of summer weddings began. The Church keeps many solemnities during this month. The Church also dedicates the month of June to the Sacred Heart.

                In the Middle Ages the third Friday after Pentecost was celebrated in some places as a feast of the wounds of Christ. It became a kind of an echo of Good Friday much the same way Corpus Christi was an echo of Holy Thursday.

                Devotion to the passion of Christ often was very strong in the Church of the Middle Ages. Remembering the suffering of Jesus helped people make sense of their own troubles. Gertrude the Great whose feast is November 16th lived in the 13th century. She said that Jesus appeared to her the way he had appeared to Thomas. He showed her his wounds. He taught her his love, which shone from his heart.

                In the 17th century the false teaching of Jansenism was popular. People were becoming accepting that human sinfulness was overpowering and no one was worthy of God’s love and few people would receive it.

                Countering this false notion, devotion to the heart of Jesus grew strong. People said that Jesus wanted them to know his love and that God’s love was stronger than sin.

                Margaret May Alacoque said that she was chosen by Christ to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart. In the year 1765, Pope Clement XIII approved this devotion and established the feast of the Sacred Heart.