Pope Francis’ encyclical “Dilexit nos” refers to some Jesuits who have promoted devotion to the Heart of Jesus. This has certainly moved us to trace how this devotion has been lived and what fruits it has had in the history of other orders. Such is my case.
By Marciano Santervás, Augustinian Recollect
I can affirm, without fear of being wrong, that the spiritual and apostolic life of the Augustinian Recollect Family, remaining faithful to its own charism, has moved in step with the orientations of the Magisterium of the Church and, mainly, of the Supreme Pontiff.
A clear example of this affirmation is the acceptance and cultivation of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, united to the Heart of Mary, although in this reflection we are going to ignore the latter.
Explicit devotion to the Heart of Jesus in the Church began with the private revelations of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a nun of the Visitation, but acquired a special status when in 1856 Pope Pius IX established the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart for the entire Church.
Almost all the popes who have followed him have published some specific document on this devotion. Thus, his successor Leo XIII in 1899 published the encyclical Annum Sacrum and consecrated the human race to the Heart of Jesus. In 1908 Saint Pius X asked that families be consecrated to the Sacred Heart. Pius XI dedicated two encyclicals to the subject: Miserentissimus Redemptor (1928) and Caritate Christi compulsi (1932); another two by Pius XII: Summi Pontificatus (1939) and Haurietis aquas (1956).
We must also remember St. Paul VI in his apostolic letter Investigabiles Divitias, from 1965, and St. John Paul II in the message he published in 1999 on the occasion of the centenary of the consecration of the human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Francis‘ encyclical Dilexit nos, published in 2024, completes this list of the Church’s most solemn declarations on the Heart of Jesus, which, as we can see, has been constant over the last 125 years.
All these documents, despite their differences and responding to different circumstances, make it clear that devotion to the Heart of Jesus is a perfect school of Christian spiritual life and, therefore, harmoniously synthesizes all the values of life in Christ: Divine Love, Trinity, Cross, Eucharist, restorative spirit of atonement, priestly and sacrificial attitude, love for the Church…
Although devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus declined following the Second Vatican Council, it must be recognized that this devotion seems to be recovering its splendor.
The traditional position of the Church regarding the Heart of Jesus and the rich theological and spiritual vein of its devotion has had clear resonances in the Augustinian-Recollect Family in many aspects, from trivial details to notable events and fervent celebrations lived with strong affection and profound religiosity.
In the houses of formation, for example, the image of the Sacred Heart always occupied a prominent place; The month of June was solemnly celebrated, or at least a novena, in his honor; the trainees were encouraged to exercise the first nine Fridays of the month and to do other devotions.
These religious practices were also cultivated in pastoral work, in addition to the traditional processions and sermons, and even some religious in Manila used the radio waves to promote devotion to the Heart of Jesus.
The title of many spaces built and inaugurated by the Augustinian-Recollect Family has been the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as attested by temples and monasteries throughout the world. The list is long: San Carlos (Negros Occidental, Philippines), La Junta (Chihuahua, Mexico), Pantitlán (Mexico City), Bocas del Pauto (Trinidad, Colombia), Manizales (Caldas, Colombia), Franca (São Paulo, Brazil), Barquisimeto (Venezuela), Shangqiu (China), Pauiní (Amazonas, Brazil), Lomas de Tecamachalco (Mexico City)…
And there is a whole Congregation, the Augustinian Recollect Sisters of the Heart of Jesus, founded in Venezuela and also present in Peru and Brazil.
This is how a Recollect chronicler recounted the devotion of dedicating the month of June to the Sacred Heart:
“June is the month that reminds us of the infinite love of Jesus, bloodily sacrificed only once on the altar of the Cross, and bloodlessly sacrificed millions of times in the august sacrifice of our altars. June is also the month of love, of gratitude, of reparations and sacrifices, which generous souls offer to the Wounded Heart, letting fall into the ocean of divine love the very few drops of love that our poor human heart can give of itself. God loves as God, with infinite and eternal love; man loves as what he is, with the very small and limited love of a creature.”
More solemn events were the enthronements and consecration to the Sacred Heart in various places, such as Manila (Philippines) and Marcilla (Navarre, Spain). On June 27, 1919, Marcelino Simonena, prior provincial of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, enthroned, according to the chronicler, a beautiful image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the convent of Manila and consecrated the Province to the Heart of Jesus.
Thirty years later, the provincial Santos Bermejo (January 6, 1950) carried out the enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Royal Staircase of the convent of Marcilla, which was followed by the consecration of the Province to the Sacred Heart.
Our Family has not only practiced the devotion to the Sacred Heart, but has also reflected on the values that this devotion entails and deepened its doctrine, as can be seen in some articles and poems, in which religious affections are given free rein.
In reading these articles – some written almost a century ago – one can appreciate the affinity with the ideas, reflections and texts of the encyclical Dilexit nos and the relevance of his thought.
Two texts are of use as an example. The following is by Bishop Arturo Quintanilla, Augustinian Recollect Bishop of Shangqiu (Henan, China):
“All human affections have their seat in the heart; in the heart all the modalities, vicissitudes and weaknesses of the feeling of the human soul reverberate and are reflected: the aggressive movements of anger, the shrinking of fear, the open explosion of enthusiasm or the profound concentration of hatred.
But above all these affections and feelings, love culminates; love is the prince, and its motor or impeller; and, as Saint Thomas Aquinas says, all feelings have their origin in love, and in love they are analytically resolved.
For this reason the heart is the principal seat of love, an effective instrument of love, an apt and most faithful collaborator of love, a herald and messenger of love. And this is not only a legitimate deduction from psychological experience, but is the testimony of a centuries-old and universal tradition among the human family (…).
In all times and places, man, wishing to give an expressive sign to love, has pointed to the heart and attributed to it the interpretation of love. For all this, let us see to what height of dignity and honor the Heart of Jesus Christ Our Lord is elevated above all the heart of humanity.
It is not only an organ, and the most excellent organ of the sacred Humanity of Christ, and for this reason worthy of latreutic adoration, but it is also the home and instrument of that infinite love which leads Christ to sacrifice Himself on the Cross and to enclose Himself within the narrow limits of the sacramental species, to give Himself as food for the faithful soul. Yes, that immense love which, like an eternal forge, burns in the heart of Christ, is worthy of adoration, of worship, of loving correspondence.”
In 1937, Aurelio Lacruz, an Augustinian Recollect, wrote:
“In his soul and in his Heart, Jesus felt all the pain, bitterness and sadness of our ingratitude and sins, during the terrible hours of the night of Gethsemane. If our sins had been less numerous and serious, the agony of the Divine Redeemer would have been less painful. Each sin of ours was one more drop of gall that fell on the most holy Soul of Jesus; each new fault was a new dagger that we stabbed into that most generous Heart that knew nothing but to love, suffer and forgive.”
