3 and 30 Freedom June 2026
St. Francis of Assisi did not practice the formal, structured devotion to the Sacred Heart as it is known today—that public cult was popularized centuries later by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century. However, St. Francis is considered a vital pioneer of the devotion. His radical spirituality centered intensely on the humanity of Christ, the Passion, and the Sacred Wounds of Jesus. Franciscan spirituality teaches that resting in the Eucharist is the ultimate way to "lean on the heart of Jesus," lay one’s head upon His Heart, and console Him.
““May Thy Heart dwell always in our hearts! May Thy Blood ever flow in the veins of our souls! O Sun of our hearts, Thou givest life to all things by the rays of Thy goodness! I will not go until Thy Heart has strengthened me, O Lord Jesus!””
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to Jesus Christ Himself, but in the particular ways of meditating on His interior life and on His threefold love – His divine love, His burning love that fed His human will, and His sensible love that affects His interior life. Pope Pius XII of blessed memory writes on this topic in his 1956 encyclical, Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion To The Sacred Heart). Below are a few excerpts which help explain the devotion:
54. ...the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal Father and all mankind.
55. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since “in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
56. It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused.
