Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Cor Iesu sacratíssimum, Miserére nobis           Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy upon us
Cor Iesu sacratíssimum, Miserére nobis           Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy upon us
Cor Iesu sacratíssimum, Miserére nobis           Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy upon us



Well, today is the feast of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As it is a solemnity, a reminder that Catholics everywhere are not bound by the usual Friday abstinence from meat today.

In today's Daily Readings, we see the reoccurring them of "God loves you". In the first reading, we find God talking about love of his people, Israel, from the perspective of a parent. We also see that God has some grief regarding the conduct of the people of Israel. As parents know, there are times when kids are misbehaving and you feel like you want to vent this on the kids. Certainly, we see evidence of this here with God.

My heart is overwhelmed,
my pity is stirred.

Yet, God realizes that it wouldn't be right to take his anger out on Israel.

I will not give vent to my blazing anger,
I will not destroy Ephraim again;
For I am God and not a man,
the Holy One present among you;
I will not let the flames consume you.

In our second reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians, the theme of love occurs again. Paul remarks that he has been given grace from God to preach to the Gentiles so that God's wisdom may be known through the Church to "the principalities and authorities in the heavens." Paul then asks God that the gentiles may be strengthened with the power of God's spirit and that Christ dwell in their hearts so that they may know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge and has no bounds, be filled with the fullness of God. To know that the love of Christ has no bounds is comforting, but let's not forget that sin can still ruin things for us.

In the gospel reading from St. John, we are taken back to Jesus' passion. The passion of Christ was the ultimate act of love, willing to suffer death, even death on a cross, in order to redeem us from the sinfulness of mankind. In many pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the heart has blood and water flowing from it. That is a reference to this passage from scripture:

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.

I would also like to add that today, there is an opportunity to obtain a plenary indulgence by praying the Iesu dulcissime (Act of Reparation). A reminder that you must fulfill the 4 necessary conditions  to obtain the indulgence

1. Go to Confession
2. Recieve the Eucharist
3. Do the act itself and also pray for the Pope's intentions (by saying an "Our Father" and the Apostles' Creed works for praying for the Pope's intentions, but other prayers can work for this as well) with the intention of obtaining the indulgence
4. (The Last and Hardest Condition of All to fulfill)  You must be free from all attachment to sin, INCLUDING venial sin

If you cannot fulfill that last condition (but yes to the other 3 conditions), you may still obtain a partial indulgence. You can find the text of the prayer here in both Latin and English. (for more on indulgences, please see this.

I might add that this is my first attempt at a scripture reflection for a large audience, so I hope I did well. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment box below or e-mail me at catholictechgeek@gmail.com. You can also ask me on twitter (twitter username is @rctechgeek). Feel free to subscribe to my rss feed as well. If you can, please comment on what you like in what I wrote and what I could work on.

If you need some coffee to help get you going in the morning or to help you stay awake during the day, try some Mystic Monk Coffee (use this link or click on the picture below to access the store and purchase). Trust me, it's good coffee (in many instances, better than Starbucks coffee) and you won't regret buying some. For the summer they are also offering Iced Coffee as well. If you like tea more than coffee, they also offer tea (use the same link above). Using the link to buy the coffee (or tea) helps me with college expenses and helps the monks as well.

Feel free to try out my apps for Windows Phone: Mobile Media Manager, a media player app I made which has some features which (I feel) are missing from the system zune player, and BSA Eagle Tracker, an app that boy scouts can use to track their progress to Eagle Scout (when the scout handbook isn't always handy). New versions of the media player with new features/bug fixes is coming soon. BSA Eagle Tracker is also getting a bug fix for an obscure bug I noticed.

BSA Eagle Tracker download: http://bit.ly/Mm1Upo
Mobile Media Manager (paid version) download: http://bit.ly/y3rf6V
Mobile Media Manager (free version) download: http://bit.ly/xGCsWE