Blessed be with loudest song / the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Friday after Corpus Christi: Sacred Heart

Jun 13, 2026

While ages course along,
Blessed be with loudest song
The Sacred Heart of Jesus,
By every heart and tongue.
Excerpt from “To Jesus’ heart all burning”

As you wander…

find this month’s schedule of events in the Village Green
peruse the June 2026 Almanac
explore more posts for the month of June
send me a note!

This summer, I’m playing with some different formats for posts - with an eye toward crafting an experience that is more sustainable for readers, encouraging movement away from the screen and back into the landscape.

For June’s focus, I thought it would be fun to look at this holiday in terms of a liturgical ‘field guide’ of sorts: some sketches and images - striking little details - that stood out to me as I reflected on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

(I’ve also included a spruced-up version of these field guide pages as a printable for paid subscribers - maybe it could spark your own field guide, with notes and sketches of how this holiday season looks in your very own landscape?)

SACRED HEART PRINTABLES

A Book of Hours helps us to graft liturgical traditions into our own sacred days - and each month, I offer some additions intended to spark curiosity as we re-discover these seasonal patterns together.

This month, you’ll find:

a cover page (with original art featuring the Pelican and Bleeding Heart - more details about their symbolism are in the printable!)
a summary (with artwork) of history, traditions, flora, & fauna that give shape to the holiday
a field guide coloring page
prayer and artwork

Paid members can find Sacred Heart art & resources (as well as my whole archive of printables) in the Scriptorium:

Scriptorium

As if it were a spiritual garden

From thy life-giving side,
A fount like that which flowed from Eden
Waters thy Church, O Christ,
As if it were a spiritual garden.
Thence it divides,
As from one stem
Into four Gospels.
It waters the universe,
It rejoices creation,
Teaching the nations
Faithfully to revere
Thy gracious rule.
From a Holy Friday Matins hymn in the Orthodox Church

Our journey into Ordinary Time II - when the Church enters into this great season of pilgrimage - begins with presence, theology, and devotion. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost brought us to the fullness of the Trinity, Corpus Christi held our celebration of the ongoing presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and now, at the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we dwell the sanctuary of Christ’s love. What a beautiful school to launch us into our ‘ordinary’ sojourn - and what a kind reminder of the sanctity and depth inherent in the ordinary. In our familiar, counted days - our holy mundane - we find the deepest mysteries of God.

The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is a more recent calendar addition with an ancient heritage. Its lineage traces back to the Beloved Disciple’s posture of reclining toward the heart of Jesus (John 13:23), from which the early Church fathers and mothers drew their devotion to the Sacred Heart...a symbol that encompasses the fullness of God’s love for his creation. A fiercely flaming love pierced by thorns and spear, always bleeding in yearning for our own yearning.

The early Middle Ages saw an intensifying of this devotion, with Saints receiving visions of the Sacred Heart - St. Gertrude the Great, in the 13th c., leaned her head against the side wound of Jesus, and, like the Apostle St. John, heard his heartbeat.

French Visitation Nun St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, though, brought the depth of this devotion to the breadth of the Church in the late 17th c.: in her miraculous visions, Jesus himself sent her forth to share the beauty of his Sacred Heart, providing devotional practices for conforming oneself to his precious Heart.

It took time for this devotion to move from religious communities and into the wider Church, but eventually - just relatively recently, in 1856 - a feast day was set aside to fold the whole Church into devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Being such a recent feast, many of its customs are still being newly discovered - most of them landing sweetly in the context of the beginning of the summer harvest, tethered to the firstfruits of Corpus Christi...an enthronement of the Sacred Heart in our lives, our homes, and even our landscapes. Heart-shaped bonfires are lit from hill to hill in some places, and a lamp is kept burning at home, illuminating the image of the Sacred Heart. Flames and firstfruits...like echoes of that most Sacred Heart - the ultimate sustaining love, the firstfruit of humanity.

A timeline of the feast of the Sacred Heart’s history, Scripture verses, details about the flora and fauna tied to this feast, tidbits about traditional meals and celebrations, & more can be found in this month’s printable:

Scriptorium

BENEDICTION

O wounded Heart! O Font of tears!
O Throne of grief and pain,
Whereon, for the eternal years,
Thy love for man doth reign!

Heart of Jesus, hear!
O Heart of Love Divine!
Listen to our prayer:
Make us always Thine.
Fr. Theodore Metcalf, excerpt from “O Sacred Heart, O Love Divine” (19th c.)

I hope that this little offering, as well as the art and printables tucked into it, will be a jumping-off point for a whole month of focus on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All of June, after all, is dedicated to the Sacred Heart…with that Midsummer sun burning brightly, we have such a startling reminder of the sanctuary that is available to us every day of our years.

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