The Sacred Heart and Servant of God Julia Greeley
On Fridays during ordinary time of the litrugical year (including today) I celebrate the daily Mass for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is a beautiful devotion popularized by many saints over the years including St. Gertrude the Great and St. Margaret Mary Alocoque. St. Gertrude is especially timely because, in addition to her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she is famous for her prayers for the holy souls in purgatory.
I encourage parish families to pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and find an image at a Catholic bookstore to display in their homes.
One of the newer saints-on-the-way is an American named Julia Greeley. She was an ex-slave from Colorado who lived a life of extraordinary humility and charity. Julia is now a Servant of God (first step of being declared a saint in the Church). She put the burning love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus into action. Especially in these times of racial unrest and identity politics, she provides an example of what it means to overcome racism through the love of Christ.
The latter two of these saints and saints-in-the-making experienced great suffering in their lives. St. Margaret Mary was bedridden until almost age 15 and experienced much cruelty in her family life. Still, she saw visions of how intensely the Sacred Heart of Jesus burned with love for her and the whole world. Julia had an injured eye that continuously oozed and bled, because she had been whipped as a slave child. And yet, she was awful joyful and never stopped caring for people of any race.
Let's pray through the intercession of these three holy women that our families may be drawn into the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Finally, here's a traditional prayer from the 17th century that I recommend for your family prayer: the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
