![]() Before this, Father Timothée de Raynier, a member of the Congregation of the Minimes of Aix, had published in 1662, L’homme intérieur ou l’idée du parfait chrétien, in which he wrote: “What happiness to be united to Jesus Christ in his Sacred Heart which was ever united to God, not only by the hypostatic union, but also by the union of the acts of his love”. Indeed, in 1721, in the wake of the plague that had ravaged Marseilles, the Archbishop of Aix, following the example of Bishop de Belzunce, decreed that the feast of the Sacred Heart would be celebrated in the diocese the first Friday following the Octave of the Blessed Sacrament. As a result, Eugene de Mazenod learned to enter into the depth of the mysteries of Jesus to find in the heart of Jesus the intimate life of the man-God in its entirety.įrom the beginning of his ministry he revived devotion to the Sacred Heart, a devotion that was very much alive in Aix in pre-Revolutionary days. Pierre de Bérulle stressed what he called the “interior” Jesus, that is, the most profound attitudes and sentiments of Christ. Īt the Seminary of Saint Sulpice, under the influence of the French School of spirituality, his devotion to the Sacred Heart deepened. Father Magy, who became his confidant when he was discerning his vocation, was involved in leading a group of pious individuals in Marseilles which was a center for devotion to and apostolate of the Sacred Heart. With regard to the spiritual exercises suggested by his spiritual mentor, we read the following: “I will unite my insignificant acts of adoration with those of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, of the Angels and the Saints… I will respectfully kiss my crucifix in the area of the Wounded Heart” (we will return to the theme of this intimate gesture later on). ![]() On the other hand, we know that this devotion found an important place in his life under the influence of Don Bartolo Zinelli in Venice. ![]() There is no document extant from Eugene’s childhood to tell us how he was introduced to devotion to the Sacred Heart. For the rest we should refer to the basic article on Jesus Christ in this Dictionary.Įugene de Mazenod’s devotion to the Sacred Heart Consequently, we should consider his devotion to the Sacred Heart as one aspect of his devotion to the person of Jesus. Pope Paul VI noted that Eugene de Mazenod was “an individual passionately devoted to Jesus Christ”. Rather, it is a study of how our Founder lived his devotion to the Sacred Heart what this devotion meant to him and what significance it had for the Oblates. The present article lays no claim to giving a full explanation of the Church’s teaching on the Sacred Heart. Eugene de Mazenod's devotion to the Sacred Heart.Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation.
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