In December will see the start of the Jubilee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is the commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial and therefore of the Jubilee of a year and a half that runs from 27 December 2023, the anniversary of the first main apparition, to 27 June 2025, the date of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.
As the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, we wish to support this Jubilee of the Heart of Jesus.
On the one hand, our mission has privileged links with Paray-le-Monial. Not only was it with the help of Saint Claude La Colombière, a Jesuit, that Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque made known the depth of the mercy of the Heart of Jesus, but also, during her last vision, recognised by the Church, the Lord entrusted to the Sisters of the Visitation and to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus the task of transmitting to everyone the experience and understanding of the mystery of the Sacred Heart. Two hundred years later, the Society of Jesus officially accepted this “pleasant mission” (munus suavissimum) by decree 46 of the 23rd General Congregation (1883) and then entrusted it, by decree 21 of the 26th Congregation (1915), to the Apostleship of Prayer, today the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. See the articles written on this subject on the international website.
This jubilee of the Heart of Jesus comes at a time when, in December 2024, we will be celebrating 180 years of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer groups, Eucharistic Youth Movement, communities, etc.). Our formation programme, The Way of the Heart, is a renewal of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the light of the Spiritual Exercises. This will be an opportunity for us to deepen our spiritual foundation, our own way of living devotion to the Heart of Jesus, with its apostolic dimension, in connection with the Shrine.
- We are going to organise an international pilgrimage in July 2025. This will also be an opportunity for our EYM teams, coming from various countries around the world, to deepen the EYM pedagogy in connection with The Way of the Heart (which is the spiritual treasure of the Apostleship of Prayer linked to devotion to the Heart of Jesus, in the light of the Spiritual Exercises).
The dates of the pilgrimage to Paray-le-Monial, the city of the Heart of Jesus: from 15 to 20 July 2025.
As was also the case during the World Youth Day, we invite you to organize a local event during this Jubilee, or on the dates of the international pilgrimage, to allow as many people as possible to participate in this celebration.
- On Wednesday 27 December 2023, the anniversary of the first apparition, the Sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial will join the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. The official accession will take place during the celebration of the Eucharist. Father Frederic Fornos SJ, International Director, will be there to represent our entire network. Other shrines have joined the Worldwide Prayer Network, including the Shrine of the Heart of Jesus in Barcelona and the Shrine of Our Lady of Silence in Italy.
This Jubilee can be an opportunity, through the Bishops’ Conferences of your countries, to contact the rectors and parish priests of the shrines and parishes of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Shrine of Paray-le-Monial has contacted the most important ones, but you could offer them spiritual retreats of The Way of the Heart or other proposals in your respective countries, and invite them to join the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. We are not a movement but the Pope’s official prayer network.
Any Catholic who wishes to pray and mobilise for the challenges facing humanity and the Church’s mission, as expressed by the Pope’s prayer intentions, takes part in this network. It is a network that fosters communion, in the diversity of our ecclesial affiliations, by praying together for the mission of the Church.