Sacred Heart devotion

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How do I explain Sacred Heart, Immaculate Heart, etc devotion to Protestants? Is the Sacred Heart worshiped or just adored?
 
narrowpath said:
How do I explain Sacred Heart, Immaculate Heart, etc devotion to Protestants? Is the Sacred Heart worshiped or just adored?
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I’m sure you’ve heard of someone who did something really generous and thought, “Wow, he really has a big heart!” Well, that’s basically what the “Sacred Heart” means - not a separate body part of Christ, but more like a description of His love and mercy - His “heart”. And therefore, should be both worshipped and adored, if you worship and adore Christ.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a similar thing. Of course, since we’re talking about Mary she should certainly not be “worshipped” or “adored” in the same way that God is. She should, however, be magnified and praised as the Theotokos (God-Bearer) - the mother of Christ our God. “Immaculate Heart” is a way of describing her immaculate (sinless) nature.

Hope that helps!
 
narrowpath said:
How do I explain Sacred Heart, Immaculate Heart, etc devotion to Protestants? Is the Sacred Heart worshiped or just adored?
Click to expand...

Adored.​

If by “worshipped”, you have something less than adoration in mind,*** then “worship” is completely wrong*** - Christ is not a mere Saint, but God Incarnate, & His Heart is that of God Incarnate.
 
I think you’ll find that many Protestants have already seen a picture of Jesus showing His Sacred Heart. A lot of rural Southern peddlers used to sell them, and a lot of rural Southern Baptist grandmothers were happy to buy such a touching picture of Christ.

The peddlers mostly didn’t mention the Catholic part… 🙂
 
Gottle_of_Geer said:

Adored.​

If by “worshipped”, you have something less than adoration in mind,*** then “worship” is completely wrong*** - Christ is not a mere Saint, but God Incarnate, & His Heart is that of God Incarnate.
Click to expand...
Sorry, scratch “adored”. I meant venerated.😊
 
I have a different question about the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

I found these requirements for fulfillment of the devotion on a blog:

In order to complete the requirements to complete the Nine Consecutive First Friday Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the following must be achieved: Every First Friday of each month for Nine Consecutive Months:
  1. Make Communion at the First Friday Mass
  2. Complete a Good Confession with a priest within 8 days before or after the First Friday of each month.
Note: A soul in the state of mortal sin must complete Confession within 8 days prior to going to Communion on the First Friday.
  1. Complete an additional hour of prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in front of the Blessed Body and Blood of Christ (in side of the church) between 11am-12pm on the Thursday preceding the First Friday of the month. (The required Sacred Heart prayers are included in the Previous Page). The hour of prayer is referred to as Holy Hour or the Hour of Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
  2. Complete the above requirements every First Friday for nine consecutive months.
  3. Complete the Devotion to atone for mankind’s sins of blasphemy and severe disobedience which offend the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
  4. Complete this devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus with great belief in His Promise of Final Repentance and the other promises associated with the devotion.
My question is as follows:

I’ve been involved in the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for a three months now, attending Mass on the first consecutive Fridays. However, when I researched this devotion from several good Catholic websites focused completely on the Sacred Heart, I did not see anything about the requirement that we participate in Confession within 8 days of each First Friday. Nor did I see any reference to a requirement that we attend Holy Hour on Thursday, though I did see it recommended. Nor did I see anything at all about the Holy Hour being required to be between 11:00 and 12:00. I also did not see anything about “required” Sacred Heart prayers, though there were several recommended.

This blog presents a heap of requirements for how exactly to take the Sacred Heart devotion that I hadn’t seen mentioned at all on any of the websites devoted to the Sacred Heart that I perused when initially considering entering the devotion.

Please note that I’m not saying these requirements are bad. I just would like to know if they’re real or not. Are these really required elements of the devotion to the Sacred Heart? Or is the devotion looser in format than that, with the First Fridays required, but the Holy Hour (and Holy Hour timing), specific prayers and Confession (and its time zone) perhaps recommended, but optional?

I did see Holy Hour and several prayers recommended on the other sites I went to, though not required. I’ve been trying to do those. I haven’t thought of them as mandatory, though, and I’d like to know if they are or not. If they are, I’ll pretty much have to start over :D.
 
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