This devotion lies at the very heart of Christian life. It forms a vital part of the great liturgical trilogy the Church celebrates after the Solemnity of Pentecost: the Most Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart.

We often speak of "devotion" to the Sacred Heart. However, it's not just one devotion among many. We speak of devotion to a saint, to the Virgin Mary, or to a pious practice like the Rosary or the Way of the Cross. Devotion to the Heart of Christ stands on a different plane. It is worship due to the Second Person of the Trinity Himself. The Heart represents Christ's very Person. Therefore, it is not simply devotion, but worship of divinity that the Church calls "latria."

Popes, especially recent ones, have frequently spoken of this devotion, each focusing on a particular aspect. Leo XIII, after whom the current Pope is named, wrote the first encyclical letter, Annum Sacrum, in 1899, on devotion to the Sacred Heart. This occasion marked the consecration of all humanity to the Heart of Jesus. In 1928, Pius XI, in Miserentissimum Redemptor, focused on the aspect of due reparation to Christ's Heart, wounded by our sins. Pius XII, in 1956, offered the Church a beautiful and doctrinally rich encyclical, Haurietis Aquas, which delved into the theological basis of Sacred Heart devotion, a topic questioned by some Catholic authors and circles. Pope Francis, in Dilexit Nos (2024), presents Christ's merciful Heart as a call to open ourselves to the needs of the poorest and most marginalized in society.

This devotion has a firm evangelical foundation. Saint John recounts in his Gospel that a soldier pierced Jesus' side with a lance. "And at once," the evangelist notes, "blood and water came out." This "happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'They will look on the one they have pierced.'" The Church Fathers almost unanimously see the birth of the Church symbolized in the Savior's open side. It is also common among the Fathers to identify the Savior's open side with the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist.

Two holy religious figures were providential instruments in the development of devotion to the Sacred Heart: Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a Visitation nun in the convent of Paray-Le-Monial, France, and the Jesuit priest, Saint Claude de la Colombière, the saint's spiritual director and confidant. Over time, in 1856, Pope Pius IX established the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as obligatory for the entire Roman Rite Church, to be celebrated on the Friday following the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi.

The Society of Jesus embraced the cause of propagating devotion to the Heart of Jesus. In 1883, the Society declared that it "accepts and receives with an overflowing spirit of joy and gratitude the sweet burden entrusted to it by our Lord Jesus Christ to practice, promote, and propagate devotion to His most divine Heart." In December 1871, Fr. Beckx, Superior General of the Jesuits, consecrated the Society to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1972, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, nearly a century after Fr. Beckx, repeated the act of consecration of the Society to the Heart of Christ.

Regnum Christi, and especially the Legionaries of Christ, were born in an era and a country with deep Catholic roots. Devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Virgin of Guadalupe has always been central to Mexican popular piety. From their beginnings, the Legionaries adopted a spirituality indebted to the Ignatian tradition, centered on the knowledge, love, and imitation of Christ, with the practice of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius and academic formation in Jesuit centers.

Distinctive elements of devotion to the Sacred Heart within Regnum Christi are, first, its Christocentric aspect, based on the knowledge, love, and imitation of Christ, whose Heart is the very seat of this love. We might call this the contemplative side of devotion. A second element, the active side, consists of each Regnum Christi member's mission to wholeheartedly strive to make Christ reign in the hearts of people and in the world. The formation a Regnum Christi member receives should aim to achieve the specific goal of making life a following and transformation in Christ, so that what Saint John Chrysostom said of Saint Paul could be said of every member of the Movement: "Heart of Paul, Heart of Christ."

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