Today’s feast, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a moveable feast, which means that it depends on the date of Easter Sunday. It is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost Sunday, which falls on the 50th day of Easter.

Jesus’ Sacred Heart is a special image for the brothers and priests of Holy Cross, who founded the University of Notre Dame. Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of Holy Cross, saw the heart as an image of God’s love for humanity and of humanity’s love for God. In the Sacred Heart, he saw the encounter between these two loves, so he consecrated the priests and seminarians of Holy Cross to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1841.

“One of the principal goals of this devotion,” preached Moreau in one of his sermons, “is to present us a model for imitation. The sight of the Savior’s adorable heart should say to each one of us … ‘Look at this example and make a faithful copy.’ This is the heart of the One given to you as master; your duty is to conform your heart to his.”

For Moreau, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was intimately and essentially tied to the Eucharist, which he saw as both the principal gift to flow out of Jesus’ heart as well as the greatest manifestation of that heart’s love for us:

“It is at the altar that … Jesus offers us a manna more appealing than that of the desert; there that he gives us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink; there that he becomes present in such a way within our soul, his heart speaking to us with all of its affection and bringing our own hearts to beat with his.”

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is depicted in several places on campus and in the Basilica, but perhaps nowhere on campus more prominently than in the famous Sacred Heart of Jesus statue that stands in front of the Dome (pictured above). Several relics of Jesus rest in the reliquary chapel, including a part of his scarlet robe, a portion of his crown of thorns, and a sliver from the true cross. Learn more about the priests of the Congregation of Holy Cross here.

On this feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us look upon this image of Jesus’ love and make a faithful copy of it in our own lives!