The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus — which occurs today, the 27th of June — is a feast day that I didn’t grow up celebrating. Christmas and Easter — of course! Advent and Lent — you bet. All Saints Day, St. Nicholas Day, and Epiphany even — yes. But the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus? If didn’t cross my radar until much later in life, fairly recently in fact. 

Maybe you’re in the same boat. Maybe you are familiar with the title, but know nothing of its origins, the meaning behind the symbol, or the relevance of the devotion to the lives of the faithful. If you’re curious to learn more, you’re in the right place.

Here are five facts about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart isn’t on the same day every year.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart isn’t tied to a date in the way that Christmas or most Saints’ feast days are, but rather, to its placement in the overarching picture of the Liturgical Year. This solemnity occurs on the second Friday after Trinity Sunday, 19 days after Pentecost. 

The Solemnity came from a vision.

In the year 1675, a woman by the name of Margaret Mary Alacoque, a sister of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, had a vision in which Jesus asked her to dedicate a particular day to honoring his heart. It took nearly one hundred years for the Mass of the Sacred Heart to gain papal approval, and it wasn’t until 1969 that the feast was assigned the highest rank of solemnity.

The Sacred Heart is a symbol of Christ’s love.

The Sacred Heart represents the immense love and mercy of Jesus, and its image is rich with symbolism. The exposed heart, encircled by a crown of thorns, represents Jesus’ suffering out of love for humanity. The flames bursting forth from the heart represent the transformative power of Christ’s love. The cross above the heart symbolizes Christ’s sacrifice, while the wound on the side of the heart signifies both the wound inflicted on him at his crucifixion and the wounds that all human beings have inflicted through their sins.

The Sacred Heart is a devotion that can be practiced in various ways.

One way to practice devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is to make a First Friday devotion in which you attend Mass and receive communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months,  which is what Jesus request of St. Margaret Mary. Another is to pray a novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

The Sacred Heart invites us to remember Jesus’s love for us. 

Scripture is full of reminders of Jesus’s love for humanity. The evangelist Matthew tells us that Jesus is gentle and humble of heart (Matthew 11:29) and that his heart is full of compassion for the multitudes (9:36). Remembering Jesus’s love is a source of comfort and strength when times are difficult, and images of the Sacred Heart can bring this reminder to the forefront of our own hearts and minds.