ORIGIN OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART -ENGLISH PILGRIMS IN THE 19th CENTURYCATHOLIC PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 35, 27 December 1873, Page 9

ORIGIN OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART -ENGLISH PILGRIMS IN THE 19th CENTURYCATHOLIC PROGRESS IN ENGLAND.

(An Auckland Contribution.) Somb time ago Archbishop Mauning forms'ly consecrated his diocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. " JT ext after the demotions of the Holy Sacraments," says His Grace, " which are closely akin to it and explanatory of it, comes the devotion of the Sacred Heart, spread east and west throughout the Catholic church. For two centuries it has keen established in the hearts of generation after generation. Whence did it arise f From Paray-le-Monial in France. In the history of a poor despised Sister of the Visitation, Margaret Mary of that place, we read that in a vision sho saw Christ suffused by an intensity of light. She beheld His sacred heart enveloped, as it were, in flame, girdled with thorns and surmounted with a cross ; and these words came to her: "Behold the heart that has loved men so much and has been loved so little." His Grace argues that we must ascribe the rise of this devotion to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, because the Catholic church, so jealous of its truth, so jealous of its piety, so jealous of the devotion of its children, has admitted, sanctioned, and taught it and Bpread it abroad. If we believe in the visions recorded ia the New Testament — that seen by Saul on his way to Damascus by Stephen at his martyrdom— and by John, as he records it in the Apocalypse, when he saw the Son of Man clothed in a white garment and girdled about ; His hair white as the light, His feefc like pure brass, and His countenance as the sun in its strength — why may we not believe that vision recorded to have been Been by fche holy Margaret Mary, of Paray-le-Monial, as above related, and which has been so well authenticated P May He who has manifested Himself to his servants iv the beginning not also manifest Himself in divers ways to His servants and friends in all time, and even in these latter days t True, we are not bound to believe in the vision of Margaret Mary as a dogma of faith ; but how are -we to reject it on any rational principle, and still retain a belief in the visions recorded in the New Testament ? The archbishop proudly believes that the unlooked-for and almost miraculous success which has attended his labors in London, especially for the education of the Catholic poor, may be attributed to his demotion to the Sacred Heart. Under his auspices a pilgrimage to the holy shrine at Paray-le-Monial has been organised, and about 500 pilgrims set out in a body from London in September last to visit the tomb oi St. Margaret Mary, for the purpose of there praying to God for many blessings, spiritual and temporal, for themselves and others, and more especially to pray "for the Catholic church in England, revealed but the other day and springing into manhood before anyone could expect it." The pilgrims mustered in the Cathedral at Kensington before setting out, and were addressed by the Archbishop. They were under the conduct of the Duke of Norfolk, with other noblemen, gentlemen, and bishops, priests, and several ladies of rank as a committee. His grace the Archbishop earnestly urged them all to preserve order, and be obedient to those who were to lead them from the time of their departure till their return. This was the first requisite. He also solemnly exhorted them " to lay aside all state, dignity and inequality of this world, and to account themselves happy if they shared with the least, and had their portion with the last, in that spirit of humility which was the perfection of the Sacred Heart." The scene in the cathedral was selemn, grand, and imposing, in the extreme. The Protestant press treated the subject—as your contemporary, the Ofcago « Times, no doubt will do — with jeers and derision. Let them. "We bless God for it. It is a poor serving of the oross that has not soma shame." as the Arehbiihop said.