Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

What does the heart symbolize? For many, the image of the heart is related to the deepest part of the person, where their feelings, secrets, sufferings, and silences are found. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the heart is “the focal point of the soul, where the human being resides, the hidden center beyond the grasp of our reason and only the Spirit of God can fully understand” (CCC 2563).

It is the place from which great decisions are made, where one can find the truth of oneself, and where God dwells and speaks to us. It is the core where the covenant between the Lord and the creature is sealed.

Scripture uses the Hebrew term leb (heart) to designate the integrating center of human existence: the place where man decides for or against God, where thoughts, wills, and the deepest affections are formed:

• “For out of the heart come evil thoughts” (Mt 15:19);
• “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Mt 5:8);
• “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5).

When the Church speaks of the Three Sacred Hearts, it refers to the entire person of Jesus, Mary, and Saint Joseph. By venerating the Sacred Hearts, we are invited to contemplate the interior life of each member of the Holy Family. Especially, their intense love for God and for souls, and their terrible sufferings for those who live far from the Lord and run the risk of eternal condemnation.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is, according to Pius IX, “the most excellent act of Christianity and the best way to practice the Christian religion”. Pope Francis, in his encyclical Dilexit Nos (October 2024), has once again proposed this truth to the contemporary world: in an age of fragmentation, consumerism, and existential disorientation, the Church points to the heart of Christ as the only center capable of reordering human life.

Did you know that June is the month dedicated to the Heart of Jesus? And what better way to honor it than to also venerate the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph!

What is the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

What is the object of devotion to the Sacred Heart?

The Sacred Heart of Jesus designates Jesus Christ himself “in his integrity, most lovable and most loving”. In it, his ardent love is manifested.

The devotion has two inseparable elements:

1. The heart of flesh, real and living, which beat in the chest of Christ and which continues to beat glorified in heaven and in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
2. The love that this heart symbolizes, which is divine and human.

Pius XII, in the encyclical Haurietis Aquas, precisely distinguishes three dimensions of the love of the Sacred Heart:

1. The eternal divine love, common to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
2. The spiritual human love, infused into the soul of Christ.
3. The sensible human love, which lived and suffered in his heart of flesh.

The three loves are inseparable because Christ is one single Person.

What does the Magisterium say about the Sacred Heart?

The pontifical Magisterium on the Sacred Heart is one of the most abundant and consistent in the history of the Church:

• Leo XIII: Annum Sacrum (1899)

He consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart, describing it as “the great event” of his pontificate. He stated:

“In the Heart of Christ all hopes must be placed, to Him we must pray, and from Him we must expect salvation”.

• Pius XI: Miserentissimus Redemptor (1928)

He defined the devotion as

“the synthesis of all Christianity and the most perfect norm of life because it is the one that most easily leads to an intimate knowledge of Christ“.

He established the spirit of reparation as “the element of primacy and the most principal part” of the cult.

• Pius XII: Haurietis Aquas (1956)

It is the most complete doctrinal exposition. It offers a biblical, patristic, and dogmatic foundation for the devotion, stating that its cult is “the most excellent act of Christianity” and that

“those who hold in little esteem this benefit of Christ to his Church, offend God”.

• John Paul II: Dives in Misericordia (1980)

“In a special way the Church professes and venerates the mercy of God by approaching the Heart of Christ, whose mystery reveals to us the merciful love of the Father”.

On the centenary of the universal consecration (1999), he stated:

“The man of the year 2000 needs the Heart of Christ to know God and to know himself; he needs it to build the civilization of love”.

• Francis: Dilexit Nos (2024)

It is the most recent encyclical on the Sacred Heart. In a world fragmented by individualism and the dehumanizing use of technology, Francis proposes the Heart of Christ as the unifying center of existence. He recovers the philosophical and anthropological meaning of the heart to overcome sterile rationalism and superficial sentimentalism, two deviations that this devotion combats simultaneously. He also points out the social and missionary dimension of the cult of the Heart of Jesus.

What do the symbols of the Sacred Heart mean?

The image of the Sacred Heart is surrounded by five insignias. Each of them has a meaning:

• The Cross

Embedded in its center, it proclaims that Christ’s love had its definitive proof on the Cross. It teaches the devotee that authentic discipleship implies a life of sacrifice.

• The crown of thorns

It symbolizes the humiliations that Christ endured out of love and the offenses he receives from sinners — especially the negligence and venial sins of those who claim to be consecrated to Him.

• The flames

They represent the ardor of a love that is neither contained nor moderated. It is the same love that moved the Word to become incarnate and to give himself on the Cross and in the Eucharist.

• The wound

Opened by the lance, it means, in the words of Saint Augustine, that the divine Heart has willed to remain open to serve as our refuge in life and at the hour of death.

• The blood and water

They are figures of the two great sacraments of the Church, Baptism and the Eucharist, and of the inexhaustible graces promised to devotees.

What Are the 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus?

The Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart were communicated to St. Margaret Mary throughout her revelations. They are preserved in her writings and were reproduced verbatim in the Bull of Canonization issued by Pope Benedict XV, giving them a particular guarantee of authenticity.

1. I will give My devotees all the graces necessary for their state in life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. Los consolaré en todas sus aflicciones.
4. I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
5. I will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Lukewarm souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall quickly rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless every home in which an image of My Heart is displayed and honored.
10. I will give priests a special gift for touching even the hardest hearts.
11. Those who spread this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be erased.
12. The Great Promise:

“I promise you, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays the grace of final perseverance. They shall not die in My displeasure nor without receiving the Sacraments. My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge at that final hour.”

The Great Promise does not guarantee automatic salvation. It grants, according to moral theology, a human moral certainty, not an absolute one, of attaining the grace of final perseverance. Its fulfillment requires communion in a state of grace, with right intention and in a spirit of reparation. Anyone who uses it as an excuse to sin excludes themselves from its benefit.

What is the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

What is and what does the Immaculate Heart of Mary mean?

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is the expression of her entire interior life: her joys, her sorrows, her virtues and, above all, her purest love for God and her maternal love for humanity. It is simultaneously a symbol of the person of Mary and a synthesis of her spirituality. In it are found all the virtues, charisms, and gifts she received from God. Her heart is created, redeemed, immaculate, virginal, nuptial, maternal, and glorified.

The scriptural foundation is precise. Saint Luke notes twice that “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19, 51). Mary’s heart is the place where the Word of God was received with the greatest fidelity and the greatest depth that any creature could have attained. Simeon’s prophecy adds the dimension of sorrow: “A sword will pierce your soul” (Lk 2:35), which is the origin of the representation of Mary’s heart pierced by a dagger and the foundation of her co-redemptive function.

What is the function of the Heart of Mary in the Church?

Just as Christ is the Head and the Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Church, Mary is its Heart. In the same way that the heart propels blood to the entire body, Mary distributes the life of grace to all members of the Church through her intercession and maternal love. She is the spiritual center that unites the faithful with the Savior.

Mary received at the Annunciation the mission to conceive the Redeemer “first in her heart by faith, and then in her womb by the Holy Spirit” (Saint Augustine). At the foot of the Cross, she received the mission to be Mother of the entire Church in the person of the beloved disciple (Jn 19:26-27).

Her heart is the living altar where the victim she herself had engendered was offered. That is why the path to the Heart of Christ naturally passes through the Heart of Mary.

What does the Magisterium say about the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

• Saint John Eudes (17th century)

He is the great systematizer of this devotion. Canonized by Pius XI in 1925, he composed the first liturgical offices for the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and proposed that the Heart of Mary is the “royal road” to enter the furnace of love that is the Heart of Jesus.

• Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima (1917)

It gave the devotion its definitive universal impulse. The Virgin asked to establish in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart as a means of conversion and peace. She requested the consecration of Russia and the reparatory communion of the first five Saturdays of the month.

• Pius XII

He consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 31, 1942 — in the midst of World War II — and extended her feast to the entire Church in 1944.

• John Paul II

He adopted the motto Totus Tuus as the program of his pontificate and consecrated the world again to the Immaculate Heart in 1984.

• Francis

He solemnly consecrated Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 2022, in the context of the armed conflict, asking for the end of the war.

What do the elements of the image of the Immaculate Heart symbolize?

• The fire

It represents the ardor of her love for God and for humanity. This love translated into an absolute and permanent self-giving.

• The sword

It is the symbol of Mary’s sorrows, based on Simeon’s prophecy and realized at the foot of the Cross. It represents her real participation in the redemptive sacrifice of her Son.

• The roses

They express her purity and the beauty of her interior life, preserved from all stain since the Immaculate Conception.

• The flame and the wound

They represent the ardent love and the suffering shared with Christ, which make Mary’s heart the most faithful reflection of the Heart of her Son.

What is the Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph?

Why is the Heart of Saint Joseph called “most chaste”?

The title “most chaste” designates a radical interior disposition: the freedom from possessing. Joseph’s heart is chaste because he learned to love without appropriating, placing Jesus and Mary at the center of his life without claiming anything for himself. It is the love of a father, a husband, and a guardian who gives himself entirely without holding anything back.

Pope Francis, in the apostolic letter Patris Corde (2020), described him as a “father in the shadows”: a man who loved with total and silent self-giving, without seeking the spotlight, serving as a bridge between the Old and New Testaments.

Is there a feast in honor of the Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph?

The Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph does not have its own feast day in the Universal Liturgical Calendar of the Latin Church. The Church integrates Saint Joseph liturgically into the Solemnity of March 19, the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1, and the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, celebrated on the Sunday within the octave of Christmas.

Devotion to his heart is channeled through exercises of popular piety that the Directory on Popular Piety (paragraphs 218-223) frames within the cult of dulia, that is, the veneration due to saints by reason of their degree of grace and holiness.

This distinction is theologically relevant: while the hearts of Jesus and Mary receive a universal liturgical cult consolidated in the Roman Missal, devotion to the Heart of Joseph develops within the sphere of popular piety which complements the liturgy without supplanting it.

In some dioceses, the Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph is usually honored on the Wednesday following the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

What promises and practices does the Church propose in honor of the Heart of Joseph?

A milestone in contemporary devotion is the apparitions of Itapiranga, in the Brazilian Amazon, approved by the local bishop in 2010. In them, Saint Joseph revealed specific promises for those who honor his Most Chaste Heart:

1. Salvation from the clutches of the devil and growth in holiness;
2. The grace of a good death for those who comfort the sick in his honor;
3. Protection against calamities, wars, and famines;
4. Names engraved in his heart for those who propagate the devotion.

The Directory on Popular Piety establishes that private revelations add nothing to the definitive Revelation given in Christ, and that their function is solely to help live it more fully in a given era (paragraph 90). The faithful are called to receive these revelations with prudent faith, neither rejecting them without discernment nor granting them the certainty that belongs only to the deposit of faith.

The concrete practices of devotion to the Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph include:

• First Wednesdays of the month: honoring his Most Chaste Heart with special devotional practices, with the promise of extraordinary graces.
• Rosary of Saint Joseph, also called the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows and Joys of Saint Joseph: powerful intercession for situations of grave difficulty.
• Personal and family consecration to the Heart of Joseph, renewed periodically.
• Short prayers (jaculatorias): “Hail Joseph, just and virginal man”; “Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I give you my heart and my soul”.

The iconography of the Most Chaste Heart frequently represents him with the Child Jesus reclining upon him, surrounded by light expressing his supereminent holiness, with white lilies — a symbol of purity — and sometimes with the letters M and a cross engraved, symbolizing his inseparable union with Mary and with the sacrifice of Christ.

How are the three Sacred Hearts related?

What is the “trinity of the earth”?

Just as in the Holy Trinity the three Persons have one single will and one single eternal love, in the family of Nazareth the three hearts form — in the diversity of their natures — a perfect unity of love, will, and mission. The Holy Family of Nazareth is the archetype of every Christian family and the concrete model of the covenant between God and humanity.

What are the functions of each heart in the history of salvation?

The three hearts fulfill specific and irreplaceable functions in the plan of Redemption, and those functions are prolonged in the Church:

• The Sacred Heart of Jesus

It is the source. All love, all grace, all supernatural life springs from Him. It is the heart of the Redeemer who loves first, who gives himself completely, and who expects to be loved in return. All the sacraments, all ecclesial life, and the entire mission of the Church have their origin in this pierced Heart.

• The Immaculate Heart of Mary

It is the channel and the mirror. She distributes the grace of her Son to all members of the Mystical Body through her continuous intercession. She reflects with perfect fidelity the love of Christ, making it possible for the faithful to understand and imitate it. She is the heart of the Church in an analogical and real sense.

• The Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph

It is the shield and the guardian. He protected the two sacred hearts during the earthly life of Jesus and Mary, and continues to exercise that mission of guardianship over those who entrust themselves to his intercession. His heart strengthens faith, defends purity, consolidates the family, and silently leads toward the Heart of Christ.

What is the order of mediation between the three hearts?

Spiritual tradition describes an ascending and descending order of intercession that reproduces the order of life in Nazareth. Prayers are entrusted to the Heart of Joseph — the guardian —, who gives them to the Heart of Mary — the mediatrix —, who presents them to the Heart of Jesus — the source. In the descending sense, grace flows from Christ through Mary toward the soul of the faithful guarded by Joseph.

This order is not a complication of access to God but a participation in the logic of the Incarnation: God willed to come into the world through Mary and under the protection of Joseph. The faithful are invited to go to God by the same path He chose to come to them.

Saint John Eudes formulated this relationship with precision: the Heart of Mary is the royal road to enter the furnace of love that is the Heart of Jesus. Josephology adds that the Heart of Joseph is the outer door of that path.

How is the union of the three hearts represented?

In the revelations of Itapiranga, the three hearts are presented at the same level and height, transmitting light and shining like diamonds. Joseph’s heart appears marked with an M and a cross, symbolizing his inseparable union with Mary and his total orientation toward Christ. This iconographic representation expresses a theological truth: the three hearts are distinct in their nature and function, but one in love and mission.

The Pilgrimage of the Three Hearts — practiced by communities such as the one in Oklahoma, in the United States — is a contemporary public manifestation of this joint devotion. Its purpose is to gather families under the spiritual model of Nazareth to strengthen the family fabric and resist the cultural fragmentation of the modern world.

When are the Sacred Hearts celebrated in the month of June?

• June 12, 2026: Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

It is the feast of the highest liturgical rank, in which the Church publicly proclaims to the world the presence of Christ’s redemptive love. The proper practices are the Solemn Mass, Reparatory Communion, and the public act of reparation for the offenses received by Jesus, especially in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

• June 13, 2026: Obligatory Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Placed the day after the solemnity of the Sacred Heart, it liturgically expresses the inseparable union between the Heart of the Mother and that of the Son. The proper practices are the Mass, the recitation of the Rosary, the renewal of personal or family consecration, and the reparatory communion of the first Saturdays of the month.

• The entire month of June

Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with pious exercises in many parishes around the world. Pope Pius X wanted this month to have the character of a mission-month, in which eternal truths were preached to restore all things in Christ. He granted special indulgences for those who solemnly attend the month’s exercises in churches where they are celebrated with preaching.

• First Wednesday of each month

Honoring the Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph, with promises of special graces for those who consecrate it on that day.

The concentration of these festivities in June is not accidental: the Church proposes in this month a sustained contemplation of the love incarnate in the Holy Family, which must transform the daily life of the Christian during the Ordinary Time that follows.

What is the internal cult of the Sacred Hearts?

Any external devotion that does not spring from an interior disposition lacks supernatural value. The cult of the Sacred Hearts begins in the soul of the faithful and is expressed in concrete attitudes:

• Total consecration

The giving of the senses, powers, actions, and the entire life to the Sacred Hearts. It is a permanent orientation of the entire will toward Christ, through Mary and under the protection of Joseph.

• Imitation of their virtues

The concrete program of the devotion is to copy the traits of the interior life of each member of the Holy Family: from the Heart of Jesus, his gentleness, humility, and obedience, the three virtues He expressly pointed out as the favorites of his Heart; from the Heart of Mary, her faith, her docility to the Spirit, and her maternal love; from the Heart of Joseph, his chastity, his silence, and his strength in service.

• Spirit of reparation

Offering reparation to Christ for the offenses received — one’s own and those of others —, especially those perpetrated against the Holy Eucharist. Pius XI established that this spirit of reparation occupies “the first and principal role” in the cult of the Sacred Heart.

• Familiar and continuous interaction

Maintaining the presence of the three hearts during the ordinary occupations of the day through short prayers (jaculatorias). “Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee”; “Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love”; “Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, I give you my heart and my soul”. These are not decorative formulas: they are acts of will that continuously reorder the intention toward God.

What are the concrete practices of devotion to the Sacred Hearts?

• The Morning Offering

The fundamental practice accessible to every faithful. It consists of offering upon waking to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and with the protection of Joseph — all the prayers, works, and sufferings of the day, in union with the continuous sacrifice of Christ on the altar.

Its purpose is to “divinize the entire life”. The formula: “O divine Heart of Jesus! Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary Most Holy, I offer Thee the prayers, works, and sufferings of this day, in reparation for our sins…”

• First Fridays to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Reparatory communion with the intention of making amends to Christ for the outrages received in the Most Blessed Sacrament. A practice requested directly by Jesus. The Great Promise links the communion of nine consecutive first Fridays to the grace of final perseverance.

• First Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Requested by the Virgin at Fatima as an act of reparation and consecration. They include confession, communion, the meditated Rosary, and fifteen minutes of meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary.

• First Wednesdays to the Most Chaste Heart of Saint Joseph

A practice of popular piety with promises of special graces for those who honor his heart on that day.

• The Month of June

The entire month is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The proper exercises include daily meditation on the Heart of Jesus, the recitation of his Litanies, acts of consecration and, where possible, the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Pius X granted special indulgences for churches that solemnly celebrate these exercises.

• The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

Reparatory communion and public act of reparation. Ideal preparation: a novena of nine preceding days.

• The Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Renewal of personal consecration to Mary, the Rosary, and the offering of the day to the Immaculate Heart.

• Novenas and Triduums.

Exercises of three or nine days to obtain specific favors or prepare for the main festivities.

• Consecration to the three Sacred Hearts

The family gives itself jointly to the three hearts of the Holy Family so that Christ may reign in thoughts, Mary may purify feelings, and Joseph may strengthen decisions.

• The Rosary of Saint Joseph

Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows and Joys: an intercessory practice for situations of special difficulty, associated with devotion to the Most Chaste Heart of Joseph.

Why is devotion to the Sacred Hearts important today?

The response of the Magisterium is coherent and constant throughout centuries: because the crisis of the world is, at its root, a crisis of the human heart. Pope Francis pointed this out in Dilexit Nos with a precise diagnosis: consumerism, individualism, the dehumanizing use of technology, and the wars that devastate the world are symptoms of a heart that has lost its center. Sterile rationalism empties man of interiority; superficial sentimentalism fills him with emotions without truth. Devotion to the Sacred Hearts simultaneously combats both deviations.

John Paul II stated on the centenary of the universal consecration: “Man needs the Heart of Christ to know God and to know himself; he needs it to build the civilization of love“. This statement has not lost its relevance.

Devotion to the Sacred Hearts proposes a concrete path: to know the love of Christ in his open Heart, to respond to him with one’s own love — not as a passing feeling but as a free and voluntary choice —, and to extend that love to one’s neighbor through ordinary life sanctified by the daily offering.

It is the program that Blessed Columba Marmion formulated. The entire spiritual life depends on the idea one habitually forms of God. Devotion to the Sacred Heart gives the soul the truest and most complete image of the God who loves, waits, and forgives. And that image transforms hearts, moving them to radical conversion and a fervent love for the Lord and for souls.

Do you want to cultivate devotion to the Sacred Hearts? Take a look at these articles that can help you:

• Devotion and History of the Sacred Heart: Everything you need to know about the revelations of the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary.
• Revealing the Spiritual Meaning of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: Discover the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, from her role in raising Jesus to her influence on contemporary devotion.
• The First Saturdays of the Month: 4 requests: Everything about this pious practice in honor of the Immaculate Heart.
• The Message of Fatima: The Answer for Our Time: Everything about the apparition of Our Lady in Fatima and the establishment of devotion to her Immaculate Heart in the world.