Heart of Jesus

The Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network (Apostleship of Prayer) has a long tradition of devotion to the Heart of Jesus (Sacred Heart). It is a devotion that is intimately linked to our mission and symbolizes the love Jesus has for the world.

As the Documents guiding our re-creation explain, the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network is "a spiritual pathway inspired in the symbol of the heart – the human heart and the Heart of Jesus – that in unison wish to respond to the needs of today’s people."

The Heart is a symbol of the whole person, a symbol which in many cultures is rooted or represented in a physical heart as seat of the deepest feelings. It should not be understood as the physical organ, a muscle which pumps blood, but as what it represents, this is, the deepness of God’s love.

One concrete way we are reminded of this love is through beautiful images of the Heart of Jesus, as the Directives guiding our re-creation mention.

The classical images of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus represent the Risen Lord in its pictures or statues. It is He who comes to his apostles, showing his wounds and sending them on mission...[these images can help us] connect [our] lives with the Risen Lord and to walk with him.

These images of Jesus can be used in our personal prayer, especially the three moments of prayer that is part of our spirituality and provided through our Click To Pray App.

Below is a growing collection of images from around the world that represent different expressions of the Heart of Jesus.

 

 

Painting by José María Ibarrarán y Ponce, 1896 used with permission from David Pappas.
Detail of a mosaic in San Lorenzo fuori le mura in Rome of Christ the Good Shepherd, combined with an image of the Sacred Heart (Photo by Lawrence OP)
Painting by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Gesù, Rome, 1767)
All Saints Catholic Church, St. Peters, Missouri (Photo by Nheyob - CC BY-SA 4.0)
Santa Ifigênia Church, São Paulo, Brazil (Photo by Wilfredor - CC0)
Corrado Mezzana (1922)
Sanctuary of Christ the King in Almada, Portugal (Photo by Deensel - CC BY 2.0)
Unknown Artist (Portugal)
Sacred Heart of Jesus with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Louis Gonzaga (José de Páez, Mexico, 1727-1790)
(via Marian Catechist Apostolate)
Painting of the Sacred Heart by French artist Maurice Denis in 1916 during the First World War. (Public Domain)