Reaffirming the Jesuits’s ancient and intimate bond with devotion to the Sacred Heart, Father Arturo Sosa visited the shrine of Paray-le-Monial to renew the Society’s consecration to the Heart of Jesus.

The jubilee celebrating the 350^th anniversary of the Sacred Heart’s apparitions to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque began in Paray-le-Monial on December 27, 2023, and will run until June 27, 2025. The Jesuits first arrived in Paray-le-Monial, Bourgogne, in 1619 in response to the parish’s request to animate the Lenten period and support the local Christian community which was recovering from the tumultuous Wars of Religion.

Saint Claude La Colombière, apostle of the Heart of Jesus

The apparitions occurred 50 years later, from December 1673 to June 1675. Jesuit Claude La Colombière, the confessor of the Visitation Sisters’ monastery, authenticated these divine events. During Marguerite-Marie’s last vision in July 1688, recognized by the Church, the Lord entrusted the Visitation Sisters and the Society of Jesus with the mission of sharing and spreading the mystery of the Sacred Heart.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart entrusted to the Society of Jesus

Claude La Colombière’s personal notes, published after his death, made public the events at Paray-le-Monial and enabled the spread of what was to become devotion to the Sacred Heart. The young Jesuits who were accompanied by Claude also played a crucial role in the spread and recognition of this devotion. Jesuits on other continents followed in their footsteps, and devotion to the Sacred Heart gradually spread throughout.

At its 23^rd General Congregation in 1883, the Society of Jesus declared that it “accepts and receives with a spirit overflowing with joy and gratitude, the gentle burden that our Lord Jesus Christ has entrusted to it, to practice, promote and propagate devotion to His most divine Heart”. The long period between 1688 and 1883 (195 years) can be explained by the events experienced not only by the Society of Jesus (its suppression, then its re-establishment), but also by the Church as a whole, with the period of great unrest in Europe, the French Revolution and the profound political and social transformations that followed.

The La Colombière chapel in Paray-le-Monial, built in 1929 to commemorate Claude La Colombière’s beatification, offers a mystagogic journey through its stained glass windows, gazebos, and mosaics. It illustrates how the Spiritual Exercises can be embraced as a genuine experience of the Heart of Jesus, which is central to the Ignatian tradition.

The Jesuit community of Paray-le Monial today

The Jesuit residence at Paray-le-Monial (part of the Lyon community), has four members. It pursues its mission of spreading knowledge of the Heart of Christ, alongside the Visitation sisters, and in collaboration with other workers at the Sanctuary who have been part of the Emmanuel community since 1986. Together, they are in charge of the beautiful chapel of Saint-Claude La Colombière, which has a daily Mass, confessions, spiritual direction and visits to the chapel for groups of pilgrims. They highlight the stained glass windows, gazebos, mosaics and their spiritual message. Retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises and catechesis on the Heart of Jesus are also offered throughout the year.

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus

In 1844, Father François-Xavier Gautrelet SJ launched an initiative among Jesuit scholastics, which soon became the Apostleship of Prayer, and is now known as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (PWPN).

In 1861, Father Henri Ramière SJ, the first director of the Apostleship of Prayer, initiated the publication of the “Messager du Cœur de Jésus” bulletin. At the time, Fr Ramière led a network of over 13 million members, and moved to recall the roots of this Worldwide Prayer Network in the dynamic of the Heart of Jesus, with a perspective of apostolic availability that begins with a prayer of offering united to the Heart of Jesus. From 1915 onwards, youth prayer groups were formed as part of the Apostleship of Prayer, and these later became the Eucharistic Youth Movement (EYM).

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network promotes a spiritual itinerary called “The Way of the Heart”. This itinerary renews devotion to the Heart of Christ in the light of the Spiritual Exercises, and brings our hearts closer to the Heart of Christ, making us available to his mission of compassion for the world. “The Way of the Heart” helps people to commit themselves to praying and living out the challenges of humanity and the Church’s mission as expressed in the “Pope’s Prayer Intentions”. The Sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial joined the Pope’s World Prayer Network at the start of the Jubilee of the Heart of Jesus (December 2023-June 2025).

Today, present in 92 countries, the PWPN unites over 22 million Catholics, including the EYM, which is its youth section. Since 2016, when it was established as a Pontifical Society, a Jesuit appointed by the Pope, after consultation with Father General of the Society of Jesus, has been the PWPN’s international director.

Rooted in the Heart of Jesus

The Eucharistic Youth Movement is dedicated to the Christian spiritual growth of children and young people aged 5 to 25. It originated in France in 1915 as the Croisade Eucharistique, and was re-created in 1962 as the Mouvement Eucharistique des Jeunes (MEJ). The EYM proposes a Eucharistic path: based on real life, on the experience of young people, it seeks to develop the talents and abilities of each individual. Its pedagogy is rooted in the Prayer Network’s formation itinerary, “The Way of the Heart”, a veritable spiritual treasure of the EYM and an invitation to live a personal friendship with Jesus through three fundamentals lived out in community: Gospel, Eucharist and mission.