I have often shared here my affinity for living life seasonally and the benefits of doing so.

Each season offers its own gifts, and each season affects the human person in its own way.

We are creatures composed of and sustained by the elements in our midst, and it makes sense that our bodies and souls would naturally be designed to align with the four seasons.

Living according to nature’s cycles is wisdom at its most elemental. Seasons come and go throughout our lives, and our bodies, souls and experiences take on a corresponding rhythm.

In a similar way, the church’s liturgical calendar does the same.

For those who live according to the liturgical calendar, seasons like Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Ordinary Time become guiding forces in our spiritual lives. In addition to these seasons, feasts and memorials throughout the year celebrate various saints and occasions, such as Pentecost and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

June has long been dedicated to honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and I have long been enchanted with this devotion, which has taken on a modern meaning in these urgent times.

Simply put, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a devotion to the heart of Christ, in all its vulnerabilities and tenderness, and his heart’s desire to lavish love on the human soul and be loved in return.

Devotion to the heart of Christ is founded on faith handed down through Scripture and church tradition, that Christ’s heart is inextricably bound with those who love him.

At the Last Supper, the apostle John reclined at the table with Jesus and rested his head on Jesus’s heart.

In “Herald of Divine Love,” St. Gertrude the Great recounts a vision she was given of the Sacred Heart, where she dialogues with St. John after resting her head on Christ’s heart too.

St. Gertrude: “Well-beloved of the Lord, did these harmonious beatings which rejoice my soul also rejoice thine when thou didst repose during the Last Supper on the bosom of the Savior?”

St. John: “Yes, I heard them, and my soul was penetrated with their sweetness even to its very center.”

St. Gertrude: “Why, then, hast thou spoken so little in thy Gospel of the loving secrets of the Heart of Jesus?”

St. John: “My mission was to write of the Eternal Word . . . but the language of the blissful pulsations of the Sacred Heart is reserved for latter times, that the time-worn world, grown cold in the love of God, may be warmed up by the hearing of such mysteries”.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus walks with and converses with his disciples on the way to Emmaus.

But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

And it happened that, while he was with them at the table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.

With that, their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:30-32)

Just as his disciples felt their hearts “burning within them,” so too do we feel that warmth in our hearts whenever we encounter the Living God in the midst of our lives. Genuine encounters with the heart of Christ leave us forever changed. Once we have experienced and felt that tender love, we forever long for a return to it.

In 2024, Pope Francis released his encyclical “Dilexit Nos,” (On The Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Christ). It is a gift to the Church as a whole, and to each of us. It can be found here.

This year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will formally consecrate the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday, June 11. On June 12 at 5 p.m., Bishop Lou Tylka will consecrate the Diocese of Peoria to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.

I cannot think of a better way to celebrate this feast this year than to consecrate our nation to the heart of Divine Love. Because love, both human and divine, is the only thing that will deliver us from this moment we are in as a nation and a planet.

This month, I encourage you to find a way to spend time alone in prayer with the heart of Christ. It doesn’t need to be anything formal. Simply go somewhere quiet and allow your heart to speak to his heart. Trust that he hears you and listens.

And then listen closely to the beat of his heart in your life, as it lavishly pumps Divine Love to yours.

SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.