Our Founder
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart were founded by a young French priest, JULES CHEVALIER, in Issoudun, central France on December 8, 1854.
Jules Chevalier was born in Richelieu, Touraine on March 8, 1824. He was born into a France very much changed and devastated by the French Revolution and the resulting Napoleonic Wars. The economy and the political scene were in turmoil. Because of such uncertainty and instability, the people were generally despondent and disillusioned with life.
Even as a seminarian in Bourges, Jules was keenly aware of the indifferentism and egoism resulting from Jansenism, rationalism and the incessant wars. His recent studies in devotion to the Sacred Heart inspired him to see very different Christ in the Gospels, a Christ who as Good Shepherd had tremendous care for all his brothers and sisters, a shepherd who was protective, who guided his flock to sources of food and drink, a gentle shepherd who had special concern for the sick and vulnerable members.
For Jules, God showed his great love for us and the world through the human heart of his Son, Jesus. Thus, he felt a strong desire to found a missionary congregation of priests and brothers to be witnesses and instruments of God’s love, healing, mercy and transformation to the very ends of the earth. His great motto : “May the Sacred heart of Jesus be everywhere loved”.
This thirty year old priest had a global vision. He envisioned three groups working together to fulfill his mission. 1. Religious men and women, 2. an Association of Diocesan priests, and 3. a group of MSC Lay Associates who would take this mission to their homes and to their workplaces.
The religious wars in France from 1870 to the early 1900’s prevented him from fulfilling all of his dreams.
Today, he is considered the founder of three religious congregations who work on all five continents.
He died in Issoudun, France, on October 21, 1907.
SPIRITUALITY OF THE HEART
As adults, when we live from our central core-values then we can say that we have a spirituality. For a Christian the central value is Christ. A spirituality is not the same as a devotion. Our founder, Fr. Jules Chevalier, lived as an MSC during the second half of the 19th century, a great time for all types of devotions. We could say that a devotion is a set of practices, like praying to favorite saints, praying before icons, statues, or using incense and so on. You can have several devotions at any one time. A spirituality is much different and deeper. It emerges from our particular way of seeing Christ in the Gospels, a particular way of following Him, and a particular way of serving Him in others.
Jules Chevalier loved to contemplate and meditate on St. John’s Gospel and Letters, on St. Paul’s Letters and on the Letter to the Hebrews. What he discovered from his prayer and life reflection was Christ the Good Shepherd who literally gave everything of Himself to protect His flock, to lead them to sources of food and drink, a Christ who cared for the weak and vulnerable. All of this was summed up for him in Spirituality of the Heart. As he contemplated and observed the central France of his day, he realized that this was the answer to the social, political, economical and religious “evils of the day”.
As a seminarian, he had already committed himself to use all of his energies as a future diocesan priest to help transform society in the region. In devotion to the Sacred Heart, as it was called then, Jules discovered a Christ who was far more concerned about the “modern evils” (as he called them) than he himself was. For him, this called for a radical conversion and a totally different way of serving Christ. Now the emphasis was much more on ‘being’ than ‘doing’. It meant permitting Christ to captivate our hearts so as to live His Father’s reign in and through us. Jules realized that he would have to surrender himself completely, his own ambitions and ideas, so as to be able to say with St. Paul :
“I live now, not I, but Christ lives within me” (Gal 2:20). So he had discovered his charism, the living out of this charism would be the spirituality of the heart.
Spirituality of the Heart is not about knowing a lot of Scripture or Church doctrine, it is very much about experience, the experience of being known personally and loved uniquely by Christ. “We have come to know and believe in the love that God has for us in Christ” (1Jn 4:16).
Chevalier felt called to found religious congregations of men and women, as well as lay MSC Associates to respond to the of the Church and society of his day. Because of the previous history of France, the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars, the aftermath of rationalism and religious indifference, he saw spirituality of the heart as the answer to the despondency of the people which could offer new hope and renewed vitality to counteract the indifference he saw all round him. His vision has had a huge impact on the world since then.
Spirituality of the Heart has a deep biblical foundation. In the Scriptures the heart refers to the heart of the person, the whole person. It can refer to the heart of God, of man, or of the Messiah. All three come together in Jesus! It celebrates God loving us through the human heart of His Son, Jesus. From the open side (heart) of Jesus on the Cross flowed blood and water which the dead Jesus (who had already entered into His glory) bequeathed over His Body, the Church.
This ‘new heart’ is mentioned many times in the Hebrew Scriptures, viz. Jerm 31:31-34, Ezechiel 11:17-20, and 36: 24-27, and of course many times in the New Testament, especially in St. John and in St. Paul’s Letters.
Spirituality of the Heart means that I am convinced that I am personally loved by God, that the Trinity dwells within me, and that I am missioned to share this experience of a compassionate, merciful, forgiving and caring Jesus with everyone I encounter. Because it emerges from deep within our own hearts, it does not depend on special ‘uniforms or badges’ or on anything external. It can be expressed by any Christian through their own personalities, through permitting the risen Christ to love and act in and through them in their ordinary everyday lives. To love as Jesus did. In other words, we are called to be the heart of Christ in the world! “We have come to know and believe in the great love God has for us in Christ” (1John 4:16).
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved (MSC motto).
OUR LADY OF THE SACRED HEART
It was devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart which was the greatest impetus in the growth and spread of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart around the world. Nineteenth century France was a profound period of establishing and fostering Marian devotions and also devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Newly arrived at Issoudun, central France, at the age of 30, Fr. Jules Chevalier was intent on founding a congregation of religious priests and brothers to give life to a vision he had had for a few years. With his fellow young priest companion, Fr. Emile Maugenest, he began a novena to Our Lady which was to conclude on December 8, 1854, the day on which Pope Pius IX was to promulgate the feast of the Immaculate Conception to the universal Church. The two young priests promised that if it was God’s intention that they should found a religious congregation they would honor Mary under a new title. December 8, 1854 has always been considered the birthday of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. In 1859 Fr. Jules Chevalier revealed the new title to honor Mary: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
What did he intend by calling the mother of Jesus “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart”?
This devotion is not dependent on any miracle or apparition of Our Lady, instead it has deep roots in St. John’s Gospel and in theology.
As he meditated on St. John’s Gospel, especially Chapter 2:1-12 (Wedding at Cana), on Ch.7:37-39 (Rivers of Living Water), and on Ch. 19:25-37 (Near the Foot of the Cross stood Mary), he began to realize and appreciate Mary’s intimate connection in the whole mission of her son, Jesus. As Mary stood near the foot of the Cross, when most of the disciples had already abandoned Him, she understood “the signs” of blood and water flowing from the open side of Jesus on the Cross. Under these “signs” of blood and water, the glorified Christ (Jesus was already dead) was bequeathing over His Body, the Church, water (the symbol of the Holy Spirit) and blood (symbol of His life, new life).
These ‘signs’ would only become visible and manifest at Pentecost and again Our Lady was present! But Mary had already understood these ‘signs’ of blood and water even in the midst of her anguish of watching her son die! Now, she also understood why her dying Son on the Cross had ‘given’ her to John (symbol of the Church) as his Mother. She is the first among believers, disciples of Jesus and she is rightfully called the Mother of the Church.
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, pray for us!
