BACKGROUND

Is SHEVA a gift from God?

Yes, because as the Sacred Scripture testifies, God’s promises as expressed in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms are fulfilled by the power of Christ’s love (Mt. 5:17; 22:37-40). The Sacred Heart not only symbolizes but deeply communicates the divine love (Mt. 11:28-29). The revelation of the Kingdom of God is from the heart to the heart (Ps. 95:6-11; Ezek. 36:26-28; Jl. 2:13). It is the Ontological Heart of the Father that is revealed and concretized by the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Cf. I Sam. 13:14, 16:7; Acts 13:22-39; Zech.12:10; Jn.19:37).

How does SHEVA relate with the Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church?

The promises of God and their fulfilment in Christ’s love is attested by the Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church. The use of the Sacred Heart image reverberates in the entire life of the Church. Briefly:

1. 1. The Holy See approved the devotion to the Sacred Heart in 1765, So that “the faithful, under the Symbol of the heart, might remember with more devotion and advantage, the love which Jesus Christ testified, by suffering and dying for the redemption of mankind, and instituting, in memory of His death, the adorable sacrament of His Body and Blood” – Pope Clement XIII.
   2. In 1815 Pope Pius VIII granted a Plenary indulgence to all the faithful who, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, having confessed and communicated worthily, visit a church or public oratory and pray for the intentions of the Pope.
   3. In 1875 Pope Pius IX approved an Act of Consecration and invited all the faithful to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart.
   4. In 1898, Mother Mary of the Divine Heart, a nun from a noble German Catholic family, told Pope Leo XIII that our Lord had commanded her to tell His Vicar on earth that He desired a formal consecration of the entire world to His Sacred Heart. The Pope did so in 1899.
   5. His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, saw “in the Sacred Heart a symbol and sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love Him in return, it is fit and proper that we should consecrate ourselves to His most Sacred Heart – an act which is nothing else than an offering and a binding of oneself to Jesus Christ, seeking that whatever honor, veneration and love is given to His Divine Heart is really and truly given to Christ Himself”- Encyclical Letter, ‘Annum Sacrum’ of May 25, 1899.
   6. On May 8, 1928 on reparation to the Sacred Heart, His Holiness Pope Pius XI, in his Encyclical ‘Miserentissimus Redemptor’, officially acknowledged that Jesus Christ had “Manifested Himself” to St. Margaret and had promised her that all those who rendered this honor to His Sacred Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly grace.”
   7. In the Encyclical letter, Heurietis Aquas (May 15, 1956), by His Holiness Pope Pius XII, it is clear that: “Christians in paying homage to the Sacred Heart of the Redeemer are fulfilling a serious part of their obligations in their service of God and, at the same time, they are surrendering themselves to their Creator and Redeemer in regard to both the affections of the Heart and the external activities of their life, in this way, they are obeying that divine command ‘Thou shall love the Lord your God with all your… whole heart… ’(Dt. 6:5).”
   8. In the Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope Paul VI, “Investigabiles Divitias Christi”, of February 6, 1965, the Church embraced the Sacred Heart of Jesus as “the symbol and eloquent image of the eternal Love with which God loved the world so as to ‘give His Only Son’ [Jn. 3:16]”.
   9. On the 150th anniversary of the extension of the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the whole Church Pope Benedict XVI reiterated that the consecration  to the Sacred Heart of Jesus “has an irreplaceable importance for our faith and for our life in love” and that “it is still a fitting task for Christians to continue to deepen their relationship with the Heart of Jesus, in such a way as to revive their faith in the saving love of God and welcome Him even better into their lives (Apostolic Letter, May 15, 2006).”
   10. In the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi of December 8, 1975, His Holiness Pope Paul VI, taught how evangelizing is, in fact, the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. He said: “She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection (No. 14)“. We are called to evangelize!
   11. In calling for the re-examination of the Eucharistic Miracle at Lanciano, the Church renewed the awareness of being totally present in the presence of the Lord at Eucharistic communion. Finally, Odoardo Linoli, a professor in anatomy and pathological histology as well as chemistry and clinical microscopy, and former head of the Laboratory of Pathological Anatomy at the Hospital of Arezzo, assisted by Ruggero Bertelli, a retired professor of human anatomy at the University of Siena published the report in Quaderni Sclavo di Diagnostica Clinica e di Laboratori in 1971. His study confirmed that the flesh was human cardiac tissue, and the blood was type AB. And in the blood, there were found proteins in the same normal proportions (percentage-wise) as are found in the sero-proteic make-up of fresh normal blood. Linoli found no trace of preservatives and no scientific theory could explain how the species remained intact despite the harsh conditions over the centuries, since around A.D 700. It testified that the Eucharist is nothing else but the presence of a divine person (Jn. 6:56; 20:28).