Dilexit Nos §146

¹⁴⁶ This same experience inspired the great succession of Jesuit priests who spoke explicitly of the heart of Jesus: Saint Francis Borgia, Saint Peter Faber, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, Father Álvarez de Paz, Father Vincent Carafa, Father Kasper Drużbicki and countless others. In 1883, the Jesuits declared that, “the Society of Jesus accepts and receives with an overflowing spirit of joy and gratitude the most agreeable duty entrusted to it by our Lord Jesus Christ to practise, promote and propagate devotion to his divine heart”. In September 1871, Father Pieter Jan Beckx consecrated the Society to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, as a sign that it remains an outstanding element in the life of the Society, Father Pedro Arrupe renewed that consecration in 1972, with a conviction that he explained in these words: “I therefore wish to say to the Society something about which I feel I cannot remain silent. From my novitiate on, I have always been convinced that what we call devotion to the Sacred Heart contains a symbolic expression of what is most profound in Ignatian spirituality, and of an extraordinary efficacy – ultra quam speraverint – both for its own perfection and for its apostolic fruitfulness. I continue to have this same conviction… In this devotion I encounter one of the deepest sources of my interior life”.