What is Sacred Heart?
[[File:Sagrado Coração de Jesus - escola portuguesa, século XIX.png|thumb|240px|Sacred Heart of Jesus]] The prayer to the '''[[Sacred]] Heart of [[Jesus]]''' is a [[Roman Catholic]] devotion. A devotion is something that people do or say to show their love for God and Jesus. Saint [[Margaret Mary Alacoque]] wrote the prayer. When Roman Catholics pray to the '''Sacred Heart of Jesus''' they are praying for a part of Jesus that they believe is [[divine]]. The devotion to the '''Sacred Heart of Jesus''' is also popular among some Anglo-Catholic [[Anglican]]s (Anglicans who use many of the same practices as Catholics). == Early devotion == Early Christians, for example [[John the Evangelist]] and [[Paul of Tarsus]], wrote the first devotions or prayers to the love of [[God]]. The earliest devotions to the ''Sacred Heart of Jesus'' were from the [[Benedictine]] or [[Cistercian]] [[Monastery|monasteries]]. St. [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] from the Cistercian [[religious order]] was the first person to write a devotion to the ''Sacred Heart of Jesus'', but some people believe that the first person was [[St. Anselm]]. The devotion of the ''Sacred Heart of Jesus'' started to be more [[Popularity|popular]] between the [[13th century]] and the [[16th century]]. Some religious orders, for example the [[Franciscan]]s, [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]], and [[Carthusian]]s practised the devotion. But, the devotion of the ''Sacred Heart of Jesus'' was most common with [[individual]] Christians. For many the devotion was a mystical devotion - similar to an experience in [[mysticism]]. In the sixteenth century, there was a change in the way people practised the devotion of the ''Sacred Heart of Jesus''. The devotion started to be part of Christian [[Asceticism]] and stopped being part of Christian [[Mysticism]]. In the sixteenth century, the devotion also started to use special written prayers and exercises. For example, the devotion used the writings of [[Lanspergius]] (d. 1539) of the Carthusians of [[Cologne]] and of [[Louis of