Sacred Heart Novena touched human hearts
The novena to the Sacred Heart in Gardiner St Church », 4-12 June 2026, drew a significant number of people, according to Brendan Comerford SJ, who delivered the novena. “It was a lovely time of prayer and reflection with everyone”, says Brendan, adding, “And even more people than last year turned up, which was great to see.”
Brendan says that many things contributed to the prayerful atmosphere over the nine days. “The beautiful singing of Margaret Brennan, accompanied by her husband Seamus on the organ and piano, was a real gift.” And Brendan himself, in his daily talks, introduced people to the sayings of the mystics such as Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Sienna. “People really appreciated those stories, and particularly the sayings of the women mystics.”
As well as music and stories, there was poetry from Mary Oliver, Patrick Kavanagh and Elizabeth Jennings, all part of Brendan’s daily reflections.
Over the nine days, Brendan spoke on various themes, including ‘the surprise of God’ (“Perhaps we need to be open to the God of surprises. Sometimes we recognise that the Lord answered our requests in the manner we least expected”),’ being attentive, ‘images of God’, and ‘images of self’. “I also spoke about St Augustine, having joked that we Jesuits had lost the run of ourselves when Pope Francis was alive, so now, with an Augustinian Pope, we’d have to give Augustine a run out,” says Brendan, adding, “And I was struck by how people warmed to what I said about St Augustine and prayer, and following our desires”
Some of the material contained in Brendan’s reflections is available in this month’s Sacred Heart Messenger », in a specially published version of a novena to the Sacred Heart. The Messenger reaches about 50,000 readers, so many people will have prayed the novena, according to Donal Neary SJ, the magazine’s editor. “We also published over 10,000 card printouts of the novena, which were delivered to lots of churches and made available free of charge to those who wanted them.”
Across the country, various churches held their own novenas or drew on the resources offered by The Messenger ». Messenger publications also highlighted their recent publications of ‘Books for the Heart’, namely, Generous Heart: A Daily Prayer Book » by Donal Neary SJ, By Way of the Heart: Pierre Favre SJ, The First Jesuit Companion », by Brendan Comerford SJ, and The Living Image: Returning to the Heart » by Anna Burke, who offers a deeper look at devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
