The Bicentenary of Jules Chevalier’s birth, March 15th 1824. Who MSC are…
This text is from the MSC entry to the book commissioned by the Congregations of Religious Australia, CRA, and is available from them.
You might like to copy and paste the material so that you could use it in full or in part for your forthcoming celebration of the Bicentenary.
Name of congregation: Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
Post-nominal initials: MSC (in the early 20th century in Australia, MSH). Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis in Latin; Missionnaires du Sacre Coeur in French.
Charism: “To be on earth the Heart of God.”
Founded by: Jules Chevalier, 1854, France. Learn more at the MSC website.
Ministries: Foreign missions and establishment of local Churches, Education, Pastoral and Spiritual Formation, Justice and Peace, Media and Communications.
Places of ministry : 54 countries throughout the world, all continents.
Beginnings in Australia: The MSC first came to Sydney from France in 1885. Cardinal Moran offered the first missionaries en route to Papua New Guinea the parish of Randwick/Botany as a mission base.
Notable events or historic turning points
Mission establishment and working with local churches. Missions of Papua New Guinea entrusted to the Congregation, 1881.
Establishment of the Australian Province 1905. Australian work in the Northern Territory from 1906.
Post-Vatican II renewal with Superior General, E.J. Cuskelly. Australian outreach to Asia, Japan 1949, India 1984, Vietnam 2003.
Notable writings, documents:
Founder Jules Chevalier wrote extensively, books and articles on Devotion to the Sacred Heart. Many MSC have published many books. After Vatican II, Superior General, E.J. Cuskelly of Australia, also wrote extensively, expressing a shift in perspective from “Devotion to the Sacred Heart” to “Spirituality of the Heart”. The Congregation has many websites containing this documentation.
Sayings of interest
Vision: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved. Forever.
The Word coming from the Heart of his Father, made the world emerge from nothing; and from the Heart of the incarnated Word, pierced on Calvary, I see a new world emerging, the world of those he has chosen. And this creation, so fertile, full of grandeur and inspired by love and mercy, is the church, the mystical body of Christ, which makes his new creation present on earth until the end of time.” (Jules Chevalier, 1900)
Reflect on the image of the heart. MSC spirituality is grounded in the belief of God’s love for us: the heart of Jesus is the Heart of God. God in Jesus loves us with a human heart. With our own hearts we seek to heal the wounds of this world. Mary is the first missionary of Jesus’ heart. We stand with Mary who stood with Jesus at the foot of the cross. Image: Gemma Farrugia.
OUR STORY
Jules Chevalier was a 30 year old parish priest when he founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) in Issoudun, central France, 8 December 1854. Issoudun is 200km south of Paris.
Chevalier was saddened by the religious indifference in France after the Revolution, yet excited by the increasing foreign missionary spirit. He was inspired by the spirituality of the interior sentiments of Christ promoted by the Sulpician priests who taught him in the seminary, as well as by Devotion to the Sacred Heart. He was happy that his name meant “Knight”. His motto was: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved. Forever.” Devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also central to his vision and spirituality.
Initially a small group, the MSC established Apostolic Schools for aspirants (those who “aspire” to join a religious order).
However, anticlerical legislation in France and expulsions led to the Congregation spreading within 30 years. MSC moved to Belgium, Holland, Germany, England, the USA, Italy. The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH Sisters) were founded in 1874. Meanwhile, Chevalier remained parish priest of Issoudun all his life, making it a significant centre of Marian pilgrimage.
Eager for his men (MSC priests and brothers) and OLSH Sisters to reach out to missions, Chevalier was happy when Pope Leo XIII entrusted Papua New Guinea and New Britain to the MSC in 1881. All the countries of Europe with an MSC presence went out to missions on all continents, eventually developing provinces in Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Korea, the Pacific Islands, as well as in Africa and South America. The Australian Province was established in 1905.
MSC work in schools, teaching, chaplaincy and parishes. They have had a long tradition in retreats and home missions. Social justice, especially motivated by the Heart Spirituality, is key to ministry. There are beatified martyrs from the Spanish Civil War and from uprisings in Central America in the 1970s and 1980s.
A number of missionaries established local congregations of sisters. In recent years, there have been worldwide developments for Lay MSC who, along with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart [MSC], Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart [OLSH Sisters], Missionaries Sisters of the Sacred Heart [MSC Sisters], are part of the Chevalier Family.
Symbolically, some months before his death in 1907, Jules Chevalier was the victim of new anticlerical legislation. Evicted from his presbytery, he was taken to the home of a parishioner and later buried in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Paris). He had seen over half a century of mission that he had inspired – and more than a century was to follow.
MSC Writings
In 1865, Jules Chevalier established the Annals of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, a Journal of Catholic Culture. Each province had its own Annals (Australia in 1889),
He was also a prolific writer. Spiritual and theological writing has been a constant feature of MSC outreach (especially in Australia with Compass Theology Review, 1967-2016). This has led to developments in media and communication and social media.
Continue to explore the story of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Visit misacor.org.au (with six postings each week since 2010).
Sources: Monastery on the Hill, A History of the Sacred Heart Monastery, 1897-1997, Nelen Yubu, 2000. Information supplied by Missionaries of the Sacred Heart is gratefully acknowledged.
