Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/460

 ON THE CONSECRATION OF MANKIND TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS.

Encyclical Letter Annum Sacrum, May 25, 1899.

a short time ago, as you well know, We, by letters apostolic, and following the custom and ordinances of Our predecessors, commanded the celebration in this city, at no distant date, of a Holy Year. And now, to-day in the hope and with the object that this religious celebration shall be more devoutly performed, We have traced and recommended a striking design from which, if all shall follow it out with hearty good-will, We not unreasonably expect extraordinary and lasting benefits for Christendom in the first place, and also for the whole human race.

Already more than once We have endeavored, after the example of Our predecessors Innocent XII., Benedict XIII., Clement XIII., Pius VI., Pius VII., and Pius IX., devoutly to foster and bring out into fuller light that most excellent form of devotion which has for its object the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: this We did especially by the decree given on June 28, 1889, by which We raised the feast under that name to the dignity of the first class. But now We have in mind a more signal form of devotion which shall be in a manner the crowning perfection of all the honors that people have been accustomed to pay to the Sacred Heart, and which We confidently trust will be most pleasing to Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. This is not the first time, however, that the design of which We speak has been mooted. Twenty-five years ago, on the approach of the solemnities of the 454