Catholic Pocket Dictionary/H

HEART OF JESUS (SACRED HEART)

HEART OF MARY IMMACULATE

HEAVEN

HELL

HERESY

HIERARCHY

HOLY FAMILY

HOLY GHOST, CONGREGATION OF THE, AND OF THE I. H. OF MARY

HEART OF JESUS (SACRED HEART)

The faithful worship with supreme adoration the physical Heart of Christ, considered "not as mere flesh, but as united to the Divinity." They adore it as "the Heart of the Person of the Word to which it is inseparably united." This truth is as old as the belief in the hypostatic union, and it was solemnly defined in 431 at the Council of Ephesus. All the members of Christ united to the rest of His sacred humanity and to the Eternal Word are the object of divine worship. If it be asked further why the heart is selected as the object of special adoration, the answer is, that the real and physical heart is a natural symbol of Christ's exceeding charity, and of His interior life. Just as the Church in the middle ages turned with singular devotion to the Five Wounds as the symbol of Christ's Passion, so in these later days she bids us have recourse to His Sacred Heart, mindful of the love wherewith He loved us "even to the end."

The special and formal devotion to the Heart of Jesus owes its origin to the Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, who lived in the latter part of the seventeenth century.

HEART OF MARY IMMACULATE

The principles on which the devotion rests are the same as those which are the foundation of the Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart. Just as Catholics worship the Sacred Heart because it is united to the Person of the Word, so they venerate the heart of Mary because united to the person of the Blessed Virgin. In each case the physical heart is taken as a natural symbol of charity and of the inner life, though of course the charity and virtues of Mary are infinitely inferior to those of her Divine Son.

HEAVEN

It is the place where God manifests His glory to the blessed, and clearly shows Himself to them. This appears from the fact that Christ has ascended to heaven in that body which He took from Mary, and that the body of Mary herself is, according to the belief of the Church, already reunited to her soul, so that she is, body and soul, with her Divine Son. Since then, the sacred humanity is not omnipresent, heaven is a definite place in which Christ and the Blessed Virgin exist, and in which the angels and blessed souls are gathered together. After the general resurrection heaven will also be the home in which the bodies of the just will live for ever.

HELL

Hell may be defined as the place and state in which the devils and such human beings as die in enmity with God suffer eternal torment.

HERESY

The word is used to denote a philosophical sect or party, or the belief of those who of their own will choose false doctrine, either instituting sects themselves or receiving the false doctrine of sects already founded.

HIERARCHY

The word first occurs in the work of a Greek writer of the fifth century who referred to it as "administration of sacred things.” A hierarchy now signifies a body of officials disposed organically in ranks and orders, each subordinate to the one above it. However, when the hierarchy is generally spoken of, what is meant is the organization of ranks and orders in the Catholic Church.

HOLY FAMILY

Our Lord, His Mother, and His foster-father, St. Joseph, together formed one family which should be the model and veneration of all Christian households.

HOLY GHOST, CONGREGATION OF THE, AND OF THE I. H. OF MARY

This congregation, as its’ name might suggest, arose out of the fusion into one, in 1848, of two pre-existing institutes - the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, and the Missioners of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The rule of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, which had been approved by the Sovereign Pontiff, was to be retained, and the constitutions of the missionaries were for the most part incorporated in it.

The society is governed by a superior-general elected for life. Its missions are directed by bishops or vicars-apostolic chosen from its own body. All the members - fathers and brothers- consecrate themselves to God by the three simple vows of religion, at first temporary, afterwards perpetual; and they bind themselves to the congregation by their act of profession, which contains an engagement of perseverance.

HOLY PLACES

The spots rendered sacred to Christians by the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Savior, as well as by events in the life of the Blessed Virgin, have been visited by pilgrims and travellers at least since the third century.

HOLY WATER

Washing with water is a natural symbol of spiritual purification. "I will pour out upon you," says fled by the prophet Ezechiel, xxxvi. 25, "clean water, and you shall be clean."

Holy water is placed at the door of the church in order that the faithful may sprinkle themselves with it as they enter accompanying the outward rite with internal acts of sorrow and love.

HOLY WEEK

The week in which the Church commemorates Christ's death and burial, and which is spoken of by ancient writers as the Great, the Holy Week, the Week of the Holy Passion. The custom of keeping Holy Week dated from Apostolic times. In the East, Holy Week was distinguished from the rest of Lent by the extreme strictness of the fast.

HOMILY

Homily is used by ecclesiastical writers to signify a familiar discourse on Holy Scripture.

HOPE

One of the theological virtues. It may be defined as a supernatural gift of God whereby we trust that God will give us eternal life and all the means necessary thereto if we do our part.

HOST

The form and material of altar bread. Christ, the victim of expiation for our sins, is called the Host. Sacred Hosts are reserved in the tabernacle for the sick.

HUMERAL VEIL

An oblong scarf of the same material as the vestments, worn by the subdeacon at High Mass, when he holds the paten, between the Offertory and Pater Noster; by the priest when he raises the monstrance to give benediction with the Blessed Sacrament; and by priests and deacons when they remove the Blessed Sacrament from one place to another, or carry it in procession. It is worn round the shoulders, and the paten, pyx, or monstrance is wrapped in it.

HYMN

In the wider and ancient sense, including Psalms and Canticles, meant originally a song of praise in honor of gods or heroes, and it had a religious character