Latest News Join online: Maryvale Sacred Heart Novena Maryvale Sacred Heart Novena Join us online for our Annual Novena to the Shrine at the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Maryvale Institute. With a Mass, Sermon and Novena each evening at 8pm from Thursday 11 June to Friday 19 June 2020 (Feast of the Sacred Heart). Plus, on 'Pilgrimage Day' on Sunday 21 June, Mass will be live streamed from St Chad's Cathedral at 11am, celebrated by Archbishop Bernard Longley. Maryvale House is a place of pilgrimage and devotion as well as an educational centre, and the focus of that devotion is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The story of Maryvale’s link with the Sacred Heart begins with Bishop John Milner who became Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District in 1803. He had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart and when he enlarged the main chapel of the seminary/school, he built above the sacristy a small chapel in the Gothic style which became the first public shrine of the Sacred Heart in the British Isles. In 1814 Bishop Milner brought back from Rome a small panel of painted glass showing the Sacred Heart of Jesus as described by St Gertrude; he set the panel in a window of the shrine and from that time onwards devotion to the Sacred Heart has been a key part of Maryvale’s life of faith and prayer. St John Henry Newman, who founded the Oratory at Maryvale in 1848 said “In the Eucharist, the Heart of Jesus beats for us still". The Sisters of Mercy kept Devotion to the Sacred Heart going when they came to live at Maryvale in 1851 and started the practice of keeping a 'Perpetual Lamp' burning in the Chapel. The link between Maryvale (Old Seminary) has continued over the years with students and staff coming to Maryvale Institute and visiting the Chapel and the Shrine of Sacred Heart. When Fr Daniel McHugh came in June 1980 to start the new Maryvale Institute, the Sisters of Mercy schooled him in the importance of the Shrine to the people in the area and beyond. He was fortunate that the Sisters of St Paul the Apostle joined him in August as the Sisters of Mercy departed. One of them, Sister Philomena, took on looking after the Shrine. Father McHugh began the public First Friday Masses and in 1981 the Novena of Masses leading up to the Feast, together with a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the Sunday after the Feast. Since coming to Maryvale in 1999, the Bridgettine Sisters have continued to promote the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And it is wonderful to see that the Feast of the Sacred Heart has now become the Annual World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests (2007). Full list of Masses and live stream links Novena to the Sacred Heart Prayer For updates visit: Maryvale Institute website Maryvale on Twitter Maryvale on Facebook Manage Cookie Preferences