Catholics of a certain age would recall the importance of First Friday and attending Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart. Although the devotion to the First Fridays of each month was instigated by Mary Margaret Alocoque in the 17th century, the practice received greater attention, beginning in the mid-19th century. The landscape of this century, particularly its second half, was marked by atheism, consumerism, determinism and host of other “isms” that found their source in materialism and a denial of the presence of God within the human heart and in society. The church responded to the presumed consequences to the determinist iron laws of nature by promoting an image of God that was active and loving, the Devotion of the Sacred Heart. The devotion countered the Deists’ notion of a clock-winder who set the mechanism in motion and then left the room. The imagery of the Sacred Heart identified Christ as desiring that his heart would find a home in each human heart, a devotion that was both loving and caring but also stood in contrast to the cold determinism an materialism of the 19th century. The promotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus stands as one of the great devotions promoted by the Jesuits in the service of humanity to bring that same humanity to its fullest potential. The spiritual practice of attending Mass on First Friday’s is just one of many practices that the Jesuits have advanced to bring people closer to God in the face of materialism and atheism.