+JMJ
Dear Parishioners,
We are coming to the end of June, and perhaps I should have written about it earlier – the Sacred Heart. This is the Catholic theme for June. I know the civil powers-that-be are trying to push various pride themes for June, but the deep, fully human, life-giving, love-enhancing theme for June is the Catholic theme of the Sacred Heart. As Catholics we will do ourselves and society around us a disservice, if we lose the devotion to the Sacred Heart in June. The Sacred Heart gives life; pride the way our society is pushing it does not. We celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart on the first Friday after the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.
You remember that perhaps the most prominent proponent of the Sacred Heart was St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. She was a Visitation nun who died in Paray-le-Monial (central France) in 1690. I have prayed at her tomb on several occasions. The Lord Jesus revealed to her His desire for a Feast of the Sacred Heart, holy hour on Thursdays, and Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month. And He gave her promises related to this devotion.
It has been profound for me getting to know people devoted to the Sacred Heart. In my first assignment as a priest in Sandusky, there was a very large family of Irish descent whose patriarch and matriarch dedicated their home decades prior to the Sacred Heart, and they could talk to me for hours about the favors they had received as a result. All their children and grandchildren were still in the Faith. Of course that patriarch and matriarch never ceased to witness to their children and grandchildren about the Sacred Heart.
Then in my last parish there was a very holy woman who on her deathbed told me about her love for the Sacred Heart, and His desire that she create an endowment for the support of vocations from that parish. This woman claimed she talked with the Sacred Heart regularly, and I believed her. She and her husband had enthroned the Sacred Heart in their first apartment soon after they married, and they never ceased to honor Him throughout their years of marriage. She could hardly breathe as she was talking to me from her deathbed, but every breath she took and every ounce of energy she spent was packed with heart-warming devotion to the Sacred Heart. She was on fire!
For the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart two Fridays ago, the Magnificat (a daily devotional I recommend to everybody… I think it's the best one out there) gave us a meditation by Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche (d. 1915), a Visitation nun. She wrote about how the Sacred Heart is the synthesis of all Catholic doctrine:
The Sacred Heart is not a simple devotion of sentiment; it is not even a special isolated dogma – it is the synthesis of all Catholic doctrine, of the whole Catholic moral law summed up in the love of Jesus Christ for us and of our love for Jesus Christ. There is then for us a theology of the Sacred Heart… from the consideration that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). We find in this charity the purpose if not the explanation of the whole series of Christian mysteries….
Mother Louise Margaret went on to explain that Love gives. God has even given us existence by creating us. Then Love wants to be like the beloved. So, God became one of us in His Son, Jesus Christ. That's the Incarnation. Then Love wants to be with the beloved. So, Jesus gave Himself to us in the Eucharist, to be with us Really Present for all time.
Please consider enthroning the Sacred Heart in your home (often done at the same time as enthroning an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), so the Two Hearts are enthroned in your home. There are many fine websites that give instructions. A priest can preside at the enthronement, but this is not absolutely necessary. Here is a webpage that begins with a homily by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, and ends with a number of links for just how to do the enthronement and record it ceremonially: https://onepeterfive.com/enthronement-of-the-sacred-heart/. Raymond Cardinal Burke of LaCrosse, WI is a huge proponent of devotion to the Sacred Heart. If you go to his website (https://www.mariancatechist.com/school-of-the-marian-catechist-apostolate/) and look under the “formation” link, you will find devotion to the Sacred Heart, with enthronement materials. I am sure that if you were to call Cardinal Burke's Shrine bookstore (https://www.guadalupeshrine.org/flores-mariae-gift-shop), you could order his liturgical book for enthronement of the Sacred Heart in your home.
Have a blessed week!
In cordibus Iesu, Mariae et Iosephus,
Father Poggemeyer