Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake,
You will see work crews at Sacred Heart for a few weeks as they replace four roofs - the roof on the shed, the rectory garage, the lower portion of the Church (due to hail damage), and the school roof. It is good to see these projects moving forward.
June is a month dedicated to Jesus’ Sacred Heart. There is a great tradition of enthroning an image of Jesus’ Sacred Heart in our home or place of business and then consecrating ourselves to His Sacred Heart and asking Jesus to be the King of all our activities. I would love for our families to take part in this great devotion. There are two parts - blessing the image of the Sacred Heart, and then enthroning His heart in our home or business as you pray the consecration prayer. If you would like to take part, please bring an image or statue of the Sacred Heart to Mass on the weekend of June 25th-26th. At the end of Mass, I will bless the images and lead us in the prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart. When you return home, you can enthrone the Sacred Heart in a place of honor and then say a consecration prayer. I don’t know if this has officially been done at the rectory so I am looking forward to this and renewing the consecration every year.
Below is a quick introduction to the practice of enthroning the Sacred Heart. I look forward to hearing the stories this makes in our lives!
“The practice of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the home was begun by Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC (1875-1961), … Father Crawley-Boevey insisted on the official and social recognition of the rule of the Sacred Heart of Jesus over the Christian Family. The Enthronement is social because Christ’s Kingship involves every member of the household in which we live and all our relationships with others, inside and outside the home. Those who carry out the Enthronement inevitably comment on the difference it makes in the relationships of the family members with one another and with others.
The Enthronement … is the outward expression of an interior commitment to submit one’s whole life in obedience to Christ. It is an expression of our acceptance of Him as King of our hearts, and as our constant Companion and Friend. By means of the Enthronement, the grace of the Eucharist extends into the Christian home and, from the Christian home, to the whole world… If the company of Christ is cultivated in our homes, His company will be cultivated in every sector of life for the transformation of our society and our world into a civilization of love.
The enthronement includes necessarily our Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Enthronement without Consecration would simply amount to the placing of a sacred image in a prominent place in the home. It would be a good and pious practice, but it would not transform lives in the way that the Enthronement, together with Consecration, does. The Consecration is a “setting apart,” a formal dedication of oneself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It involves a total offering of oneself to Him, along with the promise of fidelity in the future.”
God Bless,
Fr. Todd