Evangelical Mega-Church Leads Congregation in Consecration to Sacred Heart of Jesus Prayer

Church POP ^ | 12/11/17

[marshmallow]

This is certainly surprising!

During a recent Friday night service, a pastor at New Life Church, an evangelical Protestant megachurch in Colorado Springs, CO, reportedly led the congregation in something you wouldn’t normally expect: the Sign of the Cross and a prayer of a consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Redditer /u/MarvelDCgoodwithme, who is Catholic, explained on the /r/Catholicism subreddit that his Protestant mother attends the church and thought the prayer sounded Catholic. So she took pictures of a few of the slides with the prayer, which you can see at the bottom of this article.

And sure enough, it’s a prayer for consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus composed by Pope Leo XIII in 1899! The slides also have a picture of the statue of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

“She said it happened after the sermon,” the redditer explained in a private message, “the pastor presented the slides and asked the congregation to read the prayer and if they agreed with it to pray it with him. The pastor also closed his prayers with the sign of the cross.”

We’ve reached out to New Life Church to learn more about their thinking in using the prayer but haven’t yet received a response.

New Life Church was founded in 1984 and has about 10,000 members. It was in the news in the early 2000s when its founding pastor Ted Haggard admitted to using drugs and regularly visiting a male escort. He was also later accused of making unwanted sexual advances on a young man in his 20s at the church. After Haggard was dismissed from his position, the church appointed a new pastor Brady Boyd who has since greatly expand the church’s reach.

[Salvation]

Praise the Lord, indeed.

[ealgeone]

And from the group that claims they don’t change.

[boatbums]

I heard a cute line, “My family is so perpetually late that they came over on the Juneflower!” ;o)

[daniel1212]

Current canon law requires a one-hour fast before receiving Communion (canon 919): "One who is to receive the Most Holy Eucharist is to abstain from any food or drink, with the exception only of water and medicine, for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion." The Eucharistic fast was mitigated by Pope Pius XII from a complete fast after midnight to a fast of three hours (1957); then Pope Paul VI further reduced the requirement to one hour (1964). These changes were intended to encourage Catholics to receive Communion more frequently. Don't you think it a little odd that these fasting rules have changed so much? What fifty-something years ago could be considered a mortal sin, isn't even ANY kind of sin now!

Well, the first change was the focus being on the elements rather than remembering and thus showing the Lord's death for them by sharing food in the "feast of charity," and thus not coming hungry and eating independently of others, and thus "shame them that have not. (see here on 1Cor. 11:17-34 )

Therefore, in contrast to fasting, the solution by the Holy Spirit is,

But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come. (1 Corinthians 11:32-34)

[boatbums]

Well, we already know that more than a few things there aren’t based on Scripture - some in direct contradiction of it.

[Mark17]

It’s been so long since I was a catholic, I had forgotten about fasting before communion. I can’t remember what I did, but stopped going to communion, because I was committing mortal sins, and didn’t want to go to communion, with mortal sins on my soul.

[MayflowerMadam]

The Juneflower. Very cute!

[af_vet_1981]

... that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me ... ...

These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said: Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee. I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known, that all things which thou hast given me, are from thee: Because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine: And all my things are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest me have I kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture may be fulfilled. And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy filled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for them do I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me; that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world. Just Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee: and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have made known thy name to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them.

John, Catholic chapter seventeen, in its entirety,
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

[ealgeone]

Proper citation of Scripture is appreciated and has been requested of you. For some strange reason you refuse to do so. I’m pretty sure that’s a mortal sin on your part.

[EliRoom8]

Paul:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 2 Cor 5:16

John on Patmos:
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

[Mark17]

I’m pretty sure that’s a mortal sin on your part.

I am pretty sure that is correct. 😀😁 I know I committed so many mortal sins, I couldn’t keep track of them all.

[Elsie]

But He did tell John to behold his mother.

But He DIDN'T say, "Mom; you will have to do the heavy lifting while I'm gone."

"Folks are gonna come to YOU with problems; but don't worry; just relay them on to me.

"You know I've always done whatever you've asked me to do."

[Elsie]

...for at least the period of one hour before Holy Communion."

Now THERE'S a rough one to obey!

[Elsie]

These changes were intended to encourage Catholics to receive Communion more frequently.

Dang!

Every time they darken the church doors wasn't ENOUGH???

[Elsie]

‘Mary’ probably whispered into Rome’s collective ear...

[Elsie]

It’s been so long since I was a catholic, I had forgotten about fasting before communion.

Shame!

Don't you recall how Jesus and the disciples fasted before the Passover meal now known as the Last Supper?

[Elsie]

... I have given them thy word...

...but evidently that is not enough.

Mom will have to come back to earth to fill in for me and then give them OTHER words to follow.

[Elsie]

... I committed so many mortal sins, I couldn’t keep track of them all.

Don't worry; as I am pretty sure that 'Mary' remembers them ALL!

[ealgeone]

I tell ya....if I were Romam Catholic the priest would never be out of my site. The dude would get sick of seeing me.

[ealgeone]

The Catholic Church has definitively defined around a dozen verses.

There's another Roman Catholic poster who at one time claimed to be a priest that says the RCC has defined only one verse.

So which of the two of you is correct?

LOL...ya'll don't even know what your church has or has not defined. And after "2000" years you think the RCC might have gotten around to that.