Posted on 08/22/2014 3:41:26 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
“Behold this heart which has so loved men.” – Jesus Christ
“Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of its very nature, is a worship of the love with which God, through Jesus, loved us, and at the same time, an exercise of our own love by which we are related to God and to other men.” - Pope Pius XII
At the very center of Christianity is love. Love is the whole message, the whole law. Now, I don’t mean love in the sense of quickly passing infatuation or sexual attraction, two mistaken definitions of our confused culture, but rather sacrificial self-giving. In its essence, love is nothing more than laying down your life for the good of another.
The deeper we grow in the Catholic and Apostolic faith, the more we realize that the gospel is centered not so much in our love for God, but in God’s love for us. Holy Church has dedicated the month of June to a devotion that is designed to remind us of the depth of God’s passionate love for his creatures: devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In the burning and wounded Sacred Heart, we see that God’s heart is consumed with love for us—so much so that he was willing to suffer and die for us in the most gruesome manner. The Sacred Heart teaches us that true love is always costly, but that it always gives life.
There is much more that can be said about devotion to the Sacred Heart, but today I want to focus on 7 ways we can honor it.
1. Consecration – In mediating on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we realize the depth of God’s sacrificial love for us. Jesus gave himself to us completely on the Cross to prove his love for us, and he continues to do so every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When we receive the Eucharist, we receive the very heart of Christ.
Yes, Jesus gives us his heart again and again, and the only reasonable thing to do is to give our hearts to him in return. One beautiful way to do this is by consecrating ourselves to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Click here for a prayer of consecration.
2. Enthronement - An important aspect of devotion to the Sacred Heart is recognizing and submitting to the authority of Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives. Jesus is truly a king—the king of the Church, of our families, and of society in general. The tradition of enthroning the Sacred Heart is an excellent way to express this kingship of Christ.
In this ceremony, a blessed image of the Sacred Heart is placed prominently in our homes, reminding us that Jesus is our king, and that we should love and serve him with our whole hearts. Here are the prayers for an enthronement ceremony.
3. Reparation – The name of Jesus is regularly blasphemed and abused in media, literature, and every day conversation. Each time this happens, the heart of Christ is wounded again by the rejection of his creatures. One way we can show love to the Sacred Heart is by making acts of reparation for the abuse that Jesus receives. A prayer of reparation can be found here.
4. First Fridays - When our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary and revealed the devotion to the Sacred Heart, he requested the practice of attending mass, going to confession, and receiving him in the Eucharist on the first Friday of 9 consecutive months. This devotion is important because we remember the passion and death of our Lord on Friday. It is essentially a novena that reminds us of the love of Jesus for us, and instills in us a desire to imitate his sacrificial love.
Of course, we are all busy, and it can be difficult to remember the first Friday devotion. If that’s the case for you, sign up for handy email reminders.
5. Frequent Prayer – Prayer is the breath of the spiritual life and the primary way we grow in love for God and neighbor. Calling frequently on the Sacred Heart is an excellent way to pray, since doing so is an appeal to the love and mercy of Jesus. Prayer to the sacred heart can be as lengthy as a novena or litany, or as simple as a spontaneous, “Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.”
6. Imitation – Devotion to the Sacred Heart is designed to inspire imitation. We can say all the right prayers and even practice the first Friday devotion faithfully, but if we aren’t imitating the self-giving, sacrificial love of Jesus, we aren’t truly devoted to his heart. Of course, imitating the Sacred Heart starts with giving love to Christ and being ready to sacrifice for his sake. But it also involves loving those we encounter every day—including those we don’t particularly like. It means loving and forgiving our enemies and those who persecute us. It means laying our life down for others.
7. Missionary activity – Finally, loving the Sacred Heart of Jesus means bringing its love to others. It means sharing our faith with those who may have fallen away from it, or who might have never heard of the fact that Christ lovingly gives himself to us, body and soul, in the Eucharist. It means bearing witness to the fact the Jesus is our king whom we serve sacrificially. And it means bearing our crosses lovingly and patiently. Conclusion
Devotion to the Sacred Heart has waned in recent years, but I encourage all of you to learn more about this beautiful devotion, and to grow in your love for the burning heart of Jesus. It is only when we learn to imitate the true, costly, and sacrificial love of the Sacred Heart that we will discover our vocation as men.
You are very welcome.
((There is no mention of “sacred heart of Jesus” in the bible, therefore....))
Actually there is quite a discussion of the actions of the heart of God.
Jesus personifies that heart.
The only thing the Catholic Church does is highlight it and give it a title.
It is not made up from thin air.
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1098
Well actually it is. Names and titles are very important to God so for the Catholic church to make them up all the time and build religion around them is certainly the opposite of finding the Word of God sufficient.
You know I hear Protestants say all the time that Catholics do not read the Bible, but if I go to Mass everyday for three years I will hear the entire Bible.
Did you know that?
Now just because I do not take my Bible to Church with me and underline passages does not mean that my knowledge and love for the Bible is somehow deficient.
My better half joined the Church when our daughter was 3 years old. Around the same time we went to a friend's house for dinner and afterwards we played Bible Trivia.
Guess who won? The Baptists who invited us or the one cradle Catholic and the new convert?
We won hands down. Our friends were flummoxed to say the least.
How could that be when Catholics "never read the Bible"?
Please don't be rude and assume that just because I refer to my knowledge and love for Jesus in a certain term that it is somehow stupid.
Because I assure you that it isn't.
While Protestants understand this I'm not so sure many Catholics do...The heart of Jesus had one function and that was to pump blood to the body...It's just an organ...I am troubled that you guys present drawings of Jesus with a superimposed heart or a beam of light centering on the heart...The heart of Jesus is no more or less sacred than the rest of him...
The reference to the heart of Jesus is symbolic, a metaphor...
“Just too much noise and distraction in society..”
I hope it’s not detraction to say that the enemies of the Church described in Pascendi Dominici Gregis have actively suppressed many devotions.
I know of one wonderful group of cloistered nuns who were shut down and scattered to the wind by these villains. Their devotion was to Saint Faustina, for many years before her canonization.
Before this becomes one of those thousand-note atrocities we see too often, I’d just like to thank you for posting this. Read it thoroughly and carefully.
If you love the bible, how do you feel about Mormons? I have 8 kids, one married and divorced a Catholic and one is currently married to a Catholic. Neither Catholic was very interested in the bible or going to mass. Now one of my kid in very very interested in a Mormon girl. Are you aware of how Mormons handle the bible?
When I back up a few steps from doctrinal disputes I think of those wretched orc's known as Muslims and I consider how happily they would cut off my head, your head and any Mormon's head for their testimony of Jesus Christ. They wouldn't care at all about any of the details we debate.
Praise the Lord for every moment of your life that you have spent reading the bible and believing.
“Praise the Lord for every moment of your life”
Good advice. Now pay attention in the Bible where Jesus says “DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME”. Or was he just joking?
I've heard/seen that snark a good thousand times. It destroys whatever point you are trying to make.
“Now pay attention in the Bible where Jesus says “DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME”. Or was he just joking?”
Every non-Roman Christian group I know does the last supper “in memory of Him.” They don’t pretend to be Him.
I used to be a Baptist. The service consisted of a pastor ranting and raving about going to hell if you’re not right with the Lord. I do recall once a year he might bring in a bottle of grape juice and some saltine crackers and pretend he was “remembering” Jesus in the Last Supper.
For 2,000 years Catholics and Orthodox have participated in the Eucharist, where Jesus Christ is present. 99.9% of protestant faiths make fun of this sacrament, the exact same way they make fun of everything else that Catholics do.
This is the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It’s one of the prayers I say each day with my morning and evening meditations. I think you’ll see it’s of a pretty comprehensive nature :-)
https://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/Litanies/sacred_heart.htm
NKP,
You post false and disparaging comments about Christians in this thread...
“I used to be a Baptist. The service consisted of a pastor ranting and raving about going to hell if you’re not right with the Lord.”
This is a data sample of one. I believe it was you who said there are 30,000 (or was it 300,000) “protestant denominations”? That renders your one data point irrelevant. Interesting, but not representative. Certainly false in the many Christian churches we’ve attended around the country.
“I do recall once a year he might bring in a bottle of grape juice and some saltine crackers and pretend he was “remembering” Jesus in the Last Supper.”
It is difficult to know is you are presenting this as a memory issue or again trying to claim all protestants follow this silly pattern. Also, I am impressed that you knew he was “pretending, according to your post.”
“For 2,000 years Catholics and Orthodox have participated in the Eucharist, where Jesus Christ is present.”
Hundreds of Christians would disagree that He is present. They do follow His words to conduct the last supper in memory of Him.
“99.9% of protestant faiths make fun of this sacrament, the exact same way they make fun of everything else that Catholics do.”
Again, with the universal knowledge in a post, which is false. Only God has universal knowledge.
There is a significant difference between disagreement and making fun of something.
The fact it claims there is an indulgence attached to the litany flies in the face of understanding what the amazing love and grace of God accomplished judicially and positionally through Christ’s sacrifice.
“Hundreds of Christians would disagree that He is present. They do follow His words to conduct the last supper in memory of Him”.
To end this silly discussion let just say there is a lot more Christians that observe the Eucharist at each and every Mass as there are non-believers. End of subject. You lose.
“Hundreds of Christians would disagree that He is present. They do follow His words to conduct the last supper in memory of Him”.
First, I intended to write “hundreds of millions.”
That said, let’s take your argument...”To end this silly discussion let just say there is a lot more Christians that observe the Eucharist at each and every Mass as there are non-believers.”
And that means what?????
To quote God, “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Truth is never a popularity contest or numbers based.
I’m simply pointing out that not everyone who claims the name of Christ interprets His words as you do. Nothing more. No need to attack those who love Him.
Have you ever wondered why the FIRST CHRISTIANS believed in the Eucharist and the real presence of Jesus Christ? Those same Christians have been participating in the Eucharist for 2,000 years.
Actually, no. No point in wondering when you can use facts. I searched the Scriptures to see what God says. I looked for any historical references before 100AD. I looked at concurrent secular writings and art. Came up zero. For these reasons, I believe your claim is not true.
Later, as paganism crept into the church, all kinds of sycretism emerged. The "real presence" and "actual Body and Blood" are examples. The wonderful thing about God's Word is that it is authoritative. It can correct any tangent the Church or any group takes. It is the ultimate reboot for souls who go to it to see what it teaches, instead of bringing ideas to it for validation. Obviously, not every soul wishes to know what it says. As you've pointed out, many are content to outsource their mind and believe whatever is told to them. OK.
What we are left with is, "Do this in memory of me."
... hundreds of millions do that.
Your posts appear to reflect deep resentment that not every follower of Christ does it exactly like Rome.
The second largest group of Christians in the world are the Orthodox Church. Guess what? They all believe in the Real Presence at the Eucharist. You lose.
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