Special Devotions
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Enthronement to the Sacred Heart
The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home is a salutary act that fulfills the request of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to establish His reign of love in all hearts. This act is more than a mere devotional practice. It is the outward allegiance that a family or community makes to Christ the King. Enthroning an image or statue of the Sacred Heart in a noble place in the home and consecrating oneself and one's home to this Sacred Heart in a ceremony is a serious matter.
Our Lord becomes truly the King of the home in a more real way than He was before. Every person in the home becomes accountable in all of their thoughts, words and actions to the King. Moreover, each thought, word and action performed in the house or in public belong to Christ the King and are under His authority. Such a serious act requests a complete transformation of life, so that the person lives as a faithful subject of the Sacred Heart.
The Enthronement is also a great blow against the Revolution as it states that Christ is the King and deserves to be true King of every family and nation, in other words, King of all of Society both temporal and spiritual.
Let us listen to the words of Bishop Bougaud as he describes the origins of this devotion and its significance as well as correspondence to this grace in America.
"In the year 1907, Fr. Matthew Crawley-Boevey of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, from Chile, though of English birth, was kneeling in the chapel at Paray-le-Monial, the scene of the apparitions of Our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary. This priest was, according to the doctors, suffering from an incurable disease of the heart.
While praying before the Tabernacle, he suddenly felt his strength return to him, and realized that he was cured. At the same moment, an overpowering desire seized upon him to draw every household in the world to the Sacred Heart, and he acquired the strong the conviction that for this end was his vigor restored to him.
A few days later, he was in Rome, kneeling before Pope Pius X, begging his approbation and blessing for the task he felt impelled to undertake. "I give you no permission for a work as magnificent as this," the Pope answered him, smiling. "I command you, instead, to devote yourself to it."
Fr. Crawley-Boevey began his mission without delay. The spread of the devotion was remarkable. Two years afterward, Pope Pius X gave it his special blessing, and also to all priests who should become its apostles. ...
In January 1918, Pope Benedict XV put the seal of approval on the devotion of the Enthronement in these forcible words:
"If from the canonization of Blessed Margaret Mary there results a more complete diffusion of the worship of the Sacred Heart, who would not by desire and deed thus hasten the spread of so excellent a devotion as that of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in families and their consecration to It? The dawn gives us an idea of what the midday will be like, and we, who in this praiseworthy consecration of families to the Sacred Heart recognize the dawn of that much-desired day when the sovereignty of Jesus Christ shall be acknowledged on all sides, repeat with confident joy the words of St. Paul : Opportet ilium regnare – He must reign."
While the devotion to the Sacred Heart spread rapidly throughout Europe, and numerous chapels were everywhere erected in Its honor, there was, strange to say, no formal consecration of a church in Its name for a century after the death of Saint Margaret Mary.
The wishes of Our Lord, expressed through her to Louis XIV, that France should raise a temple to His Heart; that there should be a solemn consecration of King, court and the whole nation to It, and that Its image should be placed upon the standards of France and engraved upon her arms, and so be victorious over her enemies, were disregarded…
It is claimed by some French writers that the first church dedicated to the Sacred Heart was that attached to the Convent of Notre Dame des Oiseaux, in Paris. This is incorrect, as the date of this edifice is 1837 and it was long antedated by the dedication to the Sacred Heart of the Royal Basilica of Lisbon in 1790, during the reign of Queen Maria I.
There is a third claim, even better substantiated.
To the United States of America belongs, beyond question, the honor of having first dedicated a church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, humble and poor as was the first altar of Annecy, and, like it, the nucleus of a magnificent development.
In the little Pennsylvania town of Conewago, 10 miles to the southeast of the famous battlefield of Gettysburg, there still stands a little wooden structure, whose date is three years earlier than that of the Lisbon basilica. Fr. James Pellentz, a Jesuit priest in charge of the mission, was its builder. The year of its foundation – 1787 – is cut into a stone inserted near the roof, and below this is an oblong slab of marble bearing a Heart encircled with a crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross.
America has still another claim as a devotee of the Sacred Heart. In 1920 it had more churches bearing the name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus than any other country on the globe. Three great lamps hang in the chapel of Paray-le-Monial before the Tabernacle above which Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary, and of the three the largest and most beautiful is from our country. It is of massive silver, exquisitely wrought, and bears testimony, night and day, of the homage and devotion of the United States of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." (Bishop Emile Bougaud, The Life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque; New York: Benziger Brothers, 1920, pp. 378-382).
We ought then to correspond to this early fervor and make America the land of the Sacred Heart with the Sacred Heart enthroned in homes from sea to sea.
Promises of Our Lord to Families
who Honor His Sacred Heart
Ceremony for the Enthronement
of the Sacred Heart in Latin and English
Click here for program
An altar honoring the Sacred Heart in Krapnia, Croatia
The Enthronement is also a great blow against the Revolution as it states that Christ is the King and deserves to be true King of every family and nation, in other words, King of all of Society both temporal and spiritual.
Let us listen to the words of Bishop Bougaud as he describes the origins of this devotion and its significance as well as correspondence to this grace in America.
"In the year 1907, Fr. Matthew Crawley-Boevey of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, from Chile, though of English birth, was kneeling in the chapel at Paray-le-Monial, the scene of the apparitions of Our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary. This priest was, according to the doctors, suffering from an incurable disease of the heart.
While praying before the Tabernacle, he suddenly felt his strength return to him, and realized that he was cured. At the same moment, an overpowering desire seized upon him to draw every household in the world to the Sacred Heart, and he acquired the strong the conviction that for this end was his vigor restored to him.
Garcia Moreno consecrated Ecuador to the Sacred Heart with this painting in 1873
Fr. Crawley-Boevey began his mission without delay. The spread of the devotion was remarkable. Two years afterward, Pope Pius X gave it his special blessing, and also to all priests who should become its apostles. ...
In January 1918, Pope Benedict XV put the seal of approval on the devotion of the Enthronement in these forcible words:
"If from the canonization of Blessed Margaret Mary there results a more complete diffusion of the worship of the Sacred Heart, who would not by desire and deed thus hasten the spread of so excellent a devotion as that of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in families and their consecration to It? The dawn gives us an idea of what the midday will be like, and we, who in this praiseworthy consecration of families to the Sacred Heart recognize the dawn of that much-desired day when the sovereignty of Jesus Christ shall be acknowledged on all sides, repeat with confident joy the words of St. Paul : Opportet ilium regnare – He must reign."
While the devotion to the Sacred Heart spread rapidly throughout Europe, and numerous chapels were everywhere erected in Its honor, there was, strange to say, no formal consecration of a church in Its name for a century after the death of Saint Margaret Mary.
The wishes of Our Lord, expressed through her to Louis XIV, that France should raise a temple to His Heart; that there should be a solemn consecration of King, court and the whole nation to It, and that Its image should be placed upon the standards of France and engraved upon her arms, and so be victorious over her enemies, were disregarded…
Throughout the United States, churches, altars & windows honoring the Sacred Heart
There is a third claim, even better substantiated.
To the United States of America belongs, beyond question, the honor of having first dedicated a church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, humble and poor as was the first altar of Annecy, and, like it, the nucleus of a magnificent development.
In the little Pennsylvania town of Conewago, 10 miles to the southeast of the famous battlefield of Gettysburg, there still stands a little wooden structure, whose date is three years earlier than that of the Lisbon basilica. Fr. James Pellentz, a Jesuit priest in charge of the mission, was its builder. The year of its foundation – 1787 – is cut into a stone inserted near the roof, and below this is an oblong slab of marble bearing a Heart encircled with a crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross.
America has still another claim as a devotee of the Sacred Heart. In 1920 it had more churches bearing the name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus than any other country on the globe. Three great lamps hang in the chapel of Paray-le-Monial before the Tabernacle above which Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary, and of the three the largest and most beautiful is from our country. It is of massive silver, exquisitely wrought, and bears testimony, night and day, of the homage and devotion of the United States of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." (Bishop Emile Bougaud, The Life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque; New York: Benziger Brothers, 1920, pp. 378-382).
We ought then to correspond to this early fervor and make America the land of the Sacred Heart with the Sacred Heart enthroned in homes from sea to sea.
who Honor His Sacred Heart
- I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
- I will establish peace in their families.
- I will bless every house in which the picture of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
- I will console them in all their difficulties.
- I will be their refuge during life and especially at the hour of death.
- I will shed abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.
- Sinners shall find in My Heart a fountain and boundless ocean of mercy.
- Tepid souls shall become fervent.
- Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
- I will give to priests the power of touching the hardest hearts.
- Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart never to be blotted out.
- I promise you, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant to all who communicate on the First Friday of the month for nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My displeasure nor without their Sacraments: My Divine Heart shall he their safe refuge in this last moment.
of the Sacred Heart in Latin and English
Posted July 14, 2021
______________________
______________________
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |