That is the very question I asked myself, after a Missionary of Charity sister asked me, “Tim, have you enthroned the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home?”. “No”, I replied. I told the sister I would look into it.
Obviously, I had not looked into it because I gave the same answer when the same sister asked the same question, in the same gentle way, three months later. I can be such a knucklehead sometimes.
Another few months go by and I kind of cringed when I saw the same sister walking towards me. “What was she asking me about?” I said to myself. I quickly found out when kind and gentle Sister Mira gave me a Sacred Heart Enthronement Ceremony packet and a beautiful print of the Sacred Heart. “These will help you enthrone the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home”, she said. If you have not had much experience with the Missionaries of Charity, I can attest to the fact that they can be…persuasive.
I freely admit that I did not fully understand what Enthronement of the Sacred Heart entailed, not to mention what it meant, but at that moment, I believed God was calling me to undertake this devotion. Coincidence plus faith equals a sign, right?
My wife and I had been married long enough that I knew she would want to follow through with Sister Mira’s invitation. By the way, I later learned that encouraging devotion to the Sacred Heart is another one of the great works of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity.
We looked through the Enthronement material and saw there was a nine-day novena to pray in preparation for the day of Enthronement. There was also a step by step description of how to conduct the Enthronement Ceremony. All that was easy enough to understand.
Then we read the 12 Promises Jesus made to those who enthroned and honored His image in their homes.
We looked at each other in sort of stunned disbelief after we read them. Then we read them again. I must admit I was a bit speechless until I was able to ask, “Why haven’t we ever heard of these before?”. We had both grown up in Catholic families but had never heard anything about devotion to the Sacred Heart. The Promises are so amazing that I can never imagine anyone reading them and then saying “Nah, I’m not interested”.
I will tell you this, we enthroned our home to the Sacred Heart, and next to the sacraments themselves, it has been the greatest spiritual blessing we have received. More on that later. However, it continually amazes me how, again and again, our Lord asks so little from us yet gives so much in return.
Now, just so you understand, to receive the benefits of the 12 Promises, Jesus asks two things of us. The first is to have his image (statue or picture) prominently displayed in your home. The second is to venerate his image. In other words, do not just display his image and forget about Him. Take a moment each day to gaze into His eyes and tell him you love him. Or offer a short prayer in thanksgiving of his love for you, or in reparation for the offenses committed against Him in the Eucharist. Finally, you can offer a prayer to make up for man’s indifference against the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. That is all it takes to venerate his image.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is not difficult to understand because it is all about love, and all of us have at least some capacity to love.
This devotion is our opportunity to show Jesus how much we love him by, following the commandments, living within his Church’s teachings, spending time with him daily, seeking him in the sacraments, and seeking him in scripture. It is also an opportunity for us to live our life in a way that shares this love with others. Thus, His kingdom of love can be spread from one soul to another and encompass the world.
So, why am I telling you all of this? Simple. I truly want you who, are living by yourself, or you with your beautiful family, or you who feel that you’ve hit rock bottom (I know what that feels like) to experience the powerful blessings of His 12 Promises. They are available for everybody!
That is why myself and others have put together the Sacred Heart Global Enthronements website. It provides you everything you need, for free, to conduct a meaningful Enthronement Ceremony.
In case you are wondering, there is no one way to conduct an enthronement ceremony. A gentleman once related to me that when he was a young boy his family Enthroned the Sacred Heart when their parish priest came to their house, put a picture of the Sacred Heart on the wall, and had them all recite a prayer together. That gentleman is now a bishop in the Catholic Church.
The website offers several versions of the Enthronement. You get to pick which is best for you.
Recently, the father of a Catholic family with five young children related a story to me. He and his wife had been trying to enthrone Jesus in their home. Between work, schedules, and the children, it was proving quite difficult to undertake the Nine-day Novena version of the enthronement. As our website was not yet completed, I emailed him a version of the enthronement without the novena. By the following weekend, they had completed their enthronement.
Promise 9: I will bless every place in which an image of My Heart is exposed and honored.
Who would not want the benefit of Jesus’ special blessing in their home or place of work? Especially in these uncertain times when evil is manifesting itself throughout our world in a way that many of us have never seen.
October 2020 is a great month to launch your counterattack against evil by undertaking this devotion. Let me tell you why.
It is the month of the Holy Rosary, the month of Our Lady’s last apparition at Fatima, and a month with feast days of some powerful saints: St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Teresa, St. Therese, The Guardian Angels, St. Francis, St. Faustina, and St. John Paul II among others.
Most importantly, if one begins the Nine First Friday devotion (also called the Communion of Reparations devotion) on October 2nd, it will be completed on June 4, 2021, one week prior to the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
By beginning your journey of reparation and love in October, you can be assured of being accompanied by Our Lady of Fatima (not to mention the intercession of some incredible saints). It would also be a great time, for those who have not yet done so, to undertake the Five First Saturday devotion requested by Our Lady at Fatima.
That is what I wanted to share with you and hopefully you will share it with others.
I am humbled to promote the Devotion to the Sacred Heart and am honored to work with other Apostles of the Sacred Heart.
May our numbers grow so the Sacred Heart’s Kingdom of Love can encompass the globe!
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