By Emily Jaminet
When you are feeling overwhelmed, confused, and burdened, Jesus wants to set your heart on fire with his love. He desires to come into your heart and home to deepen your faith and provide hope, healing, comfort, and love. One of the most meaningful devotions we can practice is enthronement to His Sacred and Merciful Heart.
In our lives, stress and personal trials are inevitable but there are graces in the Sacred Heart that help us respond to life’s challenges. This devotion was once known, loved, and honored by most Catholic families and served as a bedrock, especially in the 1940s and 1950s in America. What did parents of this era know and experience that we can learn from? I believe they learned how to live and let go and experience the freedom that comes from loving Christ and entrusting your family to his heart.
We can mimic the great act of St. John, the beloved apostle, who turned to Jesus’s heart for comfort when Jesus announced his crucifixion and death at the Last Supper. This heart-to-heart intimacy is one of the most beautiful moments in the Last Supper discourse. It is an example to all of us as we deal with the stress and strain of our lives. We are invited to have a heart-to-heart with our Savior, Jesus, through the Sacred Heart devotion.
At the turn of the century, as modernism and secularism were on the rise, the Lord raised up a priest with deep conviction and passion to live out this devotion and spread it around the world. Through world travel, Fr. Mateo Boevey-Crowley preached and shared the hope that comes from living a life rooted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He received a vision that families should live out the request from Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to “expose and honor his Heart” by enthroning the Sacred Heart in their home. This ceremony of enthronement involved an act of faith and trust, and in return, Jesus would bless and strengthen families in their Catholic walk.
Boevey-Crowley once said, “Christ our Lord must be the unseen head of every Christian home. It is he who strengthens the authority of parents; it is by his grace alone that fathers and mothers can rise to the dedication and self-sacrifice which are so necessary for the faithful discharge of their duties. And it is still true that Christ is the model of obedience and filial love for sons and daughters who must learn in the home the lesson of adjustment to the demands of social life which are so important for their subsequent careers.”
This simple yet profound devotion became a worldwide solution to the lack of faith and reverence for the Lord. It proclaimed the words from Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” When we step forward in faith and declare that this is a house for the Lord, Jesus will reign as our King, Savior, and friend.
We are invited to entrust our family and loved ones to the heart of Jesus, and in return, we will receive the graces to live our faith and love as Christ loves. Perfect love can only be discovered through knowing Love Himself, Jesus.
Emily Jaminet is executive director of the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network, author of Secrets of the Sacred Heart, and coauthor of Divine Mercy for Moms, The Friendship Project, Pray Fully, and Our Friend Faustina. She serves on the board of directors of the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference.
