The 14th annual Sacred Heart Congress held Saturday, Nov. 8 centered on life-giving attributes of Christ’s heart and practical ways to implement devotion.
The congress was held at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church and hosted by Welcome His Heart, the locally-based Sacred Heart Enthronement Network.
The day began with a rosary at 7:30 a.m. led by the Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus, who serve at St. Paul, followed by Mass celebrated by Bishop Earl Fernandes.
This year’s featured speakers included Mike and Alicia Hernon of the Messy Family Project ministry and podcast, and Father James Kubicki, S.J. (Society of Jesus).
A children’s program was offered during the congress by the Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus with assistance from the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, who minister at St. John Paul II Early Childhood Education Center in Columbus.
“Our hope and our prayer is that we continue to live and share and spread the kingdom of love – the kingdom of love through devotion to the Heart of Jesus,” said Emily Jaminet, national executive director of the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network.
For 14 years in the Columbus diocese, the Sacred Heart Congress has sought to do just that: lead souls in devotion to Christ’s Most Sacred Heart, first revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial, France, in 1673.
“One of the things that’s important to understand is this amazing restoration that comes when we acknowledge that we need Jesus,” Jaminet said.
Sacred Heart Enthronement dates back to 1907. Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, a Peruvian priest, was inspired to consecrate homes to the Sacred Heart of Jesus while praying in the Chapel of Apparitions at Paray-le-Monial. Enthronements began taking place in homes across the world.
The Sacred Heart Enthronement Network in Columbus was contacted by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, of which Father Crawley-Boevey belonged. Jaminet shared a letter noting that the congregation was joining the Sacred Heart Congress spiritually from Rome.
The Sacred Heart Enthronement Network partners with dioceses, religious orders, local apostolates and individuals wanting to promote and live out devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the home, parish or school.
“This is not just for families – this is for all Catholics,” Jaminet emphasized. “I cannot tell you the testimonies that come from those who are single parents, those who are widows who experience tremendous grace.
“We recently received a message from a woman who had done the enthronement and said everything changed. She said, as a single mom, ‘everything changed when the Heart of Jesus was welcomed into my life.’”
Father Jonathan Wilson, pastor at St. Paul, shared a history of diocesan consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In December 1873, the first bishop of Columbus, Sylvester Rosecrans, consecrated the diocese, which was then composed of present-day Columbus and Steubenville dioceses.
Bishop Emeritus Frederick Campbell reconsecrated the Columbus diocese to the Sacred Heart in 2015.
The Hernons, who founded the Messy Family Project to help individuals embrace the sacred calling of Catholic marriage and family life, gave the first keynote. The couple resides in Steubenville and has been married since 1994.
They are parents to 10 children and several grandchildren. They offered four “habits” for families to set the world on fire: be a spiritual leader in the home, make marriage the foundation of the family, take responsibility for their children’s formation and intentionally grow the family culture.
“I want every family to not doubt – never believe the lie – that what you are doing is unimportant. That is from the Evil One,” Alicia said. “The reality is that you are doing the most important work in the Church today, and young families especially.”
Growing a family culture is important, the Hernons explained, because it confers identity, belonging and mission to its members. Children learn what is true, good and beautiful, such as by witnessing their parents’ love one another.
“When they go out into the world and someone in high school or in college says to them, ‘If you loved me, you would –,’ fill in the blank with something awful, your kids will look and say, ‘That’s not real love,’” Mike said.
He added the importance of presence. Parents, he explained, make the intangible – sacred and divine – tangible for their children. Children need to be seen and loved with their parents present.
Mike recalled struggling with work that entailed long hours and much travel. Even at home, he noted, he felt as though he were constantly on call.
“I had to put this stupid thing away,” he said, holding up his cellphone. “I had to put it in my bedroom when I came home so that I could actually be present because, more than anything else, our kids are dying for our presence.”
The Hernons encouraged couples to remember their wedding vows. Thinking back to their wedding day, Alicia recalled standing at the altar, looking at the person across from her, not knowing what would happen in life.
It is an act of faith, she noted, to make a life-long commitment, uncertain of what is to come. Brides and grooms can only be certain of being with each other in life, whether they be rich or poor, in sickness or health, is unknown.
“God also covenanted Himself to us in our marriage,” Mike added. “It is not your love that sustains your marriage, but rather, it is your marriage – the sacrament – that sustains your love.”
The Hernons encouraged couples be spiritual leaders at home, remembering that their call is sacred.
They reminded attendees that, for a calling to be sacred, they don’t have to constantly be on their knees in prayer, such as some consecrated religious. Holiness is in the service of home life, too.
Father Kubicki followed as the second keynote speaker. He is the author of “A Heart on Fire” and a conference and parish mission speaker, retreat director and seminary spiritual director in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He entered the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, religious order in 1971 and was ordained in 1983.
“A Sacred Heart devotion is not one optional devotion. It is not one optional devotion among others,” he emphasized. “It’s at the heart, if you will, of our faith.”
Father Kubicki shared stories of the importance of the devotion and its effect on people.
One such affected individual, Father Pedro Arrupe, a Spanish Jesuit priest, was a missionary to Japan from the 1930s to mid-1960s, during the time of World War II. He was elected general superior of the Society of Jesus.
“Two months before his stroke (and death) in 1981,” Father Kubicki recalled, “he said the following, ‘There is a tremendous power latent in this devotion to the heart of Christ. Each of us should discover it for himself.
“‘There is here an extraordinary grace that God offers us, power that’s greater than the atomic bomb because … nuclear weapons only kill. They cannot give life.”
For 17 years, Father Kubicki served as director of the Apostleship of Prayer (now the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network). He encouraged young Jesuits to be involved in Jesus’ mission by promoting the Sacred Heart devotion, including Father Joe Laramie, S.J., who now serves as a spiritual director for Welcome His Heart Sacred Heart Enthronement Network.
Father Kubicki explained that the Sacred Heart is “not really our devotion” but “God’s devotion to us – God’s devoted love to us.” He told attendees that the devotion is simply a response to His.
It is returning love for love, Father Kubicki added, making sacrifices individually and as a family. Every time an individual receives Jesus in Holy Communion, he noted, Christ unites His Heart with theirs.
Living out the Sacred Heart devotion, however, is more than uttering a few prayers or attending Mass on First Fridays as part of the devotion each month.
“It’s even more than an enthronement because the enthronement has to be lived. Just as marriage is more than the ceremony, more than the wedding, so consecration … is a whole way of life,” he said.
“It means that our hearts and minds are transformed to be more like the Heart of Jesus. Consecration … means living in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that our hearts may be as one with His Heart, and this is a lifetime process one day at a time.”
The Sacred Heart Congress concluded with Exposition, Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
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