What to do after you Enthrone Your Home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
Once the preparation and enthronement to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is completed, many people ask themselves, “well, what is next?”. What they are asking, in one form or another, is “how do I experience the love and transforming power of Jesus Christ in my life?”. Now that I have welcomed Jesus into my heart and home, will things just start falling into place or is there something that I need to do? There are many practices and devotions that have been suggested over the centuries to live out devotion to the Sacred Heart. You could quickly wear yourself out trying to follow all of these devotions. It is better to put in place a few devotions and practice them consistently than to try to run a marathon of many devotions – hoping that one of them will be the “breakthrough”.
There are two practices, which go hand-in-hand, that will build our ongoing relationship with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One is attending Mass, and the other is developing a personal prayer life. The Eucharist: The Fathers of Vatican II stated that “the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The other sacraments … are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ Himself, our Pasch.” (CCC 1324).
Many Catholics today do not understand that the Mass is a living encounter with God, our Father, through His Son, and in the Holy Spirit. We are not only united with our community attending the Mass, but also with the heavenly community of angels and saints. Also, when we receive the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ in Communion, we are uniting ourselves to Him in a personal and intimate way. It is easy to lose sight of what the Mass is all about and relegate to the category of something “I have to do” to avoid offending God.
An extension of attending Mass is to also spend time with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration. Being in the presence of Christ, whether at Mass or in Adoration, heals us. Christ longs to have us spend time in His presence where He will take us as we are and transform us into His image, over time. During COVID-19, as we are unable to attend Mass, consider streaming Masses at https://mass-online.org as a way to connect with the Universal Church.
Personal Prayer: Developing a personal prayer life is the other underpinning of our foundation in the Sacred Heart.
The reason personal prayer goes hand-in-hand with meeting the Risen Lord at Mass is that prayer opens our hearts and minds to God’s presence within us. The Mass can become sterile and mechanical without a personal relationship with God. There are literally thousands of books that have been written on prayer. St. John, in his Gospel, stated: “There are still many other things that Jesus did, yet if they were written about in detail, I doubt there would be room enough in the entire world to hold the books to record them.” (John 21:25). He could have said the same thing about prayer. An extension of our personal prayer would be to pray with our family. Even a decade of the Rosary, or an Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, and a Glory Be, can make a big difference in family unity and harmony.
Start your daily prayer by focusing on developing a personal relationship with Jesus and share that relationship with your family. Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our heart and home is an essential first step in our journey to eternal life with the Trinity. Unbeknownst to us, it was God who took that initiative, though in His humility He allows us to think that we made the first step towards Christ. Our next steps after Enthronement should be in the same vein. God will lead us, through our cooperation, into a more intimate and transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Our part is to persevere and spend time with God to allow Him to heal us of our wounded nature.
Renewal:
Turn to the Lord in prayer and seek to be renewed! We recommend that you also renew your enthronement to the Sacred Heart each year to remember this beautiful covenant you made with the Lord!
Are you living or existing?
