The Meaning of the Enthronement
The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart image in the home is an invitation to an intimate relationship with God, a relationship of surrender and trust. Raymond Cardinal Burke in his writings on the Sacred Heart urged, “The Enthronement is not merely the placing of a sacred object in the home. It is not only an act of veneration of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Enthronement is a way of life, the acceptance of Christ as King of my heart, as my constant Companion, as my Friend, helping me and guiding me in the small and big matters of daily life.”1
In the Bible, the heart represents the innermost self where we can know, understand, and conform our wills to God, allowing Him to more perfectly possess us. In Jeremiah 24:7, God promises, “I will give them a heart that will enable them to know that I am the Lord. They will be my people and I will be their God, for they will return to me with their whole heart.” God wants us totally and completely. In Matthew 22:36-37 Jesus is asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He replies, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and the first commandment.”
The Enthronement symbolizes entrusting one’s family, home, and all earthly and spiritual assets to the love and protection of Jesus’ Sacred Heart. Cardinal Burke explains, “…we beg Him to be the source of our healing and strength, the medicine and nourishment by which our poor and wounded hearts are made strong and whole.”
Preparing Hearts for Enthronement
Trust in Vulnerability
True vulnerability with God can be frightening. We draw back in shame for sins, weaknesses or both. We strive to do good works to prove ourselves rather than surrender trust. We hold tightly to control of our own goals and goods. The idea of Enthronement, placing Christ as King over all we do and own, becomes daunting. Instead of offering ourselves, placing our small heart in His furnace of love as St. Margaret Mary once experienced, we ask “What could I possibly offer?”
In despair, we evade the tender gaze of our Savior from Luke 7:47. When Pharisees scoff at the woman who anointed Jesus with expensive oil and washed his feet with her hair, Jesus defends her love: “Therefore, I tell you: her many sins have been forgiven her because she has shown great love. But the one who has been forgiven little has little love.”
As a notorious sinner of the 400s AD, Saint Augustine understood shame but he also understood forgiveness. He wrote in Confessions 1.1, “For You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.” Rev. John Henry Hanson writes, “Augustine’s love for God assumed such a fiery tone because his own heart had been healed by the touch of the divine Physician, to whose care he repeatedly submits himself throughout the pages of his Confessions. Augustine very often speaks of his experience of God as a kind of hearth, within which fires are enkindled and cries of love go up like sparks.”2 Like the woman who anointed Jesus’s feet, God’s mercy set St. Augustine ablaze.
When we shrink back due to our weakness, we also miss how Jesus longs to infuse us with His merit as He once infused St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, “I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to beat me and prevent me from becoming unduly elated. Three times I begged the Lord to have it leave me, but he answered me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ Hence, I will boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell within me.”
In the 1300s, St. Mechtilde who experienced visions of the Sacred Heart, one day found herself astonished by His love. Instead of drawing close, she began to withdraw, ashamed of her own frailties and illnesses. Jesus spoke in response, “Nothing gives Me so much delight as the heart of man, of which I am so often deprived. I have all good things in abundance. The heart of man is alone still wanting to me.’”3
Trust in Humility
What can we really give the God who can make anything and everything besides our trust? Kneeling to a King, enthroning Him in the home, is not about earning our way into his court or impressing Him with our ability. Instead, enthronement is about surrender and humility.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux consecrated herself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at just fourteen years old.4 In her autobiography, Story of Soul, she boiled down this path to holiness not as an achievement of colossal greatness, but as an abandonment to the Providence of God who allows even the smallest efforts and darkest moments consecrated to His Sacred Heart as the dearest of gifts.
Three months before her death, St. Thérèse wrote in a letter,
“When I see Magdalene walking up before the many guests, washing with her tears the feet of her adored Master, whom she is touching for the first time, I feel that her heart has understood the abysses of love and mercy of the Heart of Jesus, and, sinner though she is, this Heart of love was not only disposed to pardon her but to lavish on her the blessings of His divine intimacy, to lift her to the highest summits of contemplation…The remembrance of my faults humbles me, draws me never to depend on my strength which is only weakness, but this remembrance speaks to me of mercy and love still more.5
Her life and writings inspired her sister Servant of God Léonie Martin who described herself as the ugliest and slowest of the five girls and often despaired of vocation, holiness, and God’s love. She would write in her later years, “I am so poor, so little, so weak–but I rejoice in being so, for it makes me more open to His consuming and transforming love.”6
Enthronement of the Sacred Heart allows us to accept our frailties, failures, inadequacies, and disappointments and look to God’s mercy and power as something far greater than ourselves. On a daily basis, the practice allows us to teach our children this type of humility. Instead, we place our children and other loved ones we interact with in the Heart of Jesus where Jesus carries the weight and allows them to grow in trust.
Trust in Suffering
In the book of Job, Satan approaches God the Father and accuses Job of merely worshiping God because God blessed him with nice things: vast property, healthy herds, a beautiful family, and a strong body7. God sees something in Job that Satan cannot see: a loving relationship of complete trust. Job states in 24:10, “If He were to test me, I would emerge like pure gold.” Only through testing is that love revealed.
Two of the most instrumental champions of the Sacred Heart understood the beauty of complete trust from a very early age and cherished their own chance to offer their suffering into the Sacred Heart.
In the 1650s, St. Margaret Mary Alocoque lost her father at eight years old and developed rheumatic fever a few years later. She spent the next several years bedridden while her mother barely kept them financially afloat. This could have been a time of despair, but instead, St. Margaret Mary fell more and more in love with the Eucharist. At fifteen, she was able to walk again and at twenty-three entered a Visitation Convent to become a bride of Christ. She expected to live a life of humble anonymity, offering prayers far from the limelight, but at age twenty-six she began having visions of Jesus and the Sacred Heart.
Fr. Mateo Crawly-Boevey was born in Peru in 1875. His family moved to Valparaiso, Chile in 1884. Just like St. Margaret Mary Allacoque, he spent many childhood years confined to his room due to illness. And just like St. Margaret Mary, he spent that time growing closer to Jesus through scripture, the Eucharist, and the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Is it any wonder that the same God who confidently believed in Job’s love for Him would draw near to children who consoled themselves in His love during their own suffering? St. Margaret Mary and Fr. Mateo came through the fire as gold and God used them to show the world His great love.
Trust in Battle
While Fr. Mateo was still a child, he developed the idea for Enthroning one’s home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and spread the idea through his neighborhood. He was later ordained a priest with the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts. He understood Satan would be against his efforts because he understood St. Margaret Mary’s heart preparations. St. Margaret Mary once warned her confessor about the suffering to come when one promotes the Sacred Heart: “You are surprised at [a trial he had to endure], but that is nothing; more is to come, for you must be purified like gold in the crucible for the execution of the designs of God. Those designs are truly great; therefore you will have much to suffer from the devil, from creatures and from yourself. But what will appear to you hardest to bear, will be when God will seem to take a share in making you suffer, but you have nothing to fear, for this is the way to show that He loves you…”8
When suffering arrived, Fr. Mateo did not balk. His heart came to this moment prepared. On August 16, 1906, Valparaiso, Chile was struck by an 8.2 earthquake which left fires burning throughout the city. He ministered diligently to the injured and grieving, but the dust and smoke affected his already weak lungs. Though he would have continued to serve until death, his bishop ordered him to France to recuperate. There he visited the convent where St. Margaret Mary received her apparitions.
At the altar, he was miraculously healed and felt the Holy Spirit tell him to go to the Pope to explain the Enthronement. When Pope Pius X heard Fr. Mateo’s explanation, he famously stated, “I’m not asking you, I am commanding you as the Vicar of Rome, that this is now your life’s work.”9 Enthronement to the Sacred Heart will take us into combat against Satan, but God always knows what He is doing.
How to Enthrone the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The ceremony of enthronement in the home is a physical manifestation of the interior journey of consecration. The ceremony consists of bringing the entire household together with the priest and close friends, blessing and placing an image of the Sacred Heart in a place of honor within the home and making the consecration prayers as a family. The location should be an inviting and visible spot within the home where people can frequently return to pray and venerate the image so that hearts will return to Jesus as King again and again, always seeking God’s will.
Select a Date
To select a date for the enthronement start by checking your priest’s availability. It is not mandatory that a priest attend, but highly recommended. (If he is not available, make sure to have the image or images blessed ahead of time.) Many people choose a feast day and use that feast day to reconsecrate themselves and celebrate the Enthronement anniversary. However, choosing a popular feast day may lessen your chances of having an available priest. After you pick a date, you will want to send invitations and make sure the whole family knows what is happening. In the days running up to the Enthronement, set devotional time aside to help family members understand and embrace the surrender to the Sacred Heart.
Select an Image
Next, you will want to select an image or images if you do not yet have one. Celebrating the Kingship of the Sacred Heart, you will want to get the best image which befits your state in life. It would be an understatement for a person of great wealth, surrendering themselves to Christ as King, to set up a prayer card and votive on a t.v. tray. Honor the King with a location, image, and frame which glorifies Him.
However, if you have a meager budget, remember our King does not expect everyone to wear silk when they enter His court. Remember how Jesus cherished the poor widow’s offering from Mark 12: 41-44, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow has given more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For the others have all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has given everything she possessed, all that she had to live on.”
Images of the Sacred Heart on prayer cards and small posters are often offered free from diocesan offices and from convents and monasteries. Larger, more ornate images can be bought in Catholic gift stores, Etsy shops, and even art fairs. Unfortunately, they are also often available at estate sales, thrift shops and antique malls. Consider rescuing one of these treasures. If you have an artist within your family, asking them to create the image and treasuring the artistry with a special frame adds another level of involvement to the ceremony.
Prepare the Location
The location you choose in the house should be accessible and visible throughout the day in an area where the whole family can gather for prayer. A table or cabinet should be placed beneath it so that candles can be placed in veneration as well as prayer materials like books and journals. This area should be cleaned thoroughly and the table or cabinet should be bought, repaired or adorned to reflect the dignity of its duty.
Choose the Consecration Prayer
The consecration prayer will reflect your personal journey of surrender and be offered up at regular intervals as an act of consecration, reparation, and renewal. Several organizations and saints have written special prayers through the centuries. When you speak to your priest, they may also have a consecration prayer they prefer or refer you to options within their resources. As you work through your spiritual preparation, take note of particular prayers which speak to you. As the day approaches, make sure you make your selection and print out copies for your family members.
Enthronement Ceremony
The day of the Enthronement should be festive and memorable. Decorate. Prepare a feast. Time should be set aside to go to mass and receive the Sacred Heart in the Eucharist. At the home, a procession can be made either through the house or from the yard to the location where the image will be honored. You can decide on the length of the ceremony depending on the age of the children and elderly involved, but a short history of the Sacred Heart can be explained, quotes from saints can be read, the priest can offer the blessing and then the consecration can be prayed as a family. Celebrate afterward with a feast, music, and games.
Our Creator rejoices in our own expressions of creativity so feel free to come up with all kinds of ways to express your joviality and teach your children. If you are making the Enthronement as a single adult, feel free to use your creativity to express your love for God and make the experience meaningfully rich and memorable.
Fruit of Enthronement
Enthronement to the Sacred Heart is the beginning of a new way of life in the home. The image of the Sacred Heart will hang as a daily reminder to pray and surrender everything to God–every joy and grief, every memory and every decision. It will offer you many of the graces needed to navigate the trials of this world and unite yourself to the Will of God. The location you have chosen will keep you in close proximity to the beating heart of Jesus who longs to pour out His mercy while He unites you to God. It will enable you to rest upon the heart of Jesus, offer up your sufferings, and see the fruit God cultivates in your life.
At the end of the Book of Job, when God begins to chastise the friends who attack Job during his sufferings, he tells them they are allowed to bring sacrifices, but only Job is allowed to pray for them. Later, James would refer to this fully tested relationship when he states in James 5:15: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” God hears the prayers of those who abandon themselves in trust.
When St. Mechtilde’s weak health made her feel useless, Jesus again spoke to her of the fruit of their relationship:
Place all thy sufferings in My Heart, and I will give them the highest perfection for the utility of the whole Church… even as My Passion has borne infinite fruits, both in Heaven and on earth, thy sufferings, even the most trivial, when united to My Passion, will bear such fruits that the citizens of Heaven will receive from them an increase of glory; the just an increase of grace; sinners their pardon; the souls in Purgatory an alleviation of the pains. What is there, in fact, that My Divine Heart cannot change for the better, since all that is precious in Heaven and on earth has its source in the goodness of My Heart?”10
When we begin to abandon ourselves to a life of trust and offer up our suffering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we enter into a relationship like Job’s where God more powerfully hears our prayers and begins to use our suffering toward spiritual growth within ourselves, within our families, and within the Church. So many of the promises given to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque by Jesus as she promoted the Devotion to the Sacred Heart had to do with the family: peace in the family, grace for our station of life, consolation in life’s troubles… These are graces we need for our generation.
Cardinal Carlo Caffarra gave sworn testimony to a letter he received from the visionary Sr. Lucia in the early 1980s which stated, “Father, a time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family. And those who will work for the good of the family will experience persecution and tribulation. But do not be afraid, because Our Lady has already crushed his head.”
Fr. Mateo, realizing the importance of the family as the domestic church, rested in the promise that God would bless wherever the image was honored and claimed the promises from St. Margaret Mary for the family as a unit. By the time of Fr. Mateo’s death in 1960, the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart was a household event all over the Catholic world. In many Catholic countries and even in Catholic areas of the United States, a location for the Sacred Heart enthronement was built directly into the house as either an altar, alcove or within the tiles near the door. Now, it is our generation’s turn to enthrone the Sacred Heart of Jesus in each home and each life.
Prayers and Resources
Further Reading
- Into the Heart of Christ through Prayer by St. Gertrude the Great
- Devotion to the Sacred Heart: How to Practice the Sacred Heart Devotion by Fr. Croiset
- Jesus King of Love by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey
Books by St. Francis de Sales:
- The Art of Loving God
- Roses Among Thorns
- The Sign of the Cross
- An Introduction to the Devout Life
- Treatise on the Love of God
Book by St. Thérèse of Lisieux:
- Story of a Soul
- The Poetry of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux translated by Donald Kinney.
- includes her poem to the Sacred Heart
Writings by St. Alphonsus Liguori
St. Margaret Mary Prayer of Enthronement:
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, to Thee I consecrate and offer up my person and my life, my actions, trials, and sufferings, that my entire being may henceforth only be employed in loving, honoring and glorifying Thee. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Thee, and to do all for Thy love, renouncing with my whole heart all that can displease Thee.
I take Thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protection of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my frailty and inconstancy, the reparation for all the defects of my life, and my secure refuge at the hour of my death. Be Thou, O Most Merciful Heart, my justification before God Thy Father, and screen me from His anger which I have so justly merited. I fear all from my own weakness and malice, but placing my entire confidence in Thee, O Heart of Love, I hope all from Thine infinite Goodness. Annihilate in me all that can displease or resist Thee. Imprint Thy pure love so deeply in my heart that I may never forget Thee or be separated from Thee.
I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die
- https://archive.wf-f.org/SacredHeart_BurkeI.html ↩︎
- https://stjosemaria.org/two-loves-one-heart/ ↩︎
- Prévot, André, and Gertrude. Love, Peace, and Joy: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus According to St. Gertrude. TAN Books and Publishers, 1984. P 29 ↩︎
- http://www.thereseoflisieux.org/my-blog-about-st-therese/2016/11/6/the-english-text-of-the-speech-by-bishop-germain-which-there.html ↩︎
- http://www.thereseoflisieux.org/my-blog-about-st-therese/2016/6/2/the-abysses-of-love-and-mercy-of-the-heart-of-jesus-st-there.html ↩︎
- Baudouin-Croix, Marie. Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life. Ignatius Press, 2017. P 118 ↩︎
- Job 1:7-2:4 ↩︎
- http://www.catholictradition.org/Two-Hearts/devotion.htm ↩︎
- https://www.menofthesacredhearts.org/about-us ↩︎
- Prévot, André, and Gertrude. Love, Peace, and Joy: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus According to St. Gertrude. TAN Books and Publishers, 1984. P 43-44 ↩︎