Consecrating Our Nation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

My Dear Parishioners,

As our nation celebrates its 250^th, our Bishops have asked us to join them in consecrating our nation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Through this consecration, the Bishops aim to renew devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They desire to acknowledge Christ’s kingship over all nations, including our own nation. They seek to further encourage Catholics to integrate faith into civic life, promoting truth, justice, and charity. They wish to engage the faithful in acts of devotion, such as Eucharistic adoration and works of mercy, reflecting the Gospel spirit in daily life. They hope to highlight Catholic contributions to education, healthcare, and social services, fostering a rightly-ordered love of country. Ultimately, the consecration invites all Americans, especially us Catholics, to contemplate Jesus’s love for us and then to respond to His love by living in accordance with His teachings. By doing so, our Bishops wish to make America what it was always meant to be, a shining city on a hill, under God.

We will join in the consecration next weekend at all Masses. The consecration prayer will be available in our pews and will be prayed at the end of the Prayer of the Faithful.

Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus grew from this weekend’s Feast of the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus—Corpus Christi.

Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to spread devotion to His Heart: My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for you in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must spread them abroad by your means, and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition.

He asked her to do this because of indifference—indifference to the Most Blessed Sacrament: Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love. And in return, I receive from the greater part of men nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat me in this Sacrament of Love. But what is still more painful to me is that even souls consecrated to me are acting in this way. Therefore I ask of you that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be dedicated as a feast in honor of My Heart, and amends made to It in an Act of Reparation offered to It and by the reception of Holy Communion on that day, to atone for the outrages It has received during the time It has been exposed on the Altars. I promise you that My Heart will open wide and pour forth lavishly the influence of Its Divine love on all who will render and procure for It this honor.

These promises made by Jesus for those who love Him in the Most Blessed Sacrament and practice devotion to His Most Sacred Heart remain in effect. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!!!!

To help us grow in love of the Most Blessed Sacrament, I am including a letter issued by our Bishops about four years ago on the Holy Eucharist. It is a well written letter and worth reading again.

Many blessings to all this week, especially anyone who has or is graduating from college, high school, 8^th grade, or most importantly, kindergarten. May you always remain in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and may Jesus always remain in your hearts.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

St. Joseph, Patron of the Church and our Patron, pray for us!

Fr. Michael J. Pawelko, Pastor

 

The Holy Eucharist: Food for the Journey

The lives of the saints and blesseds show us the importance of the Eucharist on our journey as disciples of Jesus. Many testify to the power of the Eucharist in their lives. We see the fruits of Holy Communion in their lives of faith, hope, and charity. It was their intimate union with Jesus in Holy Communion and frequently their prayer before the Blessed Sacrament that nourished and strengthened them in their journey to heaven. They teach us that “growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us as viaticum.”

Saint Carlo Acutis, a young Italian teenager, who died at the age of fifteen and was beatified in 2020, used to say: “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven.” Saint Carlo attained sanctity at such a young age because the Eucharist was at the center of his life. He attended Mass daily and prayed each day before the Blessed Sacrament in adoration. He discovered the joy of friendship with Jesus and brought that joy, the joy of the Gospel, to others. He was an apostle of the Eucharist through the internet. He said: “To always be united with Christ: This is my life’s program.”

Likewise, St. José Sánchez del Río, a Mexican teenager who was martyred at the age of fourteen and canonized in 2016, was so filled with love of Christ and his Church that he was willing to give up his life rather than renounce Christ and his Kingship.

Sánchez del Río was able to receive the Blessed Sacrament when it was smuggled into his cell along with a basket of food. Strengthened by this viaticum, he was able to endure torture and to remain faithful to Christ when his captors told him he must renounce his faith or be executed. He replied to his persecutors: “My faith is not for sale.” We encourage all, especially our young people, to learn about the lives of these holy teenagers. In the midst of many distractions in our life, Saint Carlo and St. José Sánchez del Río teach us to focus on what is more important than anything else.

There are many people who have been attracted to the Catholic Church and entered the Church because they came to believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Our first U.S. born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is one of these converts. She was drawn to enter the Catholic Church after she witnessed the devotion of Catholics to the Blessed Sacrament. She wondered about that devotion. God’s graceled her to faith in the Real Presence. While still an Episcopalian, she found herself at worship in her church in New York looking out the open window and praying to Jesus in the tabernacle one block away in a Catholic church. On the night after her entrance into the Catholic Church and her First Communion, St. Elizabeth Ann wrote in her journal: “At last GOD IS MINE and I AM HIS.” For the rest of her life, her deep faith and pioneering service to the Church in our young nation was nourished by the Holy Eucharist.

In recent years, increasing numbers of Christians in our country have left their churches and become religiously unaffiliated. We invite Catholics who have left the Church or who no longer practice the faith to come home. We miss you and we love you. We pray that Jesus will draw you back to your Catholic family, his Mystical Body, through his Eucharistic Body.

We repeat words attributed to St. Teresa of Calcutta: “Once you understand the Eucharist, you can never leave the Church. Not because the Church won’t let you but because your heart won’t let you.”