Entrusting Our Families to the Sacred Heart

Lindsey Mitzel explains the importance of encouraging family devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

On the Feast of Christ’s Ascension, after putting all our littles to bed, my husband and I sat on the couch in the dark and together enthroned the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our home. This was a ceremony a long time coming. We prepared to do this a few times, but things kept coming up. One week our priest was not available, and another my husband was unexpectedly called in to work. I’d planned out the ceremony I wanted in my head; we would pick lilacs with our children and help them put them on our (very) humble house altar. We would sit together on the couch while the two littlest played.

I was so excited to offer this entrustment to Jesus on Divine Mercy Sunday, but it ended up being another day all together. The lilacs were done blooming. Our children were asleep. It was a Sunday in May, and we didn’t have much of a plan. My husband and I sat together and prayed a few prayers.

Just like how my plans were altered for our enthronement ceremony, I didn’t plan to write about Jesus’ Sacred Heart this month. I know that it is the year of St. Joseph, and I know this humble saint won’t mind, but I find it rather amusing that I keep stumbling into books and posts and stories about Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and specifically entrusting ourselves, our family, our children, and our homes to Him (maybe St. Joseph is actually behind this)!

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I first really encountered this devotion after reading Emily Jaminet’s book Secrets of the Sacred Heart during a recent Catholic Mom book club (shameless book plug here). I was particularly drawn to the promises associated with devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. All of the promises are amazing, though when I first read Emily’s book, the promises that struck my heart the most were, “I will give them all the graces necessary in their state in life”, “I will establish peace in their homes”, and “ I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death.” While our home has been formally enthroned to Jesus for just a short time, we began entrusting our home, our children, job, new projects, and so on to Jesus months ago.

There has been such a subtle shift towards Christ and increased fervor that I have not even obviously noticed until thinking through this post. However, it is true that we have experienced quite an increased peace and security, especially in some important decisions we have needed to make, and in our children’s relationships with one another. There are so many great resources for learning about this devotion (including Emily’s book and website dedicated to enthronement of Jesus’ Sacred Heart in our homes) if you may want to learn more.

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I’d mentioned that I seem to keep stumbling into devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I recently discovered a challenge set forth by the Messy Family Project and want encourage anyone interested to consider taking part! As the Sacred Heart of Jesus is traditionally honored during the month of June, like Mary is honored in the month of May, the Messy Family Project is challenging families to register to take part in the Play + Pray Challenge. In a nutshell, they are encouraging families to enthrone the Sacred Heart of Jesus in their homes and challenging parents to plan a date night and a special fun activity to engage together with their children. There is even a social media dance-off (which I may troll because: awesome)! Download an information sheet about the challenge.

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While in many ways we cannot truly protect our babies, we can be sure that Jesus and Mary will provide the graces necessary for them to find their way Home. #catholicmom

I don’t profess to be any kind of expert on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But now more than ever, I think we can all agree that we are all weak and incapable and our world really offers us so very little. Jesus is the only Way. I pray that we can all enthrone Him more in our hearts each day, and in particular, perhaps, this month of June. Of special importance, I encourage all of us mamas to entrust our children to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. While in many ways we cannot truly protect our babies, we can be sure that Jesus and Mary will provide the graces necessary for them to find their way Home. May God bless us all, and lead us closer to His heart every day!