Day 5: Consecration

The fifth day of the Sacred Heart Novena, the midpoint, is a fitting day for the formal Catholic act of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Consecration in Catholic theology is the deliberate setting-apart of a person, a family, a parish, or a wider community to the love and protection of the Sacred Heart, with a corresponding promise of devotion and fidelity in the Catholic life.

Today's invocation

O most Holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Catholic practice of consecration to the Sacred Heart developed under the leadership of Pope Leo XIII, who in his encyclical Annum Sacrum of 25 May 1899 consecrated the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The papal consecration was the culmination of a long Catholic devotional development, beginning with Saint Margaret Mary's own personal consecrations, extending through the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Catholic Home movement of Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, S.S.C.C. (1875-1960), and reaching its modern form in the late twentieth century.

The Catholic consecration is at once a confession (we acknowledge that we belong to the Sacred Heart by right of His redemptive love) and a dedication (we entrust ourselves freely to His care for the rest of our lives). It is not a one-time transaction; it is the foundation of an ongoing relationship that the consecrated soul lives out in the daily disciplines of the Catholic life: the sacraments, the rosary, the works of mercy, the keeping of the moral commandments.

Today's intention and act of consecration

If you have not yet made a formal consecration to the Sacred Heart, today is a fitting day. Pray the following Act of Consecration, which has been used by countless Catholics since the apparitions at Paray-le-Monial:

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I consecrate to You myself, my whole life, my body and my soul, and all my works, my joys and my sufferings. I take You as Lord and Master of my life. From this day forward I want You to dispose of me as You please. I will love You, I will follow You, I will trust You. I want to live for You alone. I consecrate to You also my family and all those You have entrusted to my love. Let no one whom You have given me be lost, but bring us all, through the merits of Your Sacred Heart and through the intercession of Mary Your Mother, to eternal life. Amen.

If you have already consecrated yourself to the Sacred Heart in earlier years, today is a fitting renewal of that consecration. Bring also the principal intention of your novena into the prayer.

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that the consecration to the Sacred Heart has practical effects on the way the consecrated person lives. Pope Pius XI, in Miserentissimus Redemptor (1928), articulated the principle: the consecrated soul lives differently because it has been given to the Heart of Jesus. The morning prayer takes on a new character (it begins from the consecration). The rosary takes on a new character (it is prayed under the protection of the Sacred Heart). The reception of the sacraments takes on a new character (each Confession is a return to the wounded Heart from which the Sacrament flows; each Eucharist is a deepening of the union with the same Heart).

The Catholic family that consecrates itself to the Sacred Heart, by the traditional ceremony of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Catholic Home (a brief priestly blessing and the placement of an image of the Sacred Heart in a place of honor in the family room), is given specific Catholic protection. The traditional First Promise of the Sacred Heart is that peace will reign in the homes that honor My Heart. The Catholic faithful who have made this consecration of their families have testified across generations to the reality of this peace.

Closing prayers

Pray three times each: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, You are now the Lord and Master of our lives. Reign in our hearts and in our homes. We trust in You.