Day 9: The Reign of the Heart

The ninth and last day of the Sacred Heart Novena turns to the largest theme of the devotion: the Reign of the Sacred Heart in the world. The Catholic devotion looks not only to the personal sanctification of the individual soul but to the broader transformation of human society by the love of the Heart of Christ, beginning with the Catholic family and extending through Catholic communities into the wider culture.

Today's invocation

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

Today's meditation

Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas of 11 December 1925, established the universal Catholic Solemnity of Christ the King, deliberately positioning the feast as a Catholic affirmation of the Lordship of Christ over every dimension of human life: personal, familial, civic, political, and cultural. The feast is celebrated on the last Sunday of the liturgical year and is intimately connected to the Sacred Heart devotion: the Heart that loved us is the same Heart that reigns over us, and the proper Catholic response to His love is the surrender of every dimension of our lives to His Lordship.

The Catholic devotional practice of the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the Catholic Home (developed by Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey in the early twentieth century) is the practical application of this doctrine to the family. The Catholic family that places an image of the Sacred Heart in a place of honor in the home, that makes the consecration of the household to the Heart of Jesus, and that lives the daily Catholic disciplines under the patronage of the Sacred Heart, is participating in the Reign of Christ in a particular and concrete way.

Today's intention and act of thanksgiving

Bring to the Sacred Heart of Jesus today, for the last time in this novena, your principal intention. Whatever the visible state of the matter at the close of these nine days, give thanks for the work the Sacred Heart has done in your soul over the past nine days.

Then make a final act of dedication of the rest of your life to the Reign of the Sacred Heart:

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I have received Your love in these nine days. I dedicate the rest of my life to Your Reign in my heart, in my family, in my work, and in every dimension of my Catholic life. Make me an instrument of Your love in the world, that the Reign of Your Heart may extend through me to others. Amen.

Reflection

The Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus does not end with the close of the novena. The novena is the deliberate intensification of a relationship that is meant to last for life. The Catholic faithful who have prayed the Sacred Heart Novena once and then forgotten it have received less than the devotion offers; the Catholic faithful who pray it annually before the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, who keep First Fridays, who maintain the consecration in their homes, and who turn to the Sacred Heart in moments of trial throughout life, have received what the apparitions to Saint Margaret Mary intended.

Many Catholic spiritual writers recommend that the brief invocation Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You be retained as a daily prayer. The invocation is short enough to be prayed at any moment: at the start of the day, before any difficult conversation, in any moment of small or large trouble, before sleep, on waking. The cumulative effect over a lifetime is profound: the Catholic soul becomes shaped by the love of the Heart of Jesus.

Conclusion of the novena

For the saint to whom the apparitions were given, see the Catholic devotion to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (her feast day is 16 October). For other novenas in the Catholic tradition, see the novenas hub. For the Catholic devotion to the wounded side of Christ from which the Sacred Heart devotion flows, see the Anima Christi.

Closing prayers

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

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Reign in our hearts and in our homes. We trust in You.