06/14/2026
Dear Fellow Parishioners:
June celebrates the Feast of the Sacred Heart. This year it is on Friday, June 12th. To honor the Lord and commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary, the US Catholic Bishops have been asked to pray the Novena prayer as part of the Consecration of our nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (See https://www.usccb.org/consecration-united-states-sacred-heart-jesus).
Might we ponder and pray the Novena for the whole month of June? With the beautiful images in our parish, can we spend some time meditating on the stained-glass window image of the Sacred Heart at the street side entrance of our church, or the Sacred Heart Medallion in our Church sanctuary? Consider viewing the new film, “The Sacred Heart: His reign has no end,” which now is in theaters.
Pope Francis’ encyclical Dilexit Nos (He-Jesus-loved us-2024) remains the most current church encyclical and meditation on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Maybe this month of the Sacred Heart is a perfect time to give it a read?
Here is Pope Leo XIV’s Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Lord, I come to your tender heart today,
to you who have words that set my heart ablaze,
to you who pour out compassion on the little ones and the poor,
on those who suffer, and on all human miseries.
I desire to know you more, to contemplate you in the Gospel,
to be with you and learn from you
and from the charity with which you allowed yourself
to be touched by all forms of poverty.
You showed us the Father’s love by loving us without measure
with your divine and human heart.
Grant all your children the grace of encountering you.
Change, shape, and transform our plans,
so that we seek only you in every circumstance:
in prayer, in work, in encounters, and in our daily routine.
From this encounter, send us out on mission,
a mission of compassion for the world
in which you are the source from which all consolation flows. Amen
Let us reflect on the beautiful words of Fr Don Miller OFM from St Anthony Messenger 2017: “When Jesus says “I love you,” he backs it up with the sacrifice of his life. No cheap expression here; only sincere words backed up with a life of living proof. That is real love. And this is what we celebrate in the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.”
Matt Smith
