BEFORE THE CONSECRATION

After 33 days of preparation, we are ready to make, or renew, our consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the hearts of Joseph and Mary. There are various ways to prepare ourselves for this on the day of consecration. Some fasting or repeating some of the prayers from the preparation can also be fruitful exercises. It is also worthwhile to revisit any journaling that might have highlighted some graces received along the path of preparation. It helps us consecrate ourselves more thoughtfully and intentionally when we remember what stood out to us when we reflected on some of the qualities of our own hearts, the particular qualities of the hearts of Joseph and Mary and above all the final days’ readings on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The most important immediate preparation for the Day of Consecration is receiving the Sacraments: there is no better preparation than a humble and sincere Sacramental Confession and a devout participation in the Holy Eucharist including Sacramental Communion. If it is not possible, for some reason, to receive the Sacraments, at least make a sincere act of contrition and a spiritual Communion.

It is beneficial to write out the Consecration for the sake of investing more love and attention in the words and solemnizing this important moment of prayer. Typesetting with a word processor and printing out a copy that you can sign is also appropriate.

The Consecration brings together into a single prayer some dimensions of the heart that we focused on throughout the preparation. The symbol of the heart indicates the deepest core of our identity. Our affectivity, our intellect (particularly our intuitive intellect) and our will can be said to reside in the heart. Also, the Catechism locates our conscience in the heart. Returning to the heart involves drawing away from the frenetic pace and superficial pre-occupations of the modern world. Emptying the heart means to clear out the clutter of displaced priorities and address the disordered attachments that have a way of congesting our hearts. Our thoughts, will and affections can be purified as they are plunged into the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

We also learn from the chaste heart of St. Joseph how to love Mary’s Immaculate Heart. We learn from him how to be pure, strong, constant, humble and chaste, and how to protect her and love her as she deserves.

We learn from Mary’s Immaculate heart how to love the Heart of Jesus. We can develop her tender affection, imitate her littleness, cultivate her humility and follow her example of compassion. Most importantly we can let ourselves be conformed to the Word of God and learn from her how to give God our Yes with a joyous desire, to speak our own genoïto.

Then in union with the hearts of Joseph and Mary we are ready to become one with the Heart of Jesus. We console His Heart by receiving His love and mercy. We repair the wounds inflicted on the Sacred Heart by extending that love and mercy to others. In this way we allow our hearts to be perfected in love and we allow our lives to magnify the eternal hymn of love and praise that the Son sings to the Father. Each of our lives is made to express part of that eternal love story between the Father and the Son and our Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will bring that to fruition. Finally, referencing St. Therese’s Act of Oblation to merciful love, we look forward to an eternal face to Face with our heavenly Father, when “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2).

Consecration Prayer to the Three Hearts

Heavenly Father, immerse my heart in the Sacred Heart of your Son, which always lived in loving communion with the hearts of Joseph and Mary. In the communion of these three hearts, refashion my heart to be a heart of perfect love. Illuminate my thoughts with your divine light. Order my affections according to your divine will.

You know the places of darkness and disorder in my heart, where I do not know how loved I am, and then sometimes, in weakness or sinfulness, grasp after self-affirmation and self-sufficiency.

In communion with the heart of Joseph, help me cultivate silence, and enter into your hidden presence, O Father, as I open up with childlike faith, and find protection in my vulnerability and comfort in my affliction.

In communion with the heart of Mary, fill me with tender affection, make me humble, poor and little, expand my openness to your will, increase my magnanimity, fill me with praise of the divine perfections, and help me to believe that with you all things are possible as I give you my genoïto, my yes with joyous desire.

In so doing make my heart one with the Heart of Jesus, burning with divine love, ready to suffer to save sinners, totally fixed on your fatherly gaze and docile to every movement of the Holy Spirit. In this way I shall become for you an eternal hymn of praise and my life shall be totally in your service, that I may play my unique role in your divine love story and my heart shall constantly radiate my share of your divine Word until I come before you in an eternal face to face.

After the Consecration

What now? What does it mean to live out our Consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus?

The grace of this particular Consecration is in the way we are immersed in the love relationships of the Three Hearts. God redeemed humanity through a family. He created three hearts that were able to love each other perfectly. Each heart brings something unique and together they provide all that we need to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus perfectly and to love our neighbors perfectly with the love of the Sacred Heart in our own hearts.

Living out this Consecration consists primarily in giving ourselves over to the dynamic of consoling the Heart of Jesus by letting ourselves be loved and doing reparation for the Heart of Jesus by extending His love to others. At the same time, Joseph’s constancy and Mary’s tenderness will help us. They add a certain beautiful quality to our love even as they teach us to love Jesus more.

It will help us to live out the Consecration if we pray the Consecration prayer every day. This should not be considered in a scrupulous or superstitious way. Rather, we can remember daily the way we are loved by these three hearts and we can fashion our love after their love. We can ask daily for our hearts to be transformed—emptied and purified—so that they will resemble more and more the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

It would also be beneficial to renew the Consecration at least annually. The richness of the readings and the beauty of the prayers can become a regular part of our spiritual lives as our hearts are regularly transformed by being immersed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Finally, it is important to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph. We must not only keep this treasure for ourselves but spread it broadly. Sharing the Consecration booklets, and even organizing 33-day preparation groups, can transform the world.

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