Jesus, the Heartbeat of God

I grew up in Miles City, Montana, a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Parish, attending Sacred Heart Catholic School, believing that our Sacred Heart was the one, only and supreme Catholic Church.  In that most isolated part of Montana the Sacred Heart of Jesus was the center of our spiritual, family and social lives, academics, sports, and music.  Many years later I received the blessing to be appointed Bishop to the episcopal chair of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Diocese of Pueblo. 

The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops will soon gather for the June Assembly in Orlando.  On Thursday June 11 the U.S. bishops, united in prayer, will officially consecrate the United States of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (the Solemnity is June 12) in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of our country. The precedent for this consecration is profound in the Catholic tradition. Apparitions of the Sacred Heart were recorded as far back as the 11th century, to be definitively received and officially acknowledged through revelations of Jesus’ Sacred Heart to St Margaret Mary Alcoque between 1673-1675 in Paray-le-Monial, Burgundy.

"On Thursday June 11 the U.S. bishops, united in prayer, will officially consecrate the United States of America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (the Solemnity is June 12) in anticipation of the 250th anniversary of our country."

St. Margaret Mary stated, “I saw this divine Heart as on a throne of flames, more brilliant than the sun and transparent as crystal.  It had its adorable wound and was encircled with a crown of thorns….”   What she had encountered was Jesus in his humanity reaching out with the heart of a lover, encircling and encompassing the world for which he gave his life.  This heartfelt outreach was a sharing of hope of love and mercy, that in his sharing of a heart wounded by sin, a hope that we would see and respond to his own plea for love in the world.  Jesus, a wounded lover, opening his heart, offering the most intimate relationship of love, mercy and forgiveness to his beloved.

From St. Margaret Mary’s visions came the institution of regular Perpetual Adoration and the invitation to receive holy communion in the nine First Friday Devotions, as forms of meditation on the humanity of Jesus and in love for him in the extremity of his suffering.  From this grew the consecration of persons, families and nations to the Sacred Heart, especially encouraged by Pope Leo XIII, and more recently, Pope Francis in his encyclical, Dilexit Nos, affirmed and expanded by Pope Leo XIV in Dilexi Te this past year. 

"Jesus, a wounded lover, opening his heart, offering the most intimate relationship of love, mercy and forgiveness to his beloved."

In consecrating the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we call upon God through the Holy Spirit to renew our country’s faith through the intercession and protection of Christ.  In the Diocese of Pueblo there are seven parishes dedicated to the Sacred Heart, in Alamosa, Avondale, Durango, Fruita, Gardner, Paonia, and the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Pueblo.  We are especially blessed with a parish dedicated to St Margaret Mary Alcoque in Cortez. 

We pray to see the graces and blessings of the Sacred Heart of Jesus grow within our diocese and throughout our nation, that we accept his love and see the weak, the poor, the disadvantaged and the persecuted as Jesus sees them.  Our call is to prayer.  There is a beautiful prayer card available on our website (Jamie, both).  I encourage you to incorporate this into your prayers, and perhaps to add or include one special holy hour for the intercession of Jesus, in his Most Sacred Heart, towards the many needs of our country. 

"In consecrating the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we call upon God through the Holy Spirit to renew our country’s faith through the intercession and protection of Christ." 

In gratitude to the blessings given to our nation in its 250^th year, and in prayers for its future, we renew ourselves, body, mind, spirit and country, in consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Lord.

+Most Reverend Stephen J. Berg

Bishop of Pueblo

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