The United States of America is celebrating its 250th birthday this year, with many events. During that commemoration, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage will culminate here in Philadelphia, where the country was born.
On June 11, the Catholic bishops of the United States are consecrating the nation and its 340 million people to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia will follow the next day with a Mass celebrating the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.
“Jesus stands at the door of the heart of each person and every nation, waiting for us to give Him permission to enter,” said Meghan Cokeley, the director of the archdiocesan Office for the New Evangelization.
“With the consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart, the U.S. bishops are giving Jesus that renewed permission on behalf of the nation.”
The bishops of the United States have previously consecrated the United States four times, all to the Blessed Virgin Mary in some form.
Bishop John Carroll, America’s first bishop, consecrated America to the Virgin Mary in the year 1792. America’s bishops followed suit in 1846 by consecrating the country to the Immaculate Conception, which became a tenet of Catholic dogma by decree of Pope Pius IX in 1854.
Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle of Washington consecrated America to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1959. Six years ago, as the COVID-19 crisis was growing, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez reconsecrated America to the Blessed Mother.
The whole world has been consecrated twice to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Leo XIII led that consecration in 1899, followed by St. John Paul II in 1999.
Cokeley says that the entire United States, all of the faithful are invited to participate personally.
“Jesus wishes to pour into us the infinite love that He is eternally receiving from the Father,” she said.
“For us frail human beings, this love takes the form of infinite mercy for the forgiveness of our sins, the breaking of our chains, the healing of our wounds and the transformation of our lives, such that we become bearers of God’s radiant splendor in the world.”
Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus gained momentum in the 1670s, when Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a young woman from France with a difficult childhood, and allowed her to rest on His heart.
“God chose her because she was so in need of love,” said Grace Mazza Urbanski, the assistant director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network USA, a Jesuit ministry which is tasked with spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“Her father passed away. She and her family members essentially became indentured servants. She found refuge in the love of Jesus.”
Mazza Urbanski illuminates how so many lives and even American society today mirror St. Margaret Mary Alacoque as people live lives of loneliness, fragility, isolation and woundedness, yet Christ offers hope in their vulnerability.
“The more you pray with the Sacred Heart,” she said, “the more you see ‘I didn’t do anything to deserve this love. I didn’t earn my place in the Heart of Jesus. I’m broken and fragile and not always the person I want to be, and yet Jesus is flaming in love with me.’”
Cokeley looks to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a personal and societal antidote, one where entering into His heart heals a fractured nation.
“In the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we receive the truest and most authentic form of love possible,” Cokeley said.
“Through relationship with Him, He teaches us the truth about love and He gives us the grace to conform ourselves to that love more and more. We then become vessels for His love to reach others, heal relationships and build a society based on charity, truth and justice. We should have great and expectant hope for this consecration.”
Individuals and parishes are encouraged to devote 250 hours of eucharistic adoration and 250 hours of compassionate and merciful works in celebration of the consecration.
Cokeley believes that the consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus involves a lot more than just America’s anniversary.
“We have a role to play!” she said. “We aren’t just passive bystanders watching as our bishops consecrate our nation. We can give our own personal ‘yes’ to the reign of the Sacred Heart in our lives and in our little sphere of influence, (and) cooperate with Jesus to make His Kingdom present there.”
Find more resources from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on the consecration here.
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