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Ahead of the Feast of the Sacred Heart on June 27, Bishop David Bonnar of the Diocese of Youngstown released a pastoral letter June 13 calling for Catholics to deepen their devotion to the Sacred Heart and prepare for a diocesan enthronement of the Sacred Heart in September.
In his letter Bishop Bonnar pointed to Scriptural evidence of the importance of keeping faith and taking heart, from Jesus’ command, “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27) to Paul’s references in his letters against the temptation to lose heart. He also emphasized the necessity of relying on Jesus’ Sacred Heart in moments of trial.
“For broken, torn, tattered, and lost hearts, the Sacred Heart of Jesus demonstrates a saving and lifegiving way forward,” he wrote. “The Sacred Heart exudes a divine presence of love that is always awaiting us no matter our condition or state. He loves us! Always! Anywhere! Forever! May God forgive us for the times when we dismiss this eternal love or look for it in all the wrong places.”
Bishop Bonnar cited Pope Leo XIII’s 1899 encyclical Annum Sacrum, in which the Pope urged the faithful to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart. Bishop Bonnar also referenced Pope Francis’ final encyclical before his death, Dilexit Nos, which reflects on the Sacred Heart and Jesus’ great love for His children. Pope Francis had especially argued that to this day, it remains important to use the symbol of the heart to represent Jesus’ love.
“Some have questioned whether this symbol is still meaningful today,” Pope Francis wrote in Dilexit Nos. “Yet, living as we do in an age of superficiality, rushing frenetically from one thing to another without really knowing why, and ending up as insatiable consumers and slaves to the mechanisms of a market unconcerned about the deeper meaning of our lives, all of us need to rediscover the importance of the heart.”
The heart has already been prevalent in Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate as well. Bishop Bonnar noted that Pope Leo XIV belongs to the Augustianian order, which has a symbol of a flaming heart, and the pontiff included a pierced heart on his coat of arms. Further, in a May 28 general audience, Pope Leo encouraged “[turning] to the Sacred Heart, model of true humanity, and ask Him to make our heart ever more like His.”
Bishop Bonnar invited the faithful of his diocese to foster a devotion to the Sacred Heart by reciting prayers and identifying images of the Sacred Heart in their parish churches. He also announced that every parish in the diocese will enthrone the Sacred Heart September 28, and said that the priests of the diocese will hold their own enthronement during their upcoming Clergy Convocation.
Bishop Bonnar wrote that he hopes and prays that the graces poured out from a devotion to the Sacred Heart will result in a “more loving and unified Church” as well as more vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life, and marriage.
“I also pray that our commitment to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will enliven us to open our hearts more to one another in a spirit of empathy, compassion, and forgiveness so that we ourselves embody the heart of Jesus,” he wrote. “May this prayerful act, which will soon be ritualized throughout our diocese, help us to take heart and resist the temptation to lose our heart as individuals, and or, as a faith community.”
