MAKE THE MONTH OF JUNE DEVOTED TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS AND NOT TO THE CELEBRATION OF DISORDERED SEXUALITY (Part 2 of 2)

In my Part-1 post earlier this week, I wrote about how our profane, secular society immediately associates the month of June as the time to massively promote and praise sexual disorder by celebrating so-called Pride Month. “Pride month” celebrations and the institutions, businesses, and people who endorse them are not only rejoicing in sexual debauchery but they are giving their seal of approval to a lifestyle that is directly opposed to what God teaches – a lifestyle that the overwhelming consensus of society believed was sinful from the beginning of human time to all the way up to just a few decades ago.  

One way to blot out so-called pride month from your family’s life each June is for you and your kids to refuse to patronize businesses that have embraced perverted sexuality and thus through their “rainbow-marketing” are telling you, devout Christians, that you don’t matter. A more rewarding way to shun “Pride Month” is to direct your energies toward bringing back the specialness of June as the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Focusing on the Sacred Heart is a form of devotion to Jesus, and especially to His love represented by His heart. The heart is the symbolic center of feeling and emotion, and it represents Jesus’ deep love and affection for us. This devotion to Jesus’s Sacred Heart can be done all year long, but June is the Catholic Church’s designated month for this practice. The dedication can take on many forms, such as saying a daily prayer to the Sacred Heart every day in June. 

If remembering to pray 30 straight days in June to the Sacred Heart is something you question being able to faithfully do, how about something more attainable – simply pray for nine straight days in June? A novena is a Catholic tradition where one prays for nine days straight. Set your cell phone alarm to go off at the same time for nine straight days in June to stop and pray a novena in praise and thanksgiving for Jesus’s love for us, as represented by his Sacred Heart. You can find online various prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to recite for your novena. Here is one that I find comforting to pray:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
To your most Sacred Heart I confide this intention: (mention your intention here).
Only look upon me, and then do what your Sacred Heart inspires. Let your Sacred Heart decide; I count on it, I trust in it. I throw myself on Your mercy, Lord Jesus! You will not fail me.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I believe in Your love for me.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Your Kingdom come.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I have asked you for many favors, but I earnestly implore this one. Take it. Place it in Your open, broken Heart; and, when the Eternal Father looks upon it, covered with Your Precious Blood, He will not refuse it. It will be no longer my prayer, but Yours, O Jesus.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You. Let me not be disappointed.
Amen.

For your children, a daily prayer as simple as the following could be recited by them throughout the month of June each evening before bed or at the dinner table as part of grace:

“O Sacred Heart of Jesus, burning with love for me, inflame my heart with love of Thee.”

I have a consistent devotion to the Sacred Heart, not just in June but all year long. I even wear a ring that depicts the Sacred Heart. (You can see a picture of my ring below.) The ironic thing about my devotion is that, when I was a kid, I attended Sacred Heart School and yet, I never recall anyway teaching me back then what Sacred Heart meant. I never had a teacher or the pastor explain how the school and parish was named in honor of Jesus’s loving heart. It was just a name of a building/school to me that I somewhat resented because when our school’s team played CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) basketball and baseball games against other schools, the opposing players would always taunt us with jeers of “You play for Sacred Fart!”

It was only until my adult years, after I became a Catholic school teacher, that I understood the significance of the phrase “Sacred Heart of Jesus,” and that was only because I had my own class of middle school students to teach religion to and had to study up on the meaning so I could teach them about it. When I educated children about Jesus’s Sacred Heart, I showed them an image and pointed out the various symbolisms, something you parents can do with your kids this June:

• The red color used in the Sacred Heart image recalls the blood Jesus poured out for us, plus red signifies the impassioned love of Jesus which is why he laid down his life for us.

• The heart typically is encircled with the crown of thorns that Jesus’s execution squad placed on his head. It represents the cuts caused by our sins and reminds us of how Jesus suffered on our account.

• A proper Sacred Heart image will show a gash on the lower portion of the heart as a remembrance of when the soldier thrust his lance into Jesus’ side to prove He was dead.

• Some images depict blood droplets flowing from the wound, reminding us that he underwent a painful, horrific death and recalling when Jesus offered a cup of wine and said, “This is my blood of the covenant which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.”

• The Sacred Heart of Jesus will have flames emitting above the upper, center of the heart, symbolizing the intensity of the warmth of Jesus’ love.

• There is a cross displayed in the midst of these flames because it is on the cross where Jesus most definitively proved the love in His heart for us.

• Finally, many depictions of the Sacred Heart will have rays of light beams radiating from the heart, since we know Jesus is the light of the world and His love enlightens the world. 

This June, while the majority of the country and nearly all of the major influencers of kids – media, celebrities, athletes, sports leagues, social media apps – are promoting so-called pride month, you need to counter this debauchery by displaying the image of the Sacred Heart in your home. Gather your family around this image to pray in thanksgiving for the burning love in Jesus’s heart for us, and also pray for forgiveness and mercy from our Lord for the sins of others, especially for those sinning in sexual deviancy and promoting the evil of so-called gay pride.