The Sacré Coeur de Montmartre was financed by donations from untold thousands of pious French – perhaps most often the poor – who wished to create a mighty testament of penance for what they saw as the crimes of liberal and revolutionary France. It represented a vast, collective and literally monumental effort to say “non” to the direction France was taking. Photo courtesy of Moralist.
As the old maxim has it: a picture is worth a thousand words.
A new kind of post is now debuting at this website, where Kim and I shall try to be (a little) more sparing with words …
And more VISUAL.
With a visual evocation of what was once held sacred …
Here at the outset, we have images of one of the most precious sites in all the world for Kim and myself – the Sacré Coeur de Montmartre in Paris. A basilica of continuous Eucharistic Adoration, it was built by Catholic France to honour the request from the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque …
And soon we shall have much more about this and other places, scenes and images, which we should like to restore to memory, cultural memory …
Just a small hint of things to come, dear Reader …
By Dan Taylor from London, UK (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
Of Related Interest:
French Fragments: A Cryptic Travelogue – a series starting here.
3 Comments
We are planning on Dedicating our home to The Sacred Heart of Jesus on July 1st. Could you tell us
what else we have to do to be prepared for this special blessing and dedication. Jim & Kathleen
Jim and Kath – How wonderful!
Kim and I are moved by this and we want to give you not one, but two responses.
First my own.
I would begin by noting that the movement toward dedicating homes in this way began in earnestness with Father Mateo Crawley Bovey who dedicated his life to it following a miraculous healing (of his heart!) in Paray-le-Monial early last century. In this life mission he was enthusiastically endorsed by the Pope at the time -St Pius X.
Now I do not think I can do better than to point you to a page about this at the Traditionalist website Fisheaters. If you scroll down the page, you will find a great deal about the Home Enthronement of the Sacred Heart ritual with all the original Latin prayers and much else besides.
The link for the page is here.
The site is for Catholic Traditionalists. I do not know – but it is possible it might contain unfamiliar elements (?) as it is oriented very much to the pre-Vatican II perspective. In any event, it contains a great wealth of beauty and practical information, suggestions etc
As I said, I cannot do better than point you to this.
However, my wife Kim does want to say something. And she will add her response soon.
Jim and Kath,
As Roger has said, we are moved and I am happy that you are entrusting your home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
As Roger has stated, the writings at Fisheaters are comprehensive and well written. They probably cover most of what you are looking for.
Yet, I would like to offer my own thoughts for you to ponder and decide upon your own preparation for this enthronement.
As you have chosen to enthrone your home, I imagine that you already practice certain of the devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
If not, then I fully recommend that you pray the Holy Hour, each Thursday evening. There is an inexpensive little booklet from Soul Assurance that Roger and I use for this: Holy Hour of Reparation. It contains many of the prayers and the Litany of the Sacred Heart. This little booklet can be found in the Sacred Heart section of our Amazon store (here).
Also there are two First Fridays before the great feast on July 1st, when you can make confessions and receive Holy Communion. Again, you are probably practicing these devotions already, so I apologise for perhaps unnecessary suggestions.
As is written at Fisheaters, many people prepare for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, with a novena, begun on the feast of Corpus Christi. There is one that Saint Pio recited every day.
You can find this novena at this link.
Lastly, to really come into relationship with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I think there is no better way, than to read the words of Saint Margaret Mary herself, who wrote a short autobiography.
This small autobiography is also almost entirely reproduced within a larger volume by the Bishop Emile Bougaud.
The beauty of this larger work, is that whilst it contains the passionate and beautifully inspiring words of Saint Margaret Mary, it offers also adds more about her life, as well a wonderful history of France and the Church of her time.
I have a review of the Autobiography here.
And my has husband has reviewed Bishop Bougaud’s Life of St Margaret Mary here.
Whether you follow any of these things up or not, I wish you all the best and pray that Our Lord will most definitely protect your home and yourselves.