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Catholic News Herald

Serving Christ and Connecting Catholics in Western North Carolina

052926 CAW 2There are many practices Catholics use to carry out this devotion – among the most common are making a morning offering, participating often in Eucharist Adoration, making an act of consecration to the Sacred Heart and renewing it at least once a year, and making a First Friday Devotion. The latter entails going to Mass and receiving Holy Communion on the First Friday of every month for at least nine consecutive months and offering it for the reparation of sins committed against Jesus’ Sacred Heart and the Eucharist.

051526 CAW 3On June 11, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will formally dedicate the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus – the first national consecration of its kind. Church leaders describe the move as a meaningful way to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary and reflect on the unlikely rise of the world’s first large-scale self-governing republic in the modern era. The consecration comes at a moment of heightened political tension across the country, giving the ceremony added symbolic weight. Supporters say the act is intended as both a prayer for national healing and a reminder of the country’s spiritual foundations.