Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., kneels in prayer at the consecration Mass June 12 at Atlanta’s basilica. Photo by Julianna Leopold

ATLANTA–Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., consecrated Atlanta to the Sacred Heart of Jesus during an evening Mass June 12. The archbishop celebrated Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, praying for and blessing those who attended.

The U.S. bishops formally consecrated the nation to Jesus’ Sacred Heart at their spring assembly, June 11, ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Many bishops, including Archbishop Hartmayer, returned to their home dioceses to lead local consecrations.

“Love is the language of every consecration,” the archbishop said in his homily. “It is not the offering of something earned but the reception of something freely given.”

The archbishop recalled some of the opening words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …”

Archbishop Hartmayer said the words reflect that the dignity of every human person is a “gift from a source no human authority can finally revoke.”

He called it “fitting” to be holding the consecration in the basilica, a church built as a temple to the heart of Jesus.

At the national consecration, Archbishop William E. Lori, homilist at the Mass, said that the Sacred Heart reconciles divisions and transforms hardened hearts. He described consecration as an act of faith and acknowledgment of the need for God’s mercy, wisdom and guidance, and also an act of hope.

“To consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart is ultimately to accept Christ’s invitation to remain in His love and to allow that love to shape every aspect of our lives, public and private,” Archbishop Lori said. “It is a declaration that the future does not belong merely to political movements, economic forces, or human plans. The future belongs to God.”

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus grew from the revelations of the Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century. During the second revelation, he instructed Margaret Mary to receive Communion on every first Friday for nine consecutive months, as well as to prostrate herself before the Blessed Sacrament for one hour during the night between Thursday and Friday each week. Upon the third revelation, the Lord proclaimed his desire for the institution of a feast to his Most Sacred Heart, which would bring the devotion into the Church’s common and universal practice.

Nearly two centuries later, Pope Pius IX instituted the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1865, to be observed on the second Friday after Trinity Sunday (which is also the Friday immediately following the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus in the United States).