June – the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Following May – the Month of Our Blessed Lady I had thought to write on devotion to the Sacred Heart for June. Then I came across Father Z’s exhortation to piety. I don’t think my meanderings would have come up to his standards, so for the benefit of our readers who perhaps might not have come across Father Zuhlsdorf, it is reproduced below:

June and the Sacred Heart of Jesus: Do not be afraid to be pious

 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Just a reminder that the month of June is traditionally dedicated to foster devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

You might give consideration to what you may do in your own devotional practices.

Don’t be afraid to be pious.

We lose nothing in being devout and we gain ineffable benefits.

Do not be afraid to bend yourself down before God especially and also to the angels and saints our intercessors and patrons and be simply pious.  Man was made to be pious.  This is the essence of religion, without which we are empty shells: to give due reverence to God.  The sin of our first parents came from trying to be the opposite of pious: self-sufficient self-gods.  That was defiance of due piety.  But people can drift into the same emptiness of life by neglect of piety and devotion, neglect of fostering the habits of devotion.

Consider the benefits of devotion for a moment, and then consider the downside of being – not impious, in the sense of being wicked – but slothful and haphazard and lukewarm.

How did our Lord describe the fate of the tepid?  It wasn’t good.

On the other hand, if you are hesitant about the notion of piety, and what you know is going to be the result – giving up things that are incompatible with true piety – here is something from Benedict XVI’s sermon for his inaugural Mass in 2005.

“Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? Are we not perhaps afraid to give up something significant, something unique, something that makes life so beautiful? Do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great.”

To develop a habit, and being pious and devout is a habit, start small.

First, examine your conscience daily, in the evening, looking not just for sins you committed, but also how you sinned by omission.  That is where we ferret out our negligence in regard to the virtue of religion, negligence in respect to God and to neighbor.

Second, during the day, silently to yourself, perhaps say a brief prayer.  Pick one.  How about, “Jesus, meek and humble of heart: Make my heart like unto Thine.”  That just drips with in-your-face piety, doesn’t it?  That little prayer has it all.  And no one need know you have ever said it, unless you are reciting the Litany of the Sacred Heart.  Which brings me to the …

Third, find out opportunities for public devotions and start attending.  Never mind that they are unfamiliar.

Just start with that.