Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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The Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a Christian prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The first personal prayer of consecration was written by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque,^[1] who reportedly received apparitions of Jesus Christ between 1673 and 1675, in Paray-le-Monial, France. According to her, it was composed under the inspiration of Jesus, which she wrote to the Roman Catholic priest, John Croiset, recommending that he include it in the book he was to publish about her revelations "It comes from Him, and He would not agree to its omission."^[2] On 21 June 1675, the day of the first and future Feast of the Sacred Heart, Alacoque alleged that she received a vision of Jesus and made it known to her confessor Saint Claude La Colombière. Following that event, Claude consecrated himself to the Sacred Heart, making him the first person to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus after Margaret Mary, and began spreading the devotion.^[3][4]

On 25 may 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the human race and wrote an Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart in his encyclical letter Annum sacrum. This consecration was made with the influence of Mary of the Divine Heart and in response to demands received over 25 years.^[5] This act was proclaimed in every church of the world on 11 June 1899 and is called the "great act" of his pontificate.^[6][7]

On 19 May 1908, a particular family consecration prayer known as the Act of Consecration of the Family to the Sacred Heart was approved and granted with an indulgence by Pope Pius X.^[8][9]

I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take You, O Sacred heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death. Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty. Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart, that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You. May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You. Amen.^[10]

On 25 March 1874, Ecuador became the first country to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a joint action of the president Gabriel García Moreno and Archbishop José Ignacio Checa y Barba. The national consecration took place in the cathedral of Quito, located next to the government palace.^[11] Prior to the consecration, in 1873, an assembly 700 religious, including bishops and priests gathered to make an ecclesiastical decree. This was approved by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies that same year. On 24 October 1874, the official registry of this legislative decree was published.^[12] As a remembrance of Ecuador's consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the construction of the Basilica del Voto Nacional began in Quito in 1887.^[13]

On 25 march 2024, Ecuador renewed its Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the 150th anniversary of the national consecration presided over by the Archbishop of Quito and Primate of Ecuador Alfredo José Espinosa Mateus. The liturgical act was held in the Basilica del Voto Nacional.^[14]

On 22 June 1902, the Republic of Colombia was consecrated by decree to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the initiative of the Archbishop of Bogota Bernardo Herrera Restrepo. As a plea for the end of the "Thousand Days War" which had broken out in 1899, the Archbishop asked the president José Manuel Marroquín to turn the nation to the Sacred Heart in order to unite Colombians. José Manuel Marroquín agreed and the construction of the Voto Nacional church in Bogota, located in the locality of Los Martires, was also ordered. Five months after the Consecration, on 21 November 1902, the Treaty of Wisconsin was signed and the war came to an end.^[15] In 1964, the parish was elevated by Pope Paul VI to a Minor Basilica and was declared a national monument 1975.^[16]

On 24 June 2022, the Consecration of families, communities and the whole nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was renewed in the Primate Cathedral of Bogota by the Archbishop of Bogota and President of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia Luis José Rueda Aparicio.^[17] The following year, on 16 June 2023, the Consecration was once again renewed in the Cathedral of Bogota by the Archbishop Luis José Rueda Aparicio.^[18]

On 27 July 1920, amid the Bolshevik threat, Cardinal Edmund Dalbor and Polish bishops gathered at Jasna Góra and consecrated the Polish nation and homeland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Three weeks later, Poland defeated the Red Army during the Battle of Warsaw, also known as the “Miracle on the Vistula". Pope Benedict XV praised the bishops for their consecration of the country to the Sacred Heart.

In 1921, the consecration of Poland was renewed in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Kraków, a new church erected and consecrated to the Sacred Heart as a votive offering of gratitude for the regained independence after the war.^[19]

The consecration of Poland was since then renewed in 1951, 1976, 2011 and 2021. The last renewal act was performed on 11 June 2021 for the 100th anniversary of the first act by Archbishop Stanislaw Gądecki and Polish bishops in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Kraków.^[20]