Sacred Heart enthroned in numerous Clonmel households

In its narration of the Last Supper, the 13th chapter of the Gospel of John recounts the Beloved Disciple leaning back and resting his head on Jesus’ chest.

Many members of a parish named for that disciple sought to emulate their patron in placing themselves in close proximity to the Lord’s heart on Sunday, June 13, when about 90 families at Clonmel’s St. John the Evangelist Parish participated in its Sacred Heart Enthronement Weekend.

According to St. John Parish Life Coordinator Cassi FitzGerald, she and St. John Pastor Fr. Joseph Tatro had talked for years about pursuing such an initiative, but knew the time had arrived when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced plans to consecrate the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 11.

“That gave us a bump,” she said. “Our parish has just started implementing new pastoral priorities. One of them is strengthening the domestic church through marriage and family formation. What better way to start that than dedicating all these domestic churches to the Sacred Heart and putting them under the kingship of Christ?”

The action in St. John’s sanctuary on that June Sunday preceded that which was to take place in parishioners’ respective homes, where they would complete the enthronement, FitzGerald said. It began when Fr. Tatro blessed all the Sacred Heart artwork that participants had placed in the church’s transept, then families proceeded into the sanctuary to sign their enrollment certificates. FitzGerald expressed appreciation that the enthronement emphasized both individual families and the broader parish family. 

“It wasn’t done in isolation,” she said. “Not only is it something for each domestic church, but there are 90 other families in our parish that did it with them, a connection that strengthens one another.”

The church’s wide communion rail provided an ideal place not only for setting the enrollment certificates, but also for signing them. Households approached the rail, each member signed the sheet, and Fr. Tatro signed as the priestly witness. FitzGerald said the process prompted the pastor to share a memory when he noted how an enrollment certificate he saw often in his youth bore the childhood signatures of aunts and uncles he had only known as adults.

“Fr. Tatro’s grandmother had one of these hanging on her wall,” FitzGerald said. “Growing up, he would see those signatures, and though it was precious.”

In an effort to help participants appreciate that enthronement entails more than merely displaying an image of the Sacred Heart in their homes, FitzGerald notes, the faithful performed some groundwork, such as reviewing preparatory material from the Sacred Heart Apostolate. “We gave parishioners information in the weeks leading up to it,” she said. “We wanted them to know what they were doing.”

And a big part of that is to give each home a sacred space in which to gather for prayer. “It’s also an encouragement to live a Eucharistic way of life – getting to Mass, observing the commandments, making holy hours, and recognizing Jesus’s presence in your home,” FitzGerald said. “He is central to your domestic church, your family life, and presides with you over all the events in your household, joyful and sorrowful. It’s really about seeking his direction, making him central to the household instead of an afterthought.”