Introduction
As consecration is a renewal of baptismal consecration, as we saw in the second part of our journey, it is a personal step offered to all, laity, singles, married or religious, as well as priests. We proposed a simple way to live this out in the seventh step. In this ninth step, let us see how this approach can expand and take on a family, ecclesial, and even social character. It can be renewed at any time and in any place, personally or as a family, in a parish, in a community, according to the frequency that the Lord inspires in us.

Family Consecration

Firstly, at the family level. Jesus promised to abundantly pour out all sorts of blessings on families that honour his Heart and that “through this means, he would reunite divided families, and assist and protect those who are in some need.” We will return to this when we discuss the enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart in homes (tenth step). This consecration is also a response of love to that celebrated by spouses on the day of their marriage, as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Christian spouses, in order to fulfil the duties of their state with dignity, are strengthened and consecrated by a special sacrament.” (CCC, § 1535). The family is “the domestic Church,” the first Church in a certain sense. It shows Jesus as the true shepherd of our families, the “King of hearts,” He who watches over all our affairs (family, professional, social) as long as we give him the first place in our hearts and home. This is the meaning of the family consecration.

In practice, family consecration is proposed after the personal consecration has been pronounced by all (I refer to the seventh step which offers a simple outline). It is the parents who pronounce it, thereby involving their children in the vocation they received on the day of their marriage and of which they are the fruits. It is not necessary for all the children to be present, nor for both parents to be there. Thus, even in the pain of widowhood, separation, or civil divorce, a single parent can certainly consecrate their family to the Heart of Jesus.

Here is a proposed family consecration prayer.
Lord Jesus, you who consecrated yourself to the Father out of love for us, we wish, in the breath of your Holy Spirit, to return love for love by consecrating ourselves to You. We want to consecrate the life of our family in the situation it finds itself in today. We consecrate to You our past, our present, and our future, our home, our work, and our simplest gestures. We consecrate our joys as well as our trials so that the Love with which You have loved us may keep us in You and abide in us forever. So that the fire of your Love may blaze throughout the whole world and that the rivers of living water from your Heart may flow for all unto eternal life. Amen!

1. Community Dimension of Consecration

In the second step, we discussed the meaning of a community consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Personal consecration brings me into a broader dynamic that involves my family, my parish, my community, my school, or my diocese…
There isn’t really a ready-made formula for the consecration of a community or parish. Each community and ecclesial reality must discern, in communion with its pastor, the opportunity and the way to live a consecration. All the better. Some will draft a community prayer that reflects their own spiritual history and accents. Others may use an existing personal formula of consecration that will be prayed by all on a special occasion, such as the Feast of the Sacred Heart or the patronal feast.

For example, here is the prayer pronounced by Pope John Paul II during his visit to India in 1986.
Lord Jesus Christ, Redeemer of the human race, we turn to your most Sacred Heart with humility and trust, with reverence and hope, with a deep desire to give you glory, honour, and praise. Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world, we thank you for all that you are and all that you do. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we praise you for the love you have revealed through your Sacred Heart, which was pierced for us and has become the source of our joy, the source of our eternal life. Gathered in Your name, which is above all names, we consecrate ourselves to Your most Sacred Heart, in which resides the fullness of truth and charity. In consecrating ourselves to You, we, the faithful, renew our desire to respond to the rich outpouring of Your merciful love. Lord Jesus Christ, King of Love and Prince of Peace, reign in our hearts and in our homes. Be victorious over all the powers of evil and grant us participation in the victory of your Sacred Heart. May we all proclaim and give glory to You, to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, the only God who lives and reigns for ever and ever! Amen.

Building the Civilisation of Love

The devotion to the Heart of Jesus expands our hearts to the dimensions of the world and leads us into a zeal to proclaim the Lord through who we are, through our words and through our actions, in gentleness and humility. Thus, Margaret Mary dedicated the last years of her life to making known the love of the Heart of Jesus. Driven by remarkable zeal, she asked King Louis XIV to place the image of the Sacred Heart on his standard and to consecrate himself to the Heart of Jesus. We do not know if this request reached the King of France, who, in fact, did not heed it. It is not our intention to dwell on the historical, theological, and political questions that this raises, but rather to perceive the deep intuition that animates Margaret Mary: the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not individualistic; it is meant to translate into social life, to “establish the reign of Christ in all our lives and in the world around us,” to echo the scout ideal. It becomes missionary.

This is what the expression of the “Social Reign of the Heart of Jesus” encompasses, which was very successful in the 19th century and the early 20th century, culminating in the institution of the second liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart, the Feast of Christ the King in 1925. A certain political appropriation of the Sacred Heart partly explains the mistrust of many Catholics, particularly in France, from the second half of the 20th century onwards. Nevertheless, the potential drift should not make us lose sight of what is valid in this intuition, namely that true devotion to the Heart of Jesus is also expressed at the social level and transforms the way Christians engage in public life.

Pope Saint John Paul II, following Pope Paul VI, used a new expression that revitalised this aspect of devotion to the Sacred Heart: the “civilisation of love.” He thus affirms that “the civilisation of love is born of God, because God is love, and, in Christ, this love that is God ‘has manifested itself among us.’ It is from the pierced Heart of crucified Jesus that the civilisation of love emerges. In the sanctuary of this Heart, God bowed down to man and gave him the gift of his Mercy, enabling him in turn to open himself to his own brothers and sisters in mercy and forgiveness.” (Address to the faithful in the stadium of Nuoro, 20 October 1985)

Thus concludes the third part of our journey, in which we have shown how to consecrate oneself to the Sacred Heart, personally, as a family, and within the Church. In the next step, we will enter the fourth and final part, which provides concrete ways to implement the consecration in our daily lives through enthronement (tenth step), the Honour Guard, and the Pope’s Prayer Network (eleventh step).