Tamale Jubilee Park will be the venue for the climax of Golden Jubilee Celebration of the establishment of the National Sacred Heart of Jesus Enthronement Centre in Ghana on the theme: “National Sacred Heart of Jesus Enthronement Centre, Ghana @ 50: Building a Synodal Church, the Role of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Devotional Practices by the Catholic Family”.
The anniversary coincides with the 10th National Sacred Heart of Jesus Congress will be held from Thursday, September 5 to Sunday 8, 2024. The Congress will be pigeonholed with Eucharistic celebrations, Rosary prayers, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, healing service, focus group discussions and other spiritual events.
The National Sacred Heart of Jesus Enthronement Centre was established in 1974 to co-ordinate, direct and spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a spirit of love and reparation.
It aims at promoting the enthronement of the Sacred Heart in homes and in public institutions as well as promotes Family Prayer Apostolate, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Bible Study and other devotions of the Catholic Church.
The Centre also organises leadership training and educational programmes on devotions to the Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Sacred Heart Enthronement Centre, Ghana, on several occasions has urged Catholics to devote the Month of June to pray and offer their spiritual material and financial support for the welfare of Priests.
The three-day Congress in Tamale is expected to be attended by about 20,000 delegates and Tarcisians from all the Dioceses in Ghana and the Donkorkrom Vicariate.
As part of the Congress, the delegates will be led by the Bishops to consecrate Ghana to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and renew the consecration of the country to the Sacred of Jesus.
In 2011, during the eighth National Sacred Heart Congress in Koforidua, attended by over 15,000 pilgrims covered by this writer, the Most Rev. Anthony Adanuty, the then Vice President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference but now Emeritus of Keta-Akatsi Diocese, stated that the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was obligatory to all Christians and the obligatory nature of the devotion was derived from the fact of its inseparable link to the Holy Spirit of God which is the font of divine love.
Bishop Adanuty said the devotion to the Sacred Heart is one of those aspects of Christianity that are not left to the private inclination of individual Christians, noting that “ you cannot put Sacred Heart Devotion on the same footing as the devotion to any of the Saints.”
According to him, the devotion was not the prerogative of members of the Sacred Heart Confraternity but “leads us unfailingly to the Eucharist as Sacrament and Sacrifice and finds the best seed-ground in the natural family.”
The mere sight of the image of His Sacred Heart could not fail to draw attention to His boundless love without ending up in the celebration of this love, the Eucharist. The devotion to the Sacred Heart leading to Eucharist and the love staring from the family was valid for all, but not only those who belonged to the Sacred Heart Confraternity.
Every year, the Sacred Heart Enthronement organises activities / programmes to ensure a worthy and spirit-filled celebration in acknowledgement of the hard-work and dedication of our clergy to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
During the Feast, Ghanaian Catholics are encouraged to pray intensively for the sanctification of Priests and do solemn devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
On March 3, 1957, the then Gold Coast was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Holy Spirit Cathedral for God’s guidance, peace, love, prosperity and protection.
In 2006, during the 7th National Sacred Heart Congress at Cape Coast, the consecration of Ghana to the Sacred Heart was renewed by invoking the Holy Spirit “to assist with Your Holy Spirit of Counsel and Fortitude, our Rulers and Members of the government, so that their administration may be concluded in righteousness and be eminently useful to this your people, by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion and by restraining vice and morality…”
“Preserve all the citizens of this country in that peace which the world cannot give so that after enjoying blessings in this land, we may merit those of our heavenly homeland,” part of the Prayer of Renewal of the Consecration stated.
At the Congress, the Bishops of Ghana expressed their solidarity by praying that the Sacred Heart of Jesus would enkindle within the Heart of every Ghanaian and especially the youth to build their lives on Christ and for Christ.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart is a total commitment to God as the God of merciful love. It is a form of spirituality that is distinctly Christocentric, with a deep awareness of the presence of Christ especially in one’s neighbour, the Word, the Eucharist and through the Holy Spirit.
The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a devotion that focuses attention on the Physical Heart as the symbol of Jesus’ redemptive love and deeply rooted in the Christian people.
Although tradition often situates the beginning of the practice of the devotion to the year 1000 AD, it might be more accurate to place its birth during the time of the great mystics. [St. Anselm and St. Bernard] between 1050 and 1150.
By the middle ages, because of a strong emphasis on the passion of our Lord and because of the efforts of St. Bonaventure and St. Gertrude the Great, the devotion became popularized as a means of worshipping the mystery of Christ living in the Church.
The devotion was promoted by great Saints, including St. Albert the Great, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis de Sales, as well as the Great Religious Orders such as the Benedictines, the Dominicans and Carthusians. However, the Saint who is most often associated with the devotion is St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690).
The most Sacred Heart of Jesus was approved for specified Dioceses by Pope Clement XIII in 1765 and extended to the whole Church by Pope Pius IX in 1856. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII elevated it to the rank of first class and through an Encyclical Letter in 1899 dedicated the whole Catholic world to the sacred heart of Jesus. The institution of the feast was soon to contribute to the creation among the faithful of powerful current devotion which since then has grown steadily stronger.
The first office and Mass of the Sacred Heart were composed by St. John Eudes, but the institution of the feast was as a result of the appearance of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1675. The feast was extended to the general calendar of the Church by Pope Pius in 1856.
Pope Benedict XVI on June 5, 2005 said that in the Heart of the Redeemer, we adore God’s love for humanity, his will for universal salvation, His infinite mercy.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart is also an essential component of Pope John Paul II’s hopes for the “new evangelisation” called for by the Church. For evangelisation today, Pope John Paul stated the heart of Christ must be recognised as the heart of the Church: It is He who calls us to conversion, to reconciliation.
During the celebration of the Feast of Sacred Heart on the Friday after the feast of Corpus Christi (Body and Blood of Christ) which falls this year on June 7, 2024, Catholics are encouraged to pray intensively for the sanctification of Priests and do solemn devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
By Damian Avevor
