Dear Friend,

Early this morning in Rome, from his private chapel, Cardinal Burke, in his homily, touched upon the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Devotion, which Pope Pius XI called the “Devotion of all Devotions” namely because it signifies the inhabitation of the Holy Spirit in our souls, poured forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  

Cardinal Burke brought up two aspects to contemplate:

“Clearly we are in the season of Lent and we are about to celebrate Passion Sunday and the most holy days of the church year and then of course, the celebration of Easter and the Easter Season, which is so full of joy and peace for all of us, and at the same time it is drawing us (these great celebrations) to that central fact of the death of our Lord on the cross - after his death, the piercing of His Most Sacred Heart, to the blood and water that flowed forth, signifying our life in the church, our life which comes directly to us, from our Lord Jesus Christ and so the first thing that we should reflect on today is the reality of all of these mysteries that we're celebrating is their reality in our daily life, namely that Christ dwells with us through the outpouring of the spirit. that we are called to offer our lives with Him, to be the one with Him throughout the days of our earthly journey - to be one with Him, finally, forever in the kingdom of heaven.”

“The second aspect is that there is so much discussion, so much concern, really in a certain way, of profound fear because of the situation of the world, with the terrible war that is going on in Ukraine and also the persecution of people in other parts of the world and also a great deal of concern for the church herself which seems to be sinking ever deeper into confusion, leading some in fact to abandon the church to schism and apostacy. We must not permit ourselves in today's celebration, we must not permit ourselves in the face of this fact, to give way to discouragement because Christ won victory with the piercing of His Most Sacred Heart for us, signifying the victory over sin and death through the institution of the Church through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the Church and into the hearts of all the faithful from the glorious pierced heart of Jesus but rather, what we should do, is give ourselves more intensely to the devotion that we remember today, to give ourselves to reparation especially observing that first Friday is the day for reparation, for our sins and then also giving ourselves to a daily conversion of our lives, a daily turning over of our hearts - more and more to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, cleansing them by the help of His grace and even the smallest parts if one asks what is the answer to all of the great challenges, which we face today in the church and in the world, the answer is: the conversion of hearts, the conversion of homes to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and this wonderful devotion observed today with great joy, this means for us - our lives and the world itself can be transformed with the grace, which comes from the Heart of Jesus, the grace operating in our own hearts, the grace which leads us to make reparation and to give our hearts, to convert our hearts daily more to Jesus Christ.”

Here is the link to view the Holy Mass, which includes Cardinal Burke’s homily, which begins at 33.44.

His Eminence thanked everyone for their prayers; said that he prays for all of the Operation Storm Heaven prayer warriors daily, so let us continue to lift Cardinal Burke up throughout the day, that his good health continues and that Our Lord will give him an abundance of strength for his intense schedule, in the next few weeks. 

May we all go deeper into Lent during the upcoming Passion and Holy Weeks.

Yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Thomas McKenna

Founder and President

Catholic Action For Faith And Family
http://www.catholicaction.org/