devotion to the sacred heart

Each of us has our own personal devotion.  I have my own devotion - Carmel is one of these, so also the praying for the souls of the faithful departed.  These are the devotions I chose when I was in high school.  I have always worn the brown scapular of Carmel since I was first year high school and I have always prayed for the souls of the faithful departed beginning at that time when I had difficulty waking up in the morning, again also in high school.  Each of us must have our own personal devotion that will follow us through life.  It is a personal lifeline, something we hold on to even when everything else lose their meaning.

But as a community we have what we call our community devotion.  Ever since, even when I was still a seminarian these are devotions that were inculcated in us, hammered down on us.  First is the devotion to the sacred heart and second is the devotion to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal expressed in the devotion to the holy Rosary - daily Rosary.

So every Friday, although we didn’t have the scapular then, we sung the hymn to the Sacred Heart for the mass and receive holy communion, and every Saturday we sung hymns to the Blessed Mother.  These are the two devotions inculcated in us early on - devotion to the Sacred Heart and devotion to our Lady of the Miraculous Medal with the recitation of the holy Rosary daily.

These devotions, we were told, helped us to persevere in our vocation, it helped us persevere in our desire to become priests.  So we were bombarded then with stories of seminarians who attribute their perseverance to the sacred heart and the miraculous medal. And of seminarians who were sent out, expelled, were tempted to leave the seminary, which others attribute to their lack of devotion to the Sacred Heart or to the holy Rosary.  For us then devotion to the Sacred Heart means perseverance in the seminary until you reach the priesthood.  If there is no devotion, then we fail.

Today the first year will begin wearing the red scapular.  Remember that devotion to the sacred heart means to go to mass on first Friday, to receive holy communion in the state of grace.   When I was a seminarian and even while we were yet small, we go to confession on the Thursday before the First Friday.  Why, so that we can receive the Lord in a state of grace.

I hope the first year would grow in this devotion - the devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus.  I hope that they persevere.  I hope that they reach the priesthood and become one day good and holy priests.  For our formators then, they would always interpret the strong devotion of the seminarians to the Sacred Heart and to Mary as a sign that one is called to the priesthood.  It is my hope that by devoting yourself to these, most of you will one day become priests.