Introduction
The final Communiqué of the First General Convention of Regnum Christi, shared earlier this month, expresses the ardent certainty that Regnum Christi wants to “see the world with the eyes of Christ and love it with his Heart,” and that our greatest challenge is to recognize the “seeds of the Kingdom,” of the living Christ himself who walks alongside us and invites us to collaborate with him in helping those seeds to take root.
We want to be contemplative and evangelizing communities, creative minorities who can sow these seeds of the Kingdom and help them grow wherever they are.
This year’s novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us to precisely this: to discover the seeds of the Kingdom in every circumstance and place, and to help them grow.
Uniting ourselves to the whole Church and walking together as a global community of Regnum Christi apostles who want to listen and discern where the Lord leads us, we pray that through this novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we may find renewed enthusiasm to go out to encounter people where they are, where Christ, the sower of all that is good in their hearts and lives wants to meet them.
For each day of the Novena we offer a prayer and a short video reflection from Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 – Day 1
Day 1: Humility of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Humility of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Permeate my heart.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
“Humility is the only way that leads us to God. At the same time, precisely because it leads us to him, humility leads us also to the essentials of life, to its truest meaning, to the most trustworthy reason for why life is worth living” (Pope Francis, General Audience, 22 December 2021).
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Thursday, May 30, 2024 – Day 2
Day 2: Joy of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Joy of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Enlarge my heart.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11).
“Our Christian joy drinks of the wellspring of his brimming heart. He promises his disciples: ‘You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy’ (Jn 16:20). He then goes on to say: ‘But I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you’ (Jn 16:22). The disciples ‘rejoiced’ (Jn 20:20) at the sight of the risen Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the first Christians ‘ate their food with glad and generous hearts’ (2:46). Wherever the disciples went, ‘there was great joy’ (8:8); even amid persecution they continued to be ‘filled with joy’ (13:52). The newly baptized eunuch ‘went on his way rejoicing’ (8:39), while Paul’s jailer ‘and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God’ (16:34). Why should we not also enter into this great stream of joy?” (Evangelii Gaudium, 5)
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Friday, May 31, 2024 – Day 3
Day 3: Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Inflame my heart.
“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
“This may seem like heresy, but it is the greatest truth! More difficult than loving God is letting oneself be loved by Him! The way to return so much love is to open your heart and let yourself be loved. Let Him come to us and feel Him by our side. Let Him become tender with us, caress us. This is the most difficult thing: letting ourselves be loved by Him. This is what we must ask today at Mass: ‘Lord, I want to love You, teach me the difficult science, the difficult habit of letting myself be loved by You, of feeling you close to me and tender.’ May the Lord give us this grace!” (Pope Francis, Mass at Santa Marta, 7 June 2013).
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Saturday, June 1, 2024 – Day 4
Day 4: Light of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Light of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Illuminate my heart.
“Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
“If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: ‘Give them something to eat’” (Mark 6:37) (Evangelii Gaudium, 49).
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Sunday, June 2, 2024 – Day 5
Day 5: Silence of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Silence of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Speak to my heart.
“But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you” (Matthew 6:6).
“Silence, then, is the door to prayer, and prayer is the door to love. Praying is not boring! We are the ones who make it boring. Prayer is an encounter with the Lord, an encounter that is beautiful. So, when you pray, don’t be afraid to bring to Jesus everything that is going on in your life: your emotions and fears, your problems and expectations, your memories and hopes, everything, including your sins. Jesus understands it all” (Pope Francis, Address to young people in Hungary, April 29, 2023).
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Monday, June 3, 2024 – Day 6
Day 6: Fortitude of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Fortitude of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Hold my heart.
He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test” (Luke 22:44-46).
“However, through the gift of fortitude, the Holy Spirit liberates the soil of our heart, he frees it from sluggishness, from uncertainty and from all the fears that can hinder it, so that Lord’s Word may be put into practice authentically and with joy. The gift of fortitude is a true help, it gives us strength, and it also frees us from so many obstacles. We need not think that the gift of fortitude is necessary only on some occasions or in particular situations. This gift must constitute the tenor of our Christian life, in the ordinary daily routine. As I said, we need to be strong every day of our lives, to carry forward our life, our family, our faith” (Pope Francis, General Audience, 14 May 2014).
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 – Day 7
Day 7: Patience of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Patience of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Support my heart.
He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn”’” (Matthew 13:24-26).
“Jesus shows us the patience of God, the merciful Father who calls us even at the last hour, who does not demand perfection but heartfelt enthusiasm, who wants to open a breach in our hardened hearts” (Pope Francis, @Pontifex, August 18, 2022).
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 – Day 8
Day 8: Zeal of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Zeal of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Embrace my heart.
“Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:35-36).
“Evangelical zeal is the support on which proclamation is based, and heralds are somewhat like the feet of the body of Christ that is the Church. There is no proclamation without movement, without ‘going out’, without initiative. This means there is no Christian if not on the move; no Christian if the Christian does not go out of him- or herself in order to set out on the journey and bear the proclamation. There is no proclamation without movement, without walking. One does not proclaim the Gospel by standing still, locked in an office, at one’s desk or at one’s computer, arguing like ‘keyboard warriors’ and replacing the creativity of proclamation with copy-and-paste ideas taken from here and there. The Gospel is proclaimed by moving, by walking, by going” (Pope Francis, General Audience, 12 April 2023).
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
Thursday, June 6, 2024 – Day 9
Day 9: Kingdom of the Heart of Jesus Christ
V/ Kingdom of the Heart of Jesus Christ,
R/ Establish yourself in my heart.
He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches’” (Matthew 13:31-32).
“Let us believe the Gospel when it tells us that the kingdom of God is already present in this world and is growing, here and there, and in different ways: like the small seed which grows into a great tree (cf. Mt 13:31-32), like the measure of leaven that makes the dough rise (cf. Mt 13:33) and like the good seed that grows amid the weeds (cf. Mt 13, 24-30) and can always pleasantly surprise us. The kingdom is here, it returns, it struggles to flourish anew. Christ’s resurrection everywhere calls forth seeds of that new world; even if they are cut back, they grow again, for the resurrection is already secretly woven into the fabric of this history, for Jesus did not rise in vain. May we never remain on the sidelines of this march of living hope” (Evangelii Gaudium, 278)!
V/ Let us pray: Sacred Heart of Jesus, you love us deeply and know every corner of our identity. Transform our hearts to have the same feelings as yours, the same way of listening, seeing, and speaking as you do. Purify us in in the living flames of your Love so that we can make you present here and now through our lives.
R/ Amen.
V/ Sacred Heart of Jesus,
R/ Make my heart like yours.
