MADISON — As part of the consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, both in the United States (for the nation’s 250th anniversary) and in the Diocese of Madison, the next installment in the St. Thérèse Lecture Series in the diocese featured the topic of the Sacred Heart.

The speaker, on September 22 in the oratory at Holy Name Heights in Madison, was Fr. James Kubicki, SJ.

Father Kubicki is a nationally known speaker and author, the former spiritual director for St. Francis de Sales Seminary near Milwaukee, and the former director of the Apostleship of Prayer — the pope’s worldwide prayer network.

He currently serves as the retreat director and spiritual director at the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh, Wis.

Getting to know His Heart

The event began with Evening Prayer led by Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison, who welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming, and introduced Father Kubicki, saying the speaker’s  talk will “deepen our understanding of this beautiful devotion that’s really the very center of our Faith because it’s a devotion directly related to Christ.”

Father Kubicki said the devotion to the Sacred Heart goes back to Jesus Himself when “His Heart was moved with pity when He encountered anyone who was suffering.”

He added that, “His Heart began beating within three weeks of the Annunciation. It took a woman to give Jesus His Heart. He always had a divine Heart, but in order for Him to take flesh, He needed a mother, and Mary was that chosen mother who said ‘yes’ to God’s will, God’s plan.”

He added that upon Jesus’ death and Resurrection, His heart started beating again after three days and has never stopped beating.

“Jesus continues to be present to us through the Blessed Sacrament.”

He pointed to the oratory tabernacle and said, “Right now, we believe Jesus is present — Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity — including His Sacred Heart, which is beating for us right now.”

Father Kubicki explained that when Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to have the Church institute the feast of the Sacred Heart, it was to “make up for all of the ways that humanity had ignored Him or treated Him poorly.”

“It was a response to love,” Father Kubicki said.

He described devotion to the Sacred Heart as a reparation and an opportunity to deepen our prayer.

“Our prayer life is meant to transform us, so that when we pray ‘Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like yours,’ we really mean it.” 

Concluding his talk, Father Kubicki used St. Thérèse as an example of someone who had a deep prayer life and was able to offer herself to Jesus, including her own reparations. 

He told about how the saint offered her prayers for a man named Henri Pranzini, a convicted murderer in France who was sentenced to death.

Thérèse started “storming Heaven for him, praying and sacrificing for him” that he might repent of his sinful actions.

She later learned that just before his execution, Pranzini — who had by all appearances been unrepentant until that point — took hold of a crucifix held by a priest and kissed the sacred wounds of Christ.

Thérèse took the opportunity to reflect on the joy in Heaven when a repentant sinner returns home to God. 

While we don’t know Pranzini’s ultimate fate, Father Kubicki said if we have a Heart like Jesus, we are happy if he made it to Heaven, even earning it at the very last moment of his life.

Continued devotion

Following the lecture, those in attendance received a home enthronement booklet to the Sacred Heart of Jesus produced by the diocese. 

It’s a guide that helps families facilitate the enthronement in their homes, providing prayers, 
reflections, and steps to consecrate a household.

Bishop Hying said that “My mission in life this year is to invite every home, every family, every individual to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart and do the enthronement in their homes.”

The booklet, as well as more information on the devotion to the Sacred Heart,  can be found at madisondiocese.org/sacredheart

Attendees had a chance to meet Father Kubicki at a reception after the lecture.

Since 2000, the St. Thérèse Lecture Series in the Diocese of Madison has hosted internationally recognized speakers to help the faithful learn more about their faith and to live more authentically the charity which St. Thérèse came to understand as her vocation.

To view Father Kubicki’s entire talk, go to the Diocese of Madison’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@DioceseofMadison and click on the “Live” tab.