At the end of 150 years of the day when Blessed Jacinto Vera, first bishop of Uruguay, consecrated the country under the protection of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on Thursday, June 12, the Catholic community met to renew its promise of faith.
A large number of faithful filled the National Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the Cerrito de la Victoria, in a celebration that is part of the jubilee of the priests.
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Until there, the procession of numerous bishops of Uruguay and priests of the Archdiocese of Montevideo, arrived on Bruno Méndez Street to the sanctuary where the faithful were waiting.
As in 1875, the Uruguayans prayed: “We beg you, Lord, bite our prayers for your Holy Church, for the salvation of men, and for the peace and prosperity of our homeland.”
Hundreds of faithful participated in the celebration, chaired by the Archbishop of Montevideo and Primado del Uruguay, Cardinal Daniel Sturla, and concelebrated by numerous bishops.
In his homily, the purple made reference to the Gospel in which Jesus expresses: “I have ardently wanted to eat this Easter with you.” In this regard, he pointed out that “this desire, that springs from the heart of Jesus at the last supper, is an expression of the great yearning of God.”
Then he stopped in the importance of consecrating to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: “This heart of friend shares his greatest joy: to be the son of the Father, who then on the altar of the cross, in the human encounter, is salvation in the heart of Jesus. Friendship is made permanent offering. Jesus, priest, victim and altar. It will be of his open heart, transferred by our crimes, from which he sprouts life,” he said.
The Archbishop of Montevideo emphasized that consecrating means being found by the one who “comes towards us and that burningly wants to celebrate Easter with us.” According to Sturla, the Sacred Heart of Jesus “is present in the Eucharistic mystery and also in every brother who suffers: in the poor, in the patient, in the child who will be born and is rejected, in that old man who longs to live and is left aside.”
“By consecrating ourselves,” he added, “not only do we enter the intimacy of friendship, forgiveness received and from the one who nourishes us, but we are also called to bring this consecration further: towards our society, towards the country we love, towards this homeland that many have chosen as their own.” Sturla recalled that this was how it was lived 150 years ago, “in different and extremely difficult circumstances for the universal church and for the world, in a country that was beginning to emerge,” and said that this act is still in force today.
Then, he invited to “return our eyes” to the holy heart of Jesus, “center and volcano of the purest love”, and to put hope in him.
Cardinal Sturla emphasized the meaning that the renewal of this consecration made by Blessed Jacinto Vera takes on so many years.
“The Church is going through one of the most critical times. Of each era it could, perhaps, say the same. But we are invited to resume the indomitable spirit of our blessed, which did not stop in the face of difficulties, but worked until it was exhausted and confided with a supernatural hope in the God of promises,” he encouraged.
Going to those present, he emphasized: “We are lucky to have been born at this time simply because it is ours, because it is when the Lord put us to leave our mark of good and love, in our passage through the world and in our service to the people of God.”
“It is at this time that the Lord calls us friends and has shared his being, it is now that he gives us his Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth. Let’s return our heart to the heart of Jesus,” he urged.
At the end of the celebration, the community prayed the sentence of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we share below.
Heart of Jesus:
You are our comfort and our hope.
Humbly prostrated in your presence,
We ask you forgiveness of our sins.
We proclaim that we want to live and die in your service
and correspond to your sovereign designs of mercy dignity
in favor of the Church and society.
We consecrate our people and our families,
our interests and our assets,
The present and the future.
We beg you, Lord, you bite our prayers
For your Holy Church,
for the conversion and salvation of men,
for the peace and prosperity of our homeland and of all peoples.
Amen.
Most Holy Heart, Save us!
Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.