The Sacred Heart Congress returned to Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church Saturday with featured speakers Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, and Anna Mitchell of The Son Rise Morning Show on Cincinnati’s Sacred Heart Radio and aired on EWTN.
The day began with a 7:30 a.m. rosary led by the Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus followed by a Mass celebrated by Bishop Earl Fernandes. Faithful prayed the Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, spent time in Eucharistic Adoration and had the opportunity for confession throughout the morning.
For many, the congress was a reminder of the power of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in converting families and homes.
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“I’ve been a convert for 43 years to the Catholic faith, and it’s been the number one best decision I ever made,” affirmed Angela Kuhn, a St. Paul the Apostle parishioner. “The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the most welcoming, loving and tender part of the faith to me.”
Her sentiments were shared by John Swisher, a member of Reynoldsburg St. Pius X Church. Swisher and his family enthroned their home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network about 15 years ago.
“We enthroned our home, and after that, we saw the transformation to our marriage, and we started taking our faith much more seriously. We started evangelizing others. We started getting more involved in our parish,” he said.
Swisher and his wife, Jeanie, are parents to four grown children. Each of their children followed in taking up the Sacred Heart devotion.
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“As they were coming back for family events and holidays,” Swisher recalled, “they noticed a change in their parents that they hadn’t seen before. Through that, they’ve all now enthroned their living spaces, and now, the whole entire family is back to the faith. We saw the transformation in our marriage, and then, we saw it overflow into our kids and their lives.
“All their living spaces are enthroned. They’re all involved in the Church. They’re all back to the Mass; they’re all back to the sacraments, and it’s just beautiful to see. And then, now, we have three grandkids, and it’s nice to see them raising the grandkids in the faith.”
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The familial devotion inspired the Swishers to spread the Sacred Heart devotion. The couple have been involved with the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network, based in Columbus, for about 10 years. They volunteer at the annual Sacred Heart Congress and assist with enthronements for homes, schools and businesses.
Mike and Karen Ballou, parishioners at Columbus St. Agatha Church, shared their testimony at the congress.
The couple raised their children Catholic but eventually fell away from practicing. In 2020, they were inspired to pick the faith back up. They enthroned their home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and like the Swishers, noticed the devotion overflow to their three children, who had also opted for a more secular lifestyle.
Karen now regularly visits nursing homes and assists with bringing Sacred Heart enthronements to seniors, many of whom are alone and isolated. Enthroning a home to the Sacred Heart is for any age and stage of life, she emphasized, including the young and old, single and married.
Kathy Scanlon, president at Pregnancy Decision Health Centers (PDHC), which includes three centers in Columbus and a fourth in Lancaster, shared the benefits of enthroning a workplace to the Sacred Heart. She emphasized the immense blessings the enthronement brought PDHC after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, returning abortion laws to individual states, which led to many pregnancy centers facing increased opposition.
Each of PDHC’s centers were enthroned to the Sacred Heart. Scanlon shared that PDHC will open its fifth center in Columbus’ Harrison West neighborhood nearby a new Planned Parenthood facility set to open.
Bishop Hying, who has openly encouraged enthronement to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, shared his family’s devotion. The bishop of Madison explained that his parents consecrated their home, marriage and family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1952 before he and his five brothers were born.
He largely attributed his priesthood – and later, episcopate – to his parents’ devotion, which included a beautiful image of Christ’s Sacred Heart hung above the family’s living room television. He recalled the Sacred Heart of Jesus being the king and center of the family.
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Bishop Hying’s mother, a factory worker, would leave the house around 5 a.m. on Sundays when she worked weekends. The family would attend a Saturday evening Mass of Anticipation together. The bishop recalled his father, however, waking him early Sunday morning for another Mass.
When asking why they needed to attend a second time, the bishop recalled his father simply quipped: “Don’t you think that God has done enough for you this week that you can give Him two hours of prayer, of adoration? God hasn’t been stingy with you. Why are you being stingy with Him?”
Mitchell spoke later in morning, sharing a couple of personal anecdotes that involve her devotion to the Sacred Heart. One included her son, Tommy, who was born on the third day of a Sacred Heart novena that she had been praying.
She offered the novena for her son after doctors noticed a lump near the baby’s kidney while he was in utero. After his birth, the doctors examined Tommy and found nothing, which, she said, she considers miraculous.
She encouraged attendees to learn from and imitate the saints in growing in devotion to the Sacred Heart.
To learn more about enthroning a home, business, parish or workplace, visit Welcome His Heart | Sacred Heart Enthronement.