Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the
Home
Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur: 1962
www.catholictradition.org/Two-Hearts/sacred-heart15.htm
www.catholictradition.org/Two-Hearts/sacred-heart15.htm
FOUNDER
AND APOSTLE OF THE ENTHRONEMENT
Father
Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC., Founder of the Work of the Enthronement of the
Sacred Heart in the home, was born in Peru, South America, on September 18,
1875. At the age of sixteen he joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts
of Jesus and Mary in Valparaiso, Chile, and applied himself with great zeal
to promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart. Animated with the desire to make
more effective the promises of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary, he
conceived the idea of drawing families closer to Jesus, the King of Love, by
placing the image of His Sacred Heart in a place of honor in the home and
thus bringing the family's life into intimate relations with Him.
Words: 1363 on Founder, and Words: 727 by Pope Benedict XV.
It is a joy to recall 1947/48 having been introduced to the Enthronement in the family.
In
1907, a breakdown in health sent him on a trip to Europe. After visiting the
Motherhouse of his Congregation in Belgium, he went to Paray-le-Monial in
France, overjoyed at being able to realize his desire to visit the scene of
the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary. He then went to
Rome, where he submitted to a prominent Cardinal an outline of his proposed
apostolate for the social reign of the Sacred Heart, together with a rough
outline of the ceremonial of the Enthronement. Being greatly encouraged by
this prince of the Church, Father Mateo next sought and obtained a private
audience with Pope Pius X, who in turn gave his whole-hearted approval and
"commanded" the young priest to devote his life to this magnificent
work.
Receiving
this "command" as a mandate from Heaven, Father Mateo at once
prepared to carry out his commission, with the approval and blessing of his
Superior General. First he returned to Paray-le-Monial to give thanks for
this singular grace and to implore light and guidance as well as the
necessary health for his mission. As he knelt in prayer at this hallowed
spot, a strange sensation suddenly gripped his whole being, and he rose to
his feet, perfectly cured. At the same time a clear methodic plan of the work
took shape in his mind. It was August 24, 1907. That same evening, he drew up
his plan "to conquer the whole world for the Heart of Jesus, home after
home, family after family."
After
making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Father Mateo returned to Valparaiso,
where he resumed his post of teaching in the school conducted by his
religious community. At the same time he inaugurated his crusade for the
Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home. The work was attended with
remarkable blessings ---- clearly indicating that it was truly
the work of the Sacred Heart. Fallen-aways returned to the Sacraments, notorious
sinners [including enemies of the Church] were converted, the spiritual life
of the whole parish was renewed.
With
the help of many "secretaries" ---- principally children, at first ---- letters were sent to various
countries and brought an enthusiastic response. Father Mateo himself embarked
on a crusade, literally traversing the world to "preach love," as
he expressed it. South America, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland,
Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, England, Scotland, China, Japan, Indo-China,
India, Ceylon, the Philippines and Hawaii, and finally the United States and
Canada, came under the sway of his fiery eloquence, and responded
magnanimously to his appeal "for love for the Beggar of Love." Some
of these countries he visited twice and even three times, in response to
pressing invitations from the hierarchy and clergy.
In
his world-wide crusade, Father Mateo's heart and soul, mind and body,
combined in a heroic effort to do the maximum amount of good to the greatest
possible number of souls. He preached retreat after retreat, usually giving
four sermons a day of one hour each. In his younger years he frequently
preached as often as eight times a day. In later years he at times showed
signs of great fatigue, but when he rose to speak, his burning love for the
Sacred Heart sent a magic current of life into his exhausted body and he
spoke with astounding energy and volume of voice.
Along
with the Enthronement, Father Mateo promoted Night Adoration in the home as a
means of intensifying the devotion of families to the Sacred Heart and of
offering reparation to Him, especially for sins committed in and by families.
He also found time to write books of devotion and various treatises on the
Enthronement, as well as periodical circular letters aimed at stimulating the
fervor of his fellow-workers in the apostolate.
In
the course of time, the work of the Enthronement was efficiently organized by
the establishment of Enthronement Centers in each country, where priests,
religious and zealous lay persons work enthusiastically in promoting both the
Enthronement and the Night Adoration. In 1917, the Benedictine Convent of
Perpetual Adoration at Clyde, Missouri, became the first authorized Center in
the United States, outside the one operated by the Sisters of the Sacred
Hearts at Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
Each
of the five Popes who reigned during the life of Father Mateo gave his full
approbation and blessing to the Work: St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius
XII, and John XXIII.
Styling
himself the "beggar of love for the King of Love," Father Mateo
spent himself unstintingly for the reign of the Sacred Heart over hearts and
homes and nations. But he did not seek to attain this end by preaching alone.
Rather, his preaching was ever the fruit of prayer, sacrifice and suffering,
upon which he depended for the fruitfulness of his apostolate. He also used
to very good effect the literary talent with which God had endowed him. But
the paramount reality in his life, the sun and center of all his days and the
source from which he drew light and strength and inspiration, was the holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. To see him celebrate the Sacred Mysteries was in
itself a seen more eloquent than any he could preach. He also insisted upon a
living, loving devotion to the Holy Spirit, the source of all interior light
and supernatural inspiration.
Worn
out by his incessant labors and by the ravages of various ailments, as well
as by the weakness of advancing age, Father Mateo was forced, at length, to
give up his preaching apostolate. In the fall of 1946 he was confined to a
hospital in Canada, and the remaining years of his life were spent for the
most part in his "cloister of the Divine Will," his own term for a
hospital. Nevertheless, he continued his crusade of love by writing, praying,
and suffering. He still made his Holy Hour each night, and daily offered Holy
Mass seated at an improvised altar in one of his hospital rooms, using a
privilege granted him by Pope Pius XI some years before. In time, even this
became impossible because of his physical condition, and it was one of the
greatest privations of his life not to be able to offer the Mass.
In
1956, to the surprise of all who knew him, he rallied sufficiently to return
by plane to the monastery of the Sacred Hearts in Valparaiso, Chile, from
which he had set forth some forty years before. For a time he seemed
marvelously renewed in strength and health, but old age and chronic illness
continued their ravages, and he died on May 4, 1960, after months of intense
suffering ---- a veritable crucifixion.
Regarding
his well-beloved apostolate, Father Mateo once wrote to a friend: "If
you should hear that I have become paralyzed, that I am no longer able to
preach, to write, to walk, do not say, 'What of his mission?" No, for as
long as I have a heart to love and a body to suffer, I will still be an
apostle. I would not then be preaching four or five times a day, but a
hundred times, on the cross. In life and in death I will be an apostle, for I
love Him, I love Him, I LOVE Him! In sickness and in health, I will be an
apostle, for I want all to love Him, to love Him, to LOVE Him!"
Pontifical
Letter of Approbation
To
Our Beloved Son,
MATEO
CRAWLEY-BOEVEY,
Priest
of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Beloved
Son, Health and Apostolic Benediction!
We
have read your letter with interest; also the documents that accompanied it.
They give proof of the zealous and untiring labors with which you have
devoted yourself, for many years, to the work of consecrating families to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus in this particular manner: by placing an image or
painting of the Sacred Heart in the most prominent place in the home, as on a
throne, as a sign that Our Lord reigns visibly in these families.
Already
Our Predecessor, Leo XIII, of blessed memory, consecrated the whole human
race to the Divine Heart of Jesus, and his encyclical Annum
Sacrum upon this
subject is well known. Nevertheless, it seems that even after this general
consecration, the devotion extending to individual families is not without
benefit; on the contrary it is in perfect accordance with the former, and can
only contribute greatly to the realization of the pious intentions of that
Pontiff of blessed memory.
What
concerns every single individual affects Us more deeply, indeed, than what is
of general interest. Therefore, We rejoice that your efforts in this regard
have brought such abundant fruit. We exhort you to continue zealously in the
apostolate you have so successfully begun. At present nothing Is more timely.
The
malicious efforts of the wicked are specially directed against the home, the
family circle. Since the family contains the root, the elements of civil
society, the enemies realize well that the hoped-for transformation or rather
the hoped-for destruction of all human society cannot take place before the
ruin of the family is accomplished. Every effort is being made to weaken the
firmness and indissolubility of the marriage bond and to prevent our youth
from coming under religious influence. Wickedness goes so far as to endanger
the very propagation of the human race, and to defile the sanctity of
matrimonial life by praising shameful practices for the gratification of lust
which frustrate the rights of the laws of nature.
You
do well, therefore, beloved son, to take in hand the welfare of society to
awaken and spread above all things a Christian spirit in the home that the
love of Jesus Christ may permeate the families, and His love reign there like
a queen. By so doing you obey Jesus Christ Himself Who promised to pour out
His blessings on those homes where a picture of His Sacred Heart is exposed
and venerated.
It
is a holy and salutary work to show our most loving Savior this honor and
homage; yet, all is not accomplished thereby. Of equal importance it is to
know Christ, to take to heart His doctrine. His life, His Passion, His
glorification. To follow Him does not consist in being guided by passing
religious sentiments which easily touch tender hearts and move to tears but
leave vices unchecked. To follow Christ means to grasp Him with a lively and
constant faith which at the same time influences heart and mind, and
regulates our morals. Indeed, the very reason why Jesus is forgotten by so
many, and so little loved by others, is that to some He is almost unknown and
by others not known sufficiently.
Continue,
then, beloved son, your labors and your apostolate, in order to enkindle the
flames of love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Catholic families. Above all,
let your efforts and labors tend to this ---- it is Our will ----that to every home where you
apply, this love may come as a result of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and
of the truths and laws which He has given us.
In
1913, Our Predecessor, Pius X, of blessed memory, granted special privileges
at the request of the bishops of Chile to the families of that country who
had consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To encourage this
universal pious work, We desire all these privileges to be extended to the
families of the whole Catholic world who perform this consecration.
As a
pledge of Divine favors, and as a mark of Our paternal good will, We impart
to you affectionately, beloved son, the Apostolic Blessing.
Given
at St. Peter's, Rome, April 27, 1915
---- Benedict XV, Pope.
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