Month of the Sacred Heart

On the move

My family moved around a lot when I was little. My dad was military up until I was in the 5th grade, so every few years we’d pack our stuff up and move to a different house.

Most of my life I shared a room with my older sister. Any time we’d move we would have to agree on what color to paint the room, what bedding we wanted, etc. My mom was usually the one who would paint the bedrooms and was great at letting us pick out how we wanted to decorate. And we had some really fun themes. We had a room that was sponge painted, where we got to each have a canopy over our bed and wall stickers of our choice. Another time we asked our mom to splatter paint our room (so messy but so cool). The last time we moved was right before I was in 6th grade. We moved to a house close by where we were living before, and it has become the house I now associate with “home”. That was when my sister and I got to have bunk beds. We had always wanted them and thought it was so cool that we finally had them! Many years have passed since my family moved into that house, and that room has had so many residents and has been redecorated many times.

While our rooms and decorating inspirations constantly changed throughout the years, (even years when we weren’t moving- ha!), certain things in my room were always constant. Besides our beds and dresser, we always had a clock, a crucifix, and a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Month of the Sacred Heart

Did you know that June is the month of the Sacred Heart? I just learned about it from Catholics Online. One of the things I love about our faith is that I learn new things about it every day, even as a cradle Catholic!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus has a special place in my heart because of growing up with that image in my room. When I close my eyes and envision what Jesus looks like, that is the image that comes to mind. I also have a necklace of that exact image. It was one of the free charms that came in the mail from a missionary group that I saw as a kid and my mom let me keep it and get a chain for it. The chain needs to get replaced again, but I still have that necklace! I have been searching for an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for my own home, as the one I grew up with is either still at my parent’s house or with another sibling that also was a resident of that room.

I don’t know the backstory about where that image came from or how it ended up in my bedroom growing up, but I do remember there being the exact same image of Jesus in my parent’s bedroom, which later got replaced by another image of the Sacred Heart because the other one was so worn. But every time I went into their room I saw The Sacred Heart of Jesus image sitting on their dresser, and I have a vague memory of my dad showing me the image and talking about it. I could tell that it had a special place in his heart as well.

All of these memories from my childhood and having that example shown to me have grown my love of that image, and it makes me feel safe.

Taking the time to learn more about the Sacred Heart

I have to admit I have some more learning to do about the history and particular devotion practices for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I am going to take advantage of the fact that this is the month of the Sacred Heart and look for resources to learn more information about it.

(To celebrate this month, bloggers over at Catholics Online have all written pieces on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I will be sharing those here later this month and invite you to learn more about it that way- I know I’m looking forward to it!).

But I do know that it has had an impact on my life from my parents displaying that image in my room when I was growing up. And I want to challenge all of my readers to learn more about The Sacred Heart this month! Because if there is anything this world needs more of, it’s Jesus’ love. If we can increase our devotion and lead by His example, we’ll start seeing more positivity in this world.