By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—With a zeal to center their homes and families around Christ, over a thousand Catholics turned out for two Sacred Heart missions in the archdiocese led by Father Bill Gaffney, CSsR, and Gloria Anson, representatives of the New York-based Sacred Heart Apostolate.

The first mission, held the week of Sept. 10 at St. Peter Chanel Church in Roswell, brought together nearly 700 people, mostly parishioners. A mission held at the Cathedral of Christ the King two weeks later drew 400 to 500 single and married people of all ages from across the archdiocese.

The missions held Monday through Thursday consisted of Masses, penance services, Benediction and healing services. Talks from Father Gaffney and Anson focused on a different theme each night drawing upon Pope John Paul II’s 1981 apostolic exhortation “On the Family,” his 1999 document “The Church in America” and his apostolic letter, “At the Beginning of the New Millennium.”

Music for the two missions was led by various music ministries and choirs from each parish.

At the center sat a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, displayed on a table with a red cloth, a Bible, a rose and a burning candle.

At St. Peter Chanel, where many children attended with their parents, Father Gaffney led special activities for them.

To open the Roswell mission, which was held in the auditorium of Blessed Trinity High School, Father Gaffney led an enthusiastic group of children in a story of the saints, as they repeated the words he said.

“God wants everybody to be a saint,” they mimicked, using exaggerated hand motions. “And I need to be one too.”

At the opening Mass, Father Gaffney told of the great love of Christ.

“Jesus wants to be a part of your home,” he said. “He wants to share in the joys and sorrows of your everyday life. This image of the burning love of Jesus for you not only will get into the minds and imagination of you and your family, but into your very soul.”

Father Gaffney told the St. Peter Chanel crowd that they were selected by God.

“This parish was chosen by Jesus Christ to start a holy revolution,” he said. “You’re ready to be co-creators of the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is about to erupt in this parish.”

Once one gives their life to Christ, they are transformed, Father Gaffney said. No longer a slave to the material world they are “into the kingdom, not the thing-dom.”

“You have to surrender to the heart of Christ and let his love take over. And what a difference it makes,” he said. “God loves you so you can be different, so you don’t go the way of the world, because it’s just empty show and pretense. Your life is filled with meaning and purpose and a peace the world cannot give you, for there is no substitute for love.”

Mass each night concluded with adoration of the Eucharist, as Anson addressed the group. She first told those in attendance of the story of the Sacred Heart and the spiritual benefits of enthroning the Sacred Heart in one’s home, setting aside a place for God and his word.

“I can’t tell you as a wife, as a mother, as a grandmother, how many times I have found answers to a family situation or a problem in the word of God,” she said. “The awareness that God is with you is the gift of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It demonstrates the Lordship of Jesus Christ over your family and over your household. This Jesus, through sign and symbol, wants to meet you on a heart level.”

Anson said that her husband prays each morning at 5 a.m. in front of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is time to give Jesus what he deserves, she said.

“We have rendered enough to Caesar,” she said. “It is time that we render to Jesus—that we give him our families. We have to fight fire with fire. We are called to build a civilization of love.”

Many were brought to tears as Father Gaffney held the monstrance aloft while walking through and blessing the kneeling crowd.

The second night, focusing on “What Happens When Jesus Shows Up,” Father Gaffney called the devotion a “leap of faith” and stressed its value as a public proclamation that Jesus is Lord of the home to all who visit it.

“It’s not just a ceremony but a way of life. My life is totally open to Jesus Christ, my family is open to Jesus. It’s not just having the pictures. It’s not just a nice devotion for a few nice people. It’s absolutely necessary in this crisis that we’re facing today,” he said. “It’s a sign in a mysterious but very real way that Jesus is in the home—that’s the tabernacle in the home.”

At the Cathedral’s Tuesday evening session, Father Gaffney recalled how at the St. Peter Chanel mission a man had held up a picture of his son as the Blessed Sacrament was carried. The next night, after the terrorist attacks in New York, the man told the priest that his son had been in the World Trade Center when the planes hit but got out alive.

“It’s important that you have great faith at Mass, that host is the body of Jesus,” Father Gaffney said.

He told a parable of a man who lived in a cave with others and finally got out where he experienced nature’s beauty. He wanted to tell the good news to other cave dwellers but he met an old man who warned him they’d kill him if they heard it. To evangelize, he said, love must overcome fear.

“A lot of people are in the bondage of no faith or little faith and don’t know it, but are living in a cave,” he said. “We’ve got to be people of faith, out in the sunlight, people out of a cave. Secular humanists are in a cave.”

He affirmed that Jesus is as real, powerful and relevant as two millennia ago, and that those who enthrone the Sacred Heart in their homes will experience new grace, hope and love, which helps them and their children to make Jesus the center of their lives. It’s a “seed bed for vocations” to priesthood and Religious life, he continued, and an evangelization tool. As others see the fruits of enthronement, they’ll want it for their lives and loved ones.

Jesus “will protect your home. He will build a civilization of life . . . It begins with simple people like you who make extraordinary acts of faith and love. Please won’t you make Jesus the center of your home?”

Anson spoke of how Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SSCC, of Peru during a trip to Europe in the early 1900s met with Pope Pius X who commanded him to promote the enthronement of the Sacred Heart which he had just initiated. To fulfill his enthronement mission to establish Jesus’ social reign in homes and institutions, he preached, wrote and traveled unceasingly from 1907 until his death in 1960. Pope John Paul II consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2000.

Anson and her husband, she recalled, were introduced to the devotion 28 years ago at a church event. They were talking with a blind man, who lovingly asked what they knew about the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“I knew in that moment that invitation was from the heart of my God. I didn’t know what it meant or what would take place in the months or years to come—28 years,” recalled Anson, a grandmother with both an innocent joy and an authority drawn from age and experience.

“How do you know when something is from God? We have within us this knowing place reserved for God alone. When he communicates something with us, he shows himself with us in that knowing place.”

In the enthronement ceremony she experienced with her husband and teenagers years ago, her spouse carried a Sacred Heart image around the house and they sang “He Is Lord” before he declared Christ the King of their home. Enthronement strengthened their relationships, she said. She said this process enabled her husband, an alcoholic, to stop drinking.

Anson prayed intensely before the image when her then-16-year-old daughter ran away. The teen eventually walked into a church and heard a voice say, “Go home.”

Upon her return, family members danced, cried and prayed “in that place we had spent so much time on our knees praying and crying to bring her home,” she said. “Will you decide to invite Jesus to come into your heart and home through enthronement?”

Wednesday night of each mission was a penance service, to which priests came to hear confessions. At St. Peter Chanel Church, Archbishop John F. Donoghue was on hand for the sacrament, wearing a plain white alb, only his magenta zucchetto distinguishing him from the other priests. He told the crowd that he was pleased to have the chance to administer the sacrament of reconciliation.

“It’s wonderful to see so many children. It’s wonderful to see how involved they become. I know that the Lord is going to bless all of you for all you do for him and his church,” he said. “I am delighted to have this opportunity to hear confession. From time to time I do confirmation and other sacraments, but it is always a wonderful opportunity for me to hear confession. I think I get more from hearing confession and absolving you than you do, or at least as much.”

After speaking about his first reconciliation, Father Gaffney marveled in knowing that many would be returning to the sacrament that very evening, some after years away.

“Maybe you have had a hard experience going to confession and you said, ‘I’ll never, ever go to confession again,’” he said. “And here you are. The grace of God is working again.”

Anson said that forgiveness is about “unconditional love.”

“Never ever are we more like God than when we forgive.”

With that, the congregation was asked to come forward to kiss the feet of Jesus on a crucifix placed in the center of the stage. A long line snaked through the auditorium, as one by one, penitent individuals meditated in front of the cross. Mothers and fathers lifted children too small for their lips to reach the feet of Jesus. Eager people lined up at confession stations, including an especially long line for the archbishop. People knelt and praised God in song along with the music of Kevin Wyglad and band.

On Thursday, in Anson’s closing talk, she compared the power of the Sacred Heart image, reminding one of God’s love, to that of her wedding ring, reminding her of her husband’s commitment to her. Her family has spent much time together before the image, which connects their home to the parish church and which connects them with God’s love, which they can then share with others.

“It’s a place where we can be reminded once again that God is with us. It’s a place where we open up the Bible and allow the word of God to fill us,” she said. “We allow the love and peace and strength of the Holy Spirit to take hold of us. It’s important we open our hearts, our homes to the Heart of Jesus.”

Following exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the service ended as many waited in line and had Anson and Father Gaffney pray over them, where they “rested in the Spirit,” falling into the arms of volunteers standing behind them.

The missions were held at the request of the archbishop, who encouraged archdiocesan Catholics to attend, to have their homes enthroned to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to become involved by being trained to lead other families and individuals in the enthronement.

Father Frank McNamee, pastor of St. Peter Chanel Church, said that he was pleased to see the many people who brought their children, as he promoted the mission as a family event.

“This was really an encouragement for families to return to family prayer,” he said, adding that while many families embrace the notion of prayer time together, they are unsure of how to execute it. “The enthronement of the Sacred Heart is a good way of bringing families together. It is basically a guide to family prayer.”

“I think the mission gave people a new awareness of the Lord in their lives,” he said. “It was really healing and I think very helpful to folks.”

Keri Allen, the director of evangelization at the Cathedral of Christ the King, said, “I thought it was wonderful. I think the people were moved by Father Gaffney and Gloria and I think they were really taken with having their homes consecrated or enthroned to the Sacred Heart.”

The timing, following the terrorist attacks, made some people acutely aware of their total dependence on God, Allen noted, and made them more comforted than ever by the presence of the Sacred Heart.

“With the whole unfolding situation in our country now, I think it was very comforting and almost (seen as) another way to protect my family. As we come in and see the Sacred Heart, we’re reminded that He is always there and always has His eyes on us.”

Reporter Priscilla Greear also contributed to this article.

JUST A LITTLE WALK WITH JESUS -- As Father Bill Gaffney, CSsR, carries the monstrance containing the body of Christ in the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, to bless the people, Venezuelan native Maria Elena Wells reaches out to touch the humeral veil.
Photo by Michael Alexander