By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—At a workshop Sept. 29 at the Cathedral of Christ the King to close the weeklong Sacred Heart mission, about 85 lay persons from 22 churches gained inspiration and advice on leading home enthronement ceremonies in homes, schools and workplaces.

A training workshop was also held to close the mission Sept. 10-14 at St. Peter Chanel Church, Roswell. About 125 people attended the two workshops for home enthronement leaders and 200 at the missions showed interest in having the Sacred Heart home enthronement.

The missions were led by Father Bill Gaffney, CSsR, and Gloria Anson of the Sacred Heart Apostolate in Syracuse, N.Y.

Father Gaffney reminded future enthronement leaders that bringing the Gospel to others requires deepening their personal relationship with Christ.

“You’ll say, ‘I’ve got to be holy. I’ve got to live this lifestyle. I’ve got to get down on my knees and pray before the Blessed Sacrament, love my children more. Going to these people I’ve got to give them my best,’” he said. “You know you’re going to depend on God, yourself and the Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid, remember David and Goliath, we’re all Davids.”

He thanked them for stepping forward to lead the devotion, which helps families, individuals and communities to enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart while also accepting Christ’s way of life.

“Many of you have gone through great suffering, sometimes great persecution and yet you’re here to love Jesus more and more and bring Jesus into our homes.”

Anson and Father Gaffney are scheduled to lead a four-day Sacred Heart mission at St. Peter Church, LaGrange, in December, a bilingual mission at St. Joseph Church, Dalton, in January 2002 and a mission at Sacred Heart Church, Griffin, in June 2002. Blessed Trinity High School, Roswell, will have an enthronement Mass this December.

The next workshop for those who attended the mission and want to be home enthronement leaders will be held Saturday, Oct. 13 at St. Andrew Church, Roswell, from 1-3 p.m.

Deacon Lloyd Sutter, senior administrator of the archdiocesan Department of Religious Education, who is coordinating this ministry of evangelism, will schedule another training workshop this fall at a time to be determined.

Parishes interested in getting involved need not sponsor their own Sacred Heart missions, he said. They should send at least one lay representative to the workshop who can serve as the parish coordinator and train other home enthronement leaders at their parish.

Workshop materials are also available in Vietnamese, Portuguese and Spanish.

The act of enthronement of the Sacred Heart is encouraged for all homes, whether families, single people or the widowed, and the image can also be enthroned in schools and other institutions. Deacon Sutter plans to recruit single enthronement leaders to serve single Catholics.

Deacon Sutter believes that many who have their homes enthroned will want to become home enthronement leaders, and can then receive training from the team that visited their homes.

“The biggest problem I think we have in evangelization is we’re in too big a hurry. It’s the Lord’s work. We need to be patient. Other people couldn’t come. We need to pass on to them what we learned today. It will multiply itself in a polished, professional, patient way. The archbishop asked that we make this effort through this mission to make families a domestic church, aware of the presence of Jesus as Lord and Savior,” he said.

Deacon Sutter noted the importance of the devotion in empowering people to evangelize.

“The real value of this is that it extends the reach of the church dramatically from priests and deacons alone to however many lay leaders a given parish can interest in performing home enthronement.”

Speaker John Galten, a Catholic high school teacher from California who works part time for the apostolate, said this ministry is a calling from God and advised people to be either hot or cold in their faith, as “there’s no lukewarmness in Christianity.”

“Jesus has got to be absolutely the center of our life, anything else is mediocrity.”

Galten noted that nobody’s going to want to convert to Catholicism if they don’t see joyful Catholics.

“You have to be so committed to Jesus (people) see him, they see evidence of hope in your life,” he said. “Go to him sincerely in prayer and he will give you all the means necessary to be holy, a saint, and to be what you are.”

Kevin McGlynn of Tallahassee, Fla., spoke about the blessings enthronement have brought to his diocese, where over 70 homes are enthroned.

Danilos Campos, his wife, Ileana Astorga, and two daughters came forward and acted out the enthronement ceremony for families. He led his family around the room carrying a picture of the Sacred Heart over his head as they followed him and he declared, “I now enthrone Jesus as Lord, King and master and friend of the Campos household.”

He and his wife, who held a Bible, then expressed their love for each other and their children. Campos, who is from Costa Rica, explained during the lunch break that his family already gathers for nightly prayer and Bible study, but that enthroning their home is another step in reinforcing spiritual values. They look forward to bringing this devotion to other Latinos.

Deacon Sutter suggests an enthronement process where leaders meeting with various households seeking enthronement. People are given materials to help them prepare through prayer and reflection for the ceremony. Leaders then make a follow-up call to participants to address questions before going in pairs making a visit to each home to lead the ceremony.

Before the enthronement, persons are asked to bring their statue or picture of the Sacred Heart and, if desired, of Mary, to a First Friday Mass to have a priest bless them. Persons are encouraged to invite others to the ceremony, during which the Christ image is displayed prominently and Mary in a place of honor.

For more information contact Deacon Sutter at (404) 885-7412.