July 31st is the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola the Founder of the Jesuit. It also marks the closing of the ‘Ignatian Year,’ celebrating 500 years since the conversion of St Ignatius. To commemorate this occasion, on July 31 Superior General Arturo Sosa SJ will renew this consecration to the Sacred Heart.

We would like to invite you, as members of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network [Apostleship of Prayer], to join in this celebration. We invite you to join in a 9-Day Novena leading up to the consecration on July 31. In the novena, we will be calling upon the intercession of saints who had a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Please join us, with the Jesuits and members of the Prayer Network in this novena, and by making a personal consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on July 31.

For previous days of the Novena, click here

Bio: St. Margaret Mary joined the Visitation Nuns when she was 24. On December 21, 1674 Jesus appeared to her for the first time inviting her to make His love for humankind known. Over the next 13 months Christ continued to appear to her and instruct her in her devotion to the Sacred Heart and how He desired for it to be venerated by the world. He instructed her to receive Holy Communion often, especially on First Fridays, to pray a holy hour every Thursday night, and for a feast day to be instituted dedicated to His Sacred Heart.

Prayer: St. Margaret Mary we thank you for your faithfulness in making Jesus’ Sacred Heart known to the world. We ask for your intercession in falling deeper in love with the Sacred Heart of Jesus and ask that you give us a deeper understanding of Jesus’ love for humankind.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, we entrust ourselves to you. We surrender to you our day, hopes, dreams, prayers, conversations, and work. As we join Father Arturo Sosa in the consecration of the Jesuit Order to the Sacred Heart we ask for the intercession of St. _______________ to pray for the Jesuits and my own special intentions.