The Sacred Heart of Jesus Feast

June is the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Encouraging devotion to the Sacred Heart among our children is something beautiful we can do, so they are aware of the unconditional love Jesus and God our Father has for us. We can talk to even the youngest of children about making amends to the wounded heart of Jesus through prayer, and about His great love for us.

Here are some activities that can be done.

Explaining through a puzzle

Children learn most effectively through play. So what better way than to explain the significance of every part of the Sacred Heart of Jesus a puzzle. We begin by first making the sheet explaining the different components of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The heart: Jesus’ real heart as a sign of his Divine Love.

The Wound: The wound from the lance that pierced Jesus’ heart, the blood of Jesus shed for us all.

The Cross: A cross sits in the top of the heart to signify that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, just because he loves us.

Crown of thorns: The crown of thorns that was fixed to Jesus’ head, the pain that he went through for us.

Fire flames: Represents the awesome power of God’s Love and the heart of Jesus burning in love for us.

God’s light: Shines from the Sacred Heart of Jesus his son, whom he sent on the earth for our sake.

For no prep and easy to do craft download the printable here

These are hand drawn and laminated and will require a little time to prepare.

Cake pop with Sacred Heart

The heart here is a cake pop. Here is how I made the cake pop. To make this we need a cake little smashed, chocolate bar and mould. Melt the chocolate bar and pour the melted chocolate in the moulds to form a coating, keep it to cool for at least 1 hour after which fill the mould with cake up to half of its edge and cool again for 5mins, then pour the melted chocolate again (you may have to melt more chocolate) to cover the cake and finish the coat, cool for more 1 hour and it’s ready. The cross and thorns are made of Nutella, the fire of flames and God’s light is made of orange peels. We used a toothpick to symbolise the Arrow and we pierced the heart which broke a bit as it’s hollow and filled with cake inside (the cake inside could be red in colour to symbolise the blood of Jesus).

Edible Art inspired by the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Since food is such an integral part of all our festivities and celebrations we could make use of whatever is available in our pantry or our fridge to make some fun edible craft with our children. We could use any red colour fruit or vegetable (watermelon, strawberry, red capsicum etc) symbolising the Sacred Heart of Jesus, orange colour (oranges, carrots, orange capsicum, papayas etc) for flames and anything brown for the thorns and cross. Here we ended up making a fruit platter comprising of strawberries, oranges and choco sticks. Also ended up with a sacred heart inspired cake topped with some pink coloured sprinkles and carrot sticks.

               

Mask with embroidered image

Do something creative with our children to help them remember that we are covered by precious blood of Jesus. This could be a great activity for older children if they do hand embroidery on plain masks. For younger ones they could paint on the fabric. Here we tried on cloth masks but we can do so on pillows, aprons, cushions, handkerchiefs.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the 12 promises of Jesus

Sharing about the rich heritage of our Church through the life of our saints is also a way to keep them closer to their faith. Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and revealed to her how He desired souls to foster devotion to His Sacred Heart. He had chosen her to spread this devotion, and made twelve specific promises to those who would practice this devotion. To learn more about the life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque click here

The 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart as given by our Lord to St. Margaret Mary

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life.
2. I will give peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of death.
5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless the homes in which the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their name written in My Heart, and it shall never be effaced.
12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Heart shall be their assured refuge at the last hour.

Some simple prayers 

• “O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee.”
• “Dear Sacred Heart of Jesus, I love You so much and I give You my heart. Help me to love God and everyone around me like you did. Also help me to love myself as a child of God. AMEN.”

Or else, better let your child make one by themselves.

What else can you do to celebrate the feast? Would be wonderful to see the things you do to teach your kids about the Sacred Heart.

June we have a lot of activities to have fun with our kids:

• St. Anthony of Padua
• St. Medard
• Father’s Day

Thanks to contributions from Anisha Matthias.