The Knights of Columbus announced a novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the intention of Pope Leo XIV. The novena will begin June 19, the anniversary of Pope Leo XIV’s ordination to the priesthood, and end June 27, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.
Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori is the supreme chaplain of the Knights of Columbus.
“Our Holy Father can count on the loyalty and prayers of the Knights of Columbus — now and always,” said Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly in a media release. “In solidarity with him, I invite all Knights, their families and people of goodwill to join in this special novena for the pope and his intentions, as we support the Church’s mission of evangelization through our works of charity and faith formation.”
More information on the novena prayers can be found here.
Catholics may also sign up and submit their own prayer intentions, which Kelly will bring to Rome later this Jubilee Year. The Knights, accompanied by Archbishop Lori, are scheduled for a private audience with the pope July 4.
The novena coincides with the 350th anniversary this month of when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received the last of several private revelations from Jesus, in which he reminded her repeatedly of his boundless love for all. In one of the apparitions, Jesus told her: “Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love.” Following her visions, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus gained popularity throughout the church, and images of the Sacred Heart remain beloved by Catholics around the world.
Participants in the novena also are invited to enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart in their homes.
In January, the Knights of Columbus also launched its Pilgrim Icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus during a Holy Hour organized by San Salvador Council No. 1 and held at the birthplace of the Knights of Columbus, St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn. During the prayer service, an icon depicting the most famous image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, painted by Pompeo Batoni in 1767 and now venerated in the Church of the Gesù in Rome, was displayed.
In 1882, Blessed Michael McGivney, a young parish priest in New Haven, founded the Knights of Columbus to serve the needs of a largely immigrant Catholic community. What began as a small fraternal benefit society has since grown into the world’s premier lay Catholic men’s organization, with more than 2.1 million members in more than 16,800 local councils.
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