Listen to this instead: https://morefrmoore.podbean.com/e/june-11-2026-pastors-note/
Odds and Ends
County-Wide Mass and Picnic: Final reminder that the Mass schedule is off and everything is crazy (crazy awesome!) this weekend. https://www.whatcomcatholic.org/mass
Retreat and Priest Days: I will be on my annual retreat (this year in Steubenville, OH) and then headed to Priest Days, so I will be away from the parish June 15 – 26.
Synthesis Release: The synthesis document from our last round of parish listening sessions will be released this weekend. While I am gone, the PFAC will be using my Pastor’s Note space to print the synthesis in our bulletins and then explain what comes next.
Consecration to the Sacred Heart
Maybe blame my Protestant baptism, but I do not have much of a traditional Catholic devotional life. I am not one for consecrations or novenas or medals and my Rosary game is pretty darn weak. I love the Lord, I love the Faith, and I love the Mass, but I do not focus on much besides.
Which is why I have been surprised with myself just how excited I have been for the US Bishops’ consecrating the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (USCCB video if you missed it: homily, consecration.)
First, the Sacred Heart makes sense to me. It is, in a way, the Catholic (and, therefore, original!) version of the “What Would Jesus Do?” anthem from the 1990s. What would Jesus do? What would Jesus feel? How would Jesus think about humanity today and our waywardness and our sinfulness? How would Jesus respond. The answer to each question is the same: He would give himself for our salvation on the Cross. To contemplate the Sacred Heart of Jesus is to consistently remind ourselves of his incredible mercy and love, that he would die for us while we were yet sinners. And it is further to desire that heart for ourselves. Devotion to the Sacred Heart is a continual plea that I, too, might have Jesus’ heart for others; that I, too, might desire to go to the Cross for the salvation of others; that I, too, might be able to pray “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” I understand this devotion, and I love it.
Second, anytime all of the bishops of a nation do something together, we should pay attention, and that is especially true when that nation is as large and as prominent as our own. The US bishops doing something like this together is a really big deal. Such a sign of episcopal unity, and especially a united episcopal consecration, must necessarily have massive spiritual effects. I am thrilled to be alive to witness such a thing.
Finally, I love being an American. Growing up, my father (who has very few religious bones in his body) would regularly remind me to thank God that I was lucky enough to be born in this county, and I have never lost that lesson. I still believe that we live in the greatest country on Earth. So the fact that our American bishops chose to participate in the 250th anniversary celebrations in this way is really, really cool. We are proudly American and even more proudly Catholic, and the bishops are right that the greatest gift we can give our country and fellow countrymen is to consecrate our nation to the Sacred Heart. Most Americans will not understand the gift and grace they have been given this week, but I am happy to have given it to them all the same.
Reclaiming June
Last week at Women’s Connect, I gave a talk about the relationship between June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month and June as the month of the Sacred Heart. There are groups on the internet who are trying to put these two in opposition to each other, and I do not particularly like that approach. And you may not particularly like my approach. But the video is uploaded anyway, and you can watch it at: https://youtu.be/GRl8u7ygF9E.
Fr. Moore 