A guide for Catholic families who want to honor Our Lord in the domestic church
The liturgical year is the heartbeat of the traditional Catholic home — and few feasts pulse with more tenderness and urgency than the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Celebrated each year on the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi, it is a First Class feast on the 1962 calendar, a day set apart by Holy Mother Church to draw our families into an encounter with the very Heart of Our Lord — wounded, burning, and overflowing with mercy.
If you have been looking for ways to make this feast day more than just another Friday, this post is for you. Whether your children are toddlers who can place a rose at a statue or teenagers who are ready to understand the significance of the Nine First Fridays, there is something here for every family who wants to live the liturgical year with intentionality and love.
Pin this post to your Catholic Feast Days or Liturgical Living board so you can come back to it each year.
1. Set Up a Sacred Heart Altar in Your Home
The most powerful thing a Catholic mother can do to prepare for any feast day is to make it visible. When our children walk into a room and see something different — a cloth in the proper liturgical color, a candle lit before a familiar image — they know something holy is near.
For the Feast of the Sacred Heart, here is how to arrange your home altar or prayer corner:
- The image. A traditional image of the Sacred Heart — whether a framed holy card, a vintage print, or a statue — is the anchor. Look for images in the classical style: the exposed, crowned Heart, the wounds, the flame, and the gentle gaze of Our Lord. The image blessed by your pastor carries special graces.
- The color. The liturgical color for this feast is white (or gold), reflecting the joy and dignity of a First Class feast. Use a white cloth, a cream or ivory runner, or simply a white candle as your accent.
- Flowers. Red roses have long been associated with the Sacred Heart. A small bouquet placed before the image is a lovely offering, even a single stem from the garden.
- Candles. Light two candles to flank the image as you would before a shrine. Even young children can help light the candles (with supervision!) and understand that the light represents Our Lord's presence.
- A simple inscription. The traditional enthronement prayer card or the words "Thy Kingdom Come" placed near the image serves as a reminder of the intention of this feast: that Our Lord reign in our home.
If your family has already completed the formal Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in your home, this is the perfect day to renew that consecration and take a few moments to reverently dust and re-arrange the enthronement image.
2. Renew Your Consecration — or Begin It for the First Time
The Feast of the Sacred Heart is among the most fitting days to consecrate your family — or to renew a consecration already made — to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The traditional Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart, composed under the direction of Pope Leo XIII and proclaimed universally in 1899, is a prayer of breathtaking beauty. Read it aloud together as a family after the rosary in the evening, with your children gathered before the Sacred Heart image. Even the smallest child can fold his hands and bow his head.
If your family has not yet formally enthroned the Sacred Heart in your home, consider reaching out to your pastor or a priest of the traditional rite to perform the Enthronement ceremony. Many FSSP and ICKSP chaplains offer this beautiful rite upon request. The feast day is a natural and graced moment to begin.
3. Attend Holy Mass — and Prepare Your Children for What They Will Hear
If you are able to attend the traditional Holy Mass on this feast, prepare your children in advance so that they can participate with their whole hearts.
The Introit for the Feast of the Sacred Heart ("The thoughts of His Heart are to all generations" — Ps. 32) and the Gospel (John 19:31–37, the piercing of Our Lord's side) are among the most moving texts in the entire Missal. Reading these at home the evening before — even just two or three lines, briefly explained — transforms what might be background Latin into something your children will recognize and cling to.
For older children and teenagers, consider:
- Reading a selection from St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's writings about the apparitions at Paray-le-Monial
- Discussing the Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart and asking each child which promise speaks most to his or her heart
- Introducing the Nine First Fridays devotion and encouraging any child who has made their First Communion to undertake it
4. Pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart as a Family
The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an approved litany of the Church and one of the most beautiful acts of vocal prayer a Catholic family can offer on this feast day. At only a few minutes long, it is perfectly suited to praying together after the evening rosary, or before your feast day meal.
Print it out and let each child take turns reading an invocation. Even a young child who cannot yet read can echo the response: "Have mercy on us."
A few of the most beloved invocations to linger over with your children:
- Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity...
- Heart of Jesus, patient and most merciful...
- Heart of Jesus, delight of all the saints...
5. Make a Feast Day Meal Together
One of the most enduring ways to anchor feast days in a child's memory is through the table. A special meal, even a modest one, signals that this day is different — that the Church's calendar has broken into ordinary time and declared: This is holy.
Feast day meal ideas for the Sacred Heart:
- Red foods as a nod to the color associated with the Sacred Heart's fire and wounds: strawberries, tomatoes, red grapes, a raspberry cake, red velvet cupcakes
- Heart-shaped treats — use a simple heart-shaped cookie cutter on sandwiches, pancakes, or sugar cookies decorated in red and white
- A special breakfast or dessert shared after morning Mass or Vespers
- A Sacred Heart cake: a simple white or vanilla cake with a red heart piped on top in icing, crowned with a small flame made of orange and yellow frosting
Let the children help. Let the kitchen be a little messy. The point is not perfection — it is participation. Years from now, your grown children will remember standing at the counter pressing heart shapes into dough on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and that memory will be a seed of faith.
6. Sacred Heart Activities for Catholic Children
Children learn through their hands and their imaginations. These simple activities make the feast day come alive for little ones of every age.
For little ones (ages 3–7):
- Color a Sacred Heart holy card or coloring page (many beautiful ones are in the public domain — search "Sacred Heart Pompeo Batoni" for classical inspiration)
- Make a paper Sacred Heart to hang on the home altar or in their bedroom
- Place a small bouquet of red flowers before the Sacred Heart image — this simple act teaches reverence through gesture
For older children (ages 8–12):
- Copy a short prayer to the Sacred Heart in their best handwriting and illustrate it
- Research the life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the Visitation nun through whom Our Lord revealed the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the 17th century
- Memorize one of the Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart
For teenagers:
- Read and discuss the encyclical Haurietis Aquas (Pope Pius XII, 1956), which beautifully explains the theological foundations of the devotion
- Begin or renew their commitment to the Nine First Fridays
- Write a personal Act of Consecration in their own words
7. The Nine First Fridays: A Grace Not to Be Overlooked
No post on the Feast of the Sacred Heart would be complete without a word on the Nine First Fridays — one of the greatest gifts Our Lord offered through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
Our Lord promised that those who receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays of the month in a spirit of reparation would receive the grace of final perseverance and would not die without the sacraments. For a Catholic mother who fears for the souls of her children, there is perhaps no devotion more consoling.
The Feast of the Sacred Heart — the most fitting day of the year — is an ideal moment to:
- Begin the Nine First Fridays if you have not already
- Renew your intention if you have lapsed
- Encourage older children and teenagers to undertake this devotion with you
The requirements are simple: receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays of the month, with the intention of making reparation to the Sacred Heart.
8. Close the Day with a Family Holy Hour
If there is an exposition of the Blessed Sacrament offered at your parish on this feast day, make every effort to attend — even briefly. A family kneeling before Our Eucharistic Lord on the very feast dedicated to His Heart is an image of the domestic church at its most beautiful.
If your parish does not have exposition, consider a family holy hour at home: dim the lights, light candles before the Sacred Heart image, and spend twenty or thirty minutes in silent prayer, reading, and the rosary. Even ten minutes of stillness before Our Lord, with children gathered around, is a holy hour of great worth.
Tools to Help You Live the Liturgical Year
At Raising Hearts, everything we create is designed for families just like yours — families who want to live the liturgical year with beauty and intentionality, who homeschool and pray the rosary and drive to the traditional Mass and want their children to grow up knowing that the Church's calendar is the rhythm of their lives.
Browse our liturgical planners, feast day stickers, and traditional Catholic home resources at raisinghearts.com — designed with the 1962 calendar, made for the TLM family.
Save This for Next Year
The Feast of the Sacred Heart comes once a year, but the preparation can begin anytime. Pin this post to your Catholic Feast Days, Liturgical Living, or Catholic Homeschool board so that when the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi approaches, you have everything you need in one place.
May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere and forever.
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