Leo XIII Was 1st To Consecrate the World to the Sacred Heart

I consecrate myself to the Sacred Heart every day, as part of my morning prayers and every year, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I pray Pope Leo's Consecration.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

Pope Leo XIII believed the consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart was the "great act" of his entire pontificate.

While devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was formalized and began to spread during the 17th and 18th centuries, it did not take root in the wider Church until the 19th century.

It was during the 19th century when devotion to the Sacred Heart really spread and reached all the way to the pope, who recognized its importance.

Pope Leo XIII in particular was struck by the devotion, initially elevating the feast of the Sacred Heart to a higher rank on June 28, 1889, and then approving the Litany of the Sacred Heart for public use in 1899.

He also wrote an encyclical Annum Sacrum, on consecration to the Sacred Heart, where he announced that he would consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart.

Offering to Jesus what is already his

Leo XIII explained in his encyclical that we are already under the possession of Jesus Christ, but that Jesus welcomes all voluntary gifts we give to him:

[W]e, on the other hand, are so poor and needy that we have nothing of our own to offer Him as a gift. But yet, in His infinite goodness and love, He in no way objects to our giving and consecrating to Him what is already His, as if it were really our own; nay, far from refusing such an offering, He positively desires it and asks for it: "My son, give me thy heart."

By our very existence we are under the domain of Jesus, the King of the Universe. We are his, and belong to him.

However, we don't always accept Jesus' authority over us and try to refuse it. This is where consecration to the Sacred Heart comes into play, as it is an action whereby we accept Jesus' dominion over us, as Pope Leo XIII explains:

[B]y consecrating ourselves to Him we not only declare our open and free acknowledgment and acceptance of His authority over us, but we also testify that if what we offer as a gift were really our own, we would still offer it with our whole heart. We also beg of Him that He would vouchsafe to receive it from us, though clearly His own. Such is the efficacy of the act of which We speak, such is the meaning underlying Our words.

While he was preparing for the global consecration to the Sacred Heart, Pope Leo XIII encouraged each individual to make his/her own consecration, thus making it personal.

He performed the consecration of the world on June, 11, 1899, with subsequent popes renewing that consecration. Pope Leo XIII later said that the consecration was the "great act" of his pontificate.

Local bishops have made similar consecrations since then, with the bishops of the United States coordinating a consecration for the entire country on the 250th anniversary of its founding.

Above all it is an offering of ourselves back to God, recognizing his sovereignty over us.