The Dominus Project

The Heart of Jesus

June is the month when Catholics traditionally remember the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I’ve always loved this image of the Sacred Heart because it shakes me from my spiritual lethargy. It’s uncomfortble how much He loves me. God is a holy fire (Heb 12:29), and to touch that fire is to be changed.

This week, the Dominus team kicked off our weekly holy hour (where we pray for you and your intentions) with a reading from the Catechism on the heart of Jesus:

“The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me.” He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, “is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings” without exception (CCC 478).

It’s worth pausing over a few points from this rich paragraph. Jesus has a human heart. The kind of heart that you and I have, that moms and dads and caregivers everywhere have. And he loves not only us but the Father with that human heart! I want to love the Father like that. Pope St. John Paul II, the pope of the family, once said that the Son of God, by becoming man, has somehow united himself to every human being. I think it’s unfathomable and outright crazy that Jesus offers us his own heart so that we can love the Father like that.

When we allow ourselves to be transformed by the holy fire of God’s love that emanates from Jesus’ heart, we can love the Father, love our spouses, love our children, love our neighbor with that love. Jesus’ love. What a gift.

Jesus, make my heart like unto thine,

Brian Pedraza, Ph.D.

Director, The Dominus Project

Practice Makes Perfect

Making Jesus Lord of our homes is not only about knowing the rights things, but also about doing the Christian life in the daily grind. In this month of the Sacred Heart, The Dominus Project recommends these two practices:

I. Ask a priest you know to come and bless your house and enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart there. Here’s a pdf of a family ceremony the priest can lead for you in your home. We had a dear friend, Fr. Andrew, come and say a house Mass for us that we invited friends to, and we purchased two images, one of the Sacred Heart and one of the Immaculate Heart, from local artist Norman Faucheux. Fr. Andrew blessed them and led us through the prayers. We placed them in the spaces we reserved for them in our home (above our family prayer altar), and then we had a big feast! You can pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart as a novena in the days leading up to the enthronement. And if you end up deciding to do this when it’s not June, no big deal! The Lord will no doubt love it and provide for your family, regardless.

II. For those who have already enthroned the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home, pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart together as a family as part of your evening prayer. If you want to get more mileage out of it, maybe ask each family member what title of Jesus stands out the most to them and why. These days I am drawn to Jesus as the “desire of the everlasting hills” and as the “delight of all the saints.” I find myself desiring to know him more and wanting to rejoice in him.

What We’ve Been Up To

June is also for Fathers!

After the success of our event with Jason Craig on raising boys (you can catch the video of the event on our Dominus Project website under Resources), we launced several six-week men’s communities based on Jason’s program, Ways of the Fathers. Each week has a short video to watch and readings from the Scriptures and Church Fathers to help dads think through how to help their boys grow up to be virtuous men. I’ve been meeting with some guys for a few weeks now and the conversation, prayer, and bourbon has been great!

Heart of the Father

In tandem with these men’s communities, we’ve also released the first season of a podcast for dads, called Heart of the Father: A Dominus Project. It’s been widely shared on social media and has spurred great conversations with men in our local community. If you’re a dad, check it out, or if you know a dad who could use some inspiration, encouragment, and some good laughs, send it his way. You can find all the episodes on our YouTube channel and our Patreon.

The podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music. If you like what you see or hear, give us a “like” or a 5-star review and subscribe. It helps the algorithms send it out to more people!

Future Endeavors

Haley Stewart, of Carrots for Michaelmas fame and now author and editor of Word on Fire’s Votive, is coming to our diocese on Friday, September 19th and Saturday, September 20th! She’ll talk about the importance of literature in forming our children. We’re also planning a more intimate brunch for those who would like to have a personal conversation with her, so be on the look out for more info soon.

Check out some of her works below and get excited!

Join Our Mission: Spiritual and Financial Discipleship

The Dominus Project is run by Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University, a non-profit, small-but-mighty Catholic university in Baton Rouge. We care about the community. We care about families in our land. We would love for you to join our mission by praying and sacrificing for us and by asking the Lord if He might want you to contribute financially to us. We also want to pray for you! We have a team holy hour and Mass every week for our Dominus family, so let us know whom and what we can offer up.

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