CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt is calling on Catholics to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus by attending Mass on the First Friday of every month in 2026 — all to commemorate the United States’ 250th anniversary year.
“We need peace in our hearts, in our homes, and in our country. We need the love of Jesus to shine through all of us,” Reinhardt said. “What better way to renew our country and to celebrate America 250 than to have Catholics fill the pews on first Fridays in devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?”
Reinhardt praised the U.S. Bishops who voted Nov. 11 in favor of consecrating the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June 2026 as a part of the Church’s observance of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“How wonderful to have our bishops consecrate the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I urge all Catholics to do their part to further devotion to the Sacred Heart by attending Mass on the first Friday of every month during our nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Reinhardt.
For centuries, Catholics have attended Mass on the first Friday of the month throughout nine consecutive months in what is called the nine first Fridays devotion. The devotion is derived from revelations made by Jesus Christ to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690). It involves the practice of receiving Holy Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays in reparation to “the Heart that has loved men so and is loved so little in return” – the words that Jesus is believed to have said to St. Margaret Mary.
“We have faced many trials and tribulations in our nation’s history. Let us turn to prayer and call upon the Heart of Jesus to light a fire of renewal in our hearts,” said Reinhardt. “Whether you attend Mass on nine consecutive First Fridays of the month or all 12 months of the Semiquincentennial, you will feel your heart draw closer to His.”
During their annual Plenary Assembly in November 2025, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted 215-8, with 7 abstaining, in favor of consecrating the nation at their next assembly, which will conclude on June 12, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The USCCB posted on X Nov. 11 that the bishops will also provide prayer resources and a novena that culminates on the solemnity.
“Through this act of consecration, the bishops seek to renew devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to recognize the kingship of Christ, perfecting the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel,” the post reads.
Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, explained that in 1925, Pope Pius XI released an encyclical instituting the Feast of Christ the King, referring “to the pious custom of consecrating oneself, families and even nations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as a way to recognize the kingship of Christ.”
Bishop Rhoades recalled that in the late Pope Francis’ last encyclical, Dilexit Nos, publsihed in 2024, the Holy Father “brought devotion to the Sacred Heart to the forefront of Catholic life, as the ultimate symbol of both human and Divine love, calling it a ‘wellspring of peace and unity.’”
“He wrote of how the Sacred Heart teaches us to build up, in this world, God’s kingdom of love and justice,” Bishop Rhoades continued. “Then in his first Apostolic exhortation, Dilexit Te, Pope Leo XIV, following upon Pope Francis’ teaching, invites us to contemplate Christ’s love, the love that moves us to mission in our suffering world today.”
Entrusting the nation to the care and love of Jesus’ Sacred Heart on the 250th anniversary “is an opportunity to promote the beautiful devotion to the Sacred Heart among our people,” Bishop Rhoades concluded, “and also to remind everyone of our task to serve our nation by perfecting the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel, as taught by the Second Vatican Council.”
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