How the Knights’ Sacred Heart Pilgrim Icon Fans the Flames of Divine Love and Mercy| National Catholic Register

By Andrew Likoudis On Jun 30, 2025

Why the Sacred Heart, and Why Now?

Benedict XVI spoke of a “dictatorship of relativism,” John Paul II decried a “culture of death,” and Francis warned of “ideological colonization” as major themes that characterize what can be aptly described as a cold and merciless age. The Church proposes as an alternative not simply a policy stance but a Person, and a pierced heart that burns for mankind, warming him and thawing the ice of sin that so often hardens his heart.

Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us), Pope Francis’ 2024 encyclical on the Sacred Heart, reads almost like a mission statement for the Knights of Columbus, who serve on the front line as a lay-ecclesial apostolate.

St. Bonaventure, Francis recalled in his encyclical, urges the faithful to “not pray for light, but for ‘raging fire’” (§26) — the blaze of divine charity that catches on the tinder of hearts made vulnerable to the urgent promptings of love. The Pilgrim Icon Program offers an oil for our lamps that burns much brighter than the fuel the world offers, aiding followers of Christ to be who they truly are — the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

Christ told his disciples, “I have come to set a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze” (Luke 12:49). St. Catherine of Siena wrote about one way to do this: “Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.” Our true identity is found in our heart, both the unifying and central organ of our body, but also symbolic of our person.

As the famous philosopher Alice von Hildebrand once stated so aptly:

When you fall in love with another person, you don’t say to this person, ‘I give you my brain,’ ‘I give you my intelligence.’ You say, ‘I give you my heart,’ because the heart symbolizes the person. You know this is going to sound ridiculous. If you go to church and say to God, ‘I give you my intelligence,’ it simply doesn’t mean anything.

Francis reiterated this, writing, “This profound core, present in every man and woman, is not that of the soul, but of the entire person in his or her unique psychosomatic identity. Everything finds its unity in the heart, which can be the dwelling-place of love in all its spiritual, psychic and even physical dimensions. In a word, if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love” (§21).

Francis also pointed out that “the heart makes all authentic bonding possible, since a relationship not shaped by the heart is incapable of overcoming the fragmentation caused by individualism. … A society dominated by narcissism and self-centredness will increasingly become ‘heartless.” (§17).

Wounds That Heal

The icon’s most startling feature is the gash in Christ’s heart. Pope Francis, drawing on Sts. Augustine and Bernard of Clairvaux, reminds us why it matters: “Christ’s wounded side … is the setting of an encounter of love” (§103); through those same gashes, “the wounds inflicted on his body have disclosed to us the secrets of his heart” (§104).

For parishes that host the icon, those words become tangible. Each stop on the pilgrimage invites the faithful into prayer.

The faithful have frequent recourse to praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a devotion revealed to St. Faustina and formally promoted by St. John Paul II, deepening the message of the Sacred Heart and complementing it. The refrain begs that mercy might pour forth like the “water flowing from the right side of the temple,” a liturgical antiphon and hymn, Vidi Aquam, sung at Easter, the beginning of the Octave leading to Divine Mercy Sunday, that links Ezekiel’s vision to the soldier’s lance and to the ever-living Heart of a loving God who bleeds grace for the world.

A Counterculture of Communion

The Knights’ traveling icon provides an opportunity to heal this malaise of a lack of love plaguing our world, when headlines display the ravages of war between Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Iran, fresh martyrdoms in Syria and Nigeria.

Each stop the icon makes becomes an opportunity for people to be reconciled with their God and grow in deeper communion with him, and thus in deeper communion with their neighbor, with a corresponding growth in charity. K of C councils organize confession, adoration and processions through the parishes and surrounding neighborhoods. Families receive free enthronement kits, to enthrone Christ’s Heart in their homes.

Mercy for a Merciless Age

“Before the heart of Jesus, living and present,” Francis wrote in his encyclical, “only the heart is capable of setting our other powers and passions, and our entire person, in a stance of reverence and loving obedience before the Lord” (§27). That obedience then overflows into works: food-pantry collections, home visits to the sick, pro-life activities, scholarships, offering accessibility services, blood drives, the K of C Cor (Latin for “Heart”) apostolate to form men in the virtues — Knights’ projects offered from the heart, at the service of his Sacred Heart.

Francis closed Dilexit Nos with a question that should be asked as a reflection in one’s soul before taking any action which might influence others, such as daily work, or even sending a text: “Do I have a heart?” (§23).

Thanks to the Knights’ pilgrim icon, that question now knocks on parish doors worldwide. May each visit leave behind what Augustine called “the most precious wisdom of all” — knowledge of Christ, who is wisdom itself and whose heart was opened so ours might “burn within us” (Luke 24:32).

How to Be Set Ablaze

Find the icon tour. Check with your local council for a schedule and the Knights’ program website for more details.
Show up. Spend an hour before the icon; pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart or simply rest on Jesus’ heart in silence.
Consecrate your home. The Knights’ kit walks families through a short enthronement rite — listening to Scripture readings, praying together, and placing the image in a prominent spot in the home.
Share mercy. Post a reflection or photo with #KofC #SacredHeartPilgrimage and tag @KofC and @FatherMcGivney. Let the algorithm carry something wholesome.

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