Noise has become a regular part of modern life. Car horns, radios turned-up and constant phone notifications keep us busy and moving. But at St. Lawrence Parish, the priests and religious sisters encourage a quieter rhythm — one that listens for Christ’s heartbeat. For the priests, religious and lay people who belong to Pro Ecclesia Sancta (PES), that heartbeat is the foundation for their mission.
Father Alvaro Perez, PES, provincial superior, and Sister Gracie Chuman, PES, the delegate for religious in the Diocese of Sacramento, are part of this religious family and have dedicated their lives to spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Founded in 1992 by Father Pablo Menor, the mission of PES was inspired by the revelations of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom Christ appeared and revealed his Sacred Heart, burning with love for humanity.
“A lot of people believe God loves us as an impersonal god,” Father Alvaro says. “The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a reminder that God loves us with a personal love. Why else would you consecrate your life? Why would you choose to be a priest or a sister or a missionary? The only reason is because God wanted you to do it. God knows you, he chooses you and he sends you.”
A call found in the Eucharist
For Sister Gracie, that relationship began when she was a young student in Lima, Peru.
Raised with two siblings in a Catholic family, she first encountered PES as a high school student preparing for confirmation. The priests and sisters who led the program made an impression, but not one she immediately connected to her own future.
At the time, her plans were clear. She had just entered university, was pursuing her dream of becoming a preschool teacher and was in a relationship.
“I felt like I had everything I wanted,” she says.
It was during Mass, listening to the priest’s homily, that Sister Gracie felt God call her again into religious life.
“The priest, during Mass, said: ‘There are a lot of young people hiding in this multitude that know deep in their hearts that God is calling them to religious life but they’re not willing to answer,’” she recalls. “And I knew that was me.”
That moment became what she now calls her “final call.” At 18, she entered religious life with PES, beginning a vocation that has now spanned 28 years. Because she heard the call to religious life during Mass, she credits her vocation to the Sacred Heart.
“The Eucharist is the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” she says. “When the Eucharist has turned into flesh and is analyzed, they know that it is human heart. When Jesus said, ‘This is my body,’ he could’ve said, ‘This is my heart.’”
Father Alvaro’s path to the priesthood
Father Alvaro’s vocation journey was shaped less by a single moment and more by a growing restlessness.
Raised in a family of engineers, he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps and studied industrial engineering. But even as he was dating, studying and lining up a job for after graduation, he knew God was asking more of him.
Father Alvaro shares that, at the time, his experience was like having the “sense of something being incomplete. Like being in a hotel, it’s nice, but it’s not a house; it’s not yours.”
He continues: “I heard the Lord saying, ‘This is not what I want for you.’”
After hearing God’s voice, Father Alvaro went to his spiritual director, who encouraged him to enter seminary. In his 11 years as a priest, the restlessness Father Alvaro felt as a young man has been replaced by a sense of belonging.
Apostles of the Sacred Heart
Today, Sister Gracie and Father Alvaro continue to eagerly respond to the mission entrusted to PES: spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to families.
Each year, PES hosts a day-long seminar to prepare people for the formal act of consecration. Participants are formed through talks and prayerful reflection, learning about the history of this devotion, the 12 promises of the Sacred Heart, and what it means to become an apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“When someone wants to consecrate themselves it means he or she has a special service to the Sacred Heart of Jesus” Father Alvaro explains. “The soul is telling the Lord that he or she will take care of him.”
Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is built on three tenets: to love, to repair and to win souls.
Father Alvaro summarizes the tenets: “To love with a personal love. Meaning, I love you as a person. I care for you, not because of the things you give, but because of who you are. Reparation is [a tenet] because we understand what the Sacred Heart of Jesus told St. Margaret Mary; that this heart has so loved the world, but has only received insults. And to win souls is to promote the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
Father Alvaro uses the examples of the apostles, St. Peter and St. John, in the Gospels to further illustrate this spirituality and the call to intimacy with Christ.
“First, in John 6:68, ‘to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life,’ we have the devotion of Peter, of loving God so much that he knows he has found everything he needs. And then at the Last Supper, when John reclines his head at the chest of our Lord and he can hear his heart.”
Though this devotion has a rich history, Sister Gracie emphasizes that the practice is not meant to be complicated.
“The practices are easy to remember,” she says. “There’s a practice for each day, to pray the prayer of consecration, a practice for each week, to be with Jesus for a holy hour on Thursdays, a practice for each month, going to first Friday Mass, and a practice for each year, celebrating the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
Since arriving in the diocese, PES missionaries have helped organize consecrations for hundreds of families each year. Over the past two decades, they estimate that thousands have made the consecration.
A family’s encounter with PES missionaries
Dean and Patty Baldwin, along with their sons Marco and Samuel, are among the families who have been consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Parishioners at St. Peter Parish in Dixon, the family first encountered PES in 2008 through Father Carlos Farfan. What began as a simple introduction quickly became something more meaningful.
“We felt an immediate impact from Father Carlos,” Patty shares. “There was sincere interest in our family right away.”
That sense of belonging extended beyond their household. Through activities like parish soccer games, couples’ nights and Eucharistic Adoration, they found themselves drawn into a vibrant and welcoming community.
Through the priests’ catechesis, the Baldwins began to deepen their understanding of the faith, especially the meaning of the Sacred Heart and the richness of the Mass.
“We were able to feel connected in a new and more substantial way, as well as build true community and friendships within our local parish,” Patty says.
Choosing consecration
For Dean and Patty, the decision to consecrate their family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was an easy one. As they learned more about the meaning of consecration, they also began to reflect more intentionally on their role as parents.
“We learned through the consecration process that we had to do more for our sons to help them grow into good, strong Catholic men,” Patty says.
At the same time, the consecration opened their eyes to the graces available to them in marriage.
“We saw a path to a truly fruitful life as a married couple,” she adds.
Their family was formally consecrated in June 2014.
Drawing strength from the Sacred Heart
Like many families, the Baldwins have faced their share of challenges over the years, but they have learned to turn to the Sacred Heart in difficulty.
“We’ve leaned heavily on the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” Patty shares, “through the loss of family members, through difficult illnesses suffered over the course of our marriage and spiritual attacks on our family.”
Rather than removing hardship, the devotion has given them strength and meaning in the midst of trials. Marco, now 25 and married to his wife, Liset, shares his own experience of how his parents’ decision to consecrate their family has impacted him.
“First, I have to say how providential it was for us to find each other,” he reflects. “Next, Liset was protected from what should have been a devastating car accident, but she walked away with no injuries. Finally, we have been married in the Church and now are expecting our first child.”
Overwhelmed by God’s goodness, Marco continues: “What an abundance of blessings! And there are a million more things too!”
“We all strive for holiness,” Patty says, “and what better way to do that than with the protection of our Lord and through the devotion of the Sacred Heart?”
A life-changing devotion
For both the Baldwins and the PES missionaries who serve in the diocese, devotion to the Sacred Heart is a way of life.
“It’s been life-changing,” Patty shares. “But more importantly life-saving, in that we learned about the blessings and love of the Lord, but also about self-denial, fasting and giving.”
And the consecration should be transformative, as the PES missionaries see it.
“I think we have mass-produced our religious experience,” Father Alvaro asserts. “The Sacred Heart of Jesus will change the life of anyone who lives this spirituality. The Catholic Church is an institution, but we must keep in mind that it is also the Bride of Christ, and the mission of Christ always continues.”
And how do we live that mission?
Father Alvaro says simply, “The best way to evangelize is to have the love of Jesus in my heart, and to communicate that to other hearts.”