Votive Mass Blessed Michael McGivney
State Chaplains Pilgrimage
Immaculate Conception Church, Terrytown, CT
June 4, 2026
A $19 Sacred Heart Statue
At the conclusion of this Mass, I will bless a restored statue of the Sacred Heart that Fr. McGivney is thought to have purchased for the princely sum of $19. Back in the day, of course, $19 was worth a lot more than it is today. These days you can’t buy a purificator for $19!
It’s not 100% certain that Fr. McGivney purchased this statue, but what is very certain is that Fr. McGivney had great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and that he was a priest after the mind and heart of Jesus. In this, he is our exemplar as priests of Jesus Christ and as chaplains of the Order, successors all of Fr. McGivney.
The Heart of Christ
In our devotion, we address the Sacred Heart of Christ. as “an abyss of charity”, “the temple of God”, “the source of justice and love”, “a heart obedient unto death”, “victim for our sins”, “our peace and reconciliation”. The Gospel for today, the Beatitudes, offers yet another way of meditating on his Sacred Heart. They portray for us the heart of Jesus better than any artist.
For who was Jesus except the Son of Man with nowhere to lay his head, the Savior who mourned our sins, the Lamb meek and mild before Pilate, the Crucified who thirsted for our holiness, the Good Samaritan who took pity upon us, the Redeemer, singlehearted in his love for the God the Father and us, the One who made peace by the blood of his Cross, the Messiah who was mocked and persecuted. The Beatitudes, Jesus’ self-portrait, enable us to peer into his Heart.
There can be no doubt that Fr. McGivney peered into the Heart of Jesus daily. He left behind no journals, no spiritual diary, no books on spirituality. What he left behind was a legacy of priestly love and self-sacrifice. He bore witness to the ‘love in the heart of Christ’ as he went about his pastoral ministry whether in New Haven, Thomassen or Terrytown, or in his labors as the founder of the Knights of Columbus.
Like the Lord himself, Fr. McGivney was sparing in his use of this world’s goods. He mourned the plight of families bereft with the death of the breadwinner. While strong and purposeful, he never promoted himself, insisting that that laymen lead the organization he founded. How he hungered and thirsted for the holiness of his parishioners, including young people, including the men of his parish. Fr. McGivney’s merciful heart was revealed in the care he gave to Chip Smith, accompanying him to the gallows. Contemporaries attest to Fr. McGivney’s purity of heart and soul even as he immersed himself in life of the parishes he led and served. Fr. McGivney had to be a peacemaker, for among the first knights were some strong personalities. And he was persecuted, criticized by fellow clergy, as a dreamer on the one hand and as ambitious on the other. He bore of all of this and more with a magnanimous heart.
An Order Formed after the Heart of Christ
Today’s Collect also sums up Blessed Michael’s conformity to the Sacred Heart. In that prayer, we thank God for setting Blessed Michael in the Church “to comfort the suffering and the weary, the lonely and the oppressed, with works of charity and a gentle heart.” St. Paul helps us see Blessed Michael’s conformity to Christ’s Heart when he exhorts us to conduct ourselves “with humility, gentleness, and patience.”
It’s not hard to see how Blessed Michael lived what St. Paul preached. That he made charity the foundation of the Order reflects his own ardent pastoral charity, after the mind and heart of Christ, a pastoral charity that was humble, gentle, and patient, as he approached every situation, not by domination but love. As a pastor intent on gathering the flock of God, he put unity and fraternity at the heart of his Order, a unity that flowed from his own union with the heart of Christ, a unity vital for the success of the Church’s mission and the Order’s mission. In a word, the Knights of Columbus he founded reflects the truth and love of the Sacred Heart that found a home in his priestly heart.
Our Role as Chaplains
As Chaplains, we don’t run the Order. True to Fr. McGivney’s vision, it is lay led. Yet, like him, we are influencers, ministers, spiritual guides who help to ensure that the Order in our respective jurisdictions remains true to the heart of Christ & to the priestly heart of Blessed Michael. Our preaching, celebrations of Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the talks we give, the advice we offer, the relationships we form— all of this surely aims at helping Knights and their families not merely to live abstract principles but indeed to be conformed to the heart of Christ through their participation in the Order.
Perhaps it is true that Fr. McGivney purchased a statue of the Sacred Heart for only $19. But what he left behind, for you, for me, and for our brother knights and families – is priceless. Vivat Jesus!