Votive Mass of Blessed Michael McGivney
Knights of Columbus Convention Memorial Mass
Washington, D.C.
August 7, 2025
A Priest with a Heart
We can say without fear of contradiction that Blessed Michael McGivney was a priest with a heart. We have only to think of how he reached out to families whose husbands and fathers died in industrial accidents, parents who lost children or a young husband whose wife passed away. Or think of how Fr. McGivney won over “Chip” Smith, who was convicted of killing a police officer. Like the Good Shepherd, Fr. McGivney ensured that he was reconciled to God, and accompanied him all the way to his death, Fr. McGivney had a heart for young people for whom he created sports and recreational activities while warning them against the moral dangers of the day. Fr. McGivney’s heart was magnanimous towards the men of his parish. He was concerned because secret societies were luring them from the faith, concerned because their faith needed to be shored up, concerned because their families were bereft in the event of their death. Yes, Father McGivney was a priest with a heart.
But was it merely the heart of a good-natured, generous person? Was it nothing more than an ample supply of good will towards one and all? No doubt, Blessed Michael abounded in natural virtues, yet his priestly heart drew from a deeper source than natural virtue. It’s fair to say that his priestly heart was rooted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Indeed, Fr. McGivney’s devotion to the Sacred Heart is well-documented. He grew up in an immigrant household marked by devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In one of the few surviving letters written by Blessed Michael, this one addressed to a fellow priest, he signed off with the words, “Yours truly in the Sacred Heart.” “Chip” Smith, on his walk to the gallows, wore a Sacred Heart Badge that Fr. McGivney had given him. How often Bl. Michael must have prayed the Litany to the Sacred Heart, preached about the Sacred Heart, and sought to instill in his people confidence in the heart of Jesus. In this, he was surely ‘a herald of hope’ to his people, by helping them anchor their hope of eternal life in the Heart of Christ, that bottomless well of divine charity, mercy, and consolation.
Because Fr. McGivney anchored his spiritual life so deeply in the Sacred Heart, his priesthood he took on the features of Christ the High Priest, whose heart is revealed and portrayed in the Beatitudes. In his priestly life and ministry, Fr. McGivney mirrored the Christ who was poor in spirit, having nowhere to lay his head; the Christ, who mourned our sins, the Christ who was meek before his accusers, the Christ who hungers and thirsts for our holiness, the Christ who was merciful, pure, the Christ who made peace by the blood of his Cross, persecuted in life and in death. So too was Fr. McGivney poor in spirit, taking little or no compensation, so too did he mourn the spiritual and material misfortunes of his people, so too did he hunger and thirst for his own holiness and of his people. His life was marked by mercy, a gentleness coupled with firmness, a deep purity of mind and heart, and an uncanny ability to make peace with rival factions and strong personalities; and yes, he was a priest who suffered more than his share of criticism by those who were either jealous or small-minded. Truly a priest with a heart – a heart bearing the imprint of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
The Embrace of Blessed Michael McGivney
From his place in the Kingdom of the Beatitudes, Bl. Michael McGivney reaches out to us, the family of the Knights of Columbus. We feel the strength of his intercession and the power of his example as we seek to have our hearts formed after the adorable Heart of Jesus – especially as the pilgrim icons of the Sacred Heart travelled far and wide among us this past year. Attracted to the open heart of the Savior, we seek to grow in holiness, to be formed in the faith through Cor, to transmit the faith in our families, to unify our councils and jurisdictions in “one Lord, one faith, one Baptism”, and to bear witness to the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. Anchored in the Sacred Heart, we find the courage to be ‘heralds of hope’ within the Church and beyond the Church especially for those who are searching for something more, something better. What they seek can only be found in that burning furnace of divine love, the Heart that loves with an infinite love.
The priestly heart of Blessed Michael surely embraces our beloved dead who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith. This morning, as we listen to their names, let us commend them to the prayers of Blessed Michael, confident that he who loved the Knights and their families in this world, will now intercede on their behalf in the next. As we ourselves commend them to the Lord, we are acting as ‘heralds of hope’. By offering this Mass for our beloved dead, we proclaim our hope of life eternal, the hope that animates how we live, the decisions we make, the relationships we form and maintain, the work we do, our service to the poor and needy.
Finally, let us heed St. Paul’s prayer that we would “live in a manner worthy of the call [we] have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love . . .” in a word, we pray to live our principles of charity, unity, and fraternity. It is by embracing and living these principles that we, like Blessed Michael, are men and women of the Beatitudes, and therefore ‘heralds of hope’ in the Church and in the world. Vivat Jesus!