Hearts on fire
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June 1, 2012
Detroit Legate John LoVasco’s passion for the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts . . .
Michael Leoni has always prayed about his business, but he didn’t put Jesus in charge of it until he had a Sacred Heart enthronement ceremony at his office last year.
After the enthronement, he said, his Four Star Transportation Co. experienced an average sales growth of 30% per month. “It’s no accident that things are turning in the right direction. Being able to give the unknowns and fears to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the healthiest way to do business.”
All for Jesus
A member of Legatus’ Ann Arbor Chapter, Leoni first heard about enthroning the Sacred Heart in a home, business or school from fellow Legate John LoVasco, a member of the Detroit Northeast Chapter who has worked tirelessly since 1964 to promote devotion to the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
“John came to me to sell insurance some 20 years ago,” Leoni said. Although LoVasco, who lives in St. Clair Shores, Mich., did not mention the enthronement at the time, the subject came up after the two men ran into each other at several events, including a Legatus gathering. Subsequently, LoVasco called Leoni to propose doing an enthronement at his business. “Finally I said, ‘Come on over,’” Leoni recalled.
Michael Leoni
On the day the enthronement was scheduled at Four Star, Leoni invited all interested employees to attend the ceremony. About a dozen participated — only half of them Catholic. “Not one looked at me and rolled his eyes,” Leoni said. “Nobody got up and left.”
The images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary remain in a prominent place at the end of a frequently traveled hallway at Leoni’s company offices in Melvindale, Mich.
“It’s an interesting reminder that that’s what we’re doing — coming in every day and giving Christ our business,” Leoni said. Since the enthronement, he explained, the company has continued to move in the right direction amid the challenges of the struggling economy.
Passion for Christ
Over the last 48 years, LoVasco has garnered many similar testimonials as he has spread the message of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary in the metropolitan Detroit area through the Men of the Sacred Hearts.
He founded the group’s Michigan chapter after viewing a film about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the Sacred Heart, which had been brought to Warren, Mich., by Fr. Francis Larkin. The priest was a protégé of Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, who had been commissioned by Pope Pius X to promote the Sacred Heart devotion in 1907. Father Larkin traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada setting up chapters of Men of the Sacred Hearts.
“I saw the movie and got really emotional about it,” LoVasco said. “It was a calling that I had to do this and spread the devotion.” He bought a projector and started showing the film to anyone who would watch. Through his hard work, interest in the devotion and enthronements grew. Today the Michigan chapter of Men of the Sacred Hearts has nearly 200 men organized into 56 teams who conduct an average of 400 enthronements a year in homes, schools and businesses.
The Sacred Heart devotion is based on an apparition St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received in 1674. In it, she was given 12 promises for those who would enthrone an image of the Sacred Heart in a place of honor in their homes. The promises include peace in their families, abundant blessings on all their undertakings and consolation in all troubles.
Those promises have been fulfilled multiple times in LoVasco’s own life. At the time he started Men of the Sacred Hearts, he was a 35-yearold life insurance salesman and the father of seven children. Now 82, he has 10 children, 19 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
“As I gave more and more time to the Sacred Heart,” he said, “my business prospered to the point where two of my sons joined me and we built up to 136 employees.”
Missionaries of the New Evangelization
John LoVasco
LoVasco was able to retire at 62 and sell his business to his sons, allowing him to devote more of his energies to Men of the Sacred Hearts.
Under his leadership, the Michigan Men of the Sacred Hearts also distributes prayer cards and bottles of water from the Marian shrine at Lourdes. One of their more recent efforts involves handing out prayer cards for the upcoming presidential election. During the 2008 election, the group gave out 50,000 such cards. This year, 95,000 cards have already been printed, and the goal is to exceed 200,000.
“People are calling from all over the U.S. about the cards,” LoVasco said. “There’s no question about it — there’s more interest this time.” Men of the Sacred Hearts sends the cards at no charge to anyone who asks.
“From the day I started this, I promised the Sacred Heart I would never want to ask anybody for a penny. It’s about trust. Our expenses of $150,000 last year were met without a problem.”
David Tay is national president of Men of the Sacred Hearts and executive director and chairman of the board of the Michigan chapter. When a team does an enthronement, he said, they only ask for whatever donation a family, school or business is able to give.
Monsignor Robert McClory, vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese of Detroit and chaplain of Legatus’ Detroit Northeast Chapter, said the enthronements remain the group’s core mission.
Over the years, he has heard extraordinary stories of unexpected blessings attributed to the primacy of the Sacred Heart in homes, schools and businesses. “I think the quiet, steady presence of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a place of employment or in a home or school has a profound effect.”
Drawing a family, business or school closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through an enthronement is not just a one-time experience, Monsignor McClory added. “It can permeate whole lives and really renew faith and trust in Jesus and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
The enthronement is significant, he said, because human beings need tangible, visible pointers to God. “The image of the Sacred Heart is a way of engaging our senses more closely with the presence of God.”
Monsignor McClory said he sees the Men of the Sacred Hearts as missionaries of the New Evangelization in their neighborhoods.
“One doesn’t need to go to a faraway land to bring Jesus to people in need of Jesus,” he said. “The Sacred Heart of Jesus is such a beautiful devotion, so centered on the heart of Christ and his love and mercy for us. If we stay close to Jesus and allow Mary to draw us to him, our families, schools and businesses are going to be renewed and transformed.”
Judy Roberts is a Legatus magazine staff writer.
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Feast of the Sacred Heart: June 15
Feast of the Immaculate Heart: June 16
