Apostolic Penitentiary, 21 January 2008
Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart: enrollment, consecration and feasts
The Association’s current statutes set out recurring plenary opportunities for formally enrolled members.
Time required Private renewal: about 1–5 minutes (estimate); admission or other rites vary.
- When
- Enrollment; first consecration to the Sacred Heart and its annual renewal; Sacred Heart; Christ the King; Immaculate Heart; Our Lady of Sorrows; St Joseph; St John the Evangelist; St Francis de Sales; St Margaret Mary; St Mary Magdalene.
- Where
- No special location is prescribed by this membership grant.
- Who
- Actual Guard of Honour members admitted by a competent director or other authorized person and inscribed in the Association’s register.
- Application
- Self or the departed
The prescribed work
- Make or renew, at least privately, the promise to observe the Association’s statutes.
- Fulfil the ordinary plenary conditions.
The work and its conditions
A plenary indulgence also requires complete detachment from every sin, sacramental confession, Holy Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions, subject to the grant’s stated exceptions. The ordinary limit is one plenary indulgence per day.
Conditions common to every indulgence
The person gaining an indulgence must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least when the prescribed works are completed. There must be at least a general intention to gain indulgences, and the prescribed work must be performed at the time and in the manner required by the grant.
Read the full conditions and norms. The cited grant and its specific provisions govern.
Time required
Read each branch with its own conditions. An editorial estimate is not a prescribed minimum.
Actual admission or first consecration
Complete the prescribed event
Full rite or event; duration varies
Complete the actual admission procedure, rite or event specified by this grant. The source sets no fixed duration; follow the organizer’s schedule.
Annual consecration renewal or a qualifying feast: statutory promise
Editorial estimate
About 1–5 minutes for a simple private renewal (editorial estimate)
No fixed duration is prescribed. The 1–5 minute range is an editorial estimate for a simple private renewal. Any separately required enrollment or rite remains necessary.
What the time estimate excludes
- Ordinary travel to and from the venue, and waiting outside the prescribed work
- Separate fulfillment of the usual plenary conditions, except prayers or Mass expressly included in the branch.
- The continuing daily Hour of Guard is membership practice; it does not establish a separate one-hour duration for this indulgenced renewal.
Occasion and source notes
Dates show customary Roman or proper religious-family celebrations. Follow lawful liturgical transfers and the grant’s own local calendar. Membership, place, frequency and other conditions remain necessary. Annunciation, St Joseph and Immaculate Conception use standard Roman transfer rules where listed. The applicable local or proper calendar, lawful external solemnity and any specific indult govern the actual observance.
Article 13 of the published statutes expressly states that the 2008 concession has perpetual force and requires the usual conditions and at least private statutory-promise renewal. Article 8 requires authorized admission and register enrollment; the chosen daily Hour of Presence is an ongoing membership commitment, not an additional uninterrupted hour of formal prayer on each indulgence occasion. Sacramental timing: ordinary Norm 20 §3 permits the three usual conditions several days before or after the work, with Communion and papal prayer preferably on the work’s day. The Nantes explanatory page directs same-day Communion and confession within eight days before or after, describing these as ordinary conditions. Article 13 does not state a special eight-day restriction; consult the Association’s director about the Nantes directions and their local application.
Source and exact reference
- Guard of Honor USA — complete Association statutesArticles 8 and 13: authorized admission and register enrollment; 21 January 2008 concession, private statutory promise, listed occasions and explicit perpetual force. Pontifical Council approval 1640/08/S-61/B-1, 27 October 2008, reproduced at the end.
- Visitation Monastery, Nantes — Guard of HonourLes Indulgences; decree of 21 January 2008
- Manual of Indulgences — ordinary sacramental timingNorm 20 §3; approved USCCB English edition hosted by a Toronto archdiocesan parish.
Prayer texts and grants have separate source histories. Consult the grant source for the prescribed work, occasion, and conditions.