The Catholic Prayer Book and Manual of Meditations/The Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
IN the seventeenth century our Lord revealed to a religious of the order of the Visitation, his desire that His Sacred Heart should be publicly honoured.
Appearing to her, one day, He disclosed His Sacred Heart, surrounded by flames and surmounted by the cross, and addressed to her the following words:
"Behold this Heart, which has loved men so much that it has spared nothing, but even exhausted itself, to testify its love; and yet I meet no other return from the greater number than ingratitude, contempt, irreverence, sacrilege, even in the Sacrament of my Love. But what is still more sensible to me is, that I suffer this from persons specially consecrated to my service. I desire, then, that the first Friday after the octave of the Holy Sacrament be devoted to honour my Heart, by an act of reparation, and that the Holy Communion be received, in order to repair the indignities it has suffered while exposed on the altars; and I promise that this Heart will dilate itself, to diffuse abundantly the influence of its divine love on those who will render to it this honour.” “ But, my Saviour,” said the religious, “ to whom do you address yourself? To a vile creature; to a poor sinner whose unworthiness would even be capable of preventing the accomplishment of your design? Have you not many fervent, generous souls to execute it?” “ What!” said our Lord, “ do you not know that I employ the weak to confound the strong, and that it is ordinarily the poor and the humble I render the instruments of my greatest works, that they may not attribute the glory of them to themselves?”
The “Devotion to the Sacred Heart,” now sanctioned by the Church, is indeed a treasure hidden in a field, which he who finds shall obtain life, and draw down salvation from the Lord. If you wish to esteem it as it ought to be esteemed, listen to yet other words addressed by Jesus Christ to the same Venerable Margaret Mary Alacoque: "Recommend this devotion to seculars, as a sure and easy means of obtaining from me a true love of God; to ecclesiastics and religious persons, as an efficacious means of arriving at the perfection of their state; to those who labour in the conversion of souls, as a powerful help in touching hearts the most obdurate; in fine, to all the faithful as a devotion the most solid, and the best calculated for obtaining a victory over their strongest passions, for establishing peace and concord in the most divided families, for destroying the most inveterate imperfections, for acquiring a most pure and ardent love, and for obtaining, in a short time, the most sublime perfection.”
Eternal thanks to Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of the Father, for instructing us out of the abundance of His adorable Heart, in a devotion so easy, so fruitful, so dear and pleasing to God !
Relying on the magnificent promises of Jesus Christ — the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, the Eternal Wisdom who knows what is good for us, and loved us even unto the death of his most bitter cross — let us embrace with ardour this devotion of his own choosing. If we wish to become his familiar friends, to whom he will confide the secrets of his love — if we wish to rise out of deep and inveterate habits of sin; if we wish to be changed into newness of life; if we wish to have influence for good with our neighbour — let us address ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by acts of adoration, of reparation for the griefs that wounded his Heart, of love, and of petition for the graces we need. “Grant me, O Jesus,” said St. Ignatius, “ your grace and love, and I shall be rich enough.”
The Heart of Jesus, inflamed with love for us, is therefore the object of this devotion; the reparation of the insults offered to it, the end; and a most ardent love of our Lord, and innumerable graces, the fruit. What more could be said to one who would but weigh the import of these few words. St. Mechtilde says: “The Son of God appeared to me one day, holding in his hands his own Heart, more resplendent than the sun, and diffusing rays of light all around; and he gave me to understand that it was from this divine Heart all those graces flowed, which God incessantly poured on men.”
Behold then, the inexhaustible fountain of waters springing up into everlasting life. What are the necessities of your soul? What do you want now, and what do you really want for most? “ Ask and you shall receive.” Ask of the Sacred Heart. Seek there, and you shall find more than you anticipated.