April – Month of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Devotion To the Eucharistic
Heart of Jesus
Who comes to me in the Holy Communion?
Jesus Christ,
our Father, our Redeemer, our Spouse, who has opened a place of refuge for us
in His Heart. Listen to His pressing invitation:
Come to me, all you that
labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and
learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to
your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.
Jesus Christ,
the God who made the Heavens and the Earth with their contents, who stands not
in need of our goods, who is jealous of your heart, and who considers not so
much what you give him, as the heart with which you give it. Jesus Christ, this
Divine Spouse, captivated with the beauty of your soul, and who, in order, to
obtain it from His Heavenly Father, served on this cold earth, not fourteen
years like Jacob, but three-and-thirty years—years considered only as so many
moments by this ardent Lover of your soul.
To whom does He come?
To an
ungrateful child; to a heartless, loveless heart! To a heart of ice, of stone,
insensible to so many stupendous miracles of love Divine wrought in her behalf!
To a nonentity, a mere nothing, having neither life nor aught else in itself,
destitute of any one thing worthy the acceptance of a God, save the heart
alone, which that munificent Creator condescended to bestow on her, that,
offering it again to Him, she might be happy in and with Him eternally! Yes. He
comes to your soul, that ‘spouse which He has sought for with such unparalleled
labor, perseverance, and love, and whom He would not abandon, even though that
soul might be inclined to abandon Him (Is., lxii. 12).
Why does He come to me?
He comes to
melt your heart of ice, and to make of it a fountain of compunction and of
living waters unto Life Eternal; He comes to take away your heart of stone, and
to make it a furnace of Divine flames. He comes to enkindle within our heart a
very ardent and a most tender awe; and, however insensible it may be now, to
raise it in a very short time, and in the most simple and easy manner possible,
to a very sublime degree of perfection! He comes to say to you: O my spouse!
beloved of my soul would you know how to triumph over Me as the saints have
done? By My Heart you can do so; one loving look, a single hair, a sigh, an aspiration
wafted towards Me from a pure and single heart, shall win for you the empire of
my affections (Cant, iv. 9). He comes to espouse you in mercy and compassion,
to contract on union with your soul, not only eternal, but supremely perfect
and elevated above all earthly unions (Osee, ii. 19, 20).
Behold Jesus
Christ with the eye of Faith present in your soul, and presenting you with His
own Sacred Heart, saying: “Zeal for your soul hath consumed and devoured Me”. I
have loved the beauty of this interior habitation which My hands have built up
within thy soul;I have oft, been seeking to dwell therein, and again do I stand
at the door and knock with irrepressible, ceaseless desire. I am the God of thy
heart, a jealous God! jealous of thy heart. I am a consuming fire, ever burning
for thee, and requiring in return that thou dost burn as a perpetual holocaust
for me! (Deut., xiv. 24). This have I commanded thee by my Prophet under the
“Law of Fear”, and under the “Law of Love”; by one of My servants, thus: Behold
this Heart which so loveth man that it has exhausted and consumed itself in
order to prove its love; and in return what do I receive from the greater
number but ingratitude, Contempt, irreverence, sacrilege, and indifference,
meet me but too often in the Sacrament of My love.
Prostrate at
Thy sacred feet, my Lord and my God permit me to say, that if Thou art consumed
with zeal for my poor soul, shall I not burn with zeal for Thy glory? If there
be no reciprocity between us, what then can so charm me here below as to hide
Thee from me! O my soul love Thy God who so loveth thee; love Him without
measure, and close thy eyes to all bewitching vanities; love, love, love, and
repair His outraged love.
No other business is worthy
of thy attention here below!
Ask our Lord
to give you penitential love and heartfelt tears, which will make you ardent in
doing and suffering all things in reparation of His injured love and of your
own past infidelities.
PRAYER
O my sweet
Lord Jesus! in the name of that adorable Wound of Love that wrought our
salvation upon the cross, and whence flowed water and blood, vouchsafe to wound
the sinful soul of Thy servant N. for whom Thou didst bow Thy sacred head in
death; wound it; with the fiery dart, the omnipotent dart of Thy immense charity:
for the word of the Lord is efficacious and more penetrating than a two-edged
sword. O chosen arrow! piercing its way through the tough and stony human heart
and human spirit, come and in flame mine with the light and fire of the Holy
Ghost that, wounded with Divine love I may shed tears of love both night and
day during the remainder of my earthly pilgrimage. Amen.
Behold our
Divine Lord coming into your soul and asking: “I give thee My heart, Do thou
give me thine?” (Prov., xxiii.) – Prostrate, receive His magnificent gift, and
then offer your heart to Him, saying: “O Lord, how unequal is the exchange!
Thou givest Thyself without reserve or self-interest; but when shall I give
myself wholly to Thee, and not permit myself the least repine in the holocaust?
Ah, now Jesus, Omnipotent Friend; now once for all, enable me to abandon myself
to Thee irrevocably! Say now, my soul, with St. Bernard, in confusion and
bitterness of heart: ‘Immensity’ loves us; that “Charity’ which surpasses all
knowledge, loves us; ‘Eternity’ loves us; and we set limits to our love! Pray
with Solomon for the gift of Divine Wisdom, that she may dwell with you, set
with you, and teach you in every action of your life what is most pleasing to
that God who loves you, and whom you ardently desire to love.
What a void there is in the heart when left to itself, or which rests
only on creatures! All feel this, and the great struggle of our lives is to fill
up the vacancy. - St. Alphonsus Liguori
Prayer to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to Entreat
his Love
O amiable and
adorable Jesus, my Lord and my God, source of every good; thou art the Light of
the world, the only and sure Way, which leadeth to thy eternal Father; thou art
the Truth which enlightens our blindness, and delivers us from error, the Gate
by which whoever enters shall be safe. Thou art the Fountain of life, who hast
opened to the world that new Life of divine love which wast hidden in thy
eternal Father’s bosom, making thee to shine resplendent with thy goodness and
mercy. Fulfill, according to thy promise, O Lord, our joy, that we all may
serve to promote thy glory, and to increase thy holy love. Shed upon us that
divine light which thou didst bring into the world, that so the love which thy
Father bears thee, may be in us, as thy holy word bids us hope. Grant that, as
he is in thee, and with thee is one God, so we may be in thee by sincere love,
and may be one with thee through a perfect conformity of life and habits, that
so nothing may remain in us which shall not be wholly subject to thee, and to
thee be wholly dedicated; that, being dead to the world, to the flesh, to
ourselves, through an entire detachment from all that is not thee, we may
henceforth live for thee alone, who livest and reignest for ever and ever.
Amen.
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