Devotion of the Saints towards the Sacred
Heart of Jesus
There is no
one so poor as not to know whereon to lay his head. The birds of the air (as our
Lord says) have their nests; it is not fitting that a Christian should alone be
without a habitation, and be a wanderer on the earth. But where can he better
establish himself than in the sacred heart of Jesus, which is more august, more
magnificent, more holy, than all the palaces of kings. The saints know this
well, and have fixed their dwelling in this holy heart. “If you wish to find
me," wrote St Elzear to his spouse St Delphina, “ seek me in the wounded
side of my Lord Jesus; for that is my resting place." If you love repose, dwell
in the wounds of the sacred heart; it is the bed of the spouse, sowed with
roses and lilies. If you wish your good desires to come to maturity, it IS the
nest where they shall be hatched. If you love recollection, it is the retreat
of the solitary sparrow. If you love sighs and tears, it is there the turtle
makes his moanings resound. If you be pressed with hunger, you will there find
the manna of heaven. It. you be thirsty, you will there find the fountain of
life. Fear not that you will be badly received; you are but ignorant how the
Son of God caresses those who honor him. He invites them, like St John, to
rest sweetly on his bosom. He shows them, as to St Thomas, his wounded side,
and invites them to drink at this source Let us approach to Jesus, says St
Bernard, and let us leap and be enraptured with joy, at the remembrance of his
heart. Oh! How good it is to dwell in this heart! I shall adore and praise the
Lord in this temple, in this holy of holies, this ark of the covenant, saying
with David, “I have found the heart of the king, my brother, my dear friend
Jesus, to pray to my God therein." Having found this heart, which is also
mine, 0 most sweet Jesus, continues the same saint, I shall adore you, my God;
receive my prayers in this sanctuary of propitiation; yea, rather draw me
entirely into your heart. 0 Jesus, a thousand times more beautiful and more amiable
than all the beauties of the earth, wash me still more from my iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin, that I may be able to approach to you, and obtain the
favour of dwelling in your heart all my life; for, your heart has been opened,
in order that, delivered from all embarrassment's, we may live in it; and it
has been pierced, that by the visible wound we may see the invisible wound made
by love. How, in effect, could you better manifest this love, Lord Jesus, than
in permitting 'that not only your body should be covered with wounds, but that
even your heart should be pierced with a lance? Who, then, would not love this
heart thus wounded? Who would not be inflamed with love for him who has loved us
so much? Let us, while detained in this prison of the body, repay this love;
let us love, let us embrace this divine master, inflamed with love for us, and
whose hands and feet and side have been pierced for us; let us stay continually
near him, in order that our hard and impenitent heart may at length be pierced
by the darts and enthralled by the chains of this love. Our Lord manifested to
venerable Margaret Alacoque, that St Francis of Assisi was particularly united
to his divine heart, and had a special power to obtain graces from it. St
Francis de Sales made his abode continually in the sacred heart, without being
interrupted by the most troublesome occupations. St Mechtilde was penetrated
with a great devotion to this sacred heart, and received from it innumerable
graces. St Gertrude, St Bernard, St Catherine of Sienna, St Clare, St lgnatius,
St Teresa, St Francis Xavier, and an infinity of other saints, had a special
devotion to this blessed heart, even before it was revealed to the venerable M.
Alacoque.
Say thrice :
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Act of
Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
O adorable
heart of my Saviour Jesus, loving heart of my good master, how great is thy
tenderness to have remained for me in the divine Eucharist! Alas, thy creatures
forget thy love, despise thy complaints, and withdraw themselves from thee;
forgetting that, in thy agony in the garden, thou didst endure all the
bitterness of our sins. We now again by our iniquities renew thy sorrows. Thou
languishest here with love and sadness, and how few think of thee, care for
thee, or are touched by thy loneliness. Let me at least, sensible to thysorrows,
listen to thy tender complaint, for I desire to repair the outrages which are
unceasingly directed against thee. Prostrate, annihilated in spirit before the
holy tabernacle in which thou dost display thy love, I beseech thee to pardon
my sins, and those of the whole world, for their contempt and indifference,
their insults and their sacrilege. If I cannot wash away with my blood my own
faults, and those of all thy guilty children, may I at least silently weep over
the outrages of which thou art the victim. Oh that I could dispose of the
hearts of all mankind, and fill them with regret and gratitude, in order to
offer them to thy love as the only homage which it desires to receive. Lord
Jesus, I offer myself as a holocaust. Behold my heart, purify it, consume it
with love, sacrifice it to thy will, that henceforth I may love thee only, and
Guard thou my heart, lest I should reclaim it, hide it in thy wounds as in a
safe asylum, so that there I may live and die in order to be united to thee for
ever. Amen.
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