ALTHOUGH many pious souls had been accustomed, in the silence of their secluded lives, to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus with great devotion, still our divine Saviour de sired that the boundless love of His Heart might be known by all men, and that a new fire of love should thereby be kindled in the cold hearts of Christians. For this purpose He made use of a frail and little-known instrument in the person of Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation, at Parayle-Monial, France.
One day, when, according to her custom during the octave of Corpus Christi, she was deeply engaged in devotions before the Blessed Sacrament, the divine Saviour appeared to her, showed her His Heart burning with love, and said: “ Behold this Heart, which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this sacrament of love. And what is most painful to Me is that they are hearts consecrated to Me. It is for this reason I ask thee that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be appropriated to a special feast to honor My Heart by communicating on that day and making reparation for the indignity that it has received. And I promise that My Heart shall dilate to pour out abundantly the influences of its love on all that will render it this honor or procure its being rendered.”
Margaret obeyed, but met everywhere the greatest opposition, until finally, when she became mistress of novices, she succeeded, by the help of her divine Spouse, in animating her young charges to venerate the sacred Heart of Jesus. But this twas not sufficient for her zeal. She persevered until she softened the opposition of the nuns, and kindled in all an equal devotion towards the most sacred Heart. Thence the devotion spread to the adjoining dioceses, where confraternities in honor of the most sacred Heart of Jesus soon sprung up. Pope Clement XIII., after having instituted a most rigorous examination of the whole affair, commanded that the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus should be solemnly celebrated throughout the whole Catholic Church every year, on the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.
THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
I. Object of this Devotion.
In the divine Heart of Our Saviour we must not imagine an inanimate heart, separated from the person of Christ, but the living heart of the God-Man, the centre of all His affections, the fountain of all His virtues, the most touching emblem of His in finite love to man. The Church venerates the cross, the blood, and the wounds of the divine Saviour, by feasts which have their proper masses and lessons, in order, by meditation upon these objects, to awaken in us a more fervent devotion to the Redeemer. How much more worthy, then, of our devotion is the sacred Heart of Our Saviour, since all its thoughts, move ments, and affections aim at our salvation, and it is always ready to receive truly penitent sinners, to pardon them, to restore them again to God s favor, and make them partakers of eternal happiness .
II. Excellence of this Devotion.
It is, writes the venerable P. Simon Gourdan :
1. A holy devotion, for therein men venerate in Christ those affections and motions of His Heart by which He sanctified the Church, glorified His Heavenly Father, and showed Himself to men as a perfect example of the most sublime holiness.
2. An ancient devotion of the Catholic Church, which, instructed by St. Paul, the great apostle, has at all times acknowledged the great beneficence of the divine and sacred Heart of Jesus.
3. An approved devotion, for the Holy Scriptures every where admonish us to renew the heart, by changing our lives ; to penetrate it with true sorrow, to inflame it with divine love, and to adorn it by the practice of all virtues. When, therefore, a new heart is promised us, by which to direct our lives, that can be no other than the Heart of Jesus, which is to us the pattern of all excellence, and which we must follow if we would be saved.
4. A perfect devotion, as being the origin of all other devotions. For the Heart of Jesus is the inexhaustible treasury from which the blessed Mother of God, and all other saints have derived their graces, their virtues, their life, their spiritual goods. Filled first with treasures from this source, different servants of God have instituted and established other devotions.
5. . A profitable devotion, for thereby we have brought be fore our eyes the very fountain of life and grace, and can draw directly from it, increasing in ourselves all virtues, by adoring this divine Heart, meditating on its holy affections, and endeavoring to imitate them.
6. A devotion pleasing to God, for thus we adore God, as Christ requires, in spirit and in truth, serving Him inwardly in our hearts, and endeavoring to please Him. Finally it is :
7. A useful devotion, since its whole object is to unite us most intimately with Christ as members of Him, her head, to make us live by and according to His spirit, to have one heart and soul with Him, and through grace finally to become one with Him, which is and must be the object of all devotions. As this devotion is, then, so excellent, we cannot sufficiently recommend it to all who are anxious for their salvation. While every one can practise this devotion, and adore the sacred Heart of Jesus, by himself, there is a greater blessing when pious souls unite and form a confraternity for practising the devotion. Of such confraternities there were in the year 1726 more than three hundred, and they are now established throughout all Catholic countries. Hesitate not, Christian soul, to engage in this devotion, and to join in the adoration of that sacred Heart of Jesus in which all men find propitiation, the pious, confidence; sinners, hope; the afflicted, consolation; the sick, support; the dying, refuge ; the elect, joy and delight.
The Introit of the Mass for this feast is : “He will have mercy according to the multitude of His mercies, for He hath not willingly afflicted nor cast off the children of men ; the Lord is good to them that hope in Him, to the soul that seeketh Him, alleluia, alleluia” (Lamentations iii. 32-35). “The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever to generation and generation”(Ps.Ixxxviii. 2). Glory be to the Father, etc.
Prayer.
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who, glorying in the most sacred Heart of Thy Son, commemorate the chief benefits of His charity towards us, may equally rejoice in their acts and fruits. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, etc.
EPISTLE. Isaias xii. 1-6.
I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, for Thou wast angry with me : Thy wrath is turned away, and Thou hast comforted me. Behold God is my Saviour. I will deal confidently, and will not fear; because the Lord is my strength, and my praise, and He is become my salvation. You shall draw waters with joy out of the Saviour’s fountains. And you shall say in that day : Praise ye the Lord, and call upon His name : make His inventions known among the people : remember that His name is high. Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath done great things: show this forth in all the earth. Rejoice, and praise, O thou habitation of Sion : for great is He that is in the midst of thee, the Holy One of Israel.
Explanation.
This epistle is a song of gratitude for the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of their enemies, and at the same time a prophecy of the coming redemption of mankind from sin and death, through Jesus Christ. “You shall draw waters with joy out of the Saviour’s fountains.” These fountains are the graces which Christ has obtained for us on the cross, but particularly, says St. Augustine, the holy sacraments of Baptism and Eucha rist. We should rejoice over these graces, particularly that the Holy One of Israel, Jesus, the Son of God, is in the midst of Sion, that is, the Catholic Church, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, remaining therein until the end of time. Oh, let us often approach the ever-flowing fountain of all graces, the Most Holy Eucharist, and with confidence draw consolation, assistance, strength, and power from this fountain of love!
GOSPEL. John xix. 31-35.
At that time the Jews (because it was the Parasceve), that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath-day (for that was a great Sabbath-day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers, therefore came : and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers, with a spear, opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it hath given testimony : and his testimony is true.
Explanation.
According to the Jewish law, a criminal could not be put to death, nor could the body of one who had been executed remain on the place of execution, on the Sabbath-day. The Jews, therefore, asked Pilate that the bodies of Jesus and the two thieves should be buried; but before this could be done, ac cording to the Roman law, the legs of the crucified had to be broken with an iron mace: this the soldiers did to the two thieves, who were still alive ; but when they found that Jesus was dead, one of the soldiers, whose name was Longinus, opened His side with a spear as had been predicted by the prophets. Jesus permitted his most sacred Heart to be opened 1. To atone for those sins which come forth from the hearts of men, as Christ Himself says, “For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies” (Matt. xv. 19). 2. To show the infinite love with which He first loved us, and to which the spear should point us. 3. To show that there was nothing so dear to Him that He would not give it to us, since, for our salvation, He shed the last drop of His heart s blood. 4. To provide, as it were, an abode in His opened side, according to the words of St. Augustine : ”The Evangelist is very cautious in his language ; for he said, not the soldier pierced or wounded His side, but he opened it, that thereby there might be opened to us the door from which flow into the Church those holy sacraments without which we cannot enter into true life.
When temptation assails us, or sorrow depresses us, let us flee to this abode, and dwell therein until the storm has passed away; according to the words of the Prophet, “Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit” (Isaias ii. 10). For what is the rock but Christ, and the pit, but His wound?
An Offering to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Whoever says the following prayer before the image of the most sacred Heart of Jesus, with sincere sorrow for his sins, gains each time an indulgence of one hundred days; and by saying it daily for a month, he can on any one day gain a plenary indulgence, if he makes his confession, receives communion, and prays according to the intention of the Church :
“ My loving Jesus, I (N.N.) give Thee my heart; and I consecrate myself wholly to Thee, out of the grateful love I bear Thee, and as a reparation for all my unfaithfulness ; and with Thy aid I purpose never to sin again.”
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