The Two Hearts Ablaze

Feast Of the Sacred Heart Of Our Lord

2008-05-30T06:34:00.001-07:00

Litany of the Sacred Heart

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
Have mercy on us.

Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Formed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mother,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Substantially united to the Word of God,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Of Infinite Majesty,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Holy Temple of God,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Tabernacle of the Most High,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, House of God and Gate of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Burning Furnace of charity,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Vessel of Justice and love,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Full of goodness and love,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Abyss of all virtues,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Most worthy of all praises,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, In Whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, In Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Divinity,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, in Whom the Father is well pleased,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Of Whose fullness we have all received,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Desire of the everlasting hills,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Patient and abounding in mercy,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Rich unto all who call upon Thee,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Fountain of life and holiness,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Atonement for our sins,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Filled with reproaches,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Bruised for our offenses,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Made obedient unto death,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Pierced with a lance,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Source of all consolation,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Our Life and Resurrection,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Our Peace and Reconciliation,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Victim for our sins,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Salvation of those who hope in Thee,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Hope of those who die in Thee,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Delight of all the Saints,
Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make our hearts like unto Thine.

Let us pray.

Almighty and eternal God, look upon the Heart of Thine most-beloved Son, and upon the praises and satisfaction He offers Thee in the name of sinners; and appeased by worthy homage, pardon those who implore Thy mercy, in Thy Great Goodness in the name of the same Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart From The Raccolta

I, N... N ... give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being, save to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart.

This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him.

I therefore take Thee, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.

Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God Thy Father, and turn away from me the strokes of His righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in Thee, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Thy goodness and bounty.

Do Thou consume in me all that can displease Thee or resist Thy holy will; let Thy pure love imprint Thee so deeply upon my heart, that I shall nevermore be able to forget Thee or to be separated from Thee; may I obtain from all Thy loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Thee, for in Thee I desire to place all my happiness and all my glory, living and dying in very bondage to Thee.

Written by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Prayer Of Saint Jean Eudes

Oh, how good and delightful it is to dwell in the Heart of Jesus!
Thy Heart, O good Jesus, is a precious treasure, a precious pearl
which we have found by digging the field of Thy Body.

Who will cast aside this pearl? Nay, rather I will give all I have,
I will exchange all my thoughts and desires and purchase it.

I will cast all my care on the Heart of the Lord Jesus and He will
provide for me without fail. I will adore in this temple,
this Holy of Holies, this Ark of the Testament, and I will praise the name
of the Lord, saying with David, "I have found my heart that I may pray
to my God. And I have found the heart of my King, my Brother, my Friend,
the benign Jesus, and why shall I not adore?" Assuredly I shall pray.

For His Heart is mine. I will say it boldly, for Christ is my Head,
is not what belongs to my Head mine? Therefore as the eyes of my corporal
head are truly my eyes, so is my spiritual heart my heart.

Therefore, it is well with me: truly I have but one Heart with Jesus
and what wonder that there should be but one heart with the multitude of believers.

Morning Offering

O my God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from all the altars
throughout the world, joining with It the offering of my every thought, word, and action of this day. I desire to gain every indulgence and merit I can, offering them, together with myself,
to Mary Immaculate, whom Thou hast appointed the
dispenser of the merits of Thy Precious Blood,
especially by means of this Scapular
[Here kiss your Brown Scapular]
that she may best apply them to the interests of
Thy Most Sacred Heart. Amen.

Act of Contrition To the Sacred Heart And Prayer for Pardon And Grace

MOST Sacred and Adorable Heart of Jesus! humbly and with contrite heart I prostrate myself before Thee. bitterly bewailing that I was remiss in Thy love and have offended Thee by my ingratitude and unfaithfulness, thereby becoming unworthy of the manifestations of Thy love. Filled with confusion and fear, I can but say, "I have sinned against Thee, I have sinned!" Most Amiable and Divine Heart, have mercy on me, though I do not deserve mercy. Reject me not, but reveal, rather, I beseech Thee, the excess of Thy mercy by granting me, a poor sinner, who appears before Thee in the abyss of his nothingness and misery, pardon for my sins.

Prayer for Pardon and Grace

O DIVINE REDEEMER!
humbly prostrate at the foot of Thy Cross,
I call upon Thee to incline Thy Sacred Heart to pardon me.
Jesus, misjudged and despised-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, calumniated and persecuted-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, abandoned by men and tempted in the desert-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, betrayed and sold-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, insulted, accused, and unjustly condemned-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, clothed in a robe of ignominy and contempt-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, mocked and scoffed at-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bound with cords and led through the streets-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, treated as a fool and classed with malefactors-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, cruelly scourged-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, held inferior to Barabbas-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, despoiled of Thy garments-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, crowned with thorns and reviled-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bearing the Cross amid the maledictions of the people-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bowed down by ignominies, pain, and humiliations-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, crucified between thieves-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, dying for my sins amid all kinds of suffering-----have mercy on me!

LET US PRAY
SACRED HEART of Jesus, my Redeemer! Exercise, I beseech Thee, Thy office of mediator with me, and permit not that Thy sufferings and cruel death be in vain for my salvation, but let them bring forth, for Thy glory, fruits of salvation in me, that my heart may love, praise, and glorify Thee for ever and ever. Amen.

Act of Reparation To the Sacred Heart

The Friday that follows the Second Sunday after Pentecost is the Feast of the Sacred Heart which brings to mind all the attributes of His Divine Heart. Many Catholics prepare for this Feast by beginning a Novena to the Sacred Heart on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is the Thursday of the week before. On the Feast of the Sacred Heart itself, we can gain a plenary indulgence by making an Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart.

O sweet Jesus, Whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thy altar eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries, to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.

Mindful alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation not only for our own personal offences, but also for the sins of those, who straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the vows of their Baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offences against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behaviour, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violation of Sundays and holidays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Thy Divine love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and the teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.

Would, O Divine Jesus, we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy Divine honour, the satisfaction Thou didst once make to Thy eternal Father on the Cross and which Thou dost continue to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make reparation, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth we will live a life of unwavering faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to follow Thee.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where Thou with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen.

Thirty-Three Salutations To the Sacred Heart

HAIL, Heart of my Jesus-----save me!
Hail, Heart of my Savior-----deliver me!
Hail, Heart of my Judge-----pardon me!
Hail, Heart of my Spouse-----love me!
Hail, Heart of my Master-----teach me!
Hail, Heart of my King-----crown me!
Hail, Heart of my Benefactor-----enrich me!
Hail, Heart of my Pastor-----keep me!
Hail, Heart of my Friend-----caress me!
Hail, Heart of the Infant Jesus-----attract me!
Hail, Heart of Jesus dying on the Cross-----atone for me!
Hail, Heart of Jesus in all its Conditions-----give Thyself to me!
Hail, Heart of my Brother-----remain with me!
Hail, Heart of incomparable Goodness-----forgive me!
Hail, Heart most Glorious-----shine forth in me!
Hail, Heart most Amiable-----inflame me!
Hail, Heart most Charitable-----work in me!
Hail, Heart most Merciful-----answer for me!
Hail, Heart most Humble-----repose in me!
Hail, Heart most Patient-----bear with me!
Hail, Heart most Faithful-----make satisfaction for me!
Hail, Heart most Adorable and most Worthy-----bless me!
Hail, Heart most Peaceful-----calm me!
Hail, Heart most Desirable and most Beautiful-----delight me!
Hail, Heart most Illustrious and most Perfect-----ennoble me!
Hail, Heart most Holy, Balm most Precious-----preserve and sanctify me!
Hail, Heart most Holy and most Salutary-----reform me!
Hail, Heart most Blessed, true Physician and Remedy for all our ills-----heal me!
Hail, Heart of Jesus, Consolation of the afflicted-----comfort me!
Hail, Heart most loving, ardent Furnace burning with Love-----consume me!
Hail, Heart of Jesus, Model of Perfection-----enlighten me!
Hail, Divine Heart, Source of all Happiness-----strengthen me!
Hail, Heart of eternal Benediction-----call me to Thee!

Chaplet Of the Two Hearts Of Jesus And Mary

There are 20 beads in 5 sets [One can use the regular Rosary, just going around twice on the decades, saying three Hail Marys on each bead], each consisting of 1 Our Father and 3 Hail Marys.

These are the meditations for the five sets:

1. In honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
2. In honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
3. The Passion of Our Lord.
4. The Sorrows of Mary.
5. In atonement to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

At the end on the medal say the prayer to the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary:

O United Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Thou art all grace, all mercy, all love. Let my heart be joined to Thine, so that my every need is present in Thine United Hearts. Most especially, shed Thy grace upon this particular need [mention it]. Help me to recognize and accept Thy loving will in my life. Amen.

The Sacred Heart And the Souls In Purgatory

2007-11-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

From Catholic Tradition:
DEVOTION TO THE SOULS IN PURGATORY AND THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART

Among the devotions which should form a crown of honor around the Sacred Heart, St. Margaret Mary gives a privileged place to devotion to the Souls in Purgatory. She herself had an extraordinary devotion to these Souls and called them her good suffering friends. The revelations which she received about the sufferings of these Souls, about our Divine Lord's tender love for them and His eager desire for their deliverance, of the great efficacy of the devotion to the Sacred Heart for their early release, and the fact that St. Margaret Mary, the apostle of the public devotion to the Sacred Heart, combined these two devotions so intimately in her own person, indicate that there is such a close connection between the two devotions that the devotion to the Souls in Purgatory may be said to form a part of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her extraordinary compassion for these suffering Souls may be said to be a share of the compassion of the Divine Heart for them; she called the devotion to the Sacred Heart the sovereign remedy for their relief.

It is a remarkable fact that our Divine Lord demanded of the two pioneers of the public devotion to His Sacred Heart an act of consecration of themselves to It, and a total donation in favor of the Souls in Purgatory of all the satisfactory merits of their lives and of all the prayers, Masses and good works offered for them after their death, and that they were the first to make this heroic offering.

St. Margaret Mary was in constant communication with the Souls in Purgatory; our Divine Lord allowed many privileged Souls among them to visit her, to tell her of their great sufferings and what it was that caused them, and to appear to her in glory after their deliverance. Towards the end of her life this became known outside the convent and people came to inquire from her about their deceased friends. While she usually declined to give any reply at the time of the inquiry, later on she sometimes declared that such a person was now in Heaven and exhorted the relatives of others to continue their prayers.

MARVELOUS EFFICACY OF THE DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART TO SUCCOR THE SOULS IN PURGATORY

"Would that people knew;' writes St. Margaret Mary, "with what eagerness the poor Souls in Purgatory ask for this new remedy which is so powerful to relieve their sufferings. They call the Devotion to the Sacred Heart the 'Sovereign remedy,' and ask particularly for Masses in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus."

ST. MARGARET MARY RECOMMENDS NOVENAS IN HONOR OF THE SACRED HEART FOR THE SOULS IN PURGATORY

Writing to Mother de Saumaise she says: "There is a Soul in Purgatory that I cannot comfort as much as I desire. She told me to apply to you and ask you to have three Masses said for her, and, in addition, to offer your Rosary and all the practices of our holy rule for nine days, and a general
Communion. She said that these things would greatly alleviate her pains and that she would not be ungrateful."

ST. MARGARET MARY WAS ACCUSTOMED TO OFFER HER PRAYERS TO OUR BLESSED LADY THROUGH THE SOULS IN PURGATORY, AND IN A LETTER TO MOTHER GREFIÉ SHE EXPLAINS THE REASON:

"It is not through any want of confidence in Our Blessed Lady that we ask the help of the Holy Souls in Purgatory; it is in order that they may join their supplications to ours and offer them up to this Good Mother to obtain for us the continuation of her maternal assistance. By doing so we confess that, after God, it is from the Blessed Virgin that all good comes to us."
Of all the practices for the relief of the Holy Souls, the most efficacious is that which is called "the Heroic Act of Charity," which, as already stated, both St. Margaret Mary and Blessed Claude de la Colombiere made at our Divine Lord's request. It consists in offering up in favor of the Souls in Purgatory all our satisfactory merits and all the indulgences we can gain during our lives, and all the prayers, Masses and good works offered for us after our death, thus reserving nothing for ourselves and trusting completely in the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. Margaret Mary makes reference to it in several of her letters.

PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SOULS

O Divine Heart of Jesus, grant I pray Thee, eternal rest to the Souls in Purgatory, the final grace to those who are about to die this day, true repentance to sinners, the light of faith to pagans, and Thy blessing to me and to all who are dear to me. To Thee, therefore, O Most Merciful Heart of Jesus, I commend all these souls, and in their behalf I offer unto Thee all Thy merits in union with the merits of Thy Most Blessed Mother and of all the Angels and Saints, together with all the Masses, Communions, prayers and good works which are this day being offered throughout Christendom.
O Most Holy Heart of Jesus, shower Thy blessings in abundant measure upon the Thy Holy Church, upon the Supreme Pontiff and upon all the clergy; to the just grant perseverance; convert sinners; enlighten unbelievers; bless our relations, friends and benefactors; assist the dying; deliver the Holy Souls in Purgatory; and extend over all hearts the sweet empire of Thy love. Amen.

Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque

2007-10-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

The Catholic Encyclopedia

The Twelve Promises Of Our Lord To Saint Margaret Mary For Those Devoted To His Sacred Heart

1-I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2-I will establish peace in their families.
3-I will console them in all their troubles.
4-They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially
at the hour of their death.
5-I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6-Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
7-Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8-Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9-I will bless the homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10-I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
11-Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in
My Heart, never to be effaced.
12-The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall
receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace
of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without
receiving their Sacraments; My heart shall be their assured refuge at that
last hour.

Read also the explanations of the promises by Father Joseph McDonnell, SJ.

The Secret of Saint Margaret Mary, translated by Frank Sheed

A Salutation To the Sacred Heart, by Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque

Hail, Heart of Jesus, save me!
Hail, Heart of my Creator, perfect me!
Hail, Heart of my Saviour, deliver me!
Hail, Heart of my Judge, grant me pardon!
Hail, Heart of my Father, govern me!
Hail, Heart of my Spouse, grant me love!
Hail, Heart of my Master, teach me!
Hail, Heart of my King, be my crown!
Hail, Heart of my Benefactor, enrich me!
Hail, Heart of my Shepherd, guard me!
Hail, Heart of my Friend, comfort me!
Hail, Heart of my Brother, stay with me!
Hail, Heart of the Child Jesus, draw me to Thyself!
Hail, Heart of Jesus dying on the Cross, redeem me!
Hail, Heart of Jesus in all Thy states, give Thyself to me!
Hail, Heart of incomparable goodness, have mercy on me!
Hail, Heart of splendor, shine within me!
Hail, most loving Heart, inflame me!
Hail, most merciful Heart, work within me!
Hail, most humble Heart, dwell within me!
Hail, most patient Heart, support me!
Hail, most faithful Heart, be my reward!
Hail, most admirable and most worthy Heart, bless me!

There is a more in-depth life of Saint Margaret Mary at Pierced Hearts

Saint Margaret Mary's Prayer of Consecration To the Sacred Heart

I, ( your name. . .), give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ my person and my life, my actions, pains, and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being save to honor, love, and glorify the Sacred Heart.

This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him.

I therefore take Thee, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.

Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God Thy Father, and turn away from me the strokes of His righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in Thee, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty; but I hope for all things from Thy goodness and bounty.

Do Thou consume in me all that can displease Thee or resist Thy holy will. Let Thy pure love imprint Thee so deeply upon my heart that I shall nevermore be able to forget Thee or to be separated from Thee. May I obtain from all Thy loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Thee, for in Thee I desire to place all my happiness and all my glory, living and dying in true bondage to Thee.
Amen.

Saint Margaret Mary, pray for us!

Traditional Feast of the Immaculate Heart

2007-08-22T08:25:00.001-07:00

August 22nd is the traditional feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In the new calendar, it was moved, not entirely without good reason, to the Saturday following the Feast of the Sacred Heart (which is always a Friday), so that the feasts of the Two Hearts fall back-to-back. So that means I, being both a trad and a realist, get to celebrate the Immaculate Heart twice! Plus the entire month of August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart still.

Prayer of Saint Pio to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady
‘O Immaculate Heart of Mary, full of goodness, show thy love towards us. Let the flame of thy Heart, O Mary, descend on all people. We love thee immensely. Impress true love in our hearts so that we have a continuous desire for thee. O Mary, gentle and humble of heart, remember us when we are in sin. Thou knowest that all men sin. Give us, by means of thy Immaculate Heart, spiritual health. Let us always see the goodness of thy motherly Heart and may we be converted by the flame of thy Heart. AMEN’

“Immaculate Heart of Mary, visit today we beseech thee, those souls who are in the cold sweat of death and at enmity with God. Bathe them in the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. Breathe into them the very life of God. Obtain for them the grace to make perfect Acts of Faith, Hope and Divine Charity, that they may be snatched from the very abyss of Hell, to glorify God for all Eternity and to – add to the lustre of thy Triumph!”

SWEET HEART OF MARY, BE OUR SALVATION!

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, August 14

2007-08-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

The founder of the Militia Immaculata, and one of those saints whose canonization after 1962 (along with Saint Pio and Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer) requires at least an addendum to the 1962 liturgical calendar, so that the Mass of the Ages does not become a frozen-in-amber relic.

Wikipedia

Saint Maximilian Kolbe's Act of Total Consecration
To the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady
Immaculata, Queen of heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, N..., a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.

If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of you: "She will crush your head," and, "You alone have destroyed all heresies in the world." Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

V. Allow me to praise you, O sacred Virgin.
R. Give me strength against your enemies.

Commentary on the Consecration Prayer
by St. Maximilian Kolbe

This act of consecration includes three parts: an invocation; a request that she may deign to accept us as her property; and a please that she may deign to make use of us to conquer other souls for her.

In the invocation we first say,

O Immaculata

We turn to her under this name, because she herself deigned to give herself this name at Lourdes: "the Immaculate Conception." God is immaculate, but God is not conceived. Angels are immaculate, but there is no conception with them. The first parents were immaculate before sinning, but neither were they conceived. Jesus was immaculate and conceived, but he was not a conception, for as God he already existed before and to him also applied the words of the name of God as revealed to Moses: "I am who am, who always is and does not begin to be." Other people are conceptions, but stained. She alone is not only conceived, but also a conception and immaculate. This name conceals many more mysteries, which will be discovered in time. Thus she indicates that the Immaculate Conception belongs to her essence.

This name must be dear to her, because it signifies the first grace she received in the first moment of her existence. The first gift is the dearest one. This name is ratified by her life, because she was always unspotted. Hence she was also full of grace and God was always with her, even to the degree that she became the Mother of the Son of God.

Queen of heaven and earth

In a family, the loving parents fulfill the will of the children as much as they are able, insofar as it is not harmful for them. So much more does God, the Creator and prototype of earthly parents, desire to fulfill the will of his creatures, insofar as it is not harmful for them, that is, insofar as it is conformable with his will. The Immaculata did not bend away from the will of God in anything. In all things she loved the will of God, loved God. Hence she is justly called the Omnipotent Beggar. She has influence upon God himself, on the entire world; she is the Queen of heaven and earth. In heaven everyone acknowledges the rule of her love. That group of the first angels that did not want to acknowledge her reign lost its place in heaven.

She is queen also of earth because she is the Mother of God himself, but she both desires and has a right to be freely acknowledged by every heart, be loved as the Queen of every heart, so that through her that heart might become immaculate, similar to her heart and more worthy of union with God, with the love of God, with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Refuge of sinners

God is merciful, infinitely merciful, nevertheless just and infinitely just. He cannot bear the least sin and must demand full satisfaction for it. The stewardess of the infinite value of the Precious Blood of Jesus that washes away sin, the Immaculata, is the personification of God's mercy. Therefore she is rightly called the refuge of sinners, of all sinners regardless of the number and greatness of their sins - even though the sinner would think there is no more mercy left for him. Indeed, every cleansing of the soul is for her a new confirmation of her title of Immaculate Conception. The more deeply the soul is plunged into sin, the more does the power of her immaculateness show itself, by the fact that she gives snowy whiteness to such a soul.

Our most loving Mother

The Immaculata is the mother of our entire supernatural life because she is the Mediatrix of the grace of God, hence our mother in the sphere of grace, in the supernatural sphere. She is a most loving mother, because you do not have any mother so affectionate, so loving, so godlike, so Immaculate, so wholly divine.

God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you

In a family, the father is glad at times that the mother stays his punishing hand over the child by her intercession, because justice is satisfied and mercy is shown. Not without cause is justice suspended. Similarly God, in order not to punish us, gives us a spiritual mother, whose intercession he never opposes. Hence the saints claim that Jesus reserved for himself the order of justice, giving to the Immaculata the whole order of his mercy.

In the second part of the act we say,

I, a repentant sinner

We here admit that we are not as she, immaculate, but sinful. What is more none of us can say that he has reached this day without sin, but feels himself guilty of much infidelity. We also say unworthy, because truly between an immaculate being and one soiled by sin there is in some sense an infinite difference. In all truth we acknowledge ourselves unworthy to turn to her, to pray to her, to fall at her feet, in order not to become similar to the proud Lucifer. Hence we also say,

Cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property

By these words we beg, we beseech the Immaculata to accept us. We offer ourselves to her entirely, in every respect, as her children, and as slaves of love, as servants, as instruments, and under every single aspect, under every title that anyone at any time might be able to express. We become hers as her possession and property, to use us and use us up even to complete destruction, according to her free disposition.

Make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you

To her we give our whole being, all the faculties of our soul, and therefore, intellect, memory and will, and all the faculties of the body - therefore, all the senses and each in particular, our strength, health or sickness. We offer her our entire life with all its experiences, pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. We give her our death, whenever and wherever and in whatever way it befalls us. We give her our whole eternity. We expect that we will be able to belong perfectly to her, only then beyond comparison. In this way we express a desire and an entreaty, so that she allows us to become hers under every aspect more and more perfectly.

In the third part we pray,

Use all that I am and have without reserve wholly to accomplish what was said of you: "She will crush your head," and, "You alone have destroyed all the heresies in the whole world"

On the statues and pictures of the Immaculata we always see the serpent at her feet, surrounding the globe of the earth, as she crushes the head of the serpent.

Satan, soiled by sin, endeavors to soil all souls on earth. He hates her who was always unspotted. He waits for her heel in the persons of her children; she crushes his head in the fight in the person of everyone who has recourse to her. We ask her to use us if she wishes, as an instrument to crush the head of the proud serpent in unfortunate souls. Holy Scripture adds, quoting the verse mentioned above, And you shall lie in wait for her heel. The evil spirit really lies in wait in a special way for those who dedicate themselves to the Immaculata; he desires to insult her at least in them. His endeavor against sincerely dedicated souls always ends with his more shameful defeat, hence his fury is more violent, impotently furious.

The words, You alone have destroyed all heresies in the world, are taken from the prayers which the Church orders her priests to say about her. The Church says "heresies" and not the heretics, whom she loves, and because of this love desires to free them from the error of heresy. The Church says "all," without any exception; "alone," since "she" alone suffices. God is hers with all the treasures of grace for the conversion and sanctification of souls. No corner of the earth is excluded in the whole world. In this act of consecration we beg her to use us to destroy the whole serpent coiled about the earth, the serpent representing the various heresies.

Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls

All over the world we see unhappy, erring souls, who do not even know their purpose in life. They love all kinds of earthly goods instead of the one good, namely, God. Many, too, are indifferent to the highest love. We desire the "implanting and developing...in a most eminent degree" of the glory of the Immaculata in those souls. We beg her that we may be instruments in her immaculate and most loving hands, in order that she would not allow us to contradict her, that she constrain us, should we not want to listen to her.

And thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus

The most Sacred Heart of Jesus is the love of God toward men. His kingdom is the reign of love in the hearts of men, which Jesus manifested in the crib, throughout his life, on the cross and in the Eucharist, when he gave his mother as mother to us, and which (love) he desires to enkindle in human hearts. The implanting and developing of the honor of the Immaculata and the conquest of souls for her is the conquest of souls for Jesus' mother, who will carry the kingdom of Jesus into souls. For as far as possible,

Wherever you enter, there you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Immaculata is the "Omnipotent Beseecher." Every conversion and sanctification is the work of grace, and she is the Mediatrix of All Graces. During the apparition of the Miraculous Medal, St. Catherine Laboure saw rays streaming from the rings on the fingers of the Immaculata. They represent graces that the Immaculata liberally bestows upon everyone who desires them. Alphonse Ratisbonne speaks similarly about the rays of grace in his vision.

Allow me to praise you, O sacred Virgin
Give me strength against your enemies

When Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, went to Paris for a dispute in which he was to defend the privilege of the Immaculate Conception at the University of the Sorbonne, he passed by a statue of the Blessed Mother and prayed to her with the above mentioned words. As tradition has it, the Blessed Mother bowed her head as a sign of confirmation.

In the first part of this petition Duns Scotus turns humbly to the Mother of God and asks that she permit him to praise her. Acknowledging his great unworthiness for such a sublime work as praising the Blessed Mother, he likewise acknowledges that grace depends upon her, and it is enough that she permit him, and his efforts will be crowned with success.

The second part is strong, unconditional, brave. As an instrument in her hand, he asks for strength to overcome the serpent.

Who is her enemy? Whatever is stained, whatever does not lead to God, whatever is not love, whatever comes from the hellish serpent, he himself is her enemy; hence it includes all our defects, or all our faults. We ask her to give us strength against him. For this one purpose all devotions exist, all prayers, the sacraments: that we receive power to overcome all obstacles in our striving for God in a more and more ardent love, in assimilating ourselves to God, in uniting with God himself. Just as we have come from God through a creature, so also we return to God. All nature tells us this. Wherever we glance, we see after action reaction, equal and opposite, and as it were, an echo of God's operation and his operation also in all creatures.

On the return road of reaction the being endowed with free will meets with difficulties and oppositions, and God permits these trials in order to strengthen that being so much the more in its striving toward him. In order that the being may have sufficient strength for it, it must pray, it must ask for that strength from him, who is the source of all strength and who looks upon the efforts of his creatures with love and desires that it come sincerely to him, for he does not stint his aid. Even if that creature, that dear child of his, stumbles on the way, falls, soils itself, wounds itself, that merciful Father cannot look upon its misfortune. He sends down his only begotten Son, who by his life and teaching points out to him a bright and sure road. By his Sacred Blood of infinite value he washes away the dirt and heals the wounds.

So that the soul from fear of the violated justice of God would not lose hope, God sends a personification of his love, the Spouse of the Spirit of motherly love, the Immaculata, all beautiful, without stain, though a daughter of men, sister of human beings. He commits the stewardship of his entire mercy towards souls. He constitutes her the Mediatrix of grace that was earned by her Son. He makes her the mother of grace, the mother of souls born of grace, reborn, and continually reborn in an always more perfect godlikeness.

Our Blessed Lady's Saturday

2007-08-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

August being dedicated by the Church to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady, August's Our Blessed Lady's Saturdays will likewise be devoted.

O Immaculate Heart of Mary,
Heavenly beauty and splendor of the Father,
Thou art the most valued Heavenly treasure.

New Eve, immaculate in soul, spirit and body,
Created of the godly seed by the Spirit of God,
Thou art the spiritual Mother of mankind.

Pure Virgin, full of grace then and now,
Thy whole being was raised Heavenly in full glory,
To be elevated above all the hosts within the Kingdom of God.

O Heavenly Mother, Queen of Heaven and earth,
I recognize the glory of thy highest title,
The Immaculate Heart of Mary!

Loving Mother, dispenser of endless blessings,
Thou who continuously intercedes on our behalf,
Please present my need before thy loving Son Jesus.

(Mention your request here)

O Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I know that thou are now presenting my need before Jesus,
For thou hast never turned away those in dire need.

Mother dearest, I await thy favorable answer,
Submitting myself to the Divine will of the Lord,
For all glories are His forever and ever.
Amen.

Our Blessed Lady's Saturday

2007-08-04T10:55:00.001-07:00

The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady. Her feast in the traditional calendar falls on August 22nd. And her Assumption, a holy day of obligation, falls always on the 15th. Therefore, August's editions of Our Blessed Lady's Saturday will be devoted to her Immaculate Heart. Today is also the first Saturday of August.

Here is a good precis of the First Saturday devotion, from Memorare.com:
The desire for a First Saturday devotion revealed by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the three children at Fatima in 1917. On December 10, 1925, the Virgin revealed more details about the devotion to Sister Lucia, the only seer still alive and at that time a cloistered nun. From that time, the devotion has spread throughout the world on the day (Saturday) that the Church has traditionally honored the Blessed Virgin. There is no distinct confraternity/association for this devotion, though many apostolates incorporate it into their devotional program.

Purposes
To establish devotion (in accordance with God's wishes) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to make reparation for...
1. Attacks upon the reality of Mary's Immaculate Conception
2. Attacks against her the reality of Mary's Perpetual Virginity
3. Attacks upon Mary's Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind
4. Those who try to publicly implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt and hatred for Immaculate Mary
5. For those who insult Mary directly in her sacred images.

Practices
The devotion involves the following practices on five consecutive first Saturdays with the specific intention of making reparation for the offenses (above) against the Blessed Virgin.
1. Go to Confession (within 8 days before or after the first Saturday)
2. Receive Holy Communion
3. Recite five decades of the Rosary*
4. "Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on fifteen mysteries of the Rosary" (separate from the Rosary itself)*
(*Preferably done in the presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle or at Exposition)

Promises
1. The Virgin Mary's assistance at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation for those who practice the devotion.
2. Salvation of souls and peace as a result of promoting of the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart.

This prayer is from The Raccolta

Heart of Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, Heart most amiable, on which the Adorable Trinity ever looks with complacency, worthy of all the veneration and tenderness of angels and of men; Heart most like the Heart of Jesus, whose most perfect image thou art; heart full of goodness, ever compassionate towards our miseries, - vouchsafe to thaw our icy hearts, that they may be changed entirely to the likeness of the heart of Jesus. Infuse into them the love of thy virtues, inflame them with that blessed fire with which thou dost ever burn. In thee let the Holy Church find safe shelter; protect it, and be its sweet asylum, its tower of strength, impregnable against every inroad of its enemies. Be thou the road leading to Jesus; be thou the channel whereby we receive all graces needful for our salvation. Be thou our help in need, our comfort in trouble, our strength in temptation, our refuge in persecution, our aid in all dangers; but especially in the last struggle of our life, at the moment of our death, when all hell will be unchained against us to snatch away our souls, - in that dread moment, that hour so terrible, whereon our eternity depends, and, yes, most tender Virgin, do thou then make us feel how great is the sweetness of thy motherly Heart, and the strength of thy power with the Heart of Jesus, by opening for us a safe refuge in the very fount of mercy itself, whereby we too may one day join with thee in Paradise in praising that same Heart of Jesus for ever and for ever. Amen.

Act of Contrition To the Sacred Heart And Prayer for Pardon and Grace

2007-07-19T07:09:00.000-07:00

Act of Contrition to the Sacred Heart
Most Sacred and Adorable Heart of Jesus! humbly and with contrite heart I prostrate myself before Thee. bitterly bewailing that I was remiss in Thy love and have offended Thee by my ingratitude and unfaithfulness, thereby becoming unworthy of the manifestations of Thy love. Filled with confusion and fear, I can but say, "I have sinned against Thee, I have sinned!" Most Amiable and Divine Heart, have mercy on me, though I do not deserve mercy. Reject me not, but reveal, rather, I beseech Thee, the excess of Thy mercy by granting me, a poor sinner, who appears before Thee in the abyss of his nothingness and misery, pardon for my sins.

Prayer for Pardon and Grace
O Divine Redeemer!
humbly prostrate at the foot of Thy Cross,
I call upon Thee to incline Thy Sacred Heart to pardon me.
Jesus, misjudged and despised-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, calumniated and persecuted-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, abandoned by men and tempted in the desert-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, betrayed and sold-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, insulted, accused, and unjustly condemned-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, clothed in a robe of ignominy and contempt-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, mocked and scoffed at-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bound with cords and led through the streets-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, treated as a fool and classed with malefactors-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, cruelly scourged-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, held inferior to Barabbas-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, despoiled of Thy garments-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, crowned with thorns and reviled-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bearing the Cross amid the maledictions of the people-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bowed down by ignominies, pain, and humiliations-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, crucified between thieves-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, dying for my sins amid all kinds of suffering-----have mercy on me!
LET US PRAY
SACRED HEART of Jesus, my Redeemer! Exercise, I beseech Thee, Thy office of mediator with me, and permit not that Thy sufferings and cruel death be in vain for my salvation, but let them bring forth, for Thy glory, fruits of salvation in me, that my heart may love, praise, and glorify Thee for ever and ever. Amen.

First Friday

2007-07-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

Today, July 6th, is the First Friday of July, 2007.

The Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus To St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

1. "I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life."
2. "I will establish peace in their homes."
3. "I will comfort them in their afflictions."
4. "I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all in death."
5. "I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings."
6. "Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy."
7. "Tepid souls shall grow fervent."
8. "Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection."
9. "I will bless every place where a picture of My Heart shall be set up and honored."
10. "I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts."
11. "Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out."
12. "I promise thee in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving the Sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."

It is promise number twelve that is the basis for the Nine First Fridays.

The First Friday of each month was designated by our Savior Himself as a day to be
consecrated to honoring His Sacred Heart. As the object of this devotion is to make our Savior Jesus Christ ardently and perfectly loved, and to make reparation for the outrages offered to Him in the past, as well as for those which he daily receives in the Blessed Eucharist, Jesus Christ merits our love at all times, but alas! He is despised and outraged in the Sacrament of His love at all times, and so people should at all times make reparation to Him.

We should then adore Jesus Christ in this august Sacrament, make a fervent act of love to Jesus in the tabernacle, thank Him for having instituted this Mystery of love, express our sorrow at seeing Him so abandoned, and resolve to visit Him as soon as possible and love Him unceasingly.

Attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is assuredly the best means of honoring and loving the adorable Heart of Jesus.

To communicate worthily on the Nine Consecutive First Fridays, it is incumbent on those practicing the devotion to be in a state of grace at the time of communicating. And for most of us, that means making a full and complete worthy confession and carrying out the penance imposed just before Mass.

The following are customary for those making this devotion:

The following First Friday devotions are efficacious in honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

1. The Sacrament of Penance
2. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
3. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
4. Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I consecrate myself to Thy Most Sacred Heart. Take possession of my whole being; transform me into Thyself. Make my hands Thy hands, my feet Thy feet, my heart Thy heart. Let me see with Thine eyes, listen with Thine ears, speak with Thy lips, love with Thy Heart, understand with Thy mind, serve with Thy will, and be dedicated with my whole being. Make me Thy other self. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, send me Thy Holy Ghost to teach me to love Thee and to live through thee, with Thee, in Thee, and for Thee.

Come, Holy Ghost, make my body Thy temple. Come, and abide with me forever. Give me the deepest love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus in order to serve Him with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Take possession of all my faculties of body and soul. Regulate all my passions: feelings and emotions. Take possession of my intellect, understanding and will; my memory and imagination. O Holy Spirit of Love, give me an abundance of Thy efficacious graces. Give me the fullness of all the virtues; enrich my faith, strengthen my hope, increase my trust, and inflame my love. Give me the fullness of Thy sevenfold gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Most Holy Trinity, make my soul Thy sanctuary.
Amen.

5. Act of Reparation

Sacred Heart of Jesus, animated with a desire to repair the outrages unceasingly offered to Thee, we prostrate before Thy throne of mercy, and in the name of all mankind, pledge our love and fidelity to Thee!
The more Thy mysteries are blasphemed, the more firmly we shall believe them, O Sacred Heart of Jesus!
The more impiety endeavors to extinguish our hopes of immortality, the more we shall trust in Thy Heart, sole hope of mankind!
The more hearts resist Thy Divine attractions, the more we shall love Thee, O infinitely amiable heart of Jesus!
The more unbelief attacks Thy Divinity, the more humbly and profoundly we shall adore It, O Divine Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy holy laws are transgressed and ignored, the more we shall delight to observe them, O most holy Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Sacraments are despised and abandoned, the more frequently we shall receive them with love and reverence, O most liberal Heart of Jesus!
The more the imitation of Thy virtues is neglected and forgotten, the more we shall endeavor to practice them, O Heart, model of every virtue!
The more the devil labors to destroy souls, the more we shall be inflamed with desire to save them, O Heart of Jesus, zealous Lover of souls!
The more sin and impurity destroy the image of God in man, the more we shall try by purity of life to be a living temple of the Holy Spirit, O Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Holy Church is despised, the more we shall endeavor to be her faithful children, O Sweet Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Vicar on earth is persecuted, the more we will honor him as the infallible head of Thy Holy Church, show our fidelity and pray for him, O kingly Heart of Jesus!
O Sacred Heart, through Thy powerful grace, may we become Thy apostles in the midst of a corrupted world, and be Thy crown in the kingdom of heaven.
Amen.

6. The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
V/ Lord, have mercy.
R/ Lord, have mercy.

V/ Christ, have mercy.
R/ Christ, have mercy.

V/ Lord, have mercy.
R/ Lord, have mercy.

V/ Jesus, hear us.
R/ Jesus, graciously hear us.

R/ for ff: Have mercy on us.

God, the Father of Heaven,
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world,
God, the Holy Spirit,
Holy Trinity, One God,
Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father.
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother,
Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Word of God,
Heart of Jesus, of Infinite Majesty,
Heart of Jesus, Sacred Temple of God,
Heart of Jesus, Tabernacle of the Most High,
Heart of Jesus, House of God and Gate of Heaven,
Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity,
Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love,
Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love,
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues,
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise,
Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts,
Heart of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father was well pleased,
Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received,
Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills,
Heart of Jesus, patient and most merciful,
Heart of Jesus, enriching all who invoke Thee,
Heart of Jesus, fountain of life and holiness,
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, loaded down with opprobrium,
Heart of Jesus, bruised for our offenses,
Heart of Jesus, obedient to death,
Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance,
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation,
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection,
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation,
Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, delight of all the Saints,

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world.
R/ spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ have mercy on us.

Jesus, meek and humble of heart.
R/ Make our hearts like unto Thy Heart.

Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, look upon the Heart of Thy most beloved Son and upon the praises and satisfaction which he offers Thee in the name of sinners; and to those who implore Thy mercy, in Thy great goodness, grant forgiveness in the name of the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who lives and reigns with Thee forever and ever.

R/ Amen.

July is the Feast Of The Precious Blood

2007-07-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

What is more wonderful than the outpouring of Jesus' Blood from His Sacred Heart. That Precious Blood flowed from Our Saviour's Heart to redeem us. He saved the world from sin through this outpouring.

The Modern Church has incorporated the feast and made it one with The Feast of Corpus Christi.

Yet, there is this Feast, and a precious one at that. We should know that The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is one, but also separate. But they are still, and should be recognized as such.

St Gaspar, who is known for being devoted to The Precious Blood of Christ and as preaching to many missionaries on this particular feast shows us just how important it is to remember the Blood that Poured from His Precious Body.

It healed us and washed away sin

Remember how this Precious Blod was shed, through the Scourging, Crowning and through His Crucifixion.

There are prayers and devotions to The Precious Blood and let us continue to not forget this Feast and what it stands for, and revealed through The Sacred Heart.

Happy Anniversary

2007-06-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

June marked the One Year Anniversary of Two Hearts Ablaze

This web site was created to honor The Sacred and Immaculate Hearts

Tom and I have received special graces from these Two Hearts and we decided to give something back in return

We have been gathering links and images and all sorts of things pertaining to the Sacred and Immaculate hearts

We hope you have enjoyed this site and are able to use this for resources in the future

Thank You for visiting this site

Sacred Heart Articles

2007-06-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was doing a little research and decided that I would put up this link to blogs and people who refer to the Sacred Heart for you to peruse
There are plenty here for you to check into:

HERE

Remember Our Lord's Sacred Heart in the month of June

Feast Of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

2007-06-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Immaculate Heart of Mary

Saturday after the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The feast springs from contemporary piety but has its roots in the Marian apostolate of St. John Eudes (1680), and outstanding apostle of devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. After repeated requests and repeated refusals between 1669 and 1729, on December 8, 1942, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, Pope Pius XII dedicated the Church and the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He placed the feast on August 22 and extended it to the entire Latin Church. It has now been moved closer to the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus always falling on the Saturday after the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Devotion to the immaculate Heart of Mary is primarily based upon the Sacred Scriptures. In the New 'Testament, there are two references to the Heart of Mary in the Gospel according to St. Luke: .."Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart. " ( Lk 2: 19 ) and " His mother meanwhile kept all these things in her heart. " (Lk 2:51 ) In the Old Testament, the heart is seen as the symbol of the depths of the human soul, the center of its choices and commitments.

For all mankind, it is a symbol of love. In the Book of Deuteronomy we are told, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength." ( Dt. 6:5 ) When Our Lord Jesus Christ was asked by the scribes which was the first commandment, he answered them by quoting this verse to them. ( see Mk. 12:29-31 )

It was the Heart of Mary which expressed her "yes" to God. .This was her response to the message sent through the angel at the Annunciation. By her loving consent, Mary first conceived Christ in her heart and then in her womb. Our Lord Jesus, Himself: when reminded by a woman in the crowd how blessed was the womb which gave birth to Him, responds, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it." ( Lk. 11 :28 ) Pope John Paul li , in his first encyclical, REDEMPTOR HOMINIS, wrote "the mystery of Redemption was formed under the heart of the Virgin of Nazareth when she pronounced her 'fiat.'" ( R.H. #22 )

Historically, devotion to the Heart of Mary can be traced to the twelfth century with such writers as St. Anselm ( d. 1109 ) and St. Bernard of Clairvaux ( d. 1153 ) who is considered as one of the most influential writers in Marian devotion. St. Bernardine of Siena ( 1380- 1444) has been called the Doctor of the Heart of Mary due to his writings on Mary's heart. He wrote, "from her heart, as from a furnace of Divine Love, the Blessed Virgin spoke the words of the most ardent love." St. John Eudes ( 1601 -1680 ) helped by his writings to begin a renewal in this devotion. Both Pope Leo XIII and Pope St. Pius X called him, "the father, Doctor, and Apostle of the liturgical cult of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary." Even two decades before the first liturgical celebrations in honor of the Heart of Jesus, St. John Eudes and his followers observed February 8th as the feast of the Heart of Mary as early as 1643. Pope Pius VII ( d. 1823 ) extended its celebration to any diocese or congregation requesting it.

Devotion to Mary's Heart has a greater flowering following the manifestation of the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830 and the Appearances of' Our Lady in Fatima. From May 13 to October 13, 1917, our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to three children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto and their cousin Lucia DosSantos in Fatima, Portugal. On July 13th, she told them: "to save poor sinners, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart." The entire Fatima message is one of prayer, penance and making sacrifices and reparation to God for the many offenses against Him.

In 1942, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Fatima, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That same year, he assigned the feast day to August 22, the octave of the Assumption. On May 4, 1944, he extended the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the Universal Church. With the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1969, the feast was given a more suitable place on the day following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. That is the Saturday after the second Sunday after Pentecost.

The opening prayer for the liturgical celebration helps us focus on the important message of this feast day. "God prepared the heart of Mary as a fitting home to the Holy Spirit. May we, His chosen people, become temples of His glory. We ask Mary to help us- her spiritual children, so dear to her heart, to stay ever united in friendship with her Son and never separate ourselves by sin."

The Most Sacred Heart Of Jesus

2007-06-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

O my Most Loving and Gentle Jesus, I desire with all the affections of my heart, that all beings created and uncreated, should praise Thee, honor Thee, and glorify Thee eternally for that sacred wound wherewith Thy divine side was rent.

I deposit, enclose, conceal in that wound and in that opening in Thy Heart, my heart and all my feelings, thoughts, desires, intentions and all the faculties of my soul.

I entreat Thee, by the precious Blood and Water that flowed from Thy Most Loving Heart, to take entire possesion of me, that Thou may guide me in all things.

Consume me in the burning fire of thy holy Love, so that I may be so absorbed and transformed into Thee that I may no longer be but one with Thee.
Amen.

Hail, Heart most holy,
Hail, Heart most meek,
Hail, Heart most humble,
Hail, Heart most pure,
Hail, Heart most devout,
Hail, Heart most wise,
Hail, Heart most patient,
Hail, Heart most obedient,
Hail, Heart most vigilent,
Hail, Heart most faithful,
Hail, Heart most blessed,
Hail, Heart most merciful,
Hail, most loving Heart of Jesus and Mary;

Thee we adore,
Thee we praise,
Thee we glorify,
To Thee do we give thanks;
Thee we love,
With all our heart,
With all our soul,
And with all our strength;
To Thee we offer our heart,
We give it,
We consecrate it,
We immolate it;
Accept and posses it entirely,
And purify it,
And illuminate it,
And sanctify it;
that in it Thou may live and reign
both now and forever,
and in the age of ages.
Amen.

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God,
Have mercy on us.

Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Formed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mother,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Substantially united to the Word of God,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Of Infinite Majesty,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Holy Temple of God,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Tabernacle of the Most High,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, House of God and Gate of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Burning Furnace of charity,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Vessel of Justice and love,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Full of goodness and love,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Abyss of all virtues,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Most worthy of all praises,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, In Whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, In Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Divinity,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, in Whom the Father is well pleased,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Of Whose fullness we have all received,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Desire of the everlasting hills,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Patient and abounding in mercy,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Rich unto all who call upon Thee,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Fountain of life and holiness,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Atonement for our sins,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Filled with reproaches,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Bruised for our offenses,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Made obedient unto death,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Pierced with a lance,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Source of all consolation,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Our Life and Resurrection,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Our Peace and Reconciliation,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Victim for our sins,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Salvation of those who hope in Thee,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Hope of those who die in Thee,
Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Delight of all the Saints,
Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make our hearts like unto Thine.

Let us pray.

Almighty and eternal God, look upon the Heart of Thine most-beloved Son, and upon the praises and satisfaction He offers Thee in the name of sinners; and appeased by worthy homage, pardon those who implore Thy mercy, in Thy Great Goodness in the name of the same Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.

Jesus, who dost burn with love for us, humbly kneeling at Thy feet we adore Thee with the deepest veneration of our soul; and in order to make Thee recompense for the outrages which Thy Divine Heart daily receives in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, we unite ourselves with the hearts of all those who love Thee and give Thee tender thanks. We love in Thy Divine heart this incomprehensible fire of love towards Thy Eternal Father; and we entreat Thee to inflame our hearts with ardent charity towards Thee and towards our neighbours.
Amen.

My most loving Jesus, my own heart is glad when I think upon Thy most Sacred Heart, all tenderness and sweetness for sinners, and I am filled with confident hope of Thy kind welcome. But O, my sins! how many and how great are they! Grieving now, like Peter and like Magdalene, I bewail and abhor them, because they are an offence to Thee, my Sovereign Good. O, grant me pardon for them all. Would that I might die before I offend Thee again! I pray Thee, by Thy Sacred Heart, that I may live only to requite Thy love.
Amen.

My Jesus, I bless Thy most humble Heart; and I give thanks unto Thee, who by making It my model dost not only give me strong and urgent inducement to imitate It, but also, at the cost of so many humiliations, dost vouchsafe Thyself to point out, and to smooth for me the way to follow Thee. Cool and ungrateful that I am, how have I wandered far away from Thee! Pardon me, my Jesus! Take from me all hateful pride and ambition, that with lowly heart I may follow Thee, my Jesus, amidst humiliations, and so obtain peace and salvation. Strengthen me, Thou who canst, and I will ever bless Thy Sacred Heart.
Amen.

Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who glory in the Most Sacred Heart of Thy well-beloved Son, and call to mind the great benefits of His heavenly charity towards us, may be gladdened by the operation and fruit of those graces in our souls. Through the same Christ our Lord.

O Divine Heart of my Jesus! I adore Thee with all the powers of my soul; I consecrate them to Thee for ever, together with all my thoughts, my words, my works, and my whole self, and I purpose to offer to Thee, as far as I am able, acts of adoration, love, and glory, like unto those which Thou dost offer to Thine Eternal Father. I beseech Thee, make reparation for my transgressions, be the Protector of my life, my refuge and asylum in the hour of my death. By Thy sighs and by that sea of bitterness in which Thou wast immersed for me throughout the whole course of Thy mortal life, grant me true contrition for my sins, contempt of earthly things, an ardent longing for the glory of heaven, trust in Thy infinite merits, and final perseverance in Thy grace.

Heart of Jesus, all love! I offer Thee these humble prayers for myself and for all who unite with me in spirit to adore Thee; vouchsafe of Thy infinite goodness to receive and to answer them, and especially for that one of us who shall first end this mortal life. Sweet Heart of my Saviour, pour down upon him in the agony of death Thine inward consolations; receive him within Thy sacred wounds; cleanse him from every stain in that Furnace of Love, that so Thou mayest open to him speedily the entrance into Thy glory, there to intercede with Thee for all those who yet tarry in this their land of exile.

Most Holy Heart of my most loving Jesus, h purpose to renew these acts of adoration and these prayers for myself, miserable sinner, as well as for all who are associated with me in adoring Thee, and to offer them to Thee every moment while I live, down to the last instant of my life. I recommend to Thee, my Jesus, the Holy Church, Thy well-beloved Spouse, our own true Mother, all just souls, all poor sinners, the afflicted, the dying, and all men over the face of the whole earth: let not Thy Blood be shed in vain for them; and vouchsafe lastly to apply it to the relief of the souls in purgatory, and above all to those who in the course of their life were wont devoutly to adore Thee.

Most loving Heart of Mary, who, amongst the hearts of all creatures of God, art at once the most pure, most inflamed with love for Jesus, and most compassionate towards us poor sinners, gain for us from the heart of Jesus our Redeemer all the graces which we ask of thee. Mother of mercies, one sigh, one movement of thy heart inflamed with love towards the Heart of Jesus, has power perfectly to console us. Grant us, then, this favour, and then the Heart of Jesus, full of that filial love It had for thee and will ever have, will not fail to hear and answer our request. Amen.

The Traditional Feast Of The Most Sacred Heart

2007-06-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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 Savior desired that the boundless love of His Heart might be known by all [people], 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 Paray-le-Monial, France.

One day, when, according to her custom during the octave of Corpus Christi, [pre-vatican II article] she was deeply engaged in devotions before the Blessed Sacrament, the divine Savior 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 was 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.

Object of this Devotion.
In the divine Heart of Our Savior we must not imagine an inanimate heart, separated from the person of Christ, but the living heart of the God-Man, the center of all His affections, the fountain of all His virtues, the most touching emblem of His infinite love [for all]. The Church venerates the cross, the blood, and the wounds of the divine Savior, 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 Savior, since all its thoughts, movements, 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.
Liturgy [pre-Vatican II, compare the liturgy at the Eudist's site.]

" [This is quoted in the Introit (now called the entrance antiphon) of the mass for the Sacred Heart used in the church before the second Vatican Council. The following passages were also used in that Liturgy.]

Opening Prayer
Traditional
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. The the same Jesus Christ our Lord, etc.

Is. 12:1-6 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 Savior'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 Eucharist. We should rejoice over these graces, particularly that the holy One of Israel, Jesus, the Son of God, is in the midst of... Church, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, remaining there 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.

John 19:31-35
John 19:34 Douay-Rheims "But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side: and immediately there came out blood and water." Compare the NAB and footnote 15.
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, according 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" (DR. Compare Matt. 15:19). 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.

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" [DR but compare Isa. 2:10]. For what is the rock but Christ, and the pit, but His wound?

Offering to the Sacred Heart

"My loving Jesus, I (name) give you my heart; and I consecrate myself wholly to you out of the grateful love I bear you, and as a reparation for all my unfaithfulness; and with your aid I [intend] never to sin again."

Vigil Of the Feast Of the Sacred Heart

2007-06-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

My most loving Jesus, my own heart is glad when I think upon Thy most Sacred Heart, all tenderness and sweetness for sinners, and I am filled with confident hope of Thy kind welcome. But O, my sins! how many and how great are they! Grieving now, like Peter and like Magdalene, I bewail and abhor them, because they are an offence to Thee, my Sovereign Good. O, grant me pardon for them all. Would that I might die before I offend Thee again! I pray Thee, by Thy Sacred Heart, that I may live only to requite Thy love.
From The Chaplet of the Sacred Heart from The Raccolta

Because the devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary are so closely linked (indeed St. Jean Eudes tells us that the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary are One), artists often execute matched sets of the Two Hearts in the same style. It just happens that the Immaculate Heart image that is the match for the above Sacred Heart is the one that was in my house when I was growing up:

Feast of Corpus Christi and First Friday

2007-06-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Nine First Fridays

It was just as Jansenism was causing a "coldness" to enter into Catholic life in France, that the revelations to St Margaret Mary Alacoque, concerning devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, were made.

This was a devotion in which the heart symbolised Jesus' perfect love for mankind; it began to grow in importance in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and was later promoted by St Gertrude and St Bonaventure amongst others.

St Gertrude (died 1302) is said to have had a vision of St John the Evangelist on his feast day, where he told her that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was reserved for subsequent ages, when the world would need to be reminded of his infinite love.

This devotion was very much a private affair until about the sixteenth century when it came more into the mainstream of Christian practice, particularly under the influence of writers such as St Francis de Sales and prominent Jesuits such as St Francis Borgia and St Peter Canisius.
It was still essentially a private devotion, though, until St John Eudes worked to establish a feast day, which was first celebrated in 1670. This feast of the Sacred Heart gradually spread to other dioceses in France and eventually coalesced with the devotion that began as a result of the apparitions of Jesus to St Margaret Mary, in the small town of Paray-le-Monial in central France.

Earlier in the seventeenth century France had been consecrated to Mary by Louis XIII, an example followed by a number of other nations including Portugal.
The first apparition took place on 27 December, the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, probably in 1673, while Margaret Mary was a nun in the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial. There is some uncertainty as to the precise dates of the apparitions, but not their content).

She related what happened to Fr. Claude de la Colombiere, who was in charge of the Jesuit house in the town, describing how she had a vision of Jesus during which she was given some idea of the greatness of his love for mankind. Jesus told her that he wanted her to tell the people of this love, and a similar theme was expressed during the second apparition, early in 1674, when Margaret Mary saw Jesus' Sacred Heart on a throne of flames, transparent as crystal, surrounded by a crown of thorns signifying the sins of mankind, with a cross above it.
Again Jesus told her of his infinite love for mankind and his desire that he should be honoured through the display of this image of his heart, with the promise that all who did so would be specially blessed.

The third apparition probably took place on 2 July 1674, while Margaret Mary was praying before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, that is the host consecrated during Mass which had become the Body of Christ. She saw a vision of Jesus in glory, with his five wounds shining like suns, and he then showed her his heart on fire with love for mankind, a love that unfortunately was often ignored or treated with contempt.

He asked her to make up for this coldness and ingratitude by receiving Holy Communion as often as she was allowed, and particularly on the first Friday of each month. This idea of making reparation for the sins of others is also prominent in the messages given by Mary to the children at Fatima in 1917.

The fourth apparition, which probably took place on 16 June 1675, was the most important. Again it happened as Margaret Mary was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, when he again showed her a representation of his heart, further complaining of the ingratitude and coldness of mankind towards him, and particularly when this was the case with those specially consecrated to him.

To make up for this he asked that the first Friday after the feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for the "Body of Christ"), should be dedicated as a feast in honour of his Sacred Heart, when people should receive Holy Communion in reparation.

The "Great promise" associated with this devotion applied to those who went to Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays: "I promise you, in the excess of the mercy of My Heart, that Its all-powerful love will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the first Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure nor without receiving the Sacraments, My Divine Heart becoming their assured refuge at that last hour."

These promises have been endorsed by successive Popes, and were explicitly mentioned in the bull of St Margaret Mary's canonisation authorised by Benedict XV. Obviously this last promise in particular is dependent on people adopting an interior attitude of love towards Jesus, and not abusing his goodness.

This promise is really one of the grace of final repentance, that is of dying in a state of grace, and so there is some similarity here to the promise attached to the brown scapular. If somebody dies in this state then although they may have to spend time in purgatory they will eventually get to heaven.

To qualify for this tremendous grace it is necessary to receive Holy Communion validly and worthily, that is not being in a state of mortal sin, on the nine consecutive first Fridays as stated. In addition the communicant must have the intention, at least implicitly, of making reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all the sinfulness and ingratitude of mankind.
This promise is paralleled by the one made to Lucia, that of the Five First Saturdays, following the apparitions at Fatima.

This series of apparitions has been approved by the Church, which has vouched for their authenticity as far as is possible. The writings of Margaret Mary, which included these revelations and her letters, were examined during the process of her beatification, and she would not have been canonised, that is declared a saint, if they were not reliable.
Likewise, the popes have expressed their approval of these apparitions, with their essential content being included in the bull of canonisation by Pope Benedict XV in 1920, while the feast of the Sacred Heart has been established in the Church calendar as requested.

2007-06-09T10:22:00.001-07:00

Enthronement Of Your Home To The Sacred Heart of Jesus
by The Very Father Roger J. Scheckel Spiritual Advisor for the Marian Catechists
March 1, 2003In one of the classes that I am attending during my study sabbatical in Rome, Italy, we were asked to read an article written by a priest from the Archdiocese of Cleveland, that concerns the spirituality of diocesan priests. One of the topics discussed in the article is the need priests have for an experiences of intimacy. The author states that without healthy experiences of intimacy, the priest will fail miserably in his vocation as a priest. Throughout the article some very valid points are made. But I was disappointed with his discussion concerning intimacy in the life of the priest, in that his understanding of intimacy focused exclusively on horizontal relationships (people to people) while never once mentioning the necessity to develop an intimate relationship between the priest and Jesus Christ.It is not only priests, but also every Christian believer who is in need of deep and satisfying personal relationships with other people, so long as the proper moral boundaries of these relationships are maintained. This is especially true of the need for intimacy between the believer and Jesus Christ. Each believer is invited and encouraged by Christ to come to know, love and serve him as an intimate friend and companion, (John: 15:15). This intimacy between Christ and the believer is built into each sacramental encounter, particularly at the Holy Mass during the reception of Holy Communion. In each of the sacraments there are words, gestures, and touch that communicate to the believer the intimacy that Christ seeks with each recipient. I can, to this day, vividly recall what passed through my mind and heart when Bishop John Paul laid his hands on my head to pray over me when ordaining me to the priesthood. When I felt the touch of the hands on my head I said interiorly, “Lord, it is you.”I believe that most believers have had moments such as my own during the celebration of the sacraments. The sacraments are purposely designed to communicate a personal and intimate presence of our Lord. However, the sacraments are not the only experience where Christ’s personal and intimate presence is made available to us. The devotional life also provides an important opportunity for an intimate experience with Christ. The sacramental and the devotional life should never be viewed as contrary to, or in competition with, one another. It is important that a balance and harmony between the two be established in the life of the believer. However there is a difference between the two of them that affects the experience of intimacy that the believer is able to encounter with our Lord, that being that the sacramental encounter is communal while the devotional is primarily but not exclusively, private.When considering the experience of intimacy in personal relationships, such as with a spouse or good friend, most of us are aware that an intimate encounter seeks situations where privacy, leisure and silence can easily be found and maintained. In this regard, the devotional life by its very nature lends itself to greater possibility for intimacy with Christ. This should not be misconstrued to mean that sacramental/communal experiences are devoid of leisure and silence. Almost every priest will admit that one of the continual challenges of sacramental ministry is to develop and maintain within the Sacred Liturgy a time and space for silence and leisure so that the worshiper can have some time to be with Christ “alone” in their mind and heart. I describe this aspect of sacramental ministry to be a challenge because so often the Sacred Liturgy has to “move along” in order to accommodate another schedule that serves the life of the parish. Also, I believe it more difficult (but not impossible) to experience intimacy with someone when surrounded by a large crowd than in the privacy of one’s home. It is on this particular point, namely, that our homes can become places where deep devotional intimacy is achieved, that I dedicate the remainder of this article. More specifically, I wish to commend to all readers the enthronement of their home and the consecration of their family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.The enthronement of one’s home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well as the consecration of one’s family to that same heart underscores a basic teaching of our Catholic Faith, namely, that the family and home constitute the domestic Church. Jesus Christ desires to enter into our homes and our family life and be an active part of all that goes on there each day. The enthronement, preceded by proper preparation, is an explicit invitation on the part of the family to have Jesus as King and Friend of the family. In the act of consecration, the family seeks for Christ to rule in their hearts and home knowing that Christ’s Kingship is defined by service and love. The love founded in the service that Christ has for each family member is the love that each family member is to have for one another. Christ is asked to enter into the family’s everyday life, to be a true brother and friend. He is asked to provide protection to the home, preserving it from the evil that seeks to destroy the family. The consecration prayer speaks to Christ from the heart about one’s own heart. “Lord Jesus, to Your loving, glorified Heart, Your wounded Heart, we dedicate, we consecrate our weak, our selfish hearts” (Ceremonial for the Family, page 7). Throughout the consecration prayer the words chosen are thoroughly personal and intimate. When a family consecrates themselves and their home to the Sacred Heart it indicates that Jesus Christ is to be an intimate member of that family. That he will be included in the family conversations, that he will be consulted in prayer when there are important decisions to be made and that his image will have a prominent place in the family home indicating his role and place in the family.The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus provides a special opportunity to foster devotional intimacy. We are well aware that our personal relationship with Jesus Christ is founded on the reality that He is present to us spiritually (also substantially in the Holy Eucharist). It is a unique kind of relationship in that we don’t have a bodily person in front of us the way we do when we have a personal encounter with a spouse or friend. It can be daunting to enter into intimate conversation with Jesus Christ who is “hidden” from us by the glory that He shares with his Heavenly Father. Jesus knows well about this uniqueness. He entered into and continues to share our finite human nature. He knows the challenge that our finitude presents when seeking a personal relationship to the One who is infinite. By choosing to reveal the image of himself as the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, we are able to observe the love and understanding that Christ has for us. He knows that over time the human person needs to be able to look into the eyes and speak to the heart of the person we desire to love. And so he provided a privileged revelation to be given to Saint Margaret Mary that would help us in this regard. When a family member enters the room where the image of the Sacred Heart has been prominently displayed, it can offer the opportunity for that person to privately, in silence and leisure, speak heart to heart with Jesus Christ. This kind of intimate conversation is essential to the life of the believer.The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the enthronement of the home and the consecration of the family provides an important opportunity to enrich and deepen the saving grace that comes to our lives through the sacraments. The devotional life deepens and nourishes our Christian Faith allowing God’s saving grace to have an ever deeper and profound effect in our lives. Marian Catechists of the Diocese of La Crosee should have an appreciation of the devotional life in general, due to the formation program of Father John Hardon, S.J., and also an appreciation for the Sacred Heart Devotion, in particular, due to the initiatives within our Diocese that have been promoted by the leadership and service of our Diocesan Bishop, The Archbishop Raymond L. Burke. If you have not enthroned your home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus consider doing so and if you have, consider encouraging others to do the same.

Feast Of Corpus Christi

2007-06-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

Daily Offering To the Sacred Heart
Domine Iesu Christe, in unione illius divinae intentionis, quia in terris per sanctissimum Cor tuum laudes Deo persolvisti et nunc in Eucharistiae Sacramento ubique terrarum persolvis usque ad consummationem saeculi, ego per hanc diem integram, ad imitationem sanctissimi Cordis beatae Mariae semper Virginis immaculatae, tibi libentissime offero omnes meos intentiones et cogitationes, omnes meos affectus et desideria, omnia mea opera et verba.
Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, in union with that divine intention wherewith on earth Thou didst offer to God Thy praises through Thy Most Sacred Heart, and dost now offer them in the Sacrament of the Eucharist everywhere on earth even to the end of time, I most gladly offer Thee throughout this entire day, all my thoughts and intentions, all my affections and desires, all my words and deeds, in imitation of the most sacred Heart of the blessed and ever Virgin Mary Immaculate.
Amen.

Act Of Sorrow And Contrition

2007-06-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

My adorable and dearest Jesus, behold at Thy feet a person who has caused so much sorrow to Thine amiable heart. O my God, how could I wound Thy heart, which hath loved me so much, and has spared nothing to make Itself loved by me? But console Thyself, I will say to my Savior, for my heart, having been wounded with Thy grace and most holy love, now feels regret for the offenses that I have committed against Thee. Please give me, my Jesus, the sorrow for my sins which Thou hast felt for them in Thy life! Eternal Father, I offer Thee the sorrow Thy Son felt for my sins. I ask Thee to give me a great sorrow for the offenses I have committed against Thee so that I may live a life that no longer despises Thy friendship.

My Lord Jesus, from this day forward, give me a horror of sin, that I may despise even the slightest faults, considering that they displease Thee. My beloved Lord, I now detest everything that displeases Thee, and in the future I will love only Thee, and love only that which Thou lovest. Oh help me, give me the strength, give me the grace to call upon Thee constantly, O my Jesus, and always to repeat to Thee this petition: My Jesus, give me Thy love, give me Thy love, give me Thy love.

Most holy Mary, obtain for me the grace to pray to thee continually and to say to thee, O my Mother, make me love Jesus Christ.

Prayers To the Sacred Heart

2007-06-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

From the Raccolata

June Is Devoted To the Sacred Heart

2007-06-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

Today is not only the beginning of the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it is also the First Friday of June. In tribute to one of the two patrons of this blog, however imperfectly we maintain it (Ginny has just awful computer problems, and I have a lot of distractions just keeping my own blog up and running), I would like to present a photo-essay of holy card images of the Sacred Heart.

The Chaplet Of the Two Hearts

2007-05-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Chaplet of the Two Hearts

There are 20 beads in 5 sets [One can use the regular Rosary, just going around twice on the decades, saying three Hail Marys on each bead], each consisting of 1 Our Father and 3 Hail Marys.

These are the meditations for the five sets:

1. In honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
2. In honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
3. The Passion of Our Lord.
4. The Sorrows of Mary.
5. In atonement to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

At the end on the medal say the prayer to the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary:

O United Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Thou art all grace, all mercy, all love. Let my heart be joined to Thine, so that my every need is present in Thine United Hearts. Most especially, shed Thy grace upon this particular need [mention it]. Help me to recognize and accept Thy loving will in my life.
Amen.

May Is Mary's Month

2007-05-01T08:19:00.000-07:00

Construction Of the Shrine To the Sacred Heart At St. Louis' Cathedral

2007-04-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

Rome of the West provides some construction photos and some of Stroik's drawings.

New Shrine of the Sacred Heart At St. Louis Cathedral/Basilica

2007-03-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

This is NOT an image of Duncan Stroik's new shrine to the Sacred Heart at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica. I have not been able to find an image of it, yet.

March 23, 2007

"Be not afraid!"
Shrine of the Sacred Heart at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica

by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke

"Be not afraid!"

Shrine of the Sacred Heart at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica

Introduction

Having reflected at some length on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and its central place in our daily Christian living and, therefore, in our Lenten observance, I am happy to announce that a shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus will be installed in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. The image of the Sacred Heart will be enthroned in the shrine. At the time of the enthronement, I, together with representatives from throughout the archdiocese will solemnly consecrate the archdiocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

As I understand, there had been a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the cathedral basilica, but, at one point, it was removed and never replaced. Although there is a symbol of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as it appears on the back of the Miraculous Medal, in the mosaics of the cathedral basilica, at the top of one of the central arches, there is no proper area of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The enthronement and the act of consecration will take place in the cathedral basilica at the regular 5 p.m. Mass on this coming June 17, the Sunday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which will be celebrated on June 15. Since June 17 is a Sunday of Ordinary Time, it will be possible to celebrate the Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The choice of the Sunday afternoon Mass will make possible the participation of priests and other members of the faithful from all of our parishes and Catholic institutions. Please mark your calendar for June 17 with an appointment to participate in Holy Mass at the cathedral basilica at 5 p.m, during which the image of the Sacred Heart will be enthroned and the archdiocese will be consecrated to the Sacred Heart.

Following the Mass with the solemn enthronement and act of consecration, there will be a reception in Boland Hall, the parish hall of the cathedral basilica parish. The reception will provide a good opportunity for those participating in the joyous event to visit with one another.

The Shrine Itself

The shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus will be installed in the west transept of the cathedral basilica, directly across from the baptistery and ambry, which are in the east transept.The space for the shrine is ample without necessitating the removal of any pews or disturbing, in any other way, the present ordering of the space in the cathedral basilica.

The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been created by the Vatican Mosaic Studio. It is modeled after the image of the Sacred Heart in the Archbishop's Residence, which has been reproduced in various sizes for the devotion of the faithful. It is also on the holy card with the Morning Offering, which is distributed by the archdiocese.

The mosaic image of the Sacred Heart will be placed in an altarpiece made of marble from Pietrasanta in Italy. The shrine will include stands with votive candles to represent our prayers continuously lifted up to the glorious Heart of Jesus.

The shrine has been designed by Duncan G. Stroik of the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. He is internationally known for his design of beautiful churches and chapels, in accord with the long tradition of sacred architecture, at an affordable cost for the parish or Catholic institution. His design of the shrine of the Sacred Heart is truly beautiful and, therefore, inspiring.

Offerings for the shrine

The shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis is being funded by gifts of the faithful of the archdiocese. The creation of the shrine is itself an exemplary act of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. If you wish to make an offering for the shrine, please be in communication with Msgr. Joseph D. Pins, rector of the cathedral basilica. Your offering is needed and will bear lasting fruit in the increased knowledge and love of the Heart of Jesus in the minds and hearts of all who will pray at the shrine.

Conclusion

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is most rich in grace for a deeper knowledge of our salvation in Jesus Christ, a fuller participation in the sacramental and prayer life of the Church, and a stronger witness to Christ's living presence in the Church. It is my sincere hope that the installation of the shrine of the Sacred Heart in the cathedral basilica will be the cause of increased devotion among all of the faithful of the archdiocese and among the faithful from outside the archdiocese who visit our magnificent cathedral basilica throughout the year.

Please pray that the enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the cathedral basilica and the consecration of the archdiocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will bring us abundant grace for the new evangelization. Please pray, too, that many will be inspired to enthrone the image of the Sacred Heart in their homes and to consecrate themselves and their homes to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Archbishop Burke On Lent and Devotion To the Sacred Heart, Part 2

2007-03-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

March 16, 2007

"Be not afraid!"
Lent and First Friday Devotion

by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke

Introduction

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a most fitting way to respond to Pope Benedict XVI�s invitation to center our Lenten observance upon the text from the Gospel according to St. John: "They shall look on Him Whom they have pierced" (John 19:37). Our Holy Father, by inviting us to look upon the pierced side of our Lord Jesus, invites us to contemplate the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus, the pre-eminent sign of God's immeasurable and ever faithful love of us. From the Heart of Jesus flow all graces in the Church. Looking upon Him Whom we have pierced by our sins, we come to understand ever more fully the great mystery of His response of love to our indifference and even our hostility in sinning.

In a particular way, we are drawn to the Heart of Jesus, which is open for us in the Sacrament of Penance to receive the confession of our sins and to pour out upon us the healing grace of forgiveness. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus draws us, above all, to communion with our Lord Jesus in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. From the glorious pierced Heart of Jesus flows the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ for our spiritual nourishment during the days of our earthly pilgrimage home to God the Father.

Enthronement, Consecration and the Apostleship of Prayer

The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in our homes and the consecration of ourselves and our homes to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are at the heart of loving contemplation of Him Whom we have pierced. The Enthronement and Consecration represent our way of living each day, in the company of our Lord, resting in His Heart and drawing from His Heart the gift of selfless and pure love of our neighbor.

Through the Apostolate of Prayer, that is the daily Morning Offering, we unite our hearts anew to the Heart of Jesus, as we do most perfectly through the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Each morning, we place all our "prayers, works, joys and suffering" of the day into the Heart of Jesus. There, we find rest and strength. We offer our prayers for the intentions of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, of our bishops, and of all of the members of the Apostolate of Prayer. The Servant of God Father Walter Ciszek, who was confined for some 23 years in the prisons of Soviet Russia and its labor camps in Siberia, recounts how he taught the Morning Offering to fellow prisons during little spiritual retreats for them and how it united them to Christ in the outpouring of His love. He recalls to our minds the profound significance of the Morning Offering:

"In that way, no matter how harsh the conditions in the camps might be, how cruel and useless the work might seem, it took on new meaning and added value. It was something of which a man could be proud each day, because it was his to offer back to God. Each day of labor and hardship, like the grains of wheat ground up to make the host at Mass, could be consecrated to God and be transformed into something of great value in God�s sight; it was a sacrifice each man could offer back to God through the long, hard days. The grinding routine of daily labor, even here in Siberia, could have a meaning, did have a value, even as the lives of all men everywhere � no matter how dull or routine or insignificant they might seem to the eyes of men � have a value and a meaning in God�s providence" (Father Walter J. Ciszek, SJ, He Leadeth Me, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995, pp. 141-142).

Our hearts placed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the Morning Offering, become truly great with love of God and our neighbor. No matter what our condition, our hearts can bring the divine love, found in the Heart of Jesus, to others, especially those in most need.

First Friday Communion of Reparation

During Lent, we become especially conscious of the significance of every Friday of the week, since the Good Friday of our Lord's Passion and Death. Every Friday is for us a special time to reflect upon Christ's Suffering and Dying, and to unite ourselves to the outpouring of His life, especially through participation in the Holy Eucharist. That is why we are asked to abstain from eating meet on Friday, a small act of penance which keeps the Suffering and Dying of Christ before our eyes. In the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, participation in the Holy Mass on the First Friday of each month, with reception of Holy Communion, is the way of offering reparation to our Lord for our coldness and indifference before the gift of His love.

Essentially connected to the reception of Holy Communion on the First Friday of the month is the practice of a holy hour on the Thursday before the First Friday. The holy hour is spent meditating on the Passion and Death of our Lord. Through the holy hour, we strive to watch and pray with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The final promise of our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque reads:

"I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my all powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in any disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment" (Timothy T. O�Donnell, Heart of the Redeemer, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 140).

Some have objected that the practice of the First Friday Mass and Communion of Reparation is an attempt to manipulate God's mercy, in a mechanical way. What must be remembered is that participation in the Holy Mass, on the First Friday of each month, is a sign of deep, interior conversion. Timothy O'Donnell, a contemporary writer about the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and president of Christendom College, has commented on the 12th and final Promise:

"This promise was made to the person who completely surrenders himself in a deep and unconditional act of faith. It is a beautiful expression of the Lord�s desire to share Himself with us in His sacrament of love. This is essentially the same promise which our Lord made in the Gospel to those who would each His flesh and drink His blood" (John 6:65) (Timothy T. O'Donnell, Heart of the Redeemer, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 260).

Those who observe the First Friday are not trying to buy God's love but are responding to His love with the most perfect expression of love possible for us on this earth. They do not stop the devotion after nine months but continue the devotion as a way of keeping alive in their hearts the mystery of Christ's Suffering and Dying.

Beginning or renewing the practice of the First Friday Communion of Reparation and of the Thursday Holy Hour in preparation for it is an excellent way to make our Lenten observance rich in grace for us throughout the year. The First Friday and the Thursday which precede it become privileged times for our looking upon Him Whom we have pierced and lifting up our hearts to His glorious pierced Heart with ever greater love and devotion.

Archbishop Burke On Lent and Devotion To the Sacred Heart

2007-03-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

From The Saint Louis Review:

Introduction

Pope Benedict XVI has invited us to live the Season of Lent "as a Eucharistic time in which, welcoming the love of Jesus, we learn to spread it around us with every word and deed." Surely, the source of our Lenten observance is our communion with Christ in His true Body and Blood, through participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and through the various forms of�Eucharistic devotion.�Our prayer, fasting and almsgiving are empty of their true meaning, unless they are inspired by the love of God, which is given to us, most fully and perfectly, in the Most Blessed Sacrament. If our Lenten penance is to bear fruit, it must, as our Holy Father has reminded us, flow from the Holy Eucharist, the great Mystery of Faith.

To assist us in making Lent a truly Eucharistic time, the Church provides us with various devotions which prepare us for participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and worship of the Most Blessed Sacrament.�These devotions also extend our privileged communion with our Eucharistic Lord to the circumstances of our daily living.

The praying of the Rosary, for example, deepens our appreciation of the mysteries of our Redemption, which are all contained in the Eucharistic mystery. Through the praying of the Rosary, our Blessed Mother leads us to a deeper knowledge and love of her Son, our Redeemer, Who gives Himself Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity to us in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Making the Stations of the Cross is also an excellent way to meditate upon the mystery of the Suffering and Dying of Christ for our salvation. Walking mystically with Christ on the sorrowful way to Calvary and His Crucifixion helps us to keep before our eyes the tremendous reality, the truly incomprehensible reality, of the Holy Eucharist, in which the Passion and Death of Christ on Calvary are made present for us in our time and place.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, enthronement and consecration

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is at the heart of our Lenten observance, for it draws us near to Christ in the Holy Eucharist and helps us to remain in His company throughout the day. Our Holy Father, in fact, has proposed as the theme for our Lenten observance the text from the Gospel according to St. John: "They shall look on Him Whom they have pierced" (John 19:37). During Lent, as we look upon the image of Christ crucified, we especially gaze upon His pierced Heart, which He permitted to be opened by the soldier�s spear, pouring out every ounce of His being for our salvation. The glorious pierced Heart of Jesus is the source of all the graces we receive in the Church.

Lent would be a good time to enthrone the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home or your places of work and recreation. The image of the Sacred Heart reminds us, throughout the day, that our Lord Jesus accompanies us all along the way of our earthly pilgrimage. It also invites us to pause and reflect upon the mystery of our life in Christ, letting Christ look into our hearts.

When we enthrone the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we also make our prayer of consecration, giving our hearts completely to our Lord Jesus, placing our hearts totally into His open Heart. If you have already enthroned the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and made the consecration of your life to the Sacred Heart, Lent is a good time to renew your consecration.

If you have not enthroned the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in your home, make the enthronement a central part of your Lenten observance. The archdiocese has published a very practical handbook to help you to prepare for the enthronement and to celebrate the enthronement once you have prepared properly. It is available through Father Thomas G. Keller, archdiocesan promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Also, Father Keller is happy to answer any questions which you may have regarding the enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the act of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Morning Offering and the apostleship of prayer Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is expressed daily by the praying of the Morning Offering, upon rising. Through the Morning Offering, we unite our hearts to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. With Mary, we spiritually unite ourselves to the Eucharistic Sacrifice, offering to the Heart of Jesus our "prayers, works joys and suffering" of the day. The Morning Offering is an excellent way to make all of our time "Eucharistic," as Pope Benedict XVI urges us to do during the Season of Lent.

We offer our lives for the love of our Lord Jesus, for the intentions which have been placed into His Heart.�Each month, our Holy Father gives us two intentions which he asks us to remember especially. Through the apostleship of prayer, we offer our hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, calling to mind the intentions of our bishops and of all members of the apostleship, especially the intentions of the Holy Father. Three intentions are mentioned specifically in the Morning Offering: the salvation of souls, reparation for sins and the reunion of all Christians.

Conclusion

Next week, I will continue to reflect upon the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, especially the holy hour on the Thursday before First Friday, commemorating the Passion of our Lord, and the First Friday participation in Holy Mass and reception of Holy Communion in reparation for sins committed against the love of God, poured out upon us from the Heart of Jesus.

What Greater Love on Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

How beautiful is the splendour of love that is revealed in the communion of hearts! How beautiful is to be all together as family,
contemplating the luminous power of love?

The fire of love of the Heart of Jesus will always be the remedy to our coldness and selfishness. St. Mathew tells us in his gospel chapter 24, that in the passing of time, love in most men will grow cold. Jesus told St. Margaret that the revelation of his heart was the last effort of his love in this last times, to warm a world that has grown cold. To St. Faustina, the Merciful Heart told her that he was offering to a cold world a last refuge, the mercy of his heart. I believe that in our time the hearts of men have grown cold, selfishness is ruling and
violence is becoming a common way of life. Men have forgotten the meaning of love. That is why, the Lord is offering his sacred, merciful and Eucharistic Heart to our generation. He wants to change our hearts, so a new civilization can begin, a civilization in which loves triumphs over evil.

Consecration to the Immaculate Heart fosters the reign of love of the Eucharistic Heart in our hearts
St. Maximilian: "This truth must be inscribed in the hearts of all mankind, those who are living now and in those who will live until the end of all times. The Immaculate must be introduced to the hearts of men, and so enable Her to raise the throne of her Son in them, and draw all mankind to the knowledge of Him and inflame them with love for the Most Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus".

Novena Feb 6th- Feb 14th

2007-02-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

Novena Especially Dedicated to The Two Hearts for Valentine's Day

SOLT Holy Family Ecclesial Team Formation Training Center
St. Valentine's Day Novena
February 6th to 14th

“For this is the message
That you have heard
From the beginning:
We shall love one another.”
1 John 3:11

Who are we?

We are priests, deacons, religious (sisters and brothers) and lay members of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) living, serving and being formed at the Holy Family Ecclesial Team Formation Center in Robstown, Texas.

At the Holy Family Center, persons in formation come together to learn how to work, minister and pray with one another for six months before being sent into one of SOLT’s 40 missions throughout the world.

Why this novena?

Just as we have done these past five years, we are happy to offer you this St.Valentine’s Novena. During the novena, we will offer your intentions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We will be praying for you and your intentions at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, during daily Eucharistic Adoration and other daily prayers (including the most holy rosary) for these nine days.

What to do now?

Please list your intentions and contact details by February 5, 2007 to:
Holy Family Ecclesial Team Formation Center
700 West Avenue
DRobstown TX 78380 USA.
Telephones: Center No. - 361 767 0791
361-767-9417

Thank you and God bless you,

Fr. Michael E. Jordan, SOLT
Holy Family Center Priest Servant

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

There is something so wonderful about what a mother feels in her heart when she looks at her new born child for the very first time. There is a joy beyond words. A love that is immediate. From the instant that child is put in her arms, there is a bond that starts. A mingling of the hearts between a mother and child. An attachment that lasts for a lifetime. Nothing and no one can come between this union

Now imagine how the woman of the world feel when they bring this special little gift into the world

We could never begin to understand what The Blessed Mother felt in her Heart, knowing she brought the Sacred Heart into this world to save us all from sin

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Tom and I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Very Blessed Christmas

Feast Of The Immaculate Conception

2006-12-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

The Magnificat

Luke 1: 46-55 (Douay translation)

My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior
Because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid;
for behold from henceforthall generations shall call me blessed.
Because He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name.
And His mercy is from generation untogenerations, to them that fear Him.
He hath shewed might with his arm; He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with goodthings; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy
As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.

Prayers during Advent

2006-12-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

During this time in Advent let us not forget the Heart that holds Our Dearest Savior who came into this world to free us from sin.

Pray this prayer to Mary written by Pope Pius XII.

Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.

Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.

O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully.

We come with confidence to You, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love.
Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed Your own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes Your shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with your rule, triumph in every heart and home.

Amen.

St Gregory and the Sacred Heart

2006-12-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Pope St. Gregory the Great — (†604 AD) said, “Learn of the Heart of God in the words of God so that you may ardently long for eternal things.”

The Life of Saint Gregory the Great
By Sister Catherine Goddard Clark, M.I.C.M.
Pope Saint Gregory the Great not only saved the Church, in times so frightful that the men who lived in them were sure that the end of the world was come, but he founded the great civilization which has lasted down to our day and of which we are part, Western Civilization. All alone, in the midst of famine and pestilence, floods and earthquakes, endangered by Greeks and barbarians alike, and abandoned by the Emperor, Pope Gregory, frail and ailing in body but strong and undaunted in spirit, succored and saved his people, his city, his country, and the whole of Christendom.
The great Roman Empire which for three hundred years had persecuted the Christians and driven them underground to the catacombs, had for all of that time been in the process of decay. In 476, the thing was completed. The Empire in the West fell. It fell to the barbarian invaders not as the outcome of a great battle, but as the inglorious petering out of something that had been worse than dead for a long, long time.
There came to replace the soft and decadent, overrefined and grossly weak civilization of Rome, the rude and uncouth, unmannerly and brutal, but also strong and virile and young and convertible German nations, which for two centuries had been on the march, mysteriously moving as without purpose, on the one hand, and as if in response to a divine summons on the other. History calls it the "migration of nations." In wave after wave, invasion after invasion, they streamed across Europe. They thundered down from the North, came up from the South, across from the East, and one by one they stormed the gates of Rome.
They were a strange mixture, these nations, of good and bad, gentle and rapacious, but their lives were distinguished by a purity more vigorous than the Romans' and their respect and treatment of women, despite their rude manners and coarse living, far exceeded the Romans'. It is true of them that:
". . .The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. By the Lord this has been done; and it is wonderful in our eyes.
"Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof." (Matt. 21: 42, 43.)
The Graeco-Romans had had their chance and, like the Jews, the first chosen people, they had failed. Centuries of patient labor on the part of the Church would pass before the wild tribes who replaced the "stone of the corner" could be taught and tamed and civilized, but once the long work was accomplished, Christ the King and His Queen Mother would be given the generous, glorious, unselfish ages of chivalry, the Crusades, and -- the Thirteenth Century. The world would have known Gregory the Great, Leo III, Gregory VII, Innocent III, Boniface VIII, Bede, John Damascene, Peter Damian, Anselm, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Gertrude, and a thousand others.
Pope Saint Gregory's boyhood was laden with the catastrophes which followed one upon the other as the aftermath of the fall of Rome to the barbarians in 476. It is true that Saint Gregory was not born until 540, but so without violence had been the surrender of the mighty city whose legions had once been the terror of the world, that for some time after 476 Rome went on almost as usual, almost without knowing that the Empire had been destroyed. The full impact of the revolution was not felt until the next century.
The first barbarian ruler of Italy, Odoacer, actually ruled in a more orderly and gentle fashion than the last of the weak and depraved Roman Emperors. The Church was comparatively unmolested during the reign of Odoacer, even though he was an Arian. For not only had Arianism not died out, despite the Church's pronouncements against it council after council, but two hundred years after its beginning we find it flourishing in the West. It was, ironically, introduced into the West in full force by the invading barbarians, who had been converted not to orthodox Christianity during their sojourns in the East, but to Arianism.
The Arian barbarians, wildly loyal to their strange mixture of heretical Christianity and leftovers from their former nature worship, fiercely hated the one true Church of Jesus Christ. Saint Gregory of Tours describes the Visigothic King Euric: "This King of the Goths began a grievous persecution of the Christians in Gaul. Everywhere he beheaded those who would not conform to his perverse doctrine. He cast priests into prison, the doors of the holy churches he ordered to be blocked with briers, that only a few might enter and the Faith might pass into oblivion. . . ."
This being everywhere the case, Europe, by the beginning of Pope Saint Gregory's century, inundated by six barbarian nations, had seen its orthodox Catholicism replaced by the cults of the pagan Anglo-Saxons in Britain, the pagan Franks in Northern France, the Arian Visigoths in Southern France and Spain, the Arian Ostrogoths in Italy, the Arian Vandals in North Africa, and the Arian Burgundians in Eastern France. And from what happened in these nations, it would seem as if heresy were more distasteful to God than sheer paganism. For the pagan can, after all, be converted to pure Catholicism, whereas the heretic, perversely holding that what he has is the Faith, puts himself forever beyond its reach.
This is most clearly to be seen in the two nations, France and England, which were conquered by pagans. France, brought again to the Faith through the conversion of its King, Clovis, became the "eldest daughter of the Church." England, its reconversion begun through Pope Gregory's commission of Saint Augustine of Canterbury to the English in 596, provided one of the greatest consolations of the holy Pontiff's life. Arianism, on the other hand, so weakened Spain that for eight hundred years it became prey to the Moors. The Arian Goths in Italy and the Arian Burgundians in Eastern France delayed the progress of the lands they had conquered. All their plans failed, lacking the blessing of God; they became a spiritless people, and finally died out.
Pope Saint Gregory -- who would not only bring order out of all this, but would, as well, lay the foundation for the great Middle Ages -- was born around the year 540 of the last of the old Roman families illustrious for generations of noble achievement. His was, an even more lasting conquest, a family of saints. Pope Saint Felix III was his ancestor, and both Gregory's parents, renouncing their immense fortunes and vast estates, consecrated themselves to God, to spend their last years in the service of His Church. Pope Gregory's father, Gordianus, was a Roman senator and at the height of his renown when he retired to enter religion, and to become eventually one of the seven cardinal-deacons in charge of the poor and the suffering in the hospitals of Rome. Gregory's mother, Sylvia, left him to enter a small oratory near Saint Paul's in Rome, where she led a life of such austerity and holiness that she was a constant edification to the Catholics of Rome during her lifetime, and was canonized by the church after her death. The feast of Saint Sylvia is celebrated every year on November 3. And that is not all. Besides his mother, two of Saint Gregory's aunts were canonized. They are his father's sisters, Saints Tarsilla and Aemiliana, of whom Pope Gregory often speaks in his writings.
Gregory's youth, however, was a sad one. He tells us himself that for all of his boyhood Rome was under siege by one barbarian conqueror after another. Within a period of less than twenty years, the suffering city was taken and retaken six times. Roman senators and people alike were massacred. The terrible Lombard nation, which for over two hundred years would plague the Church, surpassed in cruelty all the conquerors who had come before it. The Lombards laid waste the cities, despoiled the towns and villages, burned the churches, tore down the monasteries, desolated the farms and left the entire countryside destitute of inhabitants, with none to till the soil, care for the starving animals, or work upon the land.
Nowhere any longer, over the once gay and happy Italian countryside, could there be heard the cry of a child; nowhere any longer could there be seen the bent forms of the aged praying in their chairs in the sun. Saint Gregory writes of the terrible massacre by the Lombards of the forty Christian prisoners who refused to adore a goat's head which had been consecrated to the devil. He tells of the sacrifice to the Lombard gods of steadfast Italian peasants who refused to eat the food which had been the previous sacrifice, and which was set before the poor Catholics in sheer mockery of their own adorable Blessed Sacrament.
And all the while, as the barbarians ravaged even the great Monastery of Monte Cassino, which Saint Benedict had built and in which he had lived, as plagues devastated the people and the peasants died of hunger in their huts, and wild animals came down from the hills to devour the unburied dead, the agents of the Greek Emperor in the East -- supposed, since Justinian's defeat of the Goths in 553, to be the protectors of the city -- conducted a "black market" in food and supplies. They had seized the food solely for the purpose of forcing from the famished people impossible prices for barely enough to keep life in their bodies.
It is not surprising, therefore, with these sad memories never far from his mind that Saint Gregory should, at the age of thirty, after the completion of his law studies, accept the Prefecture of Rome, the highest civil dignity in the city. From this vantage point, he reasoned, he could himself protect the people, and himself administer the seven sovereign hills, as his ancestors had done before him. The people came eventually to know and to love him, and to depend on him for their safety.
But even the consciousness of great public service performed after the manner of noble family tradition did not satisfy Gregory's soul. His must be a complete giving, a full surrender, and charity to his neighbor was not enough. Such a pouring out of oneself upon one's fellow man can only be spiritually effective, he had come to learn, when it is done from a heart utterly given first to God, and when the love expended is Jesus' love, coming from the mortified, consecrated hands of his religious. And so the day came when, after much prayer and inward struggle, he "who had been wont to go about the city clad in the trabea and aglow with silk and jewels, now clad in a worthless garment served the altar of the Lord."
The Prefect Gregory, like his parents, disposed of his goods and dedicated himself to the service of his Lord in poverty, chastity and obedience. He became a Benedictine monk. His place on the Caelian Hill he turned into the Monastery of Saint Andrew. His large estates in Sicily he gave as sites for six other monasteries, each of which he carefully endowed before he turned over the remainder of his fortune for the care of the poor.
He entered Saint Andrew's Monastery, and for three years lived a life of retirement. He spoke later of these years as "the happiest portion of my life." He counted as nothing his severe austerities, his many enforced hours without sleep, and his long fasts, although these have been said to have been the cause of the great physical infirmities he endured for all the rest of his life. He was obliged often, when he was Pope, to spend parts of each day in bed; sometimes he was not able to rise for several days.
Once, when Saint Gregory was at Saint Andrew's, the news of his illness reached the ears of his mother, Sylvia, in her convent close by. That practical and holy woman immediately betook herself to the convent garden, where she gathered some tender young vegetables, which she washed and prepared for him, herself. When they were cooked, as a final token of her love, she placed them in the silver dish which was the very last of all her tremendous possessions, and thus she sent them off to him. Years later, this dish was to figure in one of the many miraculous happenings which filled the life of Pope Gregory, purchased not only by his heroic sufferings, but also by his mother's sacrifices, constant and unending, for the love of Jesus Christ.
However, the thought of becoming Pope was farthest from Saint Gregory's mind at this time. He asked for nothing more than to be allowed to spend the rest of his life in the monastery on the Caelian Hill, "in contemplation above all changeable and decaying things, and think of nothing but the things of Heaven," as he later wrote in his Dialogues. "How my soul, though pent within the body, soared beyond its fleshly prison and looked with longing upon death itself as the means of entering into life!"
But our ways are not God's ways, and it soon became clear, after his third year at Saint Andrew's, that days of quiet prayer and contemplative work were not to be Gregory's portion for much longer. In 578, quite against his will, Pope Benedict I made him one of the seven deacons of Rome. And a little later on, when word was received that the Lombards were again advancing on the city and the only chance of possible help against them lay with the Emperor of the East, Pope Pelagius II sent Deacon Gregory far away from Rome. He sent him as his permanent ambassador to the Byzantine court, at Constantinople.
Saint Gregory remained at Constantinople for six years. And nothing could be less to his liking than the brilliant, protocol-heavy, worldly court of the Emperor Tiberius; and no post was more important. During the tedious time of his nunciature, Saint Gregory came by a knowledge of the situation in the East which stood him in good stead years later in the papacy, and solved for him many a problem which otherwise might have been a serious stumbling block to him. He was unable, during these years, to obtain help for Rome, but he learned the lesson that never could help be expected from Constantinople as long as it remained as it was, and he saw no hope of its changing.
It was all too apparent to the holy Benedictine monk that the Empire in the East was hopelessly the slave of its passions, hopelessly enmeshed in waste and greed and luxurious living, its forces dissipated and its vision fearfully dimmed. He was sick for the plight of the land from which the twelve Apostles had gone out, without scrip or staff or bread or money, to conquer the world for Jesus Christ; sick for the land which had felt the spatter upon it of the blood of the martyrs, who thought life little enough to pay for one Holy Communion; sick for the land which had known the presence of Jerome, the voice of Chrysostom, the song of Ephrem, the austerities of Anthony and his army of holy men who dwelt solitary and alone in the desert so that, undisturbed by the world, they might hold sweet converse with Jesus.
Saint Gregory found the subservience of the bishops -- and in particular of the Patriarch of Constantinople -- to the person of the Emperor, begun in the days of Constantine, grown until, under Tiberius and Maurice it reached a point of servility which offered a serious indignity to God. It could truthfully be said that the Emperor drew the Patriarch of Constantinople in his train, the Patriarch drew all the bishops of the East in his train, and the whole episcopal body came justly by its sad title of "the Emperor's Episcopate."
Saint Gregory, as nuncio, was obliged to live in the Emperor's palace. He had there ever before him the sickening spectacle of the Patriarch and the bishops perpetually bowing to the wishes of the Emperor, or of the Empress, and fulfilling to the letter everything they asked of them. He saw with his own eyes, too, how deeply the heresies fostered within the Eastern Church had wounded the Faith and sapped the once vigorous life of the Church. And he was filled with alarm at the stubborn straining of each succeeding Patriarch to be independent of the Bishop of Rome.
The claims of the Bishop of "New Rome" -- Constantinople -- to the honors of the Bishop of ancient Rome scandalized Gregory, especially since the Patriarchs based their claims not upon Jesus Christ nor Saint Peter, but upon the residence of the Emperors in their city. It may be that Gregory foresaw the great schism of Patriarch Photius, still three hundred years away. He certainly clearly discerned the danger to the Church, and there is no doubt but that the foreboding was heavy upon him that one day the teeming center of Christian life would pass from the proud Emperor-worshiping, fawning East. That he himself would unwittingly be the one forced to inaugurate it, he had no way then of knowing.
In the hope of preserving as much of his monastic life as possible, in the midst of the clamor of the Greek court, Saint Gregory had brought with him from Saint Andrew's a little band of monks. As often as he could, he withdrew with them and with his friend, Leander of Spain, to pray and meditate upon the Holy Scriptures. From the conferences which he gave in these peaceful hours came the indescribably beautiful Book of Morals on Job, Saint Gregory's first book, dedicated to Leander, Archbishop of Seville, who was to work so closely with when he became Pope and whom the Church honors on her altars as Saint Leander, of Seville.
It was while he was in Constantinople that Saint Gregory came to grips with the heresy of Eutychius (not to be confused with Eutyches, the father of the Monophysite heresy, who held that there is but one nature in Jesus). Eutychius was, as might be expected, the Patriarch of Constantinople. His heresy, and he had even gone so far as to write a book setting forth his views, concerned the resurrection of our bodies on the last day of the world -- their appearance and the powers which glorified bodies will have. After the resurrection he said, our restored bodies will be "impalpable, more light than air." They will, he explained, be intangible; barely able to be seen, much less touched. They will be visible as air is visible, nothing more.
Saint Gregory tried to reason with Eutychius, but it was of no use. Vainly, he pointed out to him the Church's dogma of the resurrection of the flesh. Vainly, he implored him to remember that Jesus Himself had made the doctrine perfectly clear when He said to His Apostles, after His Resurrection: "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. See that I am He. Touch and see (palpate et videte) because a spirit flesh and bones does not have, as you see Me to have." (Luke 24:39)
So long did the controversy rage, and so bitter did it become, that the Emperor finally intervened. He decided that Gregory was right, and Eutychius wrong, and he ordered Eutychius to burn his book. However, the strain had so worn out the combatants that both fell ill, and Eutyches died. On his deathbed, the Patriarch became contrite. He took hold of the skin of one of his arms and in a voice that all could hear, he cried, "I profess that we will all rise in this flesh!"
It is true Catholic doctrine, of course, that our glorified bodies shall have astounding qualities of agility and clarity that will make them, for any needs, lighter than air or swifter than light. Our Lord, after His Resurrection, appeared in the midst of His Apostles even though the doors were closed, and as suddenly He disappeared, when He had finished talking with them, without the Apostles having seen whence He had come or whither He had gone. But it will not be for the sake of destroying it as a body that these new qualities will be given. Indeed, it is of the Catholic Faith that we shall arise in the same body in which we died, and to deprive that body of the visibility and tangibility required for its glory, its triumph and its love, was the clear intent of the heresy of Eutychius, who wanted to turn it into an unincarnational spirit for the sake of his own proud desires.
We will one day, so our infallible Church assures us, see our loved ones once again in the flesh. We will be able once more to talk with them, to hear them speak, to hold their hands, as Jesus walked and talked with His loved ones after His Resurrection; as He holds converse now with His Blessed Mother and, undoubtedly, with Saint Joseph, as they await us in their glorified bodies in the Kingdom of Our Father.
Saint Gregory was recalled to Rome in 586. Greatly rejoicing, he returned to his monastery, to be acclaimed its abbot. He found Rome again beset with calamities. The hand of God still lay heavy upon it. Floods and tempests battered it, and earthquakes rocked it. But worst of all, to Gregory, the spirit of the world had crept, in his absence, into his monastery. He took sad note, not of any scandalous irregularities, but of a general relaxing of the holy detachment from the goods of the world which had been a pledge, in the early days, of the continued holiness of Saint Andrew's.
Finally, to his relief, it all came to a head. One of the monks confessed to his assembled brothers, as he lay dying, that he had concealed in his bed three gold coins. This violation of holy poverty so shocked and so grieved Gregory that he decided to punish the erring monk in such a way that the rest of the monastery would not soon forget "the heinousness of a sin that recalled that of Judas." And so he ordered that when Brother Justus was dead, his body should lie, not in the little cemetery of Saint Andrew's, but "should be put in a dunghill together with the three crowns," and all the monks were to cry with one voice as it was being let down to the earth, "Thy money be with thee unto perdition!"
Now, Saint Gregory tells us in his Dialogues that the monk died contrite and penitent and he, out of compassion for his soul, offered up thirty consecutive Masses. On the thirtieth day, Brother Justus appeared to one of his brothers and told him that he was delivered from Purgatory. The joy of the chastened monastery knew no bounds. And God was so pleased with the discipline and charity of his servant Gregory that we find the story preserved down to our own time in the well-known "Gregorian Masses," said on thirty consecutive days for the repose of the souls of the loved ones for whom we continue, to this day, to request them.
It was while he was at Saint Andrew's for the second time that Saint Gregory's famous meeting with the English slaves took place, in the Roman Forum. He came upon the tall, blond youths as they were being sold, and he asked from whence they had come.
"They are Angles, " he was told.
"Angles?" he exclaimed. "Say rather they are angels! What a pity that God's grace does not dwell within those beautiful brows!"
He purchased all of the handsome slaves, brought them back with him to the monastery, cared for them, and instructed and baptized them. He was, finally, so taken with them that he burned to be off on a mission to convert their whole country. And he actually was able to win the permission of Pope Pelagius II to set out with some of his monks for England, and this in spite of the fact that he was of invaluable service to the Pope, having been for some time Pelagius' chief adviser and, for all practical purposes, his secretary.
When the people of Rome, however, learned that Gregory had left them, they were both inconsolable for his loss and angry with the Pope for allowing him to go. They indignantly demanded that he be recalled, and they would not rest until they were assured that messengers had been sent to bring him back, by force if necessary. The papal messengers overtook the little party when they were three days out on the road, and they not only persuaded Gregory to return, but bore him back to Rome in triumph.
It would, alas, be necessary for Saint Gregory to think of another way to evangelize the Angles and Saxons and induce them to substitute for their pagan gods the one true Faith of Jesus Christ, which they had all but wiped out in England during their invasion of it. But to those who love God, all things conspire to the good. Saint Gregory never forgot his young English sons, and one of the most notable acts of his pontificate was the sending, in 596, of the prior Augustine and forty of his monks from Saint Andrew's to preach the Faith to the English. The enormous success of this mission earned for England, in the long Catholic centuries before the Protestant revolt, the exquisite honor of being called the land which was "Our Lady's Dowry." It earned for Gregory the title of Apostle to the English, and for the Italian Monk, Augustine, it earned the distinction of being known forever in Heaven and on earth as Saint Augustine of Canterbury!
In 589, the rains and the floods which deluged Italy threatened once and for all to submerge the peninsula. Homes, farms, government houses were carried off in the raging waters, to be dashed to pieces in the headlong rush and float as driftwood out into the sea. The Tiber River next overflowed its banks, and in the twinkling of an eye, the great Church granaries bulging with corn were filled with water, and the precious food hopelessly destroyed.
Pestilence then stalked the streets of Rome, and the corpses of the dead piled up in the silent thoroughfares, to await common burial in the pits outside the walls. When things were at their darkest, at the very height of the misery, a blow more devastating than all the rest descended upon the prostrate Romans. Word came that Pope Pelagius had fallen victim of the dread plague. The Church was left without a head, and Rome without a protector. After the first shock of the Pope's death, the eyes of the Romans turned to Gregory. At that time it was within the power of the clergy, the senate, and the people to elect a new Pope. And this they did without any hesitation. They chose Gregory -- much to his consternation.
Saint Gregory strove to escape the honors and the burdens of the papacy not from any lack of supreme reverence for the holy office of Christ's Vicar, but undoubtedly because he felt his own inadequacy for the sublime mission, and because he believed that the surest way to obtain help and healing for the sick and shaken world around him was by prayer and mortification. He was first of all a monk, and his was a monk's reaction to the glare of the world and the undertaking of immense burdens which would consume precious hours hitherto spent in prayer and union with God. Under his inspiration and guidance, the monks of Saint Andrew's had become renowned for holiness, learning, and untiring charity, and he knew that it is by such means that mountains are moved and empires turned to love of God.
Saint Gregory's letters, of which we have, fortunately, eight hundred and fifty preserved for us in fourteen books, give, of course, the best possible account of his thoughts. He poured his heart out to Saint Leander on the subject of his leaving his monastery.
"Following the way of my Head," he wrote, "I had resolved to be the scorn of men, the outcast of the people. But the burden of this honor weighs me down; innumerable cares pierce me like swords. There is no rest of the heart. I was tranquil in my monastery. The tempest arose; I am in the waves, suffering with the loss of quiet a shipwreck of mind. The gout oppresses you; I also am terribly pained by it. It will be well if, under the strokes of the scourge, we perceive them to be gifts, by which the sense of the flesh may atone for sins which delights of the flesh may have led us to commit. . . The shortness of my letter will show how weak and occupied I am, who say so little to one I love so much."
Saint Gregory wrote to the Emperor Maurice, begging him not to confirm his election. The Prefect of the city intercepted the letter and substituted for it one of his own, in which he, in his turn, begged Maurice to confirm the election at once. In the meantime, the clergy and the people prevailed upon Gregory to take charge of the affairs of the Holy See until the traditional formality of asking the Emperor's confirmation was complied with, and word received in reply from Maurice.
The pestilence increased in intensity. When the people seemed unable to bear it any longer, Saint Gregory mounted the pulpit of Saint Peter's, and despite an almost overpowering illness and his inability to ever raise his poor, weak voice above a certain pitch, he preached a sermon so comforting and so reassuring that the hearts of the people were raised to hope. He promised that the whole stricken city would so bombard heaven with prayers that God and His Mother would find it impossible to resist them. To this end, he asked that the people join in a huge procession, to set out from each of the seven regions of Rome and all to come together at the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They were to storm Heaven with their prayers on the way, to entreat God to lift from their afflicted city the terrible plague which He had allowed to come upon it, and to ask Him to forgive them their sins.
The great procession set out, each of the seven divisions from its appointed place. There marched: the clergy of Rome, the monks, the nuns, the children, the laymen, the widows, the married women, each group led by a priest from one of the seven areas of the city. And as they wended their dolorous way, eighty of the marchers fell dead of the plague.
It must have been a moving sight even for the august court of Heaven, to look down upon this slow advance of desperately praying people, holding lighted tapers and chanting with feverish voices the Kyrie eleison. It must have looked, from Heaven, as if a great seven-branched candlestick were ablaze upon one whole corner of the earth. And the ancient cry of the Kyrie eleison -- "Lord have mercy" -- which had so often assailed the ears of Jesus as He passed healing down the streets of Palestine, must still have had the power to move His Sacred Heart to pity.

2006-11-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

Tom and I would like to wish Everyone a Very Happy Thanksgiving

We are eternally grateful to the Blessings given to us because of The Sacred and Immaculate Hearts

We hope you continue to benefit from this site and we pray to The Two Hearts for You and Your families

Sacred Heart Window

2006-11-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

This Sacred Heart Window is from Holy Rosary Cathedral, Vancouver.

Click here for details from the window.

First Saturday Remembrance

2006-11-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

TEN FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT FATIMA

1. WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA?

The Message of Fatima consists of a number of precise predictions, requests, warnings and promises concerning the Faith and the world which were conveyed by the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children--Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco--in a series of apparitions at Fatima, Portugal from May to October 1917.

2. WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA?

You should believe the Message of Fatima because:

(1) It was confirmed by an unprecedented public miracle, the Miracle of the Sun, which occurred at precisely the moment Lucia said it would. More than 70,000 people, including Masons, communists and atheists, saw the sun, contrary to all cosmic laws, twirl in the sky, throw off colors and descend to earth. The event was reported in newspapers around the world, including the New York Times.
(2) All of the Popes since the Fatima Miracle have recognized that the Message is authentic. Several Popes have gone to Fatima in person, including Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II. John Paul II said at Fatima in 1982 that "the Message of Fatima imposes an obligation on the Church."
(3) Many other miracles have been performed by God authenticating the Fatima Message as coming from Him, not only at the time of the Miracle of the Sun, October 13, 1917, but down the years to the present day, miracles of conversions and cures which science cannot explain by natural means.
(4) The Message of Fatima accurately predicted world events, which proves that it is a true prophecy.

3. The Message of Fatima accurately predicted in 1917 all of the following events which came to pass:
(1) the end of World War I;
(2) the emergence of Russia as a world power which would "spread its errors (including Communism) throughout the world ... raising up wars and persecutions against the Church";
(3) the election of a Pope who would be named Pius XI;
(4) the waging of a second World War following a strange light in the night sky.
The Message of Fatima also predicted that if the requests of the Virgin Mary at Fatima are not honored, many souls will be lost, "the Holy Father will have much to suffer", there will be further wars and persecutions of the Church and "various nations will be annihilated." The annihilation of nations predicted at Fatima has not yet occurred, but many fear that it will soon happen, given the growing immorality and corruption of the world.

4. WHAT DOES THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA REQUEST?

At Fatima Our Lady said that God wished to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Lady said that many souls would be saved from Hell and the annihilation of nations averted if, in time, devotion to Her Immaculate Heart were established principally by these two means:
1) the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope together with the world's bishops in a solemn public ceremony, and
(2) the practice or receiving Holy Communion (and other specific devotions of about 1/2 hour in duration) in reparation for the sins committed against the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months--a practice known to Catholics as "the First Saturday" devotion.

5. HAVE THESE REQUESTS OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA BEEN HONORED?

No, not entirely. A number of the Faithful practice the "First Saturday" devotion, but Russia has yet to be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a solemn public ceremony conducted by the Pope together with the world's Catholic bishops.
In 1982 the last surviving Fatima seer, Lucia, who is now a cloistered nun living in Coimbra, Portugal, was asked if an attempted consecration by Pope John Paul II had sufficed. She replied that it did not suffice, because Russia was not mentioned and the world's bishops had not participated. Another attempted consecration in 1984 likewise did not mention Russia or involve the participation of many of the world's bishops, and Sister Lucia stated immediately afterwards that this consecration, too, had failed to meet Our Lady's requirements.

6. WHAT DOES THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA WARN?

It warns that if the requests of Our Lady of Fatima for the Consecration of Russia and the First Saturday devotion are not honored, the Church will be persecuted, there will be other major wars, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and various nations will be annihilated. Many nations will be enslaved by Russian militant atheists. Most important, many souls will be lost.

7. WHAT DOES THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA PROMISE?

The Message of Fatima promises that if the requests of Our Lady of Fatima are carried out "My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will Consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to mankind."

8. ISN'T IT TRUE THAT THE CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA WAS DONE IN 1984 AND THAT THE "FALL OF COMMUNISM" PROVES THAT THE CONSECRATION WAS EFFECTIVE AND THAT RUSSIA IS NOW CONVERTING?

No, it is not true. We know it is not true because:

(1) On March 25, 1984, after the consecration of the world, Pope John Paul II said twice that Our Lady of Fatima's request for the consecration of Russia was not done.
(2) Soon after the attempted Consecration of 1984, which did not mention Russia or involve the participation of the world's bishops, Sister Lucia stated it was insufficient because it did not meet the requirements specified to her by Our Lady.
(3) Since 1984 the moral and spiritual state of the world has obviously grown far worse: In the past 14 years there have been 600 million abortions, and wars have broken out all over the world. Mercy-killing and homosexual acts have been "legalized". In Russia itself a new law has just been passed which discriminates against the Catholic Church and in favor of Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and the Orthodox churches which forcibly occupied Catholic parishes under the Communists. Thus it is clear Russia is not converted to the Catholic Faith as Our Lady of Fatima promised would happen if Her request was done.
(4) There have been very few conversions to Catholicism in Russia over the past fourteen years. In all of Russia today there are only 300,000 Catholics--much less than one percent of the Russian population. By comparison, after Our Lady appeared at Guadalupe, Mexico in the 16th Century, more than 7 million Mexicans converted from paganism to the Catholic Faith within nine years and Mexico became a Catholic country.

9. WHY IS THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA IMPORTANT TO ME AND MY FAMILY?

The Message of Fatima is important to you and your family because it involves the salvation of souls, peace in the world and, if the requests of Our Lady of Fatima are not carried out, the consequences are the annihilation of nations and the enslavement of all mankind under militant atheists of Russia.

10. BUT ISN'T THE MESSAGE OF FATIMA JUST A PRIVATE REVELATION WHICH NO CATHOLIC HAS TO BELIEVE?

No, it is not just a private revelation. It is a public, prophetic revelation given by the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. It is not to be confused with "Revelation" or as it is also called, the Deposit of the Faith, which ended with the death of the last Apostle. But public, prophetic revelation must not be despised. The Virgin

Halloween...Remember the Sacred Heart

2006-10-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

Let us not forget that with the traditions of Halloween stand some very unsettling aspects as well. We need to protect ourselves from the evil spirits that do roam upon the Earth, causing great havoc in todays society. We remember to pray to The Archangel Michael and ask for invocations from the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in these times of unsettling evils in the world

Saint Michael, The Archangel, defend us in battle; Be our protection against the malice and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the Divine power , thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Follow this prayer with the traditional invocation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus: Have mercy on us.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus: Have mercy on us.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus: Have mercy on us.

In Nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti Amen.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

2006-10-17T00:49:00.000-07:00

No account of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of our Lord can be complete without reference to the revelations granted to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun of the 1670s passionately devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary. Yes, Saint John Eudes was an early contemporary of hers, and wrote wonderfully about both the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. But it was the revelations to St. Margaret Mary that catapulted devotion to the Sacred Heart from one among many wonderful, valid devotions to THE Catholic devotion par excellence.

The Monks of Adoration, prominently featured in the links column to the right, have put together this excellent biography of St. Margaret Mary, and history of the revelations about the Sacred Heart our Lord made to her.

Here is another short biography of St. Margaret Mary.

The Sacred Heart of Christ is an inexhaustible fountain and Its sole desire is to pour Itself out into the hearts of the humble so as to free them and prepare them to lead lives according to His good pleasure.

From this Divine Heart three streams flow endlessly. The first is the stream of mercy for sinners; It pours into their hearts sentiments of contrition and repentance. The second is the stream of charity Which helps all in need and especially aids those seeking perfection in order to find the means of surmounting their difficulties. From the third stream flow love and light for the benefit of his friends who have attained perfection; these He wishes to unit to Himself so that they may share His knowledge and commandments and, in their individual ways, devote themselves wholly to advancing His glory.

This Divine Heart is an abyss filled with all blessings, and into it the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need.

Are you making no progress in prayer? Then you need only offer God the prayers which the Savior has poured out for us in the sacrament of the altar. Offer God His fervent love in reparation for your sluggishness. In the course of every activity pray as follows: "My God, I do this or I endure that in the Heart of Thy Son and according to His holy counsels. I offer it to Thee in reparation for anything blameworthy or imperfect in my actions." Continue to do this in every circumstance of life.

But above all preserve peace of heart. This is more valuable than any treasure. In order to preserve it there is nothing more useful than renouncing your own will and substituting for it the will of the divine heart. In this way his will can carry out for us whatever contributes to his glory, and we will be happy to be his subjects and to trust entirely in him.

From a letter by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

"BEHOLD THIS HEART, WHICH HAS LOVED MEN SO MUCH, THAT IT HAS SPARED NOTHING, EVEN TO EXHAUSTING AND CONSUMING ITSELF, IN ORDER TO TESTIFY TO THEM ITS LOVE AND IN RETURN I RECEIVE FROM THE GREATER NUMBER NOTHING BUT INGRATITUDE BY REASON OF THEIR IRREVERENCE AND SACRILEGES AND BY THE COLDNESS AND CONTEMPT WHICH THEY SHOW ME IN THIS SACRAMENT OF LOVE. BUT WHAT I FEEL THE MOST KEENLY IS THAT IT IS HEARTS WHICH ARE CONSECRATED TO ME THAT TREAT ME LIKE THIS. THEREFORE, I ASK OF YOU THAT THE FRIDAY AFTER THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI BE SET APART FOR A SPECIAL FEAST TO HONOR MY HEART, BY RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION ON THAT DAY AND MAKING REPARATION TO IT BY A SOLEMN ACT IN ORDER TO MAKE AMENDS FOR THE INDIGNITIES WHICH IT HAS RECEIVED DURING THE TIME IT HAS BEEN EXPOSED ON THE ALTARS. I PROMISE YOU THAT MY HEART SHALL EXPAND ITSELF TO SHED IN ABUNDANCE THE INFLUENCE OF ITS DIVINE LOVE UPON THOSE WHO SHALL LIKEWISE HONOR IT AND CAUSE IT TO BE HONORED."

St Francis and The Provincial Seal

2006-10-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

On This The Feast of St Francis of Assisi shows his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary's Immaculate Heart

The Franciscan coat of arms consists of a Latin cross surmounted by the right arm of Jesus Christ crossed over the left arm of Saint Francis Assisi.
Christ’s hand bears one of the five wounds of his passion. Francis' hand bears one of the wounds of his stigmata. The whole scene issues from clouds.
The central section of the seal bears three nails within a crown of thorns, signifying the passion of Christ and denoting penance and conversion.
The lower portion of the field is emblazoned with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The crescent moon, to the right of the heart, symbolizes Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Beneath the seal is the motto, "in corde Jesu," which is translated, "in the heart of Jesus."
Completing the seal is a crown composed of fleur-de-lis representing Saint Louis of France and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, patron and patroness of the Third Order of St. Francis.

Saint John Eudes' The Admirable Heart of Mary, Installment 5

2006-10-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

We resume our serialization of this classic on the Immaculate Heart now that I have access again to the book.

Part I, Chapter 5
The Spiritual Heart of Mary

The Holy Ghost is wont to describe many things with few words. Wishing to praise the principal faculties of the body and soul of His Spouse, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to exalt the merits of her Heart, He uses very few words, which nevertheless contain many meanings. What does He say? How does He praise Mary, the sovereign of hearts? He utters only three words: Quod intrinsecus latet (Song 4:1,3 what is hid within). But these three words encompass all the great and admirable utterances that can be said or thought of her royal Heart; they reveal to us that it is a treasure hidden from the most enlightened eyes of heaven and earth, a treasure so filled with celestial riches that God alone can have a perfect knowledge of its wonders.

Notice that the Holy Ghost pronounces these words not only once, but twice in the same chapter. He does this in order to impress them more strongly on our minds and to oblige us to consider them with greater attention, as well as to manifest to us both the corporeal heart of the Queen of Heaven...and her spiritual heart, of which I shall speak now.

What is the spiritual heart? In order to understand it, we must remember that, although the soul is essentially one, it can nevertheless be considered as having a threefold life.

The first and lowest life is that of the vegetative soul, which is similar in nature to that of plants, for the soul in this state has no other function than to nourish and sustain the body. The second is the sensitive life, which we have in common with animals. The third is the intellectual life, like that of angels, comprising the intellectual memory, the intellect proper and the will, together with the highest part of the mind, which theologians call the point, the summit or the eminence of the spirit. This last power is led not by the light of complex reasoning, but by a clear intuition of the intellect and a simple movement of the will whereby the soul submits to the truth and the will of God.

It is this third life called spirit, the mental, superior part of the soul, which renders us like the angels and carries with it in its natural state the image of God and in the state of grace, a participation of the divine nature.

This intellectual part is the heart and the noblest portion of the soul, for, first, it is the principle of the natural life of the rational soul, which consists in the knowledge it can obtain of supreme truth with the aid of the natural light of its intelligence, and in its natural love for sovereign goodness. Animated by the spirit of faith and grace, it becomes the principle of the supernatural life of the soul, which knows God by celestial light and loves Him with supernatural love. "This is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God" (Jn 17:3).

Secondly, this intellectual part is the heart of the soul, because in it is centered the will, the faculty and capacity of loving, but in a manner much more spiritual and noble and exalted and with a love incomparably more excellent, more lively, more active, more solid and durable than the love which proceeds from the sensitive and corporeal heart.

The will, enlightened by the light of the intellect and the torch of faith, is the principle of this love. When it is led only by the light of human reason and acts only in virtue of its natural capacities, the will produces only a human and natural love incapable of uniting the soul to God. But when it follows the torch of faith, and is moved by the impulses of the spirit of grace, it becomes the source of a supernatural and divine love, which makes the soul worthy of God.

Thirdly, sacred theology teaches us that, even though grace, faith, hope and charity spread their heavenly influence and divine movements to the other faculties of the inferior part of the soul, they nevertheless reside and have their true natural dwelling in the superior part. Hence it follows that this same part is the real heart of the Christian soul, because divine charity can have no other abode than the heart which possesses it, according to the words of St. Paul: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts" (Rom. 5:5).

Fourthly, St. Paul proclaims to all Christians: "Because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts," (Gal. 4:6) and assured them that he bends his knees to the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ to obtain the privilege that His Divine Son may dwell in their hearts (Eph. 3:14-17). Now, what is this heart, if not the superior part of our soul, since the God of grace and love cannot dwell in a Christian soul elsewhere than in the part where grace and charity reside?

All this clearly demonstrates that the true and proper heart of the rational soul is the intellectual part, called spirit, the mental, superior part.

This being so, the spiritual heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the intellectual element of her soul, comprising her memory, intelligence, will and the supreme point of her spirit. This is the heart which expresses itself in the first words of her admirable Canticle, the Magnificat: "My soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior" (Lk. 1:46-47). It is the spirit, the soul's first and noblest part, which must, in a very special manner, glorify God and rejoice in Him.

Of this marvelous heart I have great things to say. But to use the language of St. Paul, even all human and angelic tongues together pronouncing everything that could be said would still fall far short of its perfections. "Of whom we have much to say, and hard to be intelligibly uttered" (Heb. 5:11).

If the virginal heart beating in the consecrated breast of the Virgin of virgins, the most excellent organ of her holy body, is so admirable, as we have already seen, what must be the marvels of her spiritual heart, the noblest portion of her soul? Is it not true that, as the condition of the soul surpasses that of the body, so also does the spiritual heart excel the corporeal? We have already considered the rare prerogatives of her heart of flesh, and we shall now endeavor to express the incomparable gifts and inestimable treasures with which her spiritual heart is filled.

I shall place before you only a short summary to encourage you to bless the source of so many marvels, to praise her who made herself worthy of so many graces, and to honor her most holy heart, which so faithfully preserved her graces and privileges and used them so perfectly.

First of all, Divine Bounty miraculously preserved the heart of the Mother of Our Saviour from the stain of sin, which never touched it because God filled it with grace from the moment of its creation, and clothed it with purity so radiant that, next to God's, it is impossible to conceive of greater purity. His Divine Majesty possessed her heart so completely from its first instant that it never ceased for a moment to belong entirely to Him and to love Him more ardently than all the holiest hearts of heaven and earth united. Such is the opinion of many great theologians. In the second place, the Father of Light has filled this beautiful Sun with the most brilliant lights of nature and of grace. If we consider the natural illumination shining within Mary, we see that God gave to the chosen Spouse of the Holy Spirit a natural intellect more clear, lively, profound, vaster and more perfect in every way than any other intellect, an intellect worthy of the Mother of God, worthy of the woman destined to guide and rule Divine Wisdom, worthy of the Mistress of the Church and Queen Regent of the universe, worthy of her who was to converse familiarly on earth with the angels of heaven, and what is more, with the King of Angels, for thirty-four years, an intellect worthy of the lofty functions and sublime contemplation to which she was consecrated.

As regards supernatural light, the luminous heart of Mary, Seat of Wisdom, was so filled with its radiance that the learned Albert the Great, nurtured in the school of the Mother of God, plainly teaches, together with many other holy Doctors, that there was nothing Our Lady did not know (Tract. Super Missus est, cap. 149). They assert that she possessed infused knowledge of every science, and in a much more eminent degree than the most learned minds that ever existed.

The vast knowledge of the Blessed Virgin Mary was dedicated to a most holy use, employed only to urge her to love God with greater ardor, to procure the salvation of souls with greater fervor, to hate sin more vigorously, to humble herself more profoundly, to despise still further everything that the world esteems and to prize and embrace with greater affection the things it detests, namely poverty, abjections and suffering.

Moreover, Our Lady never experienced undue pleasure in the lights that God imparted to her, never became attached to these favors, never preferred herself to other beings on account of them, but always returned them to God as pure as they sprang from their source.

Such was the knowledge of the Admirable Heart of Mary. What shall we now say of the twofold love that inflamed her heart, her love for God and incomparable charity for men?

It was by the force of love and humility that Mary attracted the well-beloved Son of God, the Heart of the Eternal Father, to be the Heart of her heart.

The love of Mary's most blessed heart makes it an inexhaustible source of gifts, favors and blessings for all those who truly love their Mother most amiable, and honor with affection her most lovable heart, according to the words the Holy Ghost puts on her lips: "I love them that love me" (Prov. 8:17).

Finally, it is this heart which has loved and glorified God above all the hearts of angels and men, and therefore, can never be revered adequately.

What honor is due to such great and admirable wonders! What veneration should be shown to the heart of Mary, the noblest part of the holy soul of the Mother of God! What praises must be rendered to all the faculties of the spiritual heart of the Virgin Mother, namely her memory, her intellect, her will, and the most intimate part of her spirit, which were never exercised except for God and by motivation of the Holy Ghost.

What respect her holy memory commands, which only remembered the unutterable favors she had received from the divine munificence, and the graces God constantly showers on every creature, in order to thank Him incessantly!

What veneration is due to her intellect, always engaged in considering and meditating on God's mysteries and His divine perfections in order to honor and imitate them! What veneration is also due to her will, perpetually absorbed by the love of God!

What honor the supreme part of her spirit commands, which was day and night absorbed in contemplating and glorifying His divine majesty most excellently!

Is there any praise not merited by the marvellous heart of the Mother of the Saviour, a heart which never encompassed anything that could in the least displease Him, a heart so filled with light and grace, a heart possessing the perfection of all virtues, all the gifts, all the fruits of the Holy ghost, with all the evangelical beatitudes?

Will you not admit, dear reader, that, if heaven and earth were to exalt the admirable heart of Mary eternally with all possible strength and if the entire universe were to thank God for having filled her heart with such a wealth of marvels, this honor and thanksgiving could never fittingly be made.

To The Sacred Heart

2006-10-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

St Therese of Lisieux's Poem

To The Sacred Heart

Beside the tomb wept Magdalen at dawn,
She sought to find the dead and buried Christ;
Nothing could fill the void now He was gone,
No one to soothe her burning grief sufficed.
Not even you, Archangels heaven-assigned!
To her could bring content that dreary day.
Your buried King, alone, she longed to find,
And bear His lifeless body far away.

Beside His tomb she there the last remained,
And there again was she before the sun;
There, too, to come to her the Saviour deigned,
He would not be, by her, in love outdone.

Gently He showed her then His blessed Face,
And one word sprang from His deep Heart's recess:
Mary! His voice she knew, she knew its grace;
It came with perfect peace her heart to bless.

One day, my God! I, too, like Magdalen,
Desired to find Thee, to draw near to Thee;
So, over earth's immense, wide-stretching plain,
I sought its Master and its King to see.

Then cried I, though I saw the flowers bloom
In beauty 'neath green trees and azure skies:
O brilliant Naturel thou art one vast tomb,
Unless God's Face shall greet my longing eyes."

A heart I need, to soothe me and to bless,
A strong support that can not pass away,
To love me wholly, e'en my feebleness,
And never leave me through the night or day.

There is not one created thing below,
Can love me truly, and can never die.
God become man - none else' my needs can know;
He, He alone, can understand my cry.

Thou comprehendest all I need, dear Lord!
To win my heart, from heaven Thou didst come;
For me Thy blood didst shed, O King adored!
And on our altars makest Thy home.

So, if I may not here behold Thy Face,
Or catch the heaenly music of Thy Voice,
I still can live, each moment, by Thy grace,
And in Thy Sacred Heart I can rejoice.

O Heart of Jesus, wealth of tenderness!
My joy Thou art, in Thee I safely hide.
Thou, Who my earliest youth didst charm and bless,
Till my last evening, oh! with me abide,

All that I had, to Thee I wholly gave,
To Thee each deep desire of mine is known.
Whoso his life shall lose, that life shall save;
Let mine be ever lost in Thine alone!

I know it well, no righteousness of mine
Hath any value in Thy searching eyes;
Its every breath my heart must draw from Thine,
To make of worth my life's long sacrifice.

Thou hast not found Thine angels without taint;
Thy Law amid the thunderbolts was given;
And yet, my Jesus! I nor fear nor faint.
For me, on Calvary, Thy Heart was riven.

To see Thee in Thy glory face to face,
I know it well, - the soul must pass through fires.
Choose I on earth/i> my purgatorial place,
The flaming love of Thy great Heart's desires!

So shall my exiled soul, to death's command,
Make answer with one cry of perfect love;
Then flying straight to heaven its Fatherland,
Shall reach with no delay that home above.

Padre Pio And the Two Hearts

2006-10-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

I recently found a site celebrating St. Pio, and in it, are two articles, one discussing St. Pio's relationship to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady, and the other discussing his relationship with the Sacred Heart of Our Lord.

Novena To the Sacred Heart

2006-09-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

On this feast of Saint Pio, we wish to remember him by providing this novena to the Sacred Heart which he said every day for the many thousands of people who requested his prayers.

Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

I. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you." Behold I knock, I seek and ask for the grace of...... (here name your request)Our Father....Hail Mary....Glory Be to the Father....Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

II. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you." Behold, in your name, I ask the Father for the grace of.......(here name your request) Our Father...Hail Mary....Glory Be To the Father....Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you. III. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away."

Encouraged by your infallible words I now ask for the grace of.....(here name your request) Our Father....Hail Mary....Glory Be to the Father...Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us miserable sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of you, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, your tender Mother and ours. Say the Hail, Holy Queen and add: St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us.

-- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Our Lady of Sorrows

2006-09-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Our Lady of Sorrows
by John O’Connell

We can trace devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows back to apostolic times. St. John the Evangelist, whom we can consider as one of the first devotees of the Mother of Sorrows, witnessed first-hand and then recorded in his Gospel that Mary stood by the Cross of her Son (Jn 19:25). There on Calvary the Blessed Mother suffered—overwhelmed with grief at seeing her Son, who is also her God, die an agonizing death by crucifixion.
At the Presentation of the Infant Jesus at the Temple, Simeon prophesied that Mary’s soul would be pierced by a sword so that the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed (Lk 2:35). Mary, as the first and greatest disciple of her Son, participated in a most deep and profound way in the redemptive work of Our Lord.
Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows flowered during the Middle Ages. The well-known medieval hymn Stabat Mater beautifully expresses this devotion to the sorrowing Blessed Virgin Mary at Calvary: At the Cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last. Our Lady of Sorrows is traditionally depicted in art dressed in black with seven swords piercing her heart. These seven swords symbolize the chief seven sorrows of Our Lady’s life. Devotion to the Sorrows of Mary gave rise to the figure in Christian art of the Pietà, the sorrowing Mother holding the dead Body of her Son who has been taken down from the Cross.
Different sorrows of Mary have been honored in the Church’s history, but since the 14th century these seven have come to be regarded as the
Seven dolors (sorrows) of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
1. The Prophecy of Simeon.
2. The Flight into Egypt.
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days.
4. Meeting Jesus on the Way to Calvary.
5. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus.
6. Jesus Taken Down from the Cross.
7. Jesus Laid in the Tomb.
Note the Christological and scriptural foundation of the devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

By commemorating Our Lady of Sorrows, we call to mind the sufferings that Mary endured as part of her vocation as the Mother of the Redeemer. No one is closer to Christ than Mary, consequently no one has participated more intimately in the redemptive suffering of Christ than His Mother Mary.
Mary suffered because of her intimate union with Christ, on account of our sins, and in behalf of her spiritual children. Devotion to the Mother of Sorrows and the Seven Sorrows of Mary encourages us to flee from sin and inflames our desire to do penance and make reparation so as to console the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Traditionally, many Catholics have said every day seven Hail Marys in honor of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

The Nativity of This Immaculate Heart

2006-09-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

From even before she was born, This Immaculate Heart was joined to her Son. The Blessed Virgin Mary was being molded before she ever knew of her journey. This Heart was already spoken for, well before she was born. The plan was in the making for this unity. This is how Our God works. His plan is in effect even before we are aware of it. It is only through grace that we realize this and say "yes" to His plans as Mary did

"Thereafter he appeared to Anna his wife, saying: Fear not, Anna, nor think that it is a phantom which thou seest. For I am that angel who has presented your prayers and alms before God; and now have I been sent to you to announce to you that thou shalt bring forth a daughter, who shall be called Mary, and who shall be blessed above all women. She, full of the favour of the Lord even from her birth, shall remain three years in her father's house until she be weaned. Thereafter, being delivered to the service of the Lord, she shall not depart from the temple until she reach the years of discretion. There, in fine, serving God day and night in fastings and prayers, she shall abstain from every unclean thing; she shall never know man, but alone, without example, immaculate, uncorrupted, without intercourse with man, she, a virgin, shall bring forth a son; she, His handmaiden, shall bring forth the Lord -- both in grace, and in name, and in work, the Saviour of the world. So arise, and go up to Jerusalem; and when thou shalt come to the gate which, because it is plated with gold, is called Golden, there, for a sign, thou shalt meet thy husband, for whose safety thou hast been anxious. And when these things shall have so happened, know that what I announce shall without doubt be fulfilled. "

Old Feast of the Immaculate Heart

2006-08-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

Formerly, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady was observed on August 22nd. Now, it is properly celebrated, in both Novus Ordo and Tridentine Rites on the Saturday immediately following the Feast of the Sacred Heart, uniting the Two Hearts' feast days in one of the most appropriate ordo reforms after Vatican II.

A Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of thy Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to thy Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to thee, all the people of our country and all the world.

Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as thou wishest to accomplish thy designs in the world.

O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully.

We come with confidence to thee, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love. Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed thine own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes thy shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with thy rule, triumph in every heart and home.

Amen.

--Venerable Pope Pius XII

Saint John Eudes

2006-08-19T12:31:00.000-07:00

August 19th is the feast of St. John, or Jean, Eudes, one of the earliest promoters of devotion to both the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, and the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady, as well as devotion to the Two Hearts.

St. John wrote both an Office of the Sacred Heart, and a Mass of the Sacred Heart.

The Collect from that Mass is here:

Father of mercies and God of all consolation, Thou gavest to us the loving Heart of Thine own beloved Son, because of the boundless love by which Thou hast loved us, which no tongue can describe. May we render Thee a love that is perfect with hearts made one with His. Grant, we pray, that our hearts may be brought to perfect unity: each heart with the other and all hearts with the Heart of Jesus....and may the rightful yearnings of our hearts find fulfillment through Him: Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who lives and reigns with Thee in unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.

A short biography from the Catholic Encyclopedia is here. Note that Saint John was canonized in 1925, after publication of the Catholicy Encyclopedia, which refers to him as "Blessed."

His books on the Two Hearts are ground-breaking in fostering this devotion. The Admirable Heart of Mary the Mother of God I have been serializing here (and temporarily stopped due to temporary unavailability of the book). He completed the book just a month before his death. His earlier work, The Devotion To the Sacred Heart of Jesus is equally hailed by the faithful.

He is the founder of the Eudist Fathers. They are more formally known as the Society of Jesus and Mary.

First Saturday

2006-08-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Taken from the book:

More About Fatima and the Immaculate Heart of Mary REV. FR. V. MONTES DE OCA, C.S.Sp.

CHAPTER IX The Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Children's Comments:

Lucy relates that on June 13th, 1917, after speaking at length about her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady of Fatima again stretched forth her hands, throwing on the children the rays of that immense light in which they saw themselves as if immersed in God . . . The Blessed Virgin held in her right hand a Heart surrounded by thorns, which pierced it from all sides. The seers understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, afflicted by all the sins of the world, which demanded penance and reparation. "It seems to me," said Lucy, "that on that day, the purpose of the light was to pour into us a special knowledge and love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as on other occasions it infused into us the knowledge and love of God, and the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. From that day, indeed, we experienced a more ardent love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary." Francis had observed that this supernatural light, that the Blessed Virgin threw on them and on the world, seemed to come from her Heart. He afterwards asked Lucy: "Why did the Blessed Virgin hold a Heart in her hand throwing on the earth this great light which is God? You were with the Blessed Virgin in the light that went down to the earth, while Jacinta and I were in that which went up to heaven!" "It is because you and Jacinta will soon go to heaven", said Lucy, "while I shall remain some time longer on earth with the Immaculate Heart of Mary." "Is it the Blessed Virgin who explained to you the meaning of the two beams of light?" "No, I saw it in the light that she put into our breasts." "That is right," interposed Jacinta, who followed the conversation, "I saw it also." Jacinta seems to have received "a special light to understand intimately and in detail the meanings of these heavenly revelations." Before leaving for the hospital in 1919, she said to Lucy: "I am going soon to heaven. You will remain still on earth to make known to men that the Lord wishes to spread in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When you have to speak about it, you will no longer have to hide yourself! Proclaim openly to the whole world that: "It is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary that God wishes to grant us His graces!" "It is from this Immaculate Heart that we must ask for them!" "The Heart of Jesus wishes the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated with His own!" "It is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary that peace must be asked, because it is to that Heart that the Lord has confided it." "How I love the Immaculate Heart of Mary! It is the Heart of Our Heavenly Mother!" "Oh! if only I could put into all hearts the fire I feel in my own, which makes me love the Hearts of Jesus and Mary so much!" Besides, the best commentary on the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is that left us by the children in the admirable example of their lives. After the revelations, indeed they were true models of devotion and reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They loved this Immaculate Heart ardently, they invoked it constantly, they spoke about it enthusiastically, and they multiplied sacrifices to console it and to make reparation for all the blasphemies and offences that cause it to suffer.Practices of Devotion to the Immaculate Heart We have already spoken of penance and the daily Rosary so much recommended by Our Lady of Fatima. We give now the three principal practices of devotion for which she has asked in honour of her Immaculate Heart; the First Saturday of the month, the Five First Saturdays and the Consecration. They bear a marked similarity to the practices now so widespread in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 1. The practice of the First Saturdays consists of the following exercises, performed with the intention of consoling the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and making reparation to it for all the outrages and blasphemies of which it is the object on the part of ungrateful Christians: 1, the Rosary; 2, Communion of Reparation. 2. For the practice of the Five First Saturdays. In addition to the two exercises already mentioned, the following two are added on the first Saturday of five consecutive months: 3, go to confession; 4. keep the company of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by meditating for a quarter of an hour on the mysteries of the Rosary. These two must be offered in reparation to the Immaculate Heart. .The meditation may be on one or several mysteries. 3. Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As is known, Our Lady asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart and Lucia, the surviving seer has explained that She wants the Pope and all the bishops of the world to do this on one special day. If this is done She will convert Russia and there will be peace. . .

Short Prayers for Daily Use

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"Pray like this. The Hearts of Jesus and Mary are attentive to your prayers."

Here are just a small selection of short prayers that can be said in your day

Prayer to Defeat The Work OF Satan

O Divine Eternal Father, in union with Your Divine Son and the Holy Spirit, and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg You to destroy the Power of your greatest enemy-the evil spirits.

Cast them into the deepest recesses of hell and chain them there forever! Take possession of Your Kingdom which You have created and which is rightfully yours.

Heavenly Father, give us the reign of Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

I repeat this prayer out of pure for You with every beat of my heart and with every breath I take. Amen

Composed by Berthe Petit

(A Franciscan Teriary whose message was confided by Our Lord to, "Teach souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced by the very sorrows which pierced Mine.")

Sorrowful and Immaculate heart of Mary, dwelling pure and holy, cover my soul with your maternal protection so that being ever faithful to the voice of Jesus, it responds to His love and obeys His Divine Will.

I wish, O my Mother to keep unceasingly before me your co-redemption in order to live intimately with your Heart that is totally united to the Heart of Your Divine Son.

Fasten me to this Heart by your own virtues and sorrows.
Protect me always

To The Sacred Heart

"Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may ever love You more and more."
"Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You."
"Jesus meek and humble of Heart, make my heart like Yours."
"Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come."
"Sacred Heart, have mercy on me."
"Sacred Heart of Jesus. May you be known, loved and imitated."

Traditional Prayer of Reparation

My loving Jesus, out of the grateful love I bear you, and to make reparation for my unfaithfulness to grace, I give You my heart, and I consecrate myself wholly to You; and with Your help I purpose to sin no more. Amen.

Prayer for the Forgiveness of Daily Neglects

Eternal Father, I offer the Sacred Heart of Jesus with all its love, all its sufferings of and all its merits:
First-To expiate all the sins I have committed this day and during all my life.
Glory Be.....
Second-To purify the good I have done badly this day and during all my life.
Glory Be.....
Third-To supply for the good I ought to have done and I have neglected this day and during all my life.
Glory Be....

"Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with thorns which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation."

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Mary, our hope, have pity on us and pray for us.
My Mother, my hope!
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary, my Queen and Mother, remember I am all thine. Keep me and guard me as thy property and possession. Amen.
Sweet Heart of Mary, be our salvation.
"O my Jesus, I offer this for the love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for all the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. "

Scapulars

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The importance of the Scapular was given to us by The blessed Mother as a form of protection and indulgences. This is the garment that Mary states if we wear," we shall have eternal life and that those who die wearing this will not suffer eternal fire". There are several different scapulars and there is so much to learn about each different monastic order and their usage pertaining to the scapular. The use of the scapular in the lay person and Third Orders as well. I am focusing here just on the scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There is some very interesting history on the scapular that I hope you will enjoy reading about. The Blessed Lady asks of us to wear her garment with pride for it is her garment that she gives to us so that she may think of us and we of her as we wear it close to our hearts

To read more on the different kinds of scapulars and medals including Black, Blue, Brown, Red, Green and The Most Precious Blood and even more types of scapulars see New Advent for further reading

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13508b.htm

J. The Scapular of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This scapular originated with the Sons of the lmmaculate Heart of Mary in 1877, and was sanctioned and endowed with indulgences by Pius IX on 11 May of that year. The scapular was later approved by the Congregation of Rites in 1907, and its form more exactly decreed; in the same year it was assigned new indulgences. The superior general of the above congregation can communicate to other priests the faculty of blessing and investing with this scapular ("Acta Pontificia", Rome, March 1911, appendix). The scapular is of white woollen cloth: on the portion which hangs before the breast is represented the burning heart of Mary, out of which grows a lily; the heart is encircled by a wreath of roses and pierced with a sword.

O. The Scapular of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The constant wearing of a small picture of the Heart of Jesus was already recommended by Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, who herself made and distributed them. They were made of a small piece of white woollen cloth, on which was embroidered or sewed in red a picture of the Heart of Jesus. This badge was especially employed during the plague at Marseilles as a protection against the pest. During the terrors of the French Revolution it also served as a safeguard for the pious faithful. Although this badge is often called a scapular, it is not really such; consequently the conditions governing scapulars do not apply to it. It was only in 1872 that an indulgence was granted by Pius IX for the wearing of this badge. A real scapular of the Sacred Heart was first introduced in France in 1876 when it was approved by Decree of the Congregation of Rites and a special formula for blessing and investing with it appointed 4 April, 1900. This scapular consists of two segments of white woollen cloth connected in the usual manner by two strings; one segment bears the usual representation of the Sacred Heart, while the other bears that of the Blessed Virgin under the title of Mother of Mercy. By a Brief of 10 July, Leo XIII granted many indulgences for the pious wearing of this scapular.

P. The Scapular of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. This is very similar to the Red Scapular of the Passion. Like the Scapulars of the Heart of Jesus, it was approved at the request of the Archbishop of Marseilles, by a Decree of the Congregation of Rites, 4 April, 1900. The two segments of cloth are of white wool, one bears the image of the Heart of Jesus with the well-known emblems and also the Heart of Mary pierced with a sword, underneath being the implements of the Passion; the other segment has a small cross of red material. Indulgences were granted for the wearing of this scapular in 1901, and increased by Pius X in 1906. The scapular owes its origin and spread to the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, founded at Antwerp in 1873 (Acta S. Sedis, XXXII, 633 sq.)

The Value of the Scapular

Our Lord taught us to say the "Our Father." Mary taught us the value of the Scapular. When we use it as a prayer, Our Lady draws us to the Sacred Heart of her Divine Son. It is well, therefore, to HOLD THE SCAPULAR IN THE HAND while addressing Our Lady. A prayer uttered thus, while holding the mystical Scapular, is as perfect as a prayer can be. It is especially in TIME OF TEMPTATION that we need the powerful intercession of God's Mother. The evil spirit is utterly powerless when a Scapular-wearer, besides his silent devotion, faces temptation calling upon Mary. "If thou hadst recommended thyself to me, thou wouldst not have run into danger," was Our Lady's gentle reproach to Blessed Alan de la Roche.
***Pope Benedict XV granted a partial indulgence EACH TIME the Scapular is kissed.***

The Morning Offering

O my God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary (here kiss your Scapular as a sign of your consecration; partial indulgence also), I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from all the altars throughout the world, joining with It the offering of my every thought, word and action of this day. O my Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can and I offer them together with myself, to Mary Immaculate, that she may best apply them in the interest of Thy most Sacred Heart. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Saint John Eudes' Admirable Heart Of Mary Installment 4

2006-07-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

Chapter III

The Corporeal Heart Of Mary

Just as everything in Our Lord Jesus Christ is great and admirable, so also
everything that concerns Mary, His holy Mother, is replete with grandeur and
marvels. Every part of the sacred humanity of the Son of God is deified and
raised to an infinite dignity through its union with the Divinity; so
likewise everything in the Blessed Virgin Mary is ennobled and sanctified by
her divine maternity. There is no part of the sacred body of the God-Man
that is not worthy of the eternal admiration of angels and men, and there is
nothing in the virginal body of the Mother of God that is unworthy of the
eternal praise of all creatures.

The Holy Ghost, the Son of God and His Saints have given high praise to the sacred members of Mary's immaculate body. We may therefore conclude that her blessed heart, the first and worthiest part, is deserving of especial veneration. Shall we not share the sentiments of Jesus Christ, our Head, and follow the example He gives us? Mary's Divine Son, who has willed to be our Head and our Brother, manifests great zeal in honoring even the smallest exterior detail of the person of His Most Blessed Mother. Who therefore can dare to criticize the other children of this Mother of Fair Love, if, following the spirit and example of their divine Head and Elder Brother, they render special homage to her maternal Heart and celebrate a feast in its honor with the permission of Holy Church?

There are five marvelous prerogatives of the corporeal heart of Mary which render it forever worthy to receive the veneration of men and angels.

The first prerogative consists in the fact that the heart is the principle of the life of our holy Mother. It is the principle of all the functions of her bodily, material life, ever holy in itself and in its every function and employment. It is the source of the life of the Mother of God, the life of her who gave birth to the only Son of God, the life of the woman through whom God gave life to all the children of Adam, sunk as they were in the abyss of eternal death. Finally, her heart is the source of a life so holy, so noble, so sublime that it is more precious in the sight of God than the lives of all the angels and men.

The second prerogative of the corporeal heart of Mary is that it produced the virginal blood with which the sacred body of the God-Man was formed in the chaste womb of His blessed Mother.

The third prerogative of Mary's heart of flesh is that it was the source of the human, material life of the Infant Jesus during the nine months that He dwelt in Mary's sacred womb. While the infant is in its mother's bosom, the mother's heart is to such an extent the source of the infant's life that both mother and infant can be said to depend upon it for their existence. Mary's admirable heart was therefore the source of the two most noble and precious lives, at once the source of the holy life of the Mother of God and of her only son, the humanly divine as well as the divinely human life of the God-Man.

The fourth prerogative of the amiable heart is noted in the words of the holy bride to the divine bridegroom, that is, of Mary to Jesus, who is her Son and her Father, her Brother and her Spouse: "Our bed is flourishing" (Song 1:15), that is, our bed is covered and perfumed with flowers. What is this bed? It is the pure heart of the Blessed Virgin where the divine Infant so gently rested.

It was a great privilege for St. John, the beloved disciple, to have rested once on the Savior's adorable breast, from which he drew such great light and derived the knowledge of so many marvelous secrets. But not only once but many times did our divine Savior rest on the virginal heart of His dearest Mother. What abundance of lights, of grace and of blessings the Eternal Sun, the very source of light and grace, must have poured into that maternal heart, on which He rested so often! Her heart never interposed the slightest obstacle to divine grace. On the contrary, she was always disposed to welcome every celestial favor. Our Lord loved her heart more than all other hearts put together, and was in turn loved by it more perfectly than by the hearts of all the Seraphim. What union, what intimacy, what understanding, what correspondence between these two Hearts! What fire in these two furnaces of love constantly inflamed by the breath of the Holy Ghost!

And now we come to the fifth prerogative of this holy heart. It is the altar upon which a great and perpetual sacrifice, most agreeable to God, is constantly offered. On it are immolated all the natural passions which reside in the human heart. There are found at once the concupiscible and the irascible appetites of the soul, given by God to man that they may be led to hate, fear, avoid, combat, and destroy the things that hurt them, and to love, desire, hope for, and seek that which will benefit them. These two principal passions comprise eleven others, which are like soldiers fighting under two captains, or like weapons and instruments used to attain the two ends mentioned above.

The irascible appetite possesses five passions, namely hope, despair, daring, fear, and anger. The concupisible appetite includes six: love, hatred, desire, abhorrence, delight, and sadness.

Man's revolt against the commandments of God caused all these passions to revolt against self and to fall into such disorder that instead of being completely subject to the will, which is the queen of all the soul's faculties, they often make it their slave. Instead of being guardians of the heart in which they reside, preserving in peace and tranquillity, the passions usually become as many executioners who torment the heart and fill it with conflict and war.

Such was not the case with the passions that reside in the corporeal heart of the Queen of Angels, for they were always entirely subject to her reason and to the Divine Will that held sovereign sway over every part of her soul and body.

Just as these passions were rendered divine in the adorable Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so were they sanctified most excellently in the holy Heart of His Blessed Mother. The fire of divine love, buring day and night in the ardent furnace of this virginal heart, so purified consumed, and tranformed her passions into its own substance, that, as this heavenly fire had no other object save God alone, towards whom it constantly tended with incomparable ardor and impetuosity, so these passions were always turned towards God and exercised in His service. they were moved and led exclusively by the love of God, which possessed, animated, and inflamed them in so marvellous a manner that they became a perpetual and admirable sacrifice in honor of the Blessed Trinity.

We may consider the most pure body of Mary as a sacred tmeple, indeed as the most august temple that ever was or will be, next to the temple of the sacred humanity of Jesus christ, her divine Son. We see her virginal heart as the sacred altar of this temple. We behold Divine Love as the high priest offering to God uninterrupted sacrifices in this temple and on this altar. We contemplate the Divine Will bringing many victims to be sacrificed on this altar of Mary's Heart. Among the victims we distinguish the eleven natural passions slaughtered by the flaming sword which the high priest holds in his hand, that is by the efficacy of Divine Love. They are consumed and transformed into the heavenly fire which burns upon the altar of her heart; they are immolated to the most Holy Trinity in a sacrifice of praise, of glory, and of love.

Thus did the great high priest, Divine Love, sacrifice on the holy altar of Mary's heart, all her passions, inclinations, sentiments of love, hatred, desire, aversion, joy, sadness, hope, distrust, fear, and anger.

And this sacrifice commenced the first instant the holy Heart of Mary began to beat in her virginal breast, that is the very first instant of this Immaculate Virgin's life. It continued uninterruptedly until her last breath, gaining in sanctity and in love with every passing moment.

O great and truly admirable sacrifice, so wonderfully agreeable to the God of hearts! O blessed Heart of the Mother of Fair Love, consecrated altar whereon so divine a sacrifice was offered! Blessed art thou, O most Holy Heart, for having loved and desired nothing but Him who alone is amiable and desirable! Blessed art thou for having established thy joy and thy contentment in loving and honoring Him, who alone is capable of satisfying the heart of man, and for having known no other grief than that caused by the offenses committed against His Divine Majesty!

O Blessed Heart, so completely closed to the vanities of the earth and of self-interest that not one trace of them ever found place in thee! Thy confidence in God was equalled by thy firm trust in divine bounty, and, fired with holy generosity, never didst thou give way before the obstacles raised by hell and the world to prevent thee from advancing along the path of sacred love, but thou didst always surmount them with unemitting constancy and invincible strength.

These are some fo the marvellous prerogatives of the admirable Heart which beats in the virginal breast of the Mother of God. Is it not true that, even if we considered only the material and corporeal Heart of the Queen of heaven, it would still be worthy of the greatest honor and veneration?

Blessed indeed are the hearts of the true children of Mary, who strive to live in conformity with the most holy Heart of their Mother most admirable!

Think, think of the honour that is due to her Heart, most noble part of the virginal body that give human flesh to the Eternal Word, forever the center of adoration of the agnels and saints in heaven! What honour is due to her Heart, life-principle of the Mother of God and of God-made-Man!

Above all, what great veneration is merited by the Heart that God Himself loved and glorifeid most highly, the Heart that adored and loved God more perfectly than all the hearts in heaven and upon earth! May every heart praise and magnify thee forever!

Saint John Eudes' The Admirable Heart Of Mary Installment 3

2006-07-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

Chapter 2

The Heart of Mary In General

Before expounding the prodigious virtues and the incomparable marvels of the Admirable Heart of Mary, according to the lights which He Who is the Source of all light will be pleased to give me, I shall point out the various meanings of the word "heart" in Sacred Scripture.

1. The word "heart," first of all, signifies the material and corporeal heart which beats within our breast, the noblest part of the human body. It is the principle of life, the first organ to begin to live and the last to be stilled in death. It is the seat of love, hatred, joy, sadness, fear, and every passion of the soul. Of this heart does the Holy Ghost speak when He says, "With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it."

2. "Heart" is also employed in Scripture to signify the memory. This is, no doubt, its meaning in these words of Our Lord: "Lay it up therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before how you shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay." That is, remember when you are brought before kings and judges for My Name's sake, not to prepare an answer for your enemies because I will give you wisdom, which your enemies will not be able to gainsay.

3. It likewise denotes the intellect, with which we meditate. Meditation is, in fact, discursive reasoning on the things of God, tending to persuade and to convince us of the truth of Christian doctrine. This is the heart alluded to in the words: "The meditation of my heart (is) always in Thy sight." In other words, "my heart, that is, my intellect, is always occupied in meditating and contemplating Thy glory, mysteries, and works."

4. The word "heart" expresses the free will of the superior and rational part of the soul, the queen of the other faculties, the root of good and evil, and the mother of virtue and of vice. Our Lord refers to this heart when He says: "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil." Here, "a good heart" means the righteous will of the just man, from which all kinds of good can come, and "an evil heart" means the bad will of the wicked, which is a source of all kinds of evil.

5. We must also understand by the word "heart" that highest part of the soul which theologians call the point of the spirit. It is the seat of contemplation, which consists in turning the mind directly toward God and viewing Him in all simplicity, without discursive reasoning or multiplicity of thoughts. The Fathers of the Church apply to this power of the soul those words which the Holy Ghost puts in the mouth of the Blessed Virgin Mary: "I sleep, and my heart watcheth." According to St. Bernardine of Siena and several other writers, sleep and rest of the body did not prevent Mary's holy Heart, that is, the highest part of her mind, from being always united to God in sublime contemplation.

6. At times "heart" stands for the whole interior life of man; I mean, of course, the spiritual life, as indicated by these words spoken by the Son of God to the faithful soul: "Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm" (Song 8:6), that is, stamp the image of my interior and exterior life in your interior and exterior life, in your soul and in your body, by a perfect imitation of Me.

7. The word "heart" can also signify the Holy Spirit, the veritable Heart of the Father and the Son, Whom They desire to give us for our own mind and heart. "And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you" (Ezek 36:26).

8. The Son of God is called the Heart of the Eternal Father in Sacred Scripture, and it is of this heart that the Father speaks to His Spouse, the Blessed Virgin, when He says to her: "Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse" (Song 4:9), or according to the Septuagint: "Thou hast ravished my heart." And the Son of God Himself is called in Scripture "The breath of our mouth" (Lam 4:20), that is, the soul of our soul and our heart's very heart.

All these hearts are to be found in Mary, the Mother of Fair Love, and they form in her one single heart, because all the faculties of the superior and the inferior part of her soul were always harmoniously united. Moreover, Jesus, who is the heart of His Father, and the Holy Spirit, who is the heart of the Father and the Son, were given to Mary to be the soul of her soul and the heart of her heart.

To understand more clearly what is meant by the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we must recall that, just as we adore in the Most Holy Trinity and in the Incarnate Word three hearts which form but one heart, so also do we honor in the Mother of God three hearts united in one.

The first heart to be found in the Blessed Trinity is the Son of God, Who is the Heart of the Eternal Father, as we have seen above. The second is the Holy Spirit, who is the Heart of the Father and the Son. The third is Divine Love Itself, an adorable attribute of the divine essence, which can be considered as the Heart of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. These three hearts are in reality only one single Heart, and with it the three eternal Persons love one another as They deserve to be loved. They also love mankind with an incomparable charity.

The first heart to be found in our Loving Savior, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is His heart of flesh, deified like all the other parts of His sacred body by its hypostatic union with the Divine Word. The second is His spiritual heart, that is, the superior faculties of His holy soul, including His memory, His understanding and His will, all most specially deified by the hypostatic union. The third is His divine heart, that is, the Holy Spirit, by whom His adorable humanity has always been animated in a higher degree than by its own soul and heart.

Thus we have in Jesus Christ, the God-Man, three hearts forming but one, because His divine Heart constituted the soul, the heart and the life of His spiritual and bodily hearts. Moreover God has established such perfect unity between them that these three hearts form only a single heart, filled with infinite love towards the Blessed Trinity and with surpassing charity towards men.

The first heart of Mary, the Mother of God, is the heart of flesh enclosed in her virginal breast. Although this heart is corporeal, it is nevertheless completely spiritualized by the spirit of grace and the spirit of God which fill it.

The second heart is her spiritual heart, made God-like, not indeed by the hypostatic union as in the Incarnate Word, but by a superlative participation in the divine perfections, as we shall see in the following pages. This heart is referred to by the words of the Holy Spirit: "All the glory of the king's daughter is within" (Ps 44:14), that is, has its origin in her heart and her inmost soul.

The third heart of Mary is divine and is truly God Himself, for it is none other than the love of God. This is the heart of which she says: "I sleep, and my heart watches" (Song 5:2), which means according to the interpretation of several holy Doctors: "While I grant necessary rest to my body, my Son Jesus, who is my Heart and whom I love like my own heart, is always watching over me and for me."

These three hearts of the Mother of God constitute a single Heart, through the holiest and most intimate union that ever was and will be, next to the hypostatic union. Of these three hearts, or rather, of this single Heart, the Holy Spirit has said twice: "Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart" (Lk 2:19 and 51).

Our Lady cherished the mysteries and marvels of her Son's life, first of all, in her material and corporeal heart, the principle of life, the seat of love and of the other physical emotions. All the movements, every beat of this virginal heart, the material functions that it accomplished and the emotions that swayed it, existed solely for Jesus and for the things that concerned Him. Her love was spent in loving Him, her hatred in hating all that is contrary to Him, her joy in rejoicing in His glory and His grandeurs, her sorrow and compassion in bewailing His trials and sufferings. The same may be said of every emotion of her bodily heart.

Secondly, Mary kept all these things in her spiritual heart, that is, in the noblest part of her soul, in the inmost recesses of her mind. All the faculties of her soul were constantly applied to contemplating and adoring everything that took place in the life of her Beloved Son, down to the very smallest details.

Thirdly, Our Lady kept all these things in her divine Heart, that is, in her Son Jesus, who was the mind of her mind and the heart of her heart. He in turn kept them for her and recalled them to her mind when necessary, that she might feed herself in contemplation upon the mysteries of His life, rendering them due honor and adoration, and repeating them to the holy apostles and disciples, who were to preach them to faithful.

This then is what is meant by the Admirable Heart of the beloved Mother of God. this is the worthy subject of which I shall have to speak in this book. the next three chapters will treat in greater detail of the corporeal, spiritual, and divine Heart of Mary. In the rest of the book, you will find comments proper to her corporeal heart, others pertaining only to her divine heart, While additional characteristics will be common to all three. Every word that I write, every point that I make, will further the spiritual progress of my readers, if they will but lift up their hearts to God as they read, in praise and thanksgiving for the innumerable graces and treasures of the Heart of Mary.

O Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, my task is great and beyond my power, but I trust in Thy goodness and in the love of Thy Holy Mother. I seek nothing as I, a sinner, strive to show forth the wonders of the Heart of Mary. Nothing, except to make some small return for the countless graces received from Thy paternal Heart through the loving Heart of Thy Mother. To Thee, O Jesus, I surrender myself, my mind, my heart, and my pen for one purpose only: that my readers may understand and cultivate a lively devotion to the Most Admirable Heart of Thy Blessed Mother.

First Friday Reminder

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Friday July 7th (tomorrow) is the First Friday of July.

The Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus To St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

1. "I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life."
2. "I will establish peace in their homes."
3. "I will comfort them in their afflictions."
4. "I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all in death."
5. "I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings."
6. "Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy."
7. "Tepid souls shall grow fervent."
8. "Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection."
9. "I will bless every place where a picture of My Heart shall be set up and honored."
10. "I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts."
11. "Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out."
12. "I promise thee in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving the Sacraments; My Divine heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."

It is promise number twelve that is the basis for the Nine First Fridays.

The First Friday of each month was designated by our Savior Himself as a day to be
consecrated to honoring His Sacred Heart. As the object of this devotion is to make our Savior Jesus Christ ardently and perfectly loved, and to make reparation for the outrages offered to Him in the past, as well as for those which he daily receives in the Blessed Eucharist, Jesus Christ merits our love at all times, but alas! He is despised and outraged in the Sacrament of His love at all times, and so people should at all times make reparation to Him.

We should then adore Jesus Christ in this august Sacrament, make a fervent act of love to Jesus in the tabernacle, thank Him for having instituted this Mystery of love, express our sorrow at seeing Him so abandoned, and resolve to visit Him as soon as possible and love Him unceasingly.

Attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is assuredly the best means of honoring and loving the adorable Heart of Jesus.

To communicate worthily on the Nine Consecutive First Fridays, it is incumbent on those practicing the devotion to be in a state of grace at the time of communicating. And for most of us, that means making a full and complete worthy confession and carrying out the penance imposed just before Mass.

The following are customary for those making this devotion:

The following First Friday devotions are efficacious in honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

1. The Sacrament of Penance
2. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
3. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
4. Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I consecrate myself to Thy Most Sacred Heart. Take possession of my whole being; transform me into Thyself. Make my hands Thy hands, my feet Thy feet, my heart Thy heart. Let me see with Thine eyes, listen with Thine ears, speak with Thy lips, love with Thy Heart, understand with Thy mind, serve with Thy will, and be dedicated with my whole being. Make me Thy other self. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, send me Thy Holy Ghost to teach me to love Thee and to live through thee, with Thee, in Thee, and for Thee.

Come, Holy Ghost, make my body Thy temple. Come, and abide with me forever. Give me the deepest love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus in order to serve Him with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Take possession of all my faculties of body and soul. Regulate all my passions: feelings and emotions. Take possession of my intellect, understanding and will; my memory and imagination. O Holy Spirit of Love, give me an abundance of Thy efficacious graces. Give me the fullness of all the virtues; enrich my faith, strengthen my hope, increase my trust, and inflame my love. Give me the fullness of Thy sevenfold gifts, fruits and beatitudes. Most Holy Trinity, make my soul Thy sanctuary.
Amen.

5. Act of Reparation

Sacred Heart of Jesus, animated with a desire to repair the outrages unceasingly offered to Thee, we prostrate before Thy throne of mercy, and in the name of all mankind, pledge our love and fidelity to Thee!
The more Thy mysteries are blasphemed, the more firmly we shall believe them, O Sacred Heart of Jesus!
The more impiety endeavors to extinguish our hopes of immortality, the more we shall trust in Thy Heart, sole hope of mankind!
The more hearts resist Thy Divine attractions, the more we shall love Thee, O infinitely amiable heart of Jesus!
The more unbelief attacks Thy Divinity, the more humbly and profoundly we shall adore It, O Divine Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy holy laws are transgressed and ignored, the more we shall delight to observe them, O most holy Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Sacraments are despised and abandoned, the more frequently we shall receive them with love and reverence, O most liberal Heart of Jesus!
The more the imitation of Thy virtues is neglected and forgotten, the more we shall endeavor to practice them, O Heart, model of every virtue!
The more the devil labors to destroy souls, the more we shall be inflamed with desire to save them, O Heart of Jesus, zealous Lover of souls!
The more sin and impurity destroy the image of God in man, the more we shall try by purity of life to be a living temple of the Holy Spirit, O Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Holy Church is despised, the more we shall endeavor to be her faithful children, O Sweet Heart of Jesus!
The more Thy Vicar on earth is persecuted, the more we will honor him as the infallible head of Thy Holy Church, show our fidelity and pray for him, O kingly Heart of Jesus!
O Sacred Heart, through Thy powerful grace, may we become Thy apostles in the midst of a corrupted world, and be Thy crown in the kingdom of heaven.
Amen.

6. The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
V/ Lord, have mercy.
R/ Lord, have mercy.

V/ Christ, have mercy.
R/ Christ, have mercy.

V/ Lord, have mercy.
R/ Lord, have mercy.

V/ Jesus, hear us.
R/ Jesus, graciously hear us.

R/ for ff: Have mercy on us.

God, the Father of Heaven,
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world,
God, the Holy Spirit,
Holy Trinity, One God,
Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father.
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother,
Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Word of God,
Heart of Jesus, of Infinite Majesty,
Heart of Jesus, Sacred Temple of God,
Heart of Jesus, Tabernacle of the Most High,
Heart of Jesus, House of God and Gate of Heaven,
Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity,
Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love,
Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love,
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues,
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise,
Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts,
Heart of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father was well pleased,
Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received,
Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills,
Heart of Jesus, patient and most merciful,
Heart of Jesus, enriching all who invoke Thee,
Heart of Jesus, fountain of life and holiness,
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, loaded down with opprobrium,
Heart of Jesus, bruised for our offenses,
Heart of Jesus, obedient to death,
Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance,
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation,
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection,
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation,
Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, delight of all the Saints,

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world.
R/ spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world,
R/ have mercy on us.

Jesus, meek and humble of heart.
R/ Make our hearts like unto Thy Heart.

Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, look upon the Heart of Thy most beloved Son and upon the praises and satisfaction which he offers Thee in the name of sinners; and to those who implore Thy mercy, in Thy great goodness, grant forgiveness in the name of the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who lives and reigns with Thee forever and ever.

R/ Amen.

Saint John Eudes' The Admirable Heart Of Mary, Installment 2

2006-07-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Part One

Object of the Devotion to the Admirable Heart Of Mary

Chapter 1

Reasons For the Name "Admirable"

Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, chose the incomparable Virgin Mary from among all the creatures to be His Mother and deigned to be nourished and governed by her. In His infinite goodness He also gave her to us to be our Queen, our Mother, and our sure Refuge in all our needs. He therefore wishes us to honor her as He honors her and to love her as He loves her.

According to the Apostle Saint Paul, Christ is the Head of His Mystical Body, the Church, and we are the members. We must therefore be animated by His Spirit; we must follow His inspirations, walk the path He has traced, and continue, as it were, His life on earth by practising the virtues which were His own. It follows that our devotion to His Holy Mother must be a continuation of His devotion to her. We must be filled with the sentiments of respect, submission, and affection which He entertained for her on earth and still entertains in heaven. Mary always held and will hold forever the first place in the Sacred Heart of her Divine Son; she always was and never will cease to be, the first object of His love after the Eternal Father; and so He wishes that, next to God, she should be the principal object of our devotion. For this reason, after the veneration we owe to the Divine Majesty of God, we cannot render a greater service to Jesus Christ or do anything more pleasing to Him than to serve and honor His most worthy Mother.

The human will is not, however, moved to love a fellow creature unless the intellect first knows what renders it worthy of respect and esteem. The infinite zeal with which the Son of God is inflamed for all that concerns His dear Mother has urged Him to reveal to us through the inspired words of Sacred Scripture and through the writings of the Fathers some small measure of the perfections with which He has enriched her. The reality far surpassing our knowledge of her in this vale of darkness will be revealed only in heaven, the land of unclouded light.

Among the divinely inspired passages of Sacred Scripture I select one from the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, which is a compendium of all the great things that can be said or thought of our marvelous Queen. "A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." What is this great sign? Who is this miraculous woman? St. Epiphanius, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, and many other holy doctors agree that the woman is Mary, the Queen among women, the Sovereign of angels and men, the Virgin of virgins. She is the woman who bore in her chaste womb the perfect man, the God-Man. "A woman shall compass a man."

Mary appears in heaven because she comes from heaven, because she is heaven's masterpiece, the Empress of Heaven, its joy and its glory, in whom everything is heavenly. Even when her body dwelt on earth, her thoughts and affections were all rapt in heaven.

She is clothed with the eternal Sun of the Godhead and with all the perfections of the Divine Essence which surround, fill, and penetrate her to such an extent that she has been transformed, as it were, in to the power, goodness, and holiness of God.

She has the moon under her feet to show that the entire world is beneath her. None is above her, save only God, and she holds absolute sway over all created things.

She is crowned with twelve stars that represent the virtues which shine so brightly in her soul. The mysteries of her life are as many stars more luminous by far than the brightest lights of the sky. The privileges and perogatives God has granted to her, the least of which is greater than anything shining in the firmament of heaven, as well as the glory of the saints of Paradise and of earth, are her crown, and her glory in a much fuller sense than the Philippians could be said to be the crown and joy of Saint Paul.

But why does the Holy Ghost call Mary "a great sign"? It is simply to tell us everything in her is wonderful, and that the marvels that fill her being should be proclaimed to the entire world, so that she may become an object of the admiration for the inhabitants of heaven as well as for mankind on earth, and so that she may be the sweet delight of angels and men.

This is likewise the reason why the Holy Ghost inspires the fatihful throughout the world to sing in her praise: Mater admirabilis-"Oh Mother most admirable." Moreover, according to the testimony of several trustworthy authors, a holy Jesuit who once asked the Mother of God to reveal to him which of the many titles in her Litany was most pleasing to her received this same answer: Mater admirabilis.

Mary is truly admirable in all her perfections and in all her virtues. But what is most admirable in her is her virginal heart. The heart of the Mother of God is a world of marvels, an abyss of wonders, the source and principle of all the virtues which we admire in our glorious Queen: "All the glory of the King's daughter is within." It was through the humility, purity, and love of her most holy Heart that she merited to become the Mother of God and to receive the graces and privilges with which God enriched her on earth. These same sublime virtues of her Immaculate Heart have rendered her worthy of the glory and happiness that surround her in heaven, and of the great marvels that God has wrought in and through her.

Do not be surprised if I say that the virginal Heart of this Mother of Fair Love is an admirable Heart indeed. Mary is admirable in her divine Maternity because as Saint Bernardine of Siena says, "to be Mother of God is the miracle of miracles."
But the august Heart of Mary is also truly admirable for it is the principle of her divine Maternity and of the wonderful mysteries this privilege implies.

Of Mary's admirable Heart I shall attempt to speak in this book, although to speak and write worthily of the holy Heart of God's own Mother one would need a heart of fire. To know and proclaim the perfections of the noble Heart of the Queen of Angels one should have the intellect of a cherub and the flaming love of a seraph. Nay more, it would be necessary to possess the mind, the heart, the tongue, and the hand of Jesus Christ, the King of all hearts, to understand, honor, proclaim, or commit to writing the treasure of sanctity contained in the holy Heart of Mary, the worthiest, most royal and most marvellous of all hearts after the most adorable Heart of our Saviour Himself.

I am not so presumptuous as to believe that I can enclose within the pages of this book the immense teasure and the innumerable wonders contained in the incomparable Heart of Mary which is and will forever be the object of the ecstatic contemplation of the happy citizens of heaven.

When the angels beheld their Queen and ours at the moment of her Immaculate Conception they were filled with admiration at such fullness of grace and in their wonderment exclaimed: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?" What then must their rejoicing be, now that they behold in heaven all the perfections of her Heart from the first moment of her life on earth until the last?

The God of Angels finds even the footsteps of this glorious Queen so holy and so pleasing to His Divine Majesty that He exclaims: "How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O prince's daughter!" Under His divine inspiration Holy Church, both Militant and Triumphant, celebrates on earth and in heaven Our Lady's visitation to her cousin Elizabeth. From this we see how great is Our Lord's desire that we should admire and honor as He does the many holy and admirable actions which were inspired in the most amiable Heart of His peerless Mother.

If the smallest virtuous act of this heavenly Virgin represented in Sacred Scripture by one of her hairs, is so pleasing to God as to make Him proclaim that she has wounded and ravished His Heart with a hair of her neck, what must we think of the manifold acts of love which, like sacred flames, were constantly darting from the burning furnace of her virginal Heart ablaze with divine love? These flames were incessantly rising to Heaven to the Heart of the Most Holy Trinity.

Holy church, whom the Divine Spirit guides in all things, celebrates on earth and will forever celebrate in heaven several feasts to honor the various events in the earthly life of the Mother of God, such as her Presentation, in which she offered herself to God in the temple of Jerusalem; her Purification to honor her obedience to a law that did not apply to her; the feast of Our Lady of the Snows in memory of the dedication of the first church consecrated to her. What praises and homage her Holy Heart then deserves, that Heart which for at least sixty-three years offered up so many acts of faith, hope, and love of God and chairty towards men, humility, obedience, and every other virtue? What mind can understand and what tongue express the richness of this incomparable Heart, the Sovereign of all hearts consecrated to Jesus?

Her Heart is a vast sea of grace, a measureless ocean of perfections, an immense furnace of love. Would that I might lose myself as a drop of water in this ocean, or be consumed like a straw in this furnace, so that nothing of what I write could be considered as coming from me, but only from Jesus Christ who is the unique source of all good!

O most Holy Mary, Thy Divine Son, Jesus, hath received thy Heart, and He alone knows the great treasures He has hidden therein. He it was Who lit the fire burning in this furnace, and none but He can measure the heights reached by the flames which leap from its abyss. He alone can measure the vast perfections with which He has enriched the masterpiece of His all-powerful goodness, or count the innumerable graces He has poured into this ocean of grace: "He created her in the Holy Ghost, and saw her, and numbered her, and measured her."

And now I beseech thee, O most Blessed Virgin Mary, through thy Heart and for the honor of that very Heart to offer me to thy beloved Son and to pray that He may annihilate my personality and set Himself in the place of my nothingness, so that not my voice but His may be heard. May Jesus Christ be the author of this book, and I but the instrument of His surpassing love for thee and of the zeal with which He watches over the honor of thy most worthy Heart. May He inspire the thoughts He wishes to see expressed in this book and the very words He desires I should use. May His blessing rest in fullest measure on the readers of this book, and may He transform all its words into bright and ardent coals, so that their hearts may be purified, enlightened, and inflamed with the sacred fire of His love. In a word, may they become worthy to live according to God's heart and to be numbered a among the children of the maternal Heart of God's own Mother.

Serialization Of Saint John Eudes' The Admirable Heart Of Mary

2006-07-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Epistle Dedicatory

To Her Royal Highness
Madame de Guise

Madame,
All the stones in the Church of the most holy Heart of Jesus and of Mary, erected at the Caen seminary, are like so many voices crying out that this book, which also bears the title of The Admirable Heart Of Mary, should be dedicated to Your Royal Highness as a sign of gratitude of our little Congregation. We consider and honor you, Madame, as the foundress of our first and principal church, whose every stone is yet another tongue proclaiming that, among the great number of princes and princesses who have built churches in honor of the King and the Queen of the angels, Your Royal Highness alone can claim this privilege: that there are no others to whom God has granted the favor of making them His instruments to erect churches in honor of the adorable Heart of His Son Jesus and the admirable Heart of his dearest daughter Mary.

Your Royal Highness is the first one to be chosen by His Divine Majesty for such a noble and august work. All the citizens of Heaven will look upon and respect you forevermore as the foundress of the first church in the world which ever bore the name of the Church of the Most Holy Heart of Jesus and Mary, and which was so named by the Sovereign Pontiff Clement X, or rather by the Holy Ghost, since this Divine Spirit is the soul of the Church as well as its head, governing it in all matters of Christian faith and piety.

Your royal birth, Madame, endowed you with certain grandeurs which earn the homage and respect of all Europe, while the excellent virtues which shine forth in the holiness of your life make you venerable in Heaven and on earth. But the title of foundress of the first church to be dedicated to the two incomparable Hearts will eternally crown you with a completely unique honor and glory unrivalled in Heaven.

Your Royal Highness is also the first to have established in this church the celebration each Saturday of the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, along with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, in honor of the admirable Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is therein that the angels, who assist by the thousands at this sacrifice and benediction, and who have a special love for all persons who honor their Sovereign Princess, look upon you and honor you as the beloved of her Heart, and as the one who has had a sanctuary built on earth to be the dwelling of the King and Queen of Heaven. That is why they are preparing for you a palace incomparably more beautiful, rich, and magnificent than all the palaces of the greatest monarchs in the world. Did I say a palace? It is much more than that, Madame. They are preparing a glorious and eternal abode for you in their hearts.

In addition, all the Masses said in this church and all the works performed there until the consummation of the world will be like precious stones of incalculable worth which will make your crown wonderfully rich and brilliant. I very humbly and urgently beseech my most adorable Saviour and His most amiable Mother to take full, absolute, and eternal possession of Your Highness' truly royal heart, and to make their holy love reign supreme in it, that you may live in all perfection according to the Heart of God.

This is the most ardent prayer which will be offered to them all the days of his life by him who is, with the deepest respect, Madame,
Your Royal Highess'
Most humble, obedient, and grateful servant,
John Eudes

St Therese Lisieux on the Sacred Heart

2006-07-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

In St. Therese Lisieux's "Little Way" she shows a "HUGE" devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her life may have been very simple and humble but, her love for Our Lord was enormous. She is my favorite saint. I admire her immensely and she has touched my heart in a very special way. She brought me closer to The Sacred Heart of Jesus through our Blessed Mother's Immaculate Heart.

FROM: "THE STORY OF A SOUL"

“My vocation is love!” she wrote toward the end of her life. While the Church around her was growing cold with power, rules, regulations, and indulgences, she was determined to be “love in the heart of the Church.” Her mission was “to make Love loved,” “to work for Your Love alone, with the one purpose of pleasing you, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.”

PRAYER WRITTEN BY ST. THERESE

TO THE SACRED HEART.
Beside the tomb wept Magdalen at dawn,
She sought to find the dead and buried Christ;
Nothing could fill the void now He was gone,
No one to soothe her burning grief sufficed.
Not even you, Archangels heaven assigned!
To her could bring content that dreary day.
Your buried King, alone, she longed to find,
And bear His lifeless body far away.
Beside His tomb she there the last remained,
And there again was she before the sun;
There, too, to come to her the Saviour deigned,
He would not be, by her, in love outdone.
Gently He showed her then His blessed Face,
And one word sprang from His deep Heart's recess:
Mary His voice she knew, she knew its grace;
It came with perfect peace her heart to bless.
One day, my God! I, too, like Magdalen,
Desired to find Thee, to draw near to Thee;
So, over earth's immense, wide stretching plain,
I sought its Master and its King to see.
Then cried I, though I saw the flowers bloom
In beauty 'neath green trees and azure skies:
O brilliant Nature thou art one vast tomb,
Unless God's Face shall greet my longing eyes."
A heart I need, to soothe me and to bless,
A strong support that can not pass away,
To love me wholly, e'en my feebleness,
And never leave me through the night or day.
There is not one created thing below,
Can love me truly, and can never die.
God become man, none else' my needs can know;
He, He alone, can understand my cry.
Thou comprehendest all I need, dear Lord!
To win my heart, from heaven Thou didst come;
For me Thy blood didst shed, O King adored!
And on our altars makest Thy home.
So, if I may not here behold Thy Face,
Or catch the heavenly music of Thy Voice,
I still can live, each moment, by Thy grace,
And in Thy Sacred Heart I can rejoice.
O Heart of Jesus, wealth of tenderness!
My joy Thou art, in Thee I safely hide.
Thou, Who my earliest youth didst charm and bless,
Till my last evening, oh! with me abide,
All that I had, to Thee I wholly gave,
To Thee each deep desire of mine is known.
Whoso his life shall lose, that life shall save;
Let mine be ever lost in Thine alone!
I know it well, no righteousness of mine
Hath any value in Thy searching eyes;
Its every breath my heart must draw from Thine,
To make of worth my life's long sacrifice.
Thou hast not found Thine angels without taint;
Thy Law amid the thunderbolts was given;
And yet, my Jesus! I nor fear nor faint.
For me, on Calvary, Thy Heart was riven.
To see Thee in Thy glory face to face,
I know it well, the soul must pass through fires.
Choose I on earth my purgatorial place,
The flaming love of Thy great Heart's desires!
So shall my exiled soul, to death's command,
Make answer with one cry of perfect love;
Then flying straight to heaven its Fatherland,
Shall reach with no delay that home above.
October, 1895.

INVOCATION TO ST THERESE

O Little Flower of Jesus, ever consoling troubled souls with heavenly graces, in your unfailing intercession I place my trust. From the Heart of Our Blessed Savior petition these blessing of which I stand in greatest need (mention here). Shower upon me your promised roses of virtue and grace, dear Saint Therese, so that swiftly advancing in sanctity and in perfect love of neighbor, I may someday receive the crown of eternal life. Amen.

A MORNING PRAYER WRITTEN BY ST. THERESE LISIEUX

O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.
O my God! I ask of Thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in heaven for all Eternity.
Amen.

A BOOK ABOUT THE SAINT AND THE SACRED HEART

LITTLE WAY TO GOD - ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX AND THE SACRED HEART, by Gaston Roberge, S.J., Gujart Sahiya Prakash - Anand, India, 1984.

First Saturday Reminder

2006-06-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

The first Saturday of July is tomorrow, July 1st.

From The Work of God
The Child Jesus spoke these words: "Have pity on the heart of thy Most Holy Mother. It is covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation."

Our Lady was holding a heart encircled with sharp thorns and then she said to Sister Lucia:
"Behold my heart surrounded with the thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.

You at least try to console me. Announce in my name that I promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the First Saturday of five consecutive months shall:

1 Confess and receive Holy Communion (confession on the previous day when making the First Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart is efficacious, so long as the communicant remains in a state of grace between the First Friday and First Saturday).

2 Recite five decades of the Rosary;

3 And keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."

Why Five Saturdays?

Christians have always honoured the Blessed Virgin on Saturday because of her constant faith in Jesus on that first Holy Saturday before the Resurrection.

Five first Saturdays of reparation were requested to atone for the five ways in which people offend the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1.attacks upon Mary's Immaculate Conception
2.attacks against her Perpetual Virginity
3.attacks upon her Divine Maternity and the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all mankind
4.for those who try to publicly implant in children's hearts indifference, contempt and even hatred of this Immaculate Mother
5.for those who insult her directly in her sacred images.

Letter of Sister Lucia Explaining This Devotion:

1 November, 1927, letter to Doña Maria de Miranda, her godmother,
Sister Lucia wrote:

"I don't know if you already know about the reparatory devotion of the five Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As it is still recent, I would like to inspire you to practice it, because it is requested by Our dear Heavenly Mother and Jesus has manifested a desire that it be practiced. Also, it seems to me that you would be fortunate, dear godmother, not only to know it and to give Jesus the consolation of practicing it, but also to make it known and embraced by many other persons.

"It consists in this: During five months on the first Saturday, to receive Jesus in Communion, recite a Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, and make a confession. The confession can be made a few days earlier, and if in this previous confession you have forgotten the (required) intention the following intention can be offered, provided that on the first Saturday one receives Holy Communion in a state of grace, with the intention of repairing for offences against the Most Holy Virgin and which afflict Her Immaculate Heart.

"It seems to me, my dear godmother, that we are fortunate to be able to give Our dear Heavenly Mother this proof of love, for we know that She desires it to be offered to Her. As for myself, I avow that I am never so happy as when first Saturday arrives. Isn't it true that our greatest happiness is to belong entirely to Jesus and Mary and to love Them and Them alone, without reserve? We see this so clearly in the lives of the saints...They were happy because they loved, and we, my dear godmother, we must seek to love as they did, not only to enjoy Jesus, which is the least important -- because if we do not enjoy Him here below, we will enjoy Him up above -- but to give Jesus and Mary the consolation for being loved...and that in exchange for this love they might be able to save many souls."

"I don't know if you already know about the reparatory devotion of the five Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As it is still recent, I would like to inspire you to practice it, because it is requested by Our dear Heavenly Mother and Jesus has manifested a desire that it be practiced. Also, it seems to me that you would be fortunate, dear godmother, not only to know it and to give Jesus the consolation of practicing it, but also to make it known and embraced by many other persons.

"It consists in this: During five months on the first Saturday, to receive Jesus in Communion, recite a Rosary, keep Our Lady company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, and make a confession. The confession can be made a few days earlier, and if in this previous confession you have forgotten the (required) intention the following intention can be offered, provided that on the first Saturday one receives Holy Communion in a state of grace, with the intention of repairing for offences against the Most Holy Virgin and which afflict Her Immaculate Heart.

"It seems to me, my dear godmother, that we are fortunate to be able to give Our dear Heavenly Mother this proof of love, for we know that She desires it to be offered to Her. As for myself, I avow that I am never so happy as when first Saturday arrives. Isn't it true that our greatest happiness is to belong entirely to Jesus and Mary and to love Them and Them alone, without reserve? We see this so clearly in the lives of the saints...They were happy because they loved, and we, my dear godmother, we must seek to love as they did, not only to enjoy Jesus, which is the least important -- because if we do not enjoy Him here below, we will enjoy Him up above -- but to give Jesus and Mary the consolation for being loved...and that in exchange for this love they might be able to save many souls."

Act of Reparation for First Saturdays

O Most holy Virgin and our Mother, we listen with grief to the complaints of thy Immaculate Heart surrounded with the thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Moved by the ardent desire of loving thee as our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to thine Immaculate Heart, we prostrate ourselves at thy feet to prove the sorrow we feel for the grievance that men cause thee, and to atone, by means of our prayers and sacrifices, for the offences with which men return thy tender love. Obtain for them and for us the pardon of so many sins. A word from thee will obtain grace and amendment for us all. Hasten, O Lady, the conversion of sinners, that they may love Jesus and cease to offend the Lord, already so much offended, and will not fall into hell. Turn thine eyes of mercy toward us, that henceforth we may love God with all our heart while on earth and enjoy Him forever in heaven.
Amen.

Origin Of the Sacred Heart Badge

2006-06-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

From America Needs Fatima

Our Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque "His wish for her to order a picture of the image of that Sacred Heart for people specifically to venerate and have in their homes and also small pictures to carry with them." She wrote this to her superior, Mother Saumaise, on March 2, 1686. Thus was born the devotion of wearing the little Badges.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque always kept a Badge with her and inspired her novices to do the same. She made many Badges and often said this practice was very pleasing to the Sacred Heart.

In the beginning, only the nuns of the Visitation were allowed to wear the Badge. It was later spread by Venerable Ana Magdalena Remuzat, a religious of the Visitation who died in the odor of sanctity (1696-1730). Our Lord told this nun that a serious epidemic would afflict the French city of Marseilles in 1720, and that its inhabitants would receive a marvelous help through this devotion to His Sacred Heart. Mother Remuzat, helped by her sisters in the convent, made thousands of Sacred Heart Badges, and distributed them throughout the city where the plague was rampant.

Soon afterward, the epidemic stopped. As if by a miracle, many Badge wearers were not infected and even people who got sick experienced extraordinary help through the Badge. Analogous events happened elsewhere. From then on, use of the Badge spread to other cities and countries.

The news of the graces obtained through the Badges reached the French court. Maria Lescyznska, the wife of King Louis XV, became devoted to the Badge. In 1748, she received several Badges from Pope Benedict XIV as a wedding gift. Among the various presents sent by the Pontiff were "many Badges of the Sacred Heart made of red taffeta and embroidered in gold," the records say.

Special Emblem of Counter-Revolutionaries
The unfortunate French Revolution erupted in France in 1789, a worse punishment than any plague, causing tragic consequences for the whole world.

True Catholics found protection in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus during the period. Many priests, nobles, and people who resisted the bloody anti-Catholic revolution wore the Badge. Even ladies of the court, like the Princess de Lamballe, wore the Badge embroidered with precious materials over the fabric. The simple fact of wearing the Badge became a distinctive sign of those opposed to the French Revolution.

Among the belongings of Queen Marie Antoinette, guillotined out of revolutionary hatred, was found a drawing of the Sacred Heart, with the Wound, Cross, and Crown of Thorns, and the inscription, "Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!"

Heroic Deeds By Devotees Of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Chouans, heroic Catholics from Mayenne (Western France), especially from the Vendee, who resisted the impious French revolutionaries of 1789 and confronted them with energy and religious ardor, embroidered the Badge of the Sacred Heart on their clothes and banners. They shaped it as a coat of arms to reaffirm their Catholic faith and wore it as a symbolic armor for defense against enemy attacks.

Vendean General Henri du Vergier, Comte de La Rochejaquelein, wearing the Sacred Heart Badge

Many other Catholic leaders and heroes also wore the Badge as a "spiritual armor." They fought and died in defense of Holy Mother Church like the brave peasants who fought under Andreas Hofer (1767-1810), known as the "Chouans from the Tyrol." These men wore the Badge as spiritual protection in the battles against Napoleon's army that invaded the Tyrol.

Shoulder-belt plate with Sacred Heart Badge

The Cristeros in Mexico, in the first half of the 20th century, also wore the Badge. They took up arms against the anti-Christian governments that oppressed the Church in Mexico.

In Spain, the famous Carlista regiments called "requetes" likewise wore the Badge. They were famous for their religious piety and boldness on the battlefield, and their intervention was decisive for the triumph of the anti-Communist Catholics in the Civil War of 1936-1939.

More recently, similar events took place in Cuba. the Catholic Cubans who fought against the Communist regime had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When they were imprisoned and taken to the 'paredon" (shooting wall) for summary execution, they faced Fidel Castro's executioners with the cry, "Viva Cristo Rey!" (Long Live Christ the King!).

After Castro's Communist tyranny took over Cuba, beautiful statues of the Sacred Heart wee demolished and replaced with representations of Che Guevara. Thus, statues of the Sacred Heart, which represented Divine Mercy and foregiveness, were replaced with likenesses of a guerilla fighter who hands were soaked in innocent Catholic blood which he had caused to flow in several Latin american countries.

Blessed Pope Pius IX and the Badge
In 1870, a Roman lady wishing to know the opinion of the Holy Father Pius IX about the Badge of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, presented him with one. Touched by the sight of this emblem of salvation, the Pope approved the devotion forever, and said, "This, Madam, this is an inspiration from Heaven. Yes, from Heaven."

After a short moment of silence, he added," I am going to bless this Heart and want all Badges made after this model to receive the same blessing, so that in the future it will not be necessary for the blessing to be renewed by a priest. And I want Satan to be unable to cause any harm to those who wear this Badge, symbol of the Adorable Heart of Jesus."

Wishing to foster the pious habit of wearing the Badge, in 1872 the Blessed Pope Pius IX granted one hundred years' indulgence to all who wear this emblem and pray daily one Our Father, one Hail, Mary, and one Glory be.

Afterward, the Holy Father composed this beautiful prayer:

"Open Thy Sacred Heart, O Jesus! Show me its beauty and unite me with It forever. May the throbbing and all the movements of my heart, even during sleep, be a testimony of my love and tell Thee unceasingly, 'Yes, Lord Jesus, I adore Thee...accept my poor good actions...grant me the grace of repairing the evil done...so that I may praise Thee in time and bless Thee for all eternity. Amen.

Modern Sacred Heart Badge, available here.

The Sacred Heart and the Eucharistic Miracle At Lanciano

2006-06-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

Reprinted by gracious permission of The Real Presence Association:

Ancient Anxanum, the city of the Frentanese, has contained for over twelve centuries the first and greatest Eucharistic Miracle of the Catholic Church. This wondrous Event took place in the 8th century A.D. in the little Church of St. Legontian, as a divine response to a Basilian monk's doubt about Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist.

During Holy Mass, after the two-fold consecration, the host was changed into live Flesh and the wine was changed into live Blood, which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size.

The Host-Flesh, as can be very distinctly observed today, has the same dimensions as the large host used today in the Latin church; it is light brown and appears rose-colored when lighted from the back.

The Blood is coagulated and has an earthy color resembling the yellow of ochre.
Various ecclesiastical investigation ("Recognitions") were conducted since 1574.
In 1970-'71, and taken up again partly in 1981, there took place a scientific investigation by the most illustrious scientist Prof. Odoardo Linoli, eminent Professor in Anatomy and Pathological Histology and in Chemistry and Clinical Microscopy. He was assisted by Prof. Ruggero Bertelli of the University of Siena.

The analyses were conducted with absolute and unquestionable scientific precision and they were documented with a series of microscopic photographs.These analyses sustained the following conclusions:

*The Flesh is real Flesh. The Blood is real Blood.
*The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species.
*The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart.
*In the Flesh we see present in section: the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus nerve and also the left ventricle of the heart for the large thickness of the myocardium.
*The Flesh is a "HEART" complete in its essential structure.
*The Flesh and the Blood have the same blood-type: AB (Blood-type identical to that which Prof. Baima Bollone uncovered in the Holy Shroud of Turin).
*In the Blood there were found proteins in the same normal proportions (percentage-wise) as are found in the sero-proteic make-up of the fresh normal blood.
*In the Blood there were also found these minerals: chlorides, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium.

The preservation of the Flesh and of the Blood, which were left in their natural state for twelve centuries and exposed to the action of atmospheric and biological agents, remains an extraordinary phenomenon....

In conclusion, it may be said that Science, when called upon to testify, has given a certain and thorough response as regards the authenticity of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano.

So what this means is that, unless there was some fraud very early on in the history of this miraculous Host, the Eucharistic Host of Lanciano is a small cross-section of Our Lord's Sacred Heart.

And the likelihood of fraud is greatly diminished by the blood type. At the earliest known history of both the Shroud of Turin and the Eucharistic Host of Lanciano, medical science had no notion of the concept of blood types. This is because all human blood looks essentially the same even under a microscope. Blood types were not discovered until 1900, by a scientist researching why blood transfusions sometimes lead to the death of the patient. The earliest recorded references to the Holy Shroud are from the 800s. The Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano took place in the 900s. Blood types were not discovered until at least a thousand years later.

And the fact that AB blood is on both also greatly diminishes the chances of fraud. Type AB blood occurs in only 4% of the human population. That makes it the least common type of blood. Could two different medieval forgers (one in Constantinople, where the Shroud is first recorded, the other in Lanciano) have used the same type blood 100 years apart, to perpetrate two different forgeries, when they did not even know about blood types? And when the type of blood used in both cases occurs in only 4% of the human population? The chances are astronomical.

Given these circumstances, I believe that the Eucharistic Host at Lanciano is in fact a cross-section of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ (and that the Holy Shroud was, in fact, the burial cloth of the Lord).

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is essentially a Eucharistic devotion. Catholics believe that the Consecrated Host really, truly, and substantially contains the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. And the Sacred Heart is part of His Body. Therefore, in every Consecrated Host displayed for adoration in the monstrance, or reserved in the Tabernacle, or distrubuted at Mass or as Viatacum for the dying, the Sacred Heart is present.

This link between the Sacred Heart and the Eucharist has been obvious since the beginning of the devotion. One of the conditions for the devotion to the Sacred Heart as revealed to Saint Margaret Mary is worthy reception of the Blessed Sacrament on nine consecutive First Fridays.
It was while Saint Margaret Mary was in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that our Lord appeared to her and "showed her His Heart surrounded by thorns, with a cross on the top and in a throne of flames; and then He said thus to her: "Behold the heart that has so much loved men, and has spared nothing for love of them, even to consuming itself to give them pledges of its love, but which receives from the majority of men no other recompense but ingratitude, and insults towards the Sacrament of love; and what grieves Me most is, that these hearts are consecrated to Me."

The Feast of the Sacred Heart falls just after the Octave of Corpus Christi by our Lord's direct command to Saint Margaret Mary.

Allow me to quote from the Catholic Encyclopedia on Devotion To the Sacred Heart:

Since, moreover, the love of Jesus manifests itself to the devout soul as a love despised and outraged, especially in the Eucharist, the love expressed in the devotion naturally assumes a character of reparation, and hence the importance of acts of atonement, the Communion of reparation, and compassion for Jesus suffering.

Indeed, the linkage between the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Sacrament is clear in many ways. Thus Saint Alphonsus Liguori, writing in the 18th century, treated of the devotion to the Sacred Heart in his book The Holy Eucharist. For the same reason, when I make my morning holy hour at Saint Anthony's Shrine on Arch Street, in the first floor chapel, the Tabernacle containing the Blessed Sacrament is housed underneath a statue of the Sacred Heart.

Devotion To the Sacred Heart is devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, by its very nature, involves devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Inspired by a sermon heard at Sacred Heart church, New Haven, for the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

To Jesus Through Mary

2006-06-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Two Hearts Ablaze inception, came by inspiration of The Sacred Heart of Jesus and The Immaculate Heart of Mary. Tom and I were so very blessed by these Two Hearts and would like to dedicate this site in their honor. We have received special graces due to prayers asked for special favors, and we have in turn been overwhelmed by the additional gifts granted through them on our behalf. We would like to give them a small token of our gratitude by informing others of the miraculous powers granted by their intercession. We will touch on all aspects of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts regarding prayers, novenas, art, history and literature. Through the intercession of The Immaculate Heart of Mary our prayers reach her Son. He cannot refuse His Mother anything ( as we have well found this true).

I would like to begin my first post with The Act of Consecration by Louis de Montfort. The book by this author as well has a very special place in my heart. Shortly after reading this book back to back with St Therese Lisieux was the conversion to Traditionalism for me. Consecrationg my heart to Jesus through Mary and the act of a simple life by the Little Flower has held my faith firm and given me special graces never received before. I will be eternally grateful for this.

Below are sections taken from the book which I hope you will read and also consecrate yourself to the Blessed Mother as she acts as Mediator Dei.
There are Five Basic Principles of the Devotion to Mary

1. Christ must be the ultimate end of all devotions
2. We belong to Jesus and Mary as their slaves
3. We must rid ourselves of what is evil in ourselves
4. It is more humble to have an intermediary with Christ
5. It is difficult to keep the graces received from God

The Perfect Consecration to Jesus Christ

1. A Complete Consecration to Mary

Motives Which Recommend This Devotion

1. By it we give ourselves completely to God
2. It helps us to imitate Christ
3. It obtains many blessings from Our Lady
4. It is an excellent means of giving glory to God
5. It leads to union with our Lord
6. It gives liberty of spirit
7. It is of great benefit to our neighbor
8. It is a wonderful means of perseverance

Wonderful Effects of This Devotion

1. Knowledge of our unworthiness
2. A share in Mary's faith
3. The gift of pure love
4. Great confidence in God and Mary
5. Communication of the spirit of Mary
6. Transformation into the likeness of Jesus
7. The greater glory of Christ

Before, During and After Holy Communion Prayers

There are Three Weeks in this Devotion with specific prayers to be said and suggestions of readings

At the end of the 3 weeks you should go to confession and Communion with the intentions of giving yourself to Christ through His Mother Mary.

We should offer some sort of penance in their honor

Then you make an act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary which should be handwritten as well as said.

Act of Consecration To the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

"I, a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.

In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day, for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity.
Amen."

(St. Louis De Montfort)

The Sacred Hearts

2006-06-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

Originally posted at Recta Ratio

Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And tomorrow, in one of the calendar changes that actually makes sense, is the new date for the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Lady.

In English, we are careful to distinguish between Jesus' "Sacred" Heart, and Mary's "Immaculate" Heart. And though the devotions are closely related,and have been since the time of Saint John Eudes, we tend to think of them as seperate. But in other languages,it os common to speak of the "Sacred Hearts." And there is a growing movement,with lay groups and even what appears to be an order, honoring The Two Hearts. There is the Oblate Apostles of the Two Hearts, and the Two Hearts Alliance Apostolate. Both Hearts are holy and both are ablaze with love for not just mankind, but each of us.

Images of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts have been in my home since I was a child. But I was never taught anything about these quintessentially Catholic devotions in parochial school, Catholic prep school, or Boston College.

I have felt like little Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes.

"Why is that man's heart on fire?

Why doesn't this child know about the Sacred Heart?

It's different in America, Ma'am.

The Sacred Heart is everywhere."

And no one answered little Frank's question.

Indeed the Sacred Heart is everywhere. From the breasts of guillotined martyers and Vendean Catholic monarchists during the French Revolution, to those of Carlist militia fighting the Communists in Spain in the 1930s (it is the counter-revolutionary Catholic symbol par excellence), the Sacred Heart was there.

In new urban American parishes in the 19th century, in the Philippines, in France especially after the Franco-Prussian War, the Sacred Heart was there.

In encyclicals by three Popes, in a book by John Paul II, in the teachings of Benedict XVI, the Sacred Heart is there.

It is just not in our classrooms,or parochial religious curricula, or in the homilies of our parish priests. But it should be. And it is past time to bring the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart back to the forefront of Catholic life.

It is for that purpose that we are offering this blog.

V. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
R. Have mercy on us.

V. Immaculate Heart of Mary
R. Pray for us.

Salutation And Offering To the Two Heartsby Saint John Eudes

2006-06-23T00:02:00.000-07:00

Salutation To the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Hail, Hearts most holy,
Hail, Hearts most meek,
Hail, Hearts most humble,
Hail, Hearts most pure,
Hail, Hearts most devout,
Hail, Hearts most wise,
Hail, Hearts most patient,
Hail, Hearts most obedient,
Hail, Hearts most vigilent,
Hail, Hearts most faithful,
Hail, Hearts most blessed,
Hail, Hearts most merciful,
Hail, most loving Hearts of Jesus and Mary;
Thee we adore,
Thee we praise,
Thee we glorify,
To Thee do we give thanks;
Thee we love,
With all our heart,
With all our soul,
And with all our strength;
To Thee we offer our heart,
We give it,
We consecrate it,
We immolate it;
Accept and posses it entirely,
And purify it,
And illuminate it,
And sanctify it;
That in it Thou may live and reign
Both now and forever,
And in the ages of ages.
Amen.

Offering To the Two Hearts
O Jesus, only Son of God, only Son of Mary,
I offer Thee the most loving Heart of Thy divine Mother which is more precious and pleasing to Thee than all hearts.
O Mary, Mother of Jesus, I offer Thee the most adorable Heart of Thy well-beloved Son, who is the life and love and joy of Thy Heart.
Blessed be the Most Loving Heart
and Sweet Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ
and the most gloriousVirgin Mary, His Mother,in eternity and forever.
Amen.
Saint John Eudes, Apostle of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts