Evening Devotions

The Last Day of the Month of the Sacred Heart

2009-07-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Conclusion.

An important secret for aiding you to carry out the good resolutions you have formed during this month is to learn to enter into the Heart of Jesus, to leave the Heart of Jesus, and to re-enter the Heart of Jesus.

1. Enter into the Heart of Jesus by recollection and prayer. Make great account of prayer all your life, and, in it never lose sight of Jesus. Remember how strongly St. Theresa recommends prayer. Enter into it, like her, through Jesus Christ.

2. Leave the Heart of Jesus in order to go and labor for Jesus. Lave it as the Seraphim leave paradise without being absent from it. Preserve at least the desire of entering into it again, as speedily as possible. Live always in His presence. Carry Jesus with you, in order to communicate Him to the hearts of those with whom you converse. Leave Jesus, as the ray issues from the sun, without being detached from it and as Jesus left the bosom of His Father without ceasing to be united to Him.

3. Re-enter the Heart of Jesus as soon as possible. This you may do in two ways. The first is by frequently lifting up your mind and heart to Him. While occupied in your employments raise your heart to Jesus every hour or oftener saying, for example, ‘O Heart of Jesus, Thou art my strength, my joy, my happiness.’ The second manner of re-entering the Heart of Jesus is by examination and penance. Call back your heart from its wanderings and let it suffer some punishment for them. Lay your head at the foot of the Crucifix, and, if you have sinned by pride say to Him: ‘Trample this proud head beneath Thy feet, O Lord’' If by impatience: ‘Would that I had the lance which pierced Thy Sacred Heart that I might pierce my own with it and let forth all its bitterness.’ In every fault that you may have committed, whatever it be, have recourse to our Lord and say to Him: ‘I know well, my Savior, that Thou art also my Judge,.and therefore I would gain Thee, before Thou judgest me. Happy shall I be if I do penance before Thou punishest me, for I know well that Thou wilt not have the courage to punish me twice.’ Enter, leave, and reenter the Heart of Jesus in this manner. It is a means of remaining united to Him all your life.

Nor have you any reason to doubt that you will always be well received under whatever circumstances you have recourse to Him though you may have been guilty of some negligence in recalling Him to mind. One Friday, St. Gertrude turning towards her Crucifix, said with compunction: "Alas, my sweetest Lord, what sufferings you endured for my saltation on this day, and I, ungrateful wretch that I am, engrossed by other cares, have allowed this day to pass without calling to mind all that you deigned to suffer each single hour. You who are the life of my life, who for love of my love condescended to die!" Upon which our Lord replied to her: "I have supplied for all your negligence, for at each instant I have formed in my Heart all those sentiments which should have passed through yours, and my divine Heart waited with impatience for this return of yours towards me, in order to offer to God my Father all the merits that I accumulated and which could not be applied to your soul without this intention on thy part." The Saint added, "In this is manifested the most faithful love of our God who supplies in so admirable a manner for our forgetfulness and who appeases His Father by offering Him the regret which the soul conceives for her negligence.

Practice: There is no better way to close the practices suggested during this month than by one which our Lord Himself proposed to the St. Margaret Mary: "One Friday during Holy Mass, I felt a strong desire to honor the sufferings of my crucified Spouse. Upon this He told me that He desired that I should present myself every Friday a certain number of times day and night to adore Him upon the Cross, the throne of His mercy, and prostrate myself humbly at His feet, in the same dispositions in which the Blessed Virgin stood by the Cross during His Passion, and offer to Him those holy dispositions." Our Lord said also to St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi: "If every Friday you will honor with particular devotion the hour at which I expired on the Cross, you shall receive in return the choicest graces from my soul which I gave up at that moment to my Eternal Father. And though you may not always feel sensibly the effects of this grace, it shall remain constantly present within you."

Ejaculatory Prayer: May I live, no not I, but may the Heart of Jesus live in me!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

THe Thirty-Third Day of the Month of the Sacred Heart

2009-07-03T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Of the Zeal Which the Heart of Jesus Looks for in Those Who Are Devoted to Him in Spreading the Devotion to the Sacred Heart.

It is not enough to have conceived a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. You must also labor, as far as you can, to extend it. And this will be no difficult matter if you have only love: the most unequivocal proof of love is zeal. Whoever has no zeal has no love says St. Augustine.

But in what way are you to exercise your zeal? There are three means of doing it, and these are within the reach of every one. The first is example. Set an example yourself of a tender devotion to the Heart of Jesus. This is the shortest and most efficacious lesson. The second means is to counsel it; to make it known to those who are unacquainted with it and to encourage and foster it in those who have some beginning of it. The third and surest, as it is also the easiest, is to pray ardently to this Sacred Heart to make itself known and loved by means of those interior lights, those secret motions, that enlighten and transform hearts; for this devotion seems to be in a particular manner the fruit of prayer, one of those special graces which our Lord has reserved to be spread in the hearts of His servants by Himself alone.

No one can excuse himself from employing so easy a means as this. The saints in their enterprises of zeal knew well the power of prayer over the Heart of God and hence they never failed to join it to their preaching. For they bore in mind the saying of St. Paul, that "neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but God that gives the increase" Neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat Deus (1 Cor. iii. 7).

It is related of a Father of the Society of Jesus that he never preached without having first spent three hours in fervent prayer accompanied with abundant tears. A lay brother of the same society, when asked what were the means which he used to gain so many souls to God in his office as porter, replied: "For one word that I address to men, I address a hundred to God." Let us adopt the same means and we may be sure of success.

Let us pray. And if our sins. make us unworthy to be used as instruments by Jesus Christ in making His Sacred Heart known, let us beg of Him to choose others in our place. Let us entreat Him to send into His vineyard apostles of His Heart who, penetrated with a deep sense of the advantages of this devotion, may devote themselves to increase and spread it Yes, let us pray, for everything is promised to prayer. When a holy soul once asked of God why He did not raise up in this corrupt age one of those saints whose zeal changes, as it were, the face of the whole world, "Men do not pray to me enough," was the reply which she received.

The surest means of succeeding in the prayers which we address to God for the good of souls is to offer them to Him through the mediation of the Heart of Jesus. This was made known to Marie of the Incarnation, foundress of the Ursulines in Canada, as she relates in the second hook of her life written by herself. "One night as I was pleading before the Eternal Father the great cause of the salvation of souls, I understood by an interior light, that I was not heard by His Divine Majesty and that He did not, as usual, lend a propitious ear to the vows and urgent entreaties which I addressed to Him. I annihilated myself at His feet. I sank to the center of my own vileness and nothingness that His Divine goodness might deign to teach me what was most pleasing to Him in order that I might obtain my request. Upon this I heard these words: ‘Pray to me through the Heart of Jesus, my most amiable Son. It is through Him, that I will hear you and grant your petition.’ Since that time I have always concluded my daily devotions by this practice, and by this means I gain each day a fresh profusion of graces beyond all that I can express. *

It would be well to mention here the magnificent promises of Jesus Christ in favor of those who zealously employ themselves in making known His Sacred Heart. Saint Margaret Mary says, "Our Lord disclosed to me the treasures of grace and love reserved for those who shall consecrate and devote themselves to give and procure to His Sacred Heart all the honor, love, and glory in their power, treasures so great that it is impossible for me to express them." And in another place, "Our Lord showed me the names of a number of persons written in His Sacred Heart on account of the desire they felt that He should be loved and honored, and He promised, that they should never be effaced."

At the same time, let us bear in mind that to be profitable, our zeal must be prudent and enlightened. There is a wide difference between the affairs of God and those of the world. In the affairs of the world it is necessary to be full of action; in those of God, we must be content with following His inspirations, leaving grace to act and following its movements with all our power. Devotion to the Sacred Heart must insinuate itself by the unction of charity into the hearts of those whom God has chosen for Himself.

Practice: Employ a part of your means in procuring books and medals oi the Sacred Heart and try to spread them where you can. The wicked never fail to find means and resources for circulating their pernicious books. Shall we allow ourselves to be outdone by them?

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Heart of Jesus, grant that I may be consumed with a zeal for Thy glory.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

* Prayer of Mother Marie of the Incarnation.

It Is by the Heart of my Jesus, my way, my truth, and my life, that I approach Thee O Eternal Father. Through this divine Heart, I adore Thee in behalf of those who adore Thee not, I love Thee in behalf of those who love Thee not, I acknowledge Thy goodness, in behalf of all those who, by voluntary blindness, slight Thy divine Majesty and acknowledge not Thy favors. I would fain satisfy through this divine Heart for the duty of all mankind. I traverse in spirit the whole world in search of every soul purchased by the most precious Blood of my divine spouse, in order that I may make reparation to Thee for all through this divine Heart. I embrace them all in order to present them to Thee through Him, and through Him I beg of Thee their conversion. Wilt Thou suffer them, Eternal Father, to refuse to acknowledge my Jesus, to refuse to live for Him who has died for all? Thou seest, O divine Father, that they have no life as yet. Give them life in this divine Heart.

Thou knowest, O Incarnate Word, my beloved Jesus, all that I would say to Thy Father by Thy divine Heart and by Thy holy Soul. In saying it to Him I say it to Thee, for Thou art in Thy Father and Thy Father in Thee. Grant, then, in union with Him. all that I ask. I present to Thee all these souls. Make them one with Thee.

The Thirty-Second Day of the Month of the Sacred Heart

2009-07-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Fifth Means of Obtaining a Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: a Particular Devotion to St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Aloysius.

The saints in heaven take a pleasure in obtaining for those who honor them the virtue in which they themselves excelled and the means of salvation which most powerfully aided them in attaining perfection. We have before remarked what an ardent devotion the greatest saints have manifested at all times towards the Heart of Jesus, but we will point out three in particular to whom you can have recourse in a more special manner in order to obtain this devotion.

The first is St. Joseph. When we call to mind the privilege which this glorious saint enjoyed of carrying the Infant Jesus so often in his arms and of living with Him familiarly during thirty years, can we doubt that in the silence of the life of continual prayer which St. Joseph led at Nazareth our Divine Savior revealed to him, the first and most highly favored of all His saints after His Divine Mother, all the treasures of His Sacred Heart? If, then, you would know and love the Heart of Jesus go to Joseph. Jesus has placed in his hands all the treasures of His Heart in order that he might have the power of enriching his faithful clients.

After Joseph go to the disciple whom Jesus loved, St. John the Evangelist. To whom Can you better address yourself if you would be inflamed with a tender devotion to the Heart of Jesus than to the beloved disciple, who reclined during the last supper upon that Divine Heart, and was the first to penetrate its secrets; who alone received the last sighs of that Sacred Heart upon the cross; who alone shared the sorrows of Mary as she beheld that Sacred Heart pierced by the soldier’s lance; who alone saw the blood and water flow from thence, as he bears testimony himself; and who was the first to enter into that wound of love and there to take up his abode?

As for St. Aloysius, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the exercise of an interior life and continual union with God formed his distinctive characteristic. St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, to whom it was given to behold the glory which this saint enjoyed in heaven exclaimed: "Oh, how Aloysius loved upon earth! Oh, how Aloysius loved! While he was in this mortal life he was ever winging shafts of heavenly love towards the Heart of the Word Incarnate. Now that he is in heaven those shafts return into his own heart and are fixed there for ever, for the acts of divine charity which he then made fill him now with ineffable joy.

"Oh, how great is the glory of Aloysius, son of Ignatius! Never could I have believed it had not my Jesus allowed me to see it! Would that I might traverse the whole universe and proclaim that Aloysius is a great saint. Would that I might make his glory known to the whole world that God might be glorified in him. He is raised so high in heaven only because he led an interior life on earth. Who can ever appreciate the merits and virtue of the interior life? No, there can be no comparison between the acts of an interior and exterior life."

This amiable saint is your model, interior souls; Christian youth, he is your special patron. You cannot doubt that he interests himself specially in your welfare, and he has given such proof of his desire to see the devotion to the Heart of Jesus extended that you are sure of doing what is agreeable to him in addressing yourselves to him to obtain the promotion of this object. The following incident will serve to increase your confidence.

In the year 1765, a novice of the Society of Jesus, Nicholas Aloysius Celestini, while laboring under a serious illness and almost on the point of death, saw the angelical Aloysius approach his bed. The Saint addressed hun in the most consoling words and exhorted him to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to propagate the devotion as a thing most pleasing to Heaven. Nicholas promised to do so and received as a recompense, not only the cure of his malady, but freedom also from any troublesome effects of it, so that though hardly able the evening before, to turn in his bed, he was well enough the following day to walk several miles in very cold weather and to observe the rule like any other novice. This miraculous cure contributed powerfully to extend the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Practice: Acquire the habit of making ejaculatory prayers from time to time after the example of St. Aloysius. There is not a more powerful means for advancing rapidly in a short time in the love of Jesus. Those short prayers are like inflamed darts which go straight to His Heart and meet with less hindrance from the distractions and languor which so often interfere with our other exercises of piety.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Who will give Thee to me that I may find Thee alone, O Heart of my Jesus!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Thirty-First Day of the Month of the Sacred Heart

2009-07-01T10:18:00.004-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Fourth Means of Obtaining Devotion to the Sacred Heart: a Great Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Mary has all power over the Heart of Jesus. She is the Mother of fair love: Mater pulchrae dilectionis. It is to her that we must address ourselves if we would have its flames enkindled in our hearts.

The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are too much alike and too closely united for one not to lead infallibly to the other. There is this difference: The Heart of Jesus more particularly favors pure souls, while the heart of Mary purifies those which are not so by means of the graces which she obtains for them, and prepares them to be received within the Heart of Jesus. Sinners should never despair of obtaining this grace through Mary. She is the refuge of the miserable, the resource of the whole world. Without a tender love towards this Mother of mercy, we can never hope to obtain an entrance into the Heart of Jesus.

One day as St. Gertrude was repeating with great devotion those words of the Salve Regina: Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte, "Turn, then, thine eyes of mercy towards us," the Blessed Virgin appeared to her, and showing her the eyes of the Infant Jesus whom she held in her arms, said: "These are the eyes full of mercy which I can turn at pleasure upon those who invoke me." Let us then cherish a tender love for Mary; we shall soon be inflamed with an ardent love for her Son. This is the recompense beyond all price which she obtains for all who are devoted to her. Every good has come and will come, to us through Mary alone: Omnia per Mariam. Whoever has found her has found life and salvation.

There can be no difficulty in approaching this tender Mother, for she tells us herself that she anticipates those who seek her and that she shows herself first to them. Yes, it is she who inspires us with the desire of loving and serving her in order that she may enrich us with all the treasures which are deposited in her hands. It is through her hands that every grace must pass which the Heart of Jesus designs to shed upon us.

Let us address ourselves to Mary and especially to her Heart, the perfect image of the Heart of Jesus; to that Heart which was so constantly united to the Heart of her Divine Son that it shared each moment His feelings, His joys, His labors, sorrows, and His love for us. Never shall we find Jesus without Mary nor Mary without Jesus. Invenerunt puerum cum Maria, Matre Ejus, "And entering the house they found the child with Mary, His Mother" (Matt. ii. 11).

Let us invoke Mary, especially by her Immaculate Conception, her dearest privilege which exempted her from the sad necessity of being for a single instant the enemy of her God, and let us be sure that she will never refuse us anything. Let us never separate the Heart of Mary from that of Jesus in our devotions. Let us honor and love them both from the bottom of our hearts. Let us devote and consecrate ourselves wholly to these amiable Hearts. Let us address our requests to God the Father through the Heart of Jesus and lot us approach Jesus by the Heart of Mary. We shall obtain everything from the Father by the Heart of the Son and everything from the Son by the Heart of the Mother.

Blessed Hermann never passed a day without paying his homage to the Heart of Mary, and every day of his life he received signal favors at her hands.

Blessed Marie of the Incarnation used no other means than this: she had recourse to the Heart of Mary to present her petitions to Jesus and to the Heart of Jesus to present them to the Eternal Father. The Blessed Virgin herself deigned to tell St. Gertrude how pleasing this practice was to her and how meritorious it was in the sight of God. On the eve of Christmas while this saint was reflecting with bitterness of heart that she had allowed the season of Advent to pass by without having done anything specially in honor of the Blessed Virgin, inspired by the Holy Ghost, she offered to Mary in reparation for this negligence the most noble and gentle Heart of Jesus, her Divine Son. The Mother of Mercy gave her to understand that she received this precious gift with gratitude and great joy, and that it incomparably surpassed in merit all other acts that she could have performed to honor Her.

O Mary, Mother of Grace, cast an eye of pity on our miseries and afflictions with which we are overwhelmed in this valley of tears. Pray to Jesus to open His Heart to us, and teach us to bury our sorrows and our pains in His Divine Heart, which while He was on earth was truly a sea of bitterness. Let it be enough for us to look upon this amiable Heart as the Jews once looked upon the brazen serpent, to be at once healed of all the maladies which afflict our souls.

Practice: As often as you assist at Holy Mass, offer to the Heart of Jesus the dispositions of His Blessed Mother as she stood at the foot of the cross. And, when you go to Communion, offer Him in like manner the dispositions of Mary and her holy transports at the moment of the Incarnation. He Himself taught this practice to St. Margaret Mary. You cannot doubt, then, that it is most pleasing to Him and that you can thus repair with great advantage all your coldness and backwardness in those sacred actions, the most important in spiritual life.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Mary, I will give myself no repose until I have obtained from thee the knowledge and love of the Heart of Jesus.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Thirtieth Day of June

2009-06-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Third Means of Obtaining a Devotion to the Sacred Heart: Visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

The Blessed Eucharist does not benefit those only who receive it. To gain from it some of the fruits of life which it contains it is enough to visit Jesus Christ in this adorable sacrament, to desire it, to think of it, to turn in spirit towards some church in which it reposes. Such was the practice of a great number of saints and of Saint Alphonsus Liguori among others. There is nothing, that wins the Heart of Jesus more surely than frequent adoration and visits. This adorable Heart is in His Sacrament as a living fountain which flows unceasingly night and day and asks only to pour itself into all hearts to purify and fertilize them. He Himself invites all to come and draw from thence the waters of life, and seems to cry aloud amid the silence of His sanctuaries, as He did formerly from amidst the crowd of Jews who were assembled at Jerusalem for a great solemnity: "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." Si quia sitit, veniat ad me et bibat (St. John, vii. 37).

But the solitude, that reigns in His churches tells us too plainly that He is not more heeded now than then. Hence it seems as though He would fain seek reparation from among the small number of faithful souls who answer to His call for the insensibility of others. It is during these visits which they pay to Him that He delights to shed upon them His graces in greater abundance. And it may be said that there is no favor which He bestows upon them more commonly at that time than the grace of His love, for as friendship is maintained and increased among men by frequent visits and conversations, so it is by the same means that we obtain a more ardent love for Jesus Christ.

Speak to Him during the visits which you pay to Him as a child to its father, as a spouse to the most amiable of spouses. At one time lay before Him your spiritual infirmities: "Lord, behold he whom You love is sick." Ecce, quem amas infirmatur (John xi. 3). At another thank Him for His benefits: "Bless the Lord, my soul, and let all that is within me praise His holy name." Benedic, anima mea, Domino, et omnia quae intra me sunt nomini sancto ejus (Ps. cii. 1). At another praise His goodness: "How good is God to Israel!" Quam bonus Israel Deus (Ps. Ixxii. 1). At another praise His mercy: Lord, Thy mercy is above all Thy works! At another. His love: O Heart of Jesus, wounded and languishing with love, what shall I say of You and of the excess of Your love? Annihilate yourself in His presence: "Shall I speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes?" Loquar ad Dominum meum cum sim pulvis et cinis? (Gen. xviii, 27). Lastly, enter within the tabernacle itself and establish your abode there. Then cast yourself with Magdalen at the feet of Jesus. Bedew them with your tears. Kiss His sacred Hands pierced for the love of you. Repose upon His Heart with the disciple whom He loved and tell Him that it is there that you wish to take your rest for ever without looking elsewhere for joy or consolation, both in this world and in the next.

You cannot give want of time as an excuse for your neglect in visiting our Lord. How much time do you find to waste in useless conversation? Shall it be said that it is for Jesus alone that we cannot sacrifice five minutes? Yes, five minutes of conversation with Him in His adorable Sacrament is enough to satisfy His Heart. Perhaps you live under the same roof with Him. You have to go but a few steps to visit Him and you refuse Him this slight mark of gratitude which He is ready to recompense by the most signal favors. An ancient religious was wont to say, "Is it right to pass by the house of a friend, to live so near him and yet not go in to greet him?

Father Sales of the Society of Jesus was filled with consolation whenever he heard the Blessed Sacrament spoken of. He was never tired of visiting it. If he was asked for at the gate, if he returned to his room, if he had to go a few steps through the house, he would always contrive to renew on each occasion his visits to his dear Lord so that there was hardly an hour in the day in which he did not visit Him. It was this that merited for him the happiness of dying by the hands of heretics in defense of the doctrine of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament."

Aloysius Gonzaga, Stanislaus Kostka, John Berchmans, those angels upon earth and admirable models of youth, found no joy but in the presence of Jesus in His adorable Sacrament. They left their hearts with Him when they were obliged to be absent from Him. There it was that Xavier would come to rest himself after the labors of the apostolate and gain fresh strength for encountering new dangers. In a word, devotion towards Jesus, annihilated upon our altars has been the devotion of all the saints. Let it be ours also.

Practice: Make a firm resolution not to allow a single day to pass without making several visits to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament if you live in some place where He thus resides. If you have not this happiness go at least once a day into a church for this purpose. Let your special object in these visits be to honor the Heart of Jesus and to make reparation to Him for all those who are indifferent towards Him or who set themselves against the devotion towards this adorable Heart.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Jesus, my God, Thou whose discourse can never tire, speak but one word to my soul. Speak today, speak always, and never be silent.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-Ninth Day of June

2009-06-29T18:50:00.005-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Second Means of Obtaining a Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: Frequent Communion.

Devotion towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus is properly an exercise of love. It is enough, then to know what Holy Communion is to understand that there is no surer means of being soon inflamed with love for Jesus Christ than by frequently approaching to this divine Sacrament. The wise man knows it is impossible to carry fire in one’s bosom and not be burnt. This sacred fire is the adorable Eucharist which, as St. Bernard calls it, is the love of loves. Oh, did the soul but consider attentively what passes in this Divine Sacrament, says St. Angela of Foligno, it is certain that seeing herself so strangely loved all the iciness of her heart would be changed into flames of love and gratitude.

Let us frequently approach this source of all good. There, united and incorporated with Jesus Christ the author of grace, we shall daily receive its streams in fresh profusion. Our evil passions imperceptibly weakened will at length wholly disappear. That inclination for evil which we carry about with us will be changed into a sweet attraction towards every virtue of which the Heart of Jesus is the sanctuary, and of which He gives us an example in this adorable sacrament. There, possessing the treasure of Heaven, though hidden from our eyes, we shall receive the pledge of everlasting happiness, promised to those who worthily approach this Sacrament of love. For whoever possesses Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament can want nothing for his perfection and eternal salvation, so that, after Communion the faithful soul may say with St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi: All is accomplished. For indeed this heavenly food contains in itself every good and lays up in the soul every grace, gift, and virtue, so that the faithful soul that enjoys it has nothing more to desire.

Alas, how many graces do we lose by not placing ourselves in a condition to communicate more frequently. The Faithful of the primitive Church communicated every day, and how great in consequence was their faith and fervor! Alas, did we but know what pain we inflict on the Heart of Jesus by our indifference towards the Blessed Eucharist! One day our divine Lord said to St. Margaret Mary: "I have a burning thirst to be honored and loved by men in the Blessed Sacrament, and yet I find scarce any one who tries to allay this thirst, as I desire, by making me some return."

Let us be no longer of the number of these ungrateful souls. Let us often approach the. Holy Table with due dispositions. It is the surest means of giving consolation to Jesus Christ and gaining His Heart. But, if we already have the happiness of communicating often then why do we not make a better use of so powerful a means of perfection and salvation? Why, after so many communions do we continue still the same, still tepid, cold, and without energy to conquer our defects? Is it not because we go to Jesus Christ with a heart attached to creatures, filled with an esteem for the goods, the honors, the enjoyments of this world, with a heart impenetrably barred against the shafts of divine love? Is it not because, though Jesus willingly receives our hearts within His own, we on the contrary close our hearts against Him? For as He has Himself said, he alone that abides in me and I in him can bring forth abundant fruit. Qui manet in me, et ego in eo, hie fert fructum multum (St. John xv. 5).

Why then do we not cast ourselves with faith and confidence at the feet of Jesus Christ, really present within us, and say to Him from the bottom of our hearts: "No, Lord, I will not let You go until You have blessed me. I will not rise until You have given me strength to overcome those inclinations which separate me so frequently from You, and an efficacious and insatiable desire of doing and suffering all for Your love and always and on every occasion accomplishing Your holy will." Let us remind Him that His own glory requires Him to make a heart which has become His sanctuary worthy of Himself. And what is there that He can refuse us after haying given Himself wholly to us?

Practice: Endeavour to make yourself worthy, as far as is possible, to communicate frequently, and do not forget that all it’s fruit depends on the preparation and thanksgiving which should accompany this great action. St. Theresa says that one of the reasons why we receive so scanty a supply of grace, is that we do not turn to sufficient account those moments during which Jesus Christ is really present within us, and that He has hardly entered our hearts when we turn our back, as it were, upon Him and entertain ourselves with other thoughts.

Ejaculatory Prayer: When shall I come and appear before the face of my God? When shall I be allowed to possess Him within my heart?

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-Eighth Day of June

2009-06-28T18:41:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

First Means of Obtaining Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: Prayer.

The first means for obtaining an ardent love for Jesus Christ and a tender devotion to His Sacred Heart, is prayer.

"We may well be astonished that Christians are not, so to say, all powerful, possessing as they do a sure and infallible means of obtaining all that they desire, and this means consisting only in asking. There is nothing, to which Jesus Christ has so frequently and solemnly pledged Himself as to hear our prayers" (Croiset). "Ask, and it shall he given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may he full. All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.

Prayer is the first need which the soul feels when the Holy Ghost begins to draw it from the abyss of perdition, the first sign of conversion. Ananias was afraid to go in quest of Saul to whom he was sent by our Lord. What was the proof given him by which to know that he was no longer a persecutor but already of the number of the Faithful in heart and will? "He prays." Ecce enim orat (Acts ix. 11).

Prayer is also the first exercise, which the enemy of souls induces them to abandon when he would draw them into his snares. Hence it was that St. Theresa said, "Would that I had a voice that might be heard throughout the whole world and that might repeat unceasingly in the ears of all: Pray, pray!"

Let us pray then, and pray with confidence, humility, and, above all, with perseverance. Let us never grow weary, never abandon it in disgust. The moment we cease to importune the divine mercy is, perhaps, the very moment at which it was on the point of granting our request. Prayer, says St. Laurence Justinian, appeases the anger of God. He pardons the sinner when he prays with humility. Prayer obtains all that it asks for. It triumphs over all the efforts of the enemies of our salvation. It purifies sinners, changes them, and makes them saints. No sooner had I recourse to God, says Solomon, than He granted me wisdom. I had no sooner opened my mouth to pray, says David, than I received help from God.

Our Lord told St. Bridget that His bounty goes far beyond our requests and wishes, and that He would be ready to give, at any moment, did we but bring, on our part, suitable dispositions.

"But, of all prayers, there is none that can be more pleasing to Jesus Christ than that in which we beg of Him a love of His Sacred Heart. Let us pray. Let us entreat. It is impossible to beg this earnestly and not obtain it. The means are easy and efficacious, and we may say that, in this matter, to ask is to obtain. Make use of this Sacred Heart itself to support your request and doubt not but that it will be favorably received" (Croiset).

St. Mechtild declared a short time before her death that, having one day begged of our Lord some great grace in behalf of a person who had asked her to do so, Jesus Christ said to her: "My daughter, tell the person for whom you are praying that she must seek all that she desires in my Heart, and that there she will infallibly find it. Let her cherish a great devotion to this Sacred Heart. Let her ask all that she desires through this Sacred Heart like a child that knows no other artifice than that which love suggests to her of asking of her father all that she wishes."

Practice: You can do nothing more pleasing to the Heart of Jesus, than to unite yourself to Him frequently by spiritual communion. According to St. Thomas, this consists in an ardent desire of receiving Jesus Christ and an affectionate gratitude as if we had actually received Him. These desires and affections you can awaken in yourself at every hour of the day or night. Our Lord expressed to the Foundress of the Convent of St. Catharine of Sienna at Naples the pleasure He takes in these spiritual communions by showing her two precious vases, one of gold and the other of silver, and telling her that in the golden vase He kept her sacramental communions and in the silver vase her spiritual communions.

Ejaculatory Prayer: If I forget Thee, O Heart of Jesus, let my right hand be forgotten: let my tongue cleave to my jaws if I do not remember Thee! Si oblitus fuero tui, oblivioni detur dextera mea; adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis, si non meminiero tui (Ps. cxxxvi. 5).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

Announcement

2009-06-28T18:34:00.000-04:00

I was unable to post the meditations for the Twenty-Eighth and Twenty-Ninth Days due to connectivity issues. They are thus being posted late.

If you wish to keep on schedule you can "double up" and use two meditations a day, one in the morning the other in the evening. Or, you can continue to use them in order. Either way will bear great fruit.

Note that while the meditations are for the month of June, a month of 30 days, there are in total 33 as well as a concluding meditation.

I hope they have served to bring you closer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and have borne great fruit in your souls.

Fr. Scott Bailey, C.Ss.R.

The Twenty-Seventh Day of June

2009-06-27T00:18:00.004-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Means Of Surmounting the Obstacles to the Devotion to the Sacred Heart: Mortification.

"If you would know how to overcome the obstacles which your examen has disclosed to you, embrace courageously interior and exterior mortification. Both are absolutely necessary for arriving at perfection: the one cannot exist without the other.

"But the most necessary, beyond all contradiction, is interior mortification, and from this no one can dispense himself. This is the violence which we must unceasingly offer to ourselves in order to seize the kingdom of heaven. In fact, it is impossible to live the life of faith for any length of time without dying a thousand times a day to your inclinations and the self-seeking of self-love, for the whole employment of a soul in this life consists in loving and hating: loving God with our whole heart, and hating sin without reserve.

"Opportunities for practicing this mortification are constantly presenting themselves. There is no one who cannot mortify his natural disposition, desires and inclinations, who cannot keep silence when his natural vivacity would urge him to reply or vanity prompt him to speak. It is in such acts as these that interior mortification principally consists, and we succeed by this means in weakening self-love and subjecting it to reason, and thus gradually ridding ourselves of our imperfections. It is useless to flatter ourselves that we love Jesus Christ if we are not mortified. All our practices of devotion, the finest sentiments of piety, are to be suspected if unattended by this perfect mortification. It was for this reason that when some one was spoken of as a saint in the presence of St. Ignatius he replied, "He will truly be so if he is truly mortified."

"But it is not enough to mortify ourselves for a time only and in some one particular. We must mortify ourselves as far as possible in everything and at all times but with prudence and discretion. A single irregular satisfaction that you allow to nature has more effect in rendering her overbearing and rebellious than a hundred victories which you might gain over her would have in weakening her power.

"The practice of this mortification is familiar to all such as have a true desire of being perfect. There is nothing that does not afford them an occasion for thwarting their natural inclinations. It is enough that they have a great desire to see or to speak to make them cast down their eyes or hold their tongue. The desire of hearing news or of knowing what is passing or what is said is to them a constant subject of mortification and it is the more meritorious in proportion as it recurs more frequently and is known to God alone. A happy expression, a witty pleasantry, might distinguish them in conversation, but it may also furnish them with matter for a noble sacrifice. Are they interrupted a hundred times, in some occupation of great importance? A hundred times they will reply with as much patience and sweetness as if they had not been at all engaged.

"Inconveniences, arising from circumstances of place, weather, variety of character, etc., again supply innumerable occasions of mortifying oneself with great merit, and it may be said, that the greatest graces and the highest sanctity depend ordinarily upon the generosity we show in mortifying ourselves with constancy on those little occasions which are unceasingly presenting themselves" (Croiset).

Do not, however, suppose that by entering on the practice of mortification you will have to lead a melancholy and hard life. The yoke of Jesus Christ is sweet, and His burden light. Did the saints deceive themselves when they exclaimed: "I am filled with comfort: I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation?" Repletus sum consolatione, superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatione? (2 Cor. vii. 4). Writing to his brethren in Rome, St Francis Xavier says: "I am in a country where I am in want of all the conveniences of life, but I experience so many interior consolations that I am in danger of losing my sight from the tears of joy which I shed." Where is the worldly person who at the pinnacle of his ambition or in the full enjoyment of his pleasures can make a similar avowal?

"A little courage! It’s the first step only that demands a sacrifice. Make the experiment for yourself. A thing must be worth but little which is not worth the trial.

"If after a fortnight of entire and constant mortification," said a great servant of God, "we do not taste that sweetness which others have experienced, I will allow it to be said that the life of those who truly love Jesus Christ is wearisome and that the yoke of Our Lord is heavy" (Croiset).

Whatever difficulties you may meet with in renouncing yourself, have recourse to the Heart of Jesus, and they will disappear. One day St. Margaret Mary felt so strong a repugnance within herself that it seemed as if she could not bring herself to obey upon our Lord reproaching her for her cowardice in conquering herself for the love of Him. She said to Him: "What would You have me do? My will is stronger than myself." Our Lord replied: "Place it n the wound of my Heart. There it will find strength to overcome itself." "O my God!" she exclaimed with transport, "bury it so deep within Your Heart and secure it there so firmly that it may never escape!"

Practice: Together with the general examen, practice also the particular examen. Take for the subject of it your predominant fault or some virtue which you wish to acquire and practice it in the following manner:

1. On rising, make a firm resolution to be on your guard against this particular defect.
2. About noon, examine whether you have committed any faults in regard of the point you proposed to yourself.
3. In the evening make a similar examen.

The fruit of this examen depends upon the fervor with which our morning resolution has been made, the exactness of our inquiry, our watchfulness over ourselves, the fervor with which we beg the divine assistance, and the care we take to note down our failings, in order that we may observe the progress we make from one day to another.

St. Ignatius practiced this exercise with such exactness from the time of his conversion that, even on the day of his death, he was still careful to note his faults in a little book which was found under his pillow. The most eminent persons of his order have imitated the fidelity of their founder in this salutary practice. If they thought that they were not doing too much in taking such precautions can we regard them as beneath us or as imposing too irksome a restraint upon us?

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Jesus, may Thy desolate Heart teach me to avoid, despise, and hate all earthly satisfactions. (Bl. Henry Suso).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-Sixth Day of June

2009-06-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Four Obstacles Which Prevent Our Obtaining Abundant Fruit from Devotion to the Sacred Heart.

I find four obstacles which stop our progress in true devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The first is tepidity, a truly deplorable state. The tepid soul does only what she cannot omit. Without charity, without fervor, she is a burden to herself; and so far from advancing in the way of virtue, she falls back. The danger to which persons engaged in daily practices of piety are exposed is that of growing familiar with these holy exercises. To guard against this they should be constantly afraid of going through them without reverence, attention, and fervor, and should make an effort to arouse and awaken themselves by meditating on the great truths of faith and by rekindling in themselves the vivid flames of divine love.

"The state of tepidity is so much the more to be dreaded as it appears the less dangerous: we avoid more obvious sins and think that by so doing we are safe, but we forget the words of our divine Lord in the Apocalypse: ‘Because you art neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth,’ As if He would say: ‘You do not deserve to live within me. You shall have no entrance into my Heart since you repay my kindness only by the most guilty coldness.’ Confessions without amendment, communions without fruit, are the ordinary consequences of this deplorable tepidity. Imagine, then, that our divine Lord, in His desire to draw you out of this sad state says to you as He said to St. Gertrude: ‘You have been long enough attached to the earth in company with my enemies. You have gathered the honey of the consolations of this world from amidst its thorns long enough. Return at length to me and I will inebriate you with the torrent of my delights.’ Accept this invitation of our divine Lord. Embrace His hand, pierced with nails for the love of you, which He stretches forth to you in His mercy, and promise Him that you will follow Him from henceforth whithersoever He may lead you.

"The second obstacle is self-love. The practice of the Gospel is shortly summed up in that saying of Jesus Christ: ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’ And yet how few there are who think seriously of this! They have no love or taste for any virtues but those which are agreeable to themselves and suit their humor. But how can a heart thus disposed be united to the Heart of Jesus? This divine Heart abandoned itself wholly to us. It reserved nothing for itself. It asks, then, for generous hearts who have no fear of going, too far, of engaging themselves, of placing themselves in the impossibility of drawing back, and to whom all reserve is unknown.

"The third obstacle is our predominant passion which we would fain humor and which we cannot bring ourselves to renounce. Even though we had sacrificed them nearly all, yet if there remain but one of this kind, there can be no union of hearts. Examine sincerely what it is that you still reserve to yourself and sacrifice it generously to the Heart of Jesus, and be assured, that it will cost you less to renounce it altogether than to gratify it by halves.

"The fourth obstacle is a secret pride. We overcome or weaken all other enemies by the practice of virtues, but it too often happens that this enemy gains strength even by means of certain virtues themselves. It may be said, that of all vices there is none which has arrested so many souls in the path of piety, none which has thrown back so many from the highest perfection into tepidity, or even into a disordered life.

"From this spirit of vanity comes the desire we have to bring ourselves into notice, to succeed in all we undertake, that sadness and discouragement which we feel when we have met with bad success, that expansion which is produced in us at the sight of the honors which are paid us, or on hearing the praises which are bestowed upon us. This same spirit insinuates itself into the practice of the highest virtues. We are mortified, it may be, obliging, charitable, filled with zeal for the salvation of souls. We are given to meditation, prayer, etc., but we are well pleased for the edification, as we say, of our neighbor, that we should be known to be so.

"From the same source spring that sensitiveness on the point of honor, those little coolnesses, those annoyances which approach so near to envy, that secret pain we feel at the success of others whom we are ever ready to find a means of lowering, that excess even of sorrow and discouragement upon falling again into some humiliating fault.

"In fine, we pass for spiritual men, we believe ourselves to be such, and yet our conduct is regulated only by maxims of worldly prudence. We wear but the appearance of piety while beneath the surface our passions are alive in all their strength. And, at the hour of death those who are looked upon as loaded with spiritual riches find their hands empty of good works, this self-love, this paltry ambition, this secret pride, have robbed or spoiled all. This is the leaven which sooner or later corrupts the whole mass, the worm which eats into the life of the loftiest oaks. This is the beginning of those stupendous falls which happen from time to time in different ages to afflict the Church and to give to the Faithful a sad but salutary lesson" (Croiset).

The following instruction, given by our divine Lord to the devout Armella, confirms what we have just said of the obstacles that oppose the reign of the Heart of Jesus within us. "On the eve of the Presentation, it seemed to me," she says, "that I was enclosed within the Heart of Jesus with so much glory and liberty that it surpassed all my comprehension. I found myself at large and at my ease. This divine Heart appeared of so vast an extent that a thousand worlds would not have sufficed to fill it. I saw, besides, how those who dwell therein by love enjoy true and entire liberty and a wondrous peace, but on the other hand, I saw that the gate to enter therein was so small and narrow that but very few found entrance. Surprised at this I said, O my love and my all, whence comes it that Your Heart is so large and spacious, that we are so much at large when we are once within, and yet the entrance is so small and narrow? Upon this our Lord gave me to understand that it was because He wished that none but the little, the naked, and the solitary, should find entrance. The little are those, who, with all their heart, abase and humble themselves for the lore of Him. Such as these can enter but others not, for how can anyone who is puffed up with vain glory pass through so small a gate? The naked are those who detach their hearts from all covetousness of the riches and comforts of this life. As for others who are burdened with heavy loads of gold and silver or other things it is impossible that they should be able to pass through so narrow a way unless they first discharge themselves of this burden. The solitary are those who detach their affections from all creatures, for the effect of love is to bind and attach the heart to the object beloved. But it is impossible for two persons, bound and attached to each other, to enter together by a way in which there is barely room for only one.

Practice: If you desire to obtain a true devotion to the Heart of Jesus it is important to ascertain whether you have still some one of these obstacles to overcome. The true means of succeeding in this enquiry is by the daily and constant use of the general examen, which St. Ignatius esteemed and recommended, in some sort, even more than prayer.

To make it well you should follow the method which he has himself traced out and observe these five points.

1. Thank God for the benefits which He has bestowed upon you.
2. Beg of Him to give you grace to know and detest your sins.
3. Examine the thoughts, words, and actions of the present day, going through each hour in succession.
4. Bog pardon for your faults.
5. Make a purpose of amendment and conclude with the Our Father, or any other prayer you may prefer.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Heart of Jesus, give me grace to know Thee and to know myself.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-Fifth Day of June

2009-06-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Pictures of the Heart of Jesus.

Whoever loves a friend consoles himself in some sort for his absence by the sight of his portrait. He carries it with him, kisses it tenderly, and often looks at it. This is what the devout Lanspergius advises us to do with regard to pictures of the Heart of Jesus: To keep alive your devotion have nearby some picture of this adorable Heart. Place it in a position in which you may see it frequently, that the sight of it may enkindle in you the fire of divine love. Kiss the picture with the same devotion with which you would kiss the Heart of Jesus Christ. Enter in spirit within this divine Heart. Impress your own heart upon it. Bury your whole soul within it and pray that it may be absorbed in it. Strive to draw into your own heart the spirit which animates that of Jesus, His graces, His virtues, in a word, all the saving power of this sacred Heart, for the Heart of Jesus is an overflowing fountain of every good."

If this were not a salutary practice would the Church teach her children to pay honor to holy images? St. Theresa remarks in her autobiography with that admirable simplicity which is so characteristic of her: "Having but little talent for representing objects to myself, I was extremely fond of pictures. Oh how much those are to be pitied who lose through their own fault the help they might derive from them. It is evident that they have no love for our Lord, for they would be glad if they really loved Him to see His picture just as persons in the world are glad to look on the portraits of those whom they love."

But nothing is better calculated to excite us to this veneration for pictures of the Heart of Jesus than the pleasure which we know it gives Him to see them honored. Hear what St. Margaret Mary says on this subject: "One day, on the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, after Holy Communion the Heart of Jesus was represented to me as on a throne formed of fire and flames, shedding rays on every side and brighter than the sun. The wound, which He received upon the Cross, was clearly visible. A crown of thorns encircled this sacred Heart and it was surmounted by a cross. Our divine Savior gave me to understand that those instruments of the Passion signified that the source of all His sufferings had been the boundless love of His Heart for men, that all those torments and insults had been placed before Him, from the first moment of His incarnation, and that the Cross was, so to say, planted in His Heart from that moment, that from that same moment He accepted all the sorrows and humiliations which His sacred humanity was to suffer during the course of His mortal life together with all the outrages to which He was to expose Himself to the end of time, for the love of mankind by dwelling among them in the Blessed Sacrament. My Savior assured me that He took a singular pleasure in seeing the interior sentiments of His Heart honored under the figure of this heart of flesh, in the manner in which it had been represented to me, surrounded with flames, crowned with thorns, and surmounted by a cross, and that He wished that this representation should be publicly exposed in order to touch the insensible hearts of men. He promised me, at the same time, that He would shed in abundance the treasures of graces with which His Heart is filled upon the hearts of those who honored Him, and that wherever this image should be exposed for particular veneration it should draw down upon the spot every kind of blessing."

It is said that the inhabitants of Antioch arrested a violent earthquake by writing the following words over the doors of their houses: Christus nobiscum: state. Cease! Christ is with us! Let us bear upon our heart the image of the Heart of Jesus that in all our temptations we may boldly defy the enemy of our salvation and say to him: Cease! The Heart of Jesus is with me!

Practice: Carry about you a medal or picture of the Heart of Jesus, and place one where you pray. Do your best to have a chapel dedicated to this amiable Heart in your local church.

Ejaculatory Prayer: "Let us go with confidence to this throne of grace, the Heart of Jesus, that we may experience the effects of His mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid." Adeamus ergo cum fiducia ad thronum gratiae, ut misericordiam consequamus, et gratiam inveniamus in auxilio opportuno (Heb. iv. 16).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-Fourth Day of June

2009-06-24T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Devotion of the Saints Towards the Heart of Jesus.

"There is no one so poor as not to have some place to serve him as a dwelling. The very birds, as our Lord tells us, have their nests and the foxes their holes. A Christian alone should not be without a home, a wanderer throughout the world. But where can he make his abode so well as in the Heart of Jesus, a more august, magnificent, and holy dwelling than any monarch’s palace? The saints knew this well and it was here they fixed their abode. St. Bonaventure bore a holy envy towards the lance that opened for us an entrance into this adorable Heart. He said that had he been in its place he would never have quitted it. ‘Would you find me,’ wrote St. Elzear to St. Delphine, ‘seek me in the wound of the side of Jesus Christ; it is the place of my abode.’

"Lanspergius says, ‘Learn to take up your abode in this wound. Do you love repose? It is the bed of the Spouse, besprinkled with roses and lilies. Would you rear your good desires to maturity, and bring to light your good works? It is the nest of the Dove. Do you love recollection? It is the solitary sparrow’s haunt. Do you love tears and sighs? It is here that the meanings of the turtledove are heard. Are you pressed by hunger? You will find here the manna that falls from heaven in the desert. Are you parched with thirst? You will find here the fountain of living water which issues from paradise and pours it’s abundant streams into the hearts of the faithful. Nor need you fear to be badly received. You know too well the endearments which the Son of God lavishes upon those who honor Him. He invites them to repose sweetly upon His Heart, like St. John. He shows them His opened side as to St. Thomas. He gives them to drink from this sacred source’" (Nouet).

"Let us draw near," says St. Bernard, "let us draw near to Jesus. Let us exult and be transported with joy at the remembrance of His Heart. Oh how good, how delightful it is to take up our abode in this Heart! I will adore and praise the name of our Lord in this His Temple, in this Holy of Holies, in this ark of the Covenant, and say with David: I have found a Heart wherewith to pray to my God, and this Heart is no other than that of my King, my brother, and my most loving friend, Jesus.

"Having then found this Heart which is also mine, O most amiable Jesus, I will adore You, my God! Receive my prayers in this sanctuary of propitiation, or rather draw me wholly within this Heart. O Jesus, a thousand times fairer and more amiable than all that is most beauteous upon the earth, wash me yet more from my iniquities. Cleanse me from my sin that I may be able to approach You and be allowed to dwell within Your Heart all the days of my life. For Your Heart has been wounded in order to offer us a secure retreat. Yes, Your Heart has been opened that, delivered from distracting cares, we might dwell therein. Who is there, then, that can refuse to love this Hear, thus wounded for us? Who does not feel his heart bum with love for one by whom he is so much beloved? While we are still bound in the fetters of this body let us make such return as we are able. Let us love and embrace our divine Lord who was wounded for us and pierced by impious executioners in His hands, feet, and side. Let us keep constantly near to Him that our hearts, still so hard and impenitent, may at length be wounded by the darts and bound by the chains of His love."

St. Thomas of Villanova thus develops the text of the royal Prophet: "The sparrow has found herself a house, and the turtledove a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones. As the Son of God has His abode in the bosom of His Father, so the Church has established her nest in the Heart of her beloved, and, entering in by the opening of His sacred side, she reposes there in peace. There she hides her children and shelters them from the storm. This is the Sacred Altar, the inviolable retreat, where the mourning dove secures her young until the time when, opening their wings for flight, they shall clothe this corruptible body with immortality."

Our Lord gave St. Margaret Mary to understand that St. Francis of Assisi was especially united to His Sacred Heart and that he possessed a particular power of obtaining from it the graces which he asked. St. Francis de Sales made the Sacred Heart of Jesus his abode during his life. He would not allow his holy repose to be interrupted by the most important business in which he might be engaged. It would be necessary to give the entire life of St. Gertrude and St. Mechtild if we wished to cite the places in which they speak of the Heart of Jesus.

St. Francis Xavier, and an infinity of other saints whom it would be too long to name, had a singular devotion towards this amiable Heart even before it had made itself known as it has done in our own days to St. Margaret Mary.

Practice: If you cannot go and preach Jesus Christ in distant countries as a missionary, you can at least make Him known to the hearts of your friends. This is your mission. You are under an obligation to look to the instruction of your household. God will demand of you an account of their souls. These functions, though less brilliant, are not the less meritorious.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Happy inhabitants of heaven who see the Heart of Jesus unveiled and love it with an undivided and constant love, obtain for me the grace to know and love it like yourselves for ever.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-Third Day of June

2009-06-23T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Practice in Honor of the Heart of Jesus.

God bestows His graces upon us every moment of our lives in consideration of the merits and blood of His Son, and thus places us in the way of gaining boundless treasures for eternity. But we must acknowledge that every day we incur through our negligence inconceivable losses. The greater number of our actions lose their value from want of a right intention. It is time to rouse ourselves from this lethargy. And the best way of rendering our actions as meritorious towards our salvation and as glorious to God as possible, is to make use of the following practice taught us by Blosius. "It consists," he tells us, "in offering our good works and all our actions to the most sweet and sacred Heart of Jesus that they may be purified by this divine Heart, for it is so full of love and tenderness towards us that it is ever ready to complete and perfect the good with which it has itself inspired us." Saint Margaret Mary gave the same advice to a person who had consulted her: "You are grieved at leading a listless life in the service of God. What He seems to suggest to me to say to you in reply is this: do not be disturbed. To satisfy Him on this point you have but to unite yourself in all your actions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This will serve before beginning by way of disposition and at the end by way of satisfaction. If, for example, you find that you can do nothing in prayer, content yourself with offering the prayer which our divine Savior is ever making in our behalf in the adorable Sacrament of the Altar. Offer the ardor of His love in reparation for your tepidity and say as you perform each action: "My God, I wish to do or to suffer this, in union with the Sacred Heart of Thy divine Son and according to His holy intentions, which I offer to Thee in reparation for all that is impure and imperfect in my own." In a word, this amiable Heart will supply for all that may be wanting on your part, for it will love God for you and you will love Him in it and by it.

One day as St. Gertrude was endeavoring to pray with all the attention in her power, she could not avoid, through human weakness, several distractions. Greatly afflicted at this she said within herself: Alas, what fruit can I hope for from such a prayer, made with so distracted a heart? Upon which our Blessed Lord, to console her, presented to her His Heart and said to her: "Behold my Heart, the delight of the Blessed Trinity. I present it to you that you may make use of it to supply for all that is wanting in you. Recommend all your actions to it with confidence—it will render them perfect in my eyes. My Heart shall be ever ready to serve you and will supply for your negligence."

Profit by this instruction. Whatever you love; whenever you pray, labor, or endure any suffering; love, pray, labor, suffer in union with the affections, prayers, labors, and sufferings of the Heart of Jesus. And still more, when you have fallen into any fault, after humbling yourself for it, go seek in the Heart of Jesus the virtue which is contrary to your natural inclination, whether it be humility, charity, resignation, or bearing with your neighbor’s defects, and offer it to the eternal Father in expiation for your faults. It is a short and easy means of paying your debts as soon as you have contracted them and of acquiring an immense treasure of merits. It was the habitual practice of the Saint Margaret Mary. Like her, address yourself with simplicity to the Heart of Jesus and say to Him after your falls: "You see, O Lord, the evil which I have done. Pay, if you please, for your poor slave." At night lay up within this adorable Heart all the actions of the day that it may purify whatever it finds imperfect in them.

Ejaculatory Prayer: I sleep; but Thy Heart, which Thou permitest me to call mine watches for me, over me, and within me.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-Second Day of June

2009-06-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Complaints of the Heart of Jesus.

Let us give ear to the complaints which the Heart of Jesus deigns to make to us. They are a fresh proof of His love, for He complains, only because He loves, and He loves us solely for our happiness without any consideration of His own, which is neither lessened by our loss nor increased by our salvation. He asks: "What more ought I to have done for you, O Christian people, and have not done it? In what have I grieved you? Answer me. I have set you apart from amongst the nations which I left seated in darkness and in the shadow of everlasting death to impart to you the incomparable gift of the true faith, and you have rendered it fruitless by your indifference. You were a beautiful vine which I had planted with my own hands, and you have borne me but bitter fruit, for, in my thirst you gave me vinegar to drink. And by your ingratitude and coldness, much more than by the point of the lance, you have pierced your Savior’s side. I shed for you all my blood, even to the last drop, and what value have you set upon it? What profit have you derived from it? I called you to my kingdom and my inheritance and you have given me a reed for my scepter and a crown of thorns for my diadem by the inconstancy of your heart and by the pride and haughtiness of your behavior. In taking upon me your nature I have raised you to a participation of my divinity, and you nailed me to the cross by your offences."

"I fed you, not with the manna which your fathers ate and which did not preserve them from death, but with that bread from heaven which contains in itself eternal life, and you have torn my mystical body by denying even this ineffable benefit which is the admiration of angels. O all ye, then, that pass by the way of life, attend and see if there be any sorrow like to that which my Heart feels at such ingratitude."

Our divine Savior complains, again, to His faithful servant Margaret Mary in a manner no less moving; "Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to wasting and consuming itself, to testify to them its love. And nevertheless I receive, from the greater part but ingratitude in return, through the neglect, irreverence, sacrileges, and coldness which they show towards me in my sacrament of love. And what afflicts me still more is, that I meet with this treatment from hearts which are specially consecrated to me." Another time disclosing to her His Heart all torn and pierced with wounds: "Behold the wounds which I receive from my chosen people. Others are satisfied with wounding my body, but these assail my Heart, that Heart which has never ceased to love them."

Alas, are we not of the number of these ungrateful souls? Is it not of us that Jesus complains; of us who have been enlisted in His service by holy baptism and are fed so often with His sacred Body; of us, who are consecrated, perhaps, to His Heart in some association charged with the task of repairing so many outrages and who are nevertheless so cold, so indifferent, towards this divine Heart? Alas with what truth may He not say to us by the mouth of the royal Prophet: "If my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it, but to be despised and abandoned by my friends, my children, the chosen objects of my love!" Si inimicus maledixisset mihi, sustinuissem utique (Ps. liv. 13).

"My Heart," adds our divine Master to His faithful servant, "may truly complain in this mystery (of the Blessed Sacrament) as it did upon the Cross, that it is exposed to shame and grief without consolation. In this abandonment it seeks for consolation from you, and from a chosen number of fervent souls. I look to you to repair by your homage those injuries which are inflicted on me." Ah, if today we hear the voice of His complaints and sorrows, let us not harden our hearts. How happy should we be, if the Heart of Jesus itself were pleased to choose us, as He chose His Apostles, to make Him some amends, and to console Him for the abandonment in which He is left by so many ungrateful hearts! Let us redouble our fidelity, then, in our practices of devotion towards this amiable Heart, and let us protest to Him that with the help of His grace we will never abandon Him.

Practice: It is in prayer that you will learn the excess of the love of Jesus for you and the ingratitude with which you have repaid it. This knowledge will awaken in you regret and love, and will enable you to undertake all for Jesus. Never pass a single day, then, without making at least a quarter of an hour’s prayer. It is one of the most powerful means of salvation, so that St. Theresa does not hesitate to say that she will answer for the perseverance of those who are faithful in making their prayer, and that on the contrary, those who neglect this holy exercise have no need of devils to drag them down to hell, for they throw themselves into it of their own accord. In this she advances nothing beyond the truth, for Holy Scripture tells us that the earth is desolate and filled with woe because there is no one who considers or enters into his own heart.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Heart of Jesus, by a prodigy of Thy grace, inflame even my heart, hitherto so ungrateful, with the fire of Thy love.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twenty-First Day of June

2009-06-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Ingratitude of Men Towards the Heart of Jesus.

"Although the Heart of Jesus is no longer actually wounded, yet He has ever endured strange indignities in His person since the institution of the Sacrament of His love. Can any greater indignity be imagined than the outrages which the Jew, the heretic, the Atheist, have made Him suffer during so many ages, and will continue to make Him suffer until the end of time" (Nouet)?

But, perhaps, even more deplorable still, is the conduct of those who bear the name of Christians, and who still retain some Christian practices. Jesus condescends to dwell amongst men and to enter even into their hearts. He even goes so far as to express Himself, (O incomprehensible excess of love!) in those astounding words: "My delights are to he with the children of men" Deliciae meos esse cum filiis hominum (Proy. viii. 31). But, O Lord, how are You treated by ungrateful men? You deign to reside in the midst of them and they refuse You even a decent dwelling. While they are living in palaces they have the effrontery to lodge You in a hovel. "Do you see," said the holy king David with bitterness of heart to the Prophet Nathan, "that I dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God is lodged within skins" (2 Kings vii. 2)? O true ark of the New Covenant, of whom the ancient ark was but a feeble figure, O Lord Jesus, who is there, now-a-days who is disturbed amidst the wealth that surrounds him at the thought of the poverty which attends You in our churches? Even this would seem but little to You if You but found at least in our hearts a ready and respectful welcome in the absence of all splendor in our material temples. But no, day and night in our sanctuaries You art waiting for and calling upon men, while days, nights, and weeks pass without their answering Your call. Or if at times they make a brief visit, it is but custom and human respect that brings them. They are present, indeed, before You in body but how far from You are their hearts! You abide in Your sacrament of love, ever occupied with the thought of them, ever as a victim in the presence of Your Father, offering to Him Your wounds for them, and they, while in Your presence, think of nothing less than of adoring You. Their very attitude shows so little respect that heretics themselves, who deny Your real presence, reproach them with it. At the time of Holy Communion during Mass, Jesus offers Himself to them. They hear those words: "Behold the Lamb of God! Behold Him who takes away the sin of the world!" Come all to Him! Jesus Himself invites them in those admirable words: "Eat friends! and drink, and be inebriated with the torrents of my delights, my dearly beloved" (Cant. v. 1). "Come eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you" (Prov. ix. 6). But all go their way as though they had no wounds to heal, no stains to efface. They reply that others have invited them, that they have other friends to serve. Be astonished, O you heavens, at the sight of this prodigy of ingratitude! O Christians! O senseless and perverse nation! Is this the return you make to your Lord and God?"

O Jesus, so tender, so generous, so full of love for us, could we inflict a more cruel wound on Your Divine Heart? Ah, I hear You say to me, "I looked for one of those whom I love, to compassionate my sorrow, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, and I found none" Sustinui qui simul contristaretur, et non fuit; et qui consolaretur, et non inveni (Ps. lxviii. 21). Non est qui consoletur eum ex omnibus charis ejus (Lam. i. 2).

Our Lord Himself testified to St. Margaret Mary how much He felt this indifference "I suffer a burning thirst to be honored and loved by men in the Blessed Sacrament, and yet I find scarcely anyone who exerts himself, according to my desire, to allay my thirst by making me any return."

Practice: The benefits of God are like a river that flows unceasingly, watering your soul, that city which God has chosen for Himself. In this world, you can discover but the smallest part of these precious gifts, and as gratitude is one of the distinctive characteristics of devotion to the Sacred Heart, you should never allow a single day to pass without recalling to mind the benefits which you have received from God: your creation, preservation, vocation to the true faith, a Christian education, the sacraments, particular graces, graces decisive for salvation, etc. Nay, more, thank God for all the graces with which He would have given you had you been more faithful, and for all those which He has in store for you. Thank Him in behalf of others who, nourished by His favors, either do not think of returning Him thanks for them or make use of them only to offend Him. Gratitude is a necessity felt by noble and generous souls, and the surest means of drawing down fresh blessings, while ingratitude on the contrary, dries up their source.

Ejaculatory Prayer: What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things that He hath rendered to me? Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi? (Ps. cxv. 3). I will take the Heart of His divine Son, and I will offer it to Him with confidence, that I may thus discharge all y obligations.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twentieth Day of June

2009-06-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Souls Devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Love to Meditate on His Passion.

Those burning flames which consumed the Heart of Jesus, those unspeakable sorrows which plunged Him into a sea of bitterness, that immense thirst for our salvation, are prodigies of the love of a God which would surpass all belief and defy all conception, had not our divine Lord given us some striking and palpable proof of them.

To suffer and to die for our friends is the greatest proof of love. Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet quam ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis (St. John xv. 13). This proof the Heart of Jesus has given us, or no, it is not for His friends but for His enemies—for those who put Him to death that He dies. And who of us is there, whom He could have loved, says St. Augustine, if He had not loved His enemies? He loved us while we were His enemies in order to make us worthy of being called His friends. Our Blessed Savior desires that we should never lose sight of this inconceivable proof of love: the sufferings and death which He endured for us. It is for this that He would renew the remembrance of it every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is impossible to be devoted to His Heart without taking pleasure in meditating on the means, so inconceivable and so worthy of our gratitude, invented by that divine Heart in the excess of its love, in order to give a proof of this love to the insensible hearts of men.

It is not only, then, in the garden of Olives, but in the hands of the soldiers, in the streets of Jerusalem, before Annas, Caiphas, and Herod, at the pillar, in the Praetorium, upon Calvary, that hearts devoted to the Heart of Jesus should follow their divine Savior and unite themselves to His sorrows which finished only with His life.

As regards the fruit and merits of such meditation, all the saints agree in extolling them with one voice. St. Austin tells us that a single tear shed at the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ, is of more value than a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and fasting for a year upon bread and water. Why is the number of those who love Jesus Christ so small asks St. Alphonsus Liguori. Because there are so few who meditate on the pains which He endured for us. Whoever meditates on them frequently cannot live without loving Jesus Christ. He will feel himself so constrained by His love that it will not be possible for him to refuse to love a God who has shown such love and suffered so much, only that He might be loved. Our Lord Himself said to Blessed Veronica of the order of St. Augustine, "I would have all men honor my Passion by a sincere sorrow and lively compassion for my sufferings. Should they but shed a single tear, they may be sure that they have done a great deal, for the tongue of man cannot express the joy which is given me by this single tear." The angels revealed to Blessed Jane of the Cross that the divine Majesty took such pleasure in the tears shed over the Passion of Jesus Christ, that they have a value in His sight equal to that of shedding our blood or of suffering the greatest pains.

Our Lord said one day to St. Angela of Foligno: "Whoever wishes to find grace should never turn away his eyes from the Cross, in whatever state he is, whether of sorrow or joy. Those who employ themselves in meditating on my Passion and death, the source of life and salvation, are my true children. Others are my children only in name."

The same saint, having been favored with an apparition of Jesus Christ crucified, heard Him pronounce upon those who compassionate His sufferings and love to take part in them these consoling benedictions: "Blessed of my Father are you, who by compassionating my pains, sharing in my tribulations, and walking in my footsteps, have merited to wash your robes in my precious blood. Blessed are you, who compassionating my immense sufferings and the death which I endured to rescue you from eternal torments, to make satisfaction for you and to work your redemption, have been found worthy to share my poverty, humiliation and sufferings. Blessed are you who faithfully cherish the remembrance of my Passion, the greatest miracle of all ages, the salvation and life of those who were lost, the only refuge of sinners; for you shall share in my resurrection and in the kingdom and glory which are the reward of my sufferings, and shall be my heirs through all eternity. Blessed are you of my Father and the Holy Spirit. Blessed are you with that blessing which I shall myself give on the day of my justice, for instead of rejecting me like my persecutors when I came into my own kingdom, by your lively sense of my abandonment, you gave me an asylum in your hearts. Seeing me tormented with hunger and thirst, pierced with nails, agonizing and dying upon the cross, you would be my comforters and associates, fulfilling thus the works of true mercy. Therefore you shall hear on the terrible day, those words so full of joy for you: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom predated for you from the foundation of the world.’ Your title is incontestable, for I was hungry, and you gave me the bread of compassion to eat."

Practice: The Blessed Virgin, according to a pious tradition, never passed a day without visiting the spots sprinkled by the blood of her divine Son. The Apostles, following her example, and after them the Faithful of every age, hastened to traverse this way of sorrows.

The Way of the Cross was established in order to supply, in some manner, the place of this pious pilgrimage. The Sovereign Pontiff enriched it with the most abundant indulgences. Benedict XIV assures us that it is the most powerful means of converting sinners, reviving the tepid, and sanctifying the just. Contrive, then, to practice this holy exercise from time to time, especially at the season at which the Church invites us to meditate on the sufferings of our Lord. Or, if it is not possible to do this where the stations are erected, then meditate on the passion of Jesus Christ in the depths of your heart.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Never will I forget the sufferings of my God. My heart shall preserve a continual remembrance of them, and my soul shall languish with amazement and gratitude. Memoria memor ero, et tabescet in me anima mea (Lament, iii. 20).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Nineteenth Day of June

2009-06-19T00:01:00.002-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Of the Agony of the Heart of Jesus in the Garden of Olives.

One day while St. Margaret Mary was absorbed in meditation on the sadness and agony of our Lord in the Garden of Olives, our Divine Master said to her; "It was here that my interior sufferings were greater than in any other part of my Passion, for I saw myself wholly abandoned by heaven and earth and loaded with all the sins of mankind. I appeared thus before the sanctity of God, who, without regard to my innocence, punished me in His fury, making me drain the chalice which was charged with all the gall and bitterness of His just indignation; as if He had forgotten the name of Father, that He might sacrifice me to His wrath. No creature can understand the greatness of the torments, which I endured at that time for mankind."

In the next place, compassion for His own sufferings, and for those of the whole human race, combined with this terrible view of His Father's wrath, to fill the Heart of Jesus with agony.

The third suffering of the Heart of Jesus was His compassion for Himself. The anticipation of evils is ordinarily more painful than the endurance of the evils themselves. Now Jesus Christ, during His agony, allowed all the torments of His Passion to fall together upon Him and present themselves to His mind with all the circumstances which made them so full of sorrow and ignominy, He would give Himself a foretaste of all their bitterness, and bear them in His Heart, before actually enduring them in His body. The nails, the cords, the cross, the rods, the thorns, the gall, the vinegar, the spittle, the blows, the purple robe, the scepter of scorn, the insults of His enemies, the abandonment of His friends, the treachery of one of His Apostles, the denial of the other—He foresaw all, He accepted all, during that painful and sorrowful agony.

The fourth suffering of the Heart of Jesus was His compassion for mankind, whom He loved with a sovereign love. "He did not confine Himself to deploring their loss in general. He felt for the evils of each one of that vast multitude, and grieved for their sins, not indiscriminately and in a mass, but individually and in detail, so that there was no sin that ever was or ever will be committed, mortal or venial, which did not contribute in its measure, to rend the Heart of our Lord" (St Angela of Foligno). Whoever we are, just or sinners, we all contributed to cast our share of bitterness into this compassionate Heart; we all caused Him this cruel agony. We should count then, the vast multitude of men who have ever lived or who ever shall live to the end of time, measure the number and frightful enormity of their crimes, the unbounded love for souls which burned in this Heart, the ardent desire which urged it to save them all, if we would form an idea of the anguish of the agony of this divine Heart.

To this sight of the loss of so many souls, and of their ingratitude, must be added all the sufferings, all the physical and moral trials of the human race, which cast themselves into this ocean of bitterness and which our divine Lord was pleased to endure by compassion in His Sacred Heart, in order that we might be able to say truly with the Apostle, "We have not a High Priest who is unable to compassionate our infirmities."

Such are the incomprehensible sorrows which encompass on every side and rend in pieces the Heart of Jesus. Thus He exclaims: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death. My Father, if it he possible, let this chalice pass from me!" You see Him abandoned by His Father, given over to fear and sadness, and reduced to such a state, that a sweat of blood streams from His Sacred Body and runs even to the ground, forced from Him by the violence of His sorrow and love before the executioners, the nails, the thorns, or the scourges have done their work. Alas! it is because the Heart of Jesus suffers almost as much here as upon the cross; it is because He would be the model, the refuge, and the consolation of all afflicted hearts. The Jews, who witnessed the tears shed by Jesus over the grave of Lazarus, exclaimed in admiration; "Behold, how He loved him!" Ecce quomodo amabat eum (St. John, xi. 36). What should you, then, say or think, O Christian soul, at the sight not merely of the tears, but of the blood which Jesus sheds today in order to prove to you His love?

Draw near, then, to your agonizing Savior. Compare, if you have the courage, your pains with those which transpierce His Heart, and beg of the Eternal Father to allow you, all unworthy as you are, to take the place of the angel sent by Him to console Him, to stay beside Him, to watch with Him, as He invites you to do Himself: Sustinete hic, et vigilate mecum (St. Mark, xiv. 34).
Patience and resignation under your sufferings are the consolation, which the afflicted Heart of Jesus looks for at your hands.

Practice: When you are preparing for confession, beseech the Heart of Jesus to deign to receive your heart within His own, that you may have some share of the bitter sorrow which He felt for those sins of which you are going to accuse yourself, and which were present to Him during His sorrowful agony.

Ejaculatory Prayer: By Thy Heart, O Jesus, pierced with sorrow, I beg Thee to pierce mine with regret for all its sins.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Eighteenth Day of June

2009-06-18T00:21:00.004-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Of the Agony of the Heart of Jesus in the Garden of Olives.

Though the whole life of our Lord was a cross and continual martyrdom, from His constantly having before His mind the prospect of all that He was to suffer for mankind, yet it may be truly said, that the most painful moment of this life of bitterness was that in which He allowed all those evils to press together upon His Heart, and endured their full weight and suffering during His three hours agony in the Garden of Olives. It is there that souls, who are devoted to this Divine Heart, should repair to contemplate Him every day and to measure the full extent of His love. This is the time of the martyrdom of His divine Heart. The physical sufferings of His Passion acted, in some sort as an alleviation to His sorrow of Heart and as a satisfaction to His love, but here He suffers without relief and without consolation. He refuses His soul every thought that might give Him comfort.

Let us consider, then, what were His sufferings during that cruel agony.

The first suffering of the Heart of Jesus was His compassion for His Father. Deus charitas est "God is charity" (1 John iv. 8), says the Apostle whom Jesus loved. The definition is worthy of St. John. It is worthy of the Heart of Jesus from whence he drew it as he reclined upon the breast of his divine Master. This God of love has loved us with an everlasting love. From all eternity we have occupied His thoughts and designs of mercy. In charitate perpetua dilexi te (Jer. xxxi. 3). When man had forfeited by sin all those gifts which His goodness had destined for him, God, in a still greater excess of liberality, loved him so far as to give him His only-begotten Son, the object of His complacency and affection, and to deliver up this divine Son to the most painful and ignominious death in order to save sinful man. Sic Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium unigenitum daret (St. John iii. 16). But the world ignored this incomprehensible love. It would not believe it. It lost all remembrance of it.

Indeed, who is there that meditates on this wondrous prodigy of love, which ravishes the angels and saints of heaven with astonishment? Who is there that tries to fathom its depths? Who is there that shows his gratitude for it, as far as it is in the power of any creature to be grateful for so unspeakable a gift?

As no one is so truly a father as God, so it may be said, never did Son feel for the most tenderly loved father so deep a love as that of the Son of God for His Eternal Father. In His agony, then, the Heart of Jesus compassionated, beyond all expression, this incomprehensible love of His Father, outraged by the ingratitude and innumerable crimes with which mankind have repaid it.

The second suffering of the Heart of Jesus, was His compassion for the sorrows of His Mother. To understand what Mary suffered during the sorrowful passion of her divine Son, we should have to penetrate the secrets of her Heart. This Heart was gifted with a power of feeling so noble, so deep, so excellent, that no other mother’s heart can bear comparison with it. She alone could say with truth that the outrages heaped upon her divine Son rebounded upon her heart. She alone felt all the bitterness of the scorn, the insults, the blasphemies directed against Jesus. She heard the sighs, the groans, the last words of her Son. She saw Him abandoned by His Father, stretched upon the ground, nailed to the cross, and expiring in the most cruel agony without being able to wipe away the tears which flowed from His eyes, to staunch the blood which streamed from His wounds, or to render Him any of those sad offices which might soothe His last sufferings, above all, without being able to pout the least comfort into His afflicted Heart. As she looked on, she spoke only by her silence and her tears: Stabat Mater dolorosa juxta crucem lacrymosa, dum pendebat Filius.

What a martyrdom it is to see those whom we love suffering, and still more to see them suffering on our account! Thus the unspeakable sorrows of Mary added to the sorrows of her divine Son. He made them His own, and bore them in His own Heart, by His compassion for her, during His agony.

Measure then, if you can, the weight of these sorrows which were endured for you. Beg of the Heart of Jesus to pour into your heart one drop from that sea of bitterness which encompasses and penetrates His own, that the sense of the sorrows which He endures may give you generosity to suffer and undertake everything in order to make some return to so much love.

Practice: Among the different practices, which our divine Lord Himself prescribed to St. Margaret Mary in honor of His Sacred Heart, He taught her that which is now known under the name of the Holy Hour: "I beg of you to spend in prayer each Thursday night, from eleven o’clock until midnight, that you may share with me the sorrow which I experienced in my agony, in order to appease my anger against sinners and to sweeten in some manner the bitterness which I felt at that time at being abandoned by them, and which forced me to reproach them with not being able to watch with me one hour." If age, health, or the wishes of your superiors do not allow your adopting this salutary practice, you cannot at least excuse yourself from forming the intention and from offering to our Lord every Thursday evening, in place of the prayer which you cannot make yourself, the prayers of so many holy souls who are faithful to this practice. And you may pray your good angel to take your place near the Heart of Jesus.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Oh! who will give me to enter into the interior of Thy Heart, O Jesus!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Seventeenth Day of June

2009-06-17T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Heart of Jesus Is an Unfailing Remedy Against Every Malady of Our Souls, Whatever May Be Their Disposition.

The Heart of Jesus is an abyss of wisdom. It is the fuhiess of every good. You will find in it a sure remedy for all the evils of your soul. Above all, it is an abyss of love in which we should lose every other love, especially the love of self, with its evil fruits, human respect, the desire of raising ourselves, and the love of our own satisfaction. It is by burying these inclinations in this abyss of divine love, that you will find every assistance you may require, according to the different states of your soul.

"Are you in an abyss of aridity and helplessness? Go plunge yourself into the Heart of Jesus Christ, that abyss of power and love. But do not be too eager to taste the sweetness of that love, except when it shall please Him to impart it to you.

"Are you in an abyss of privation and desolation? This Divine Heart is an abyss of every consolation in which we must lose ourselves, though without desiring to feel its sweetness.

"Are you in an abyss of poverty, and stripped of everything? Plunge yourself into the Heart of Jesus; it is filled with treasures, and will enrich you, if you leave it to do with you as it pleases.

"Are you in an abyss of weakness and miseries? Go to the Heart of Jesus; it is an abyss of mercy and strength, and will raise you up and strengthen you.

"Do you feel within yourself an abyss of pride and self-esteem? Bury it at once in the profound self-annihilation of the Heart of Jesus; This humble Heart is an abyss of humility.

"Are you in an abyss of ignorance and darkness? The Heart of Jesus is an abyss of knowledge and light. Learn, above all things, to love it, and never do anything but what it wishes of you.

"Are you in an abyss of infidelity and inconstancy? The Heart of Jesus is an abyss of constancy and fidelity. Plunge yourself therein and you will find in it a love that loves us constantly and constantly does us good.

"Do you find yourself buried, as it were, in death? Go to the Heart of Jesus. You will find there an abyss of life, a new life, in which, from henceforth, you will see but with the eyes of Jesus Christ, act only by His movements, speak only with His tongue, and love only with His Heart.

"Do you find yourself in an abyss of ingratitude? the Heart of Jesus is an abyss of thankfulness. Draw from its depths all that you would fain offer to God, for all the blessings you have received, and beg of Jesus to supply for you out of His abundance.

"Do you find yourself in an abyss of agitation, impatience, and anger? Go to the Heart of Jesus. It is an abyss of gentleness.

"Are you in an abyss of dissipntion and distraction? You will find in the Heart of Jesus an abyss of recollection and fervor which will supply for all your deficiencies and fix your heart and imagination by uniting them to Him.

"Are you plunged in an abyss of sadness? Bury this sadness itself in the Heart of Jesus, for it is an abyss of heavenly joy and the treasure of delight to saints and angels.

"Are you troubled and uneasy? This divine Heart is an abyss of peace, and this peace will be communicated to you.

"When you are in an abyss of bitterness and sufferings, unite them to the abyss of the infinite sufferings of the Heart of Jesus and you will learn from Him to suffer, and to be happy in suffering.

"If you are in an abyss of fear, the Heart of Jesus is an abyss of confidence and love. Abandon yourself to it. In it you will learn that fear should give place to love.

"In fine, on every occasion and under every circumstance, plunge yourself into this abyss of love and charity, and, if possible, never more quit it until, like iron in the furnace, you are penetrated with the fire "with which this Heart bums for God and man" (St. Margaret Mary).

St. Mechtild, while absorbed one day in God, beheld in spirit Charity under the form of a virgin, who dipped a diamond in the Heart of Jesus Christ and frequently repeated the action in order to give her to understand that there is no heart, however hard and impenitent, which the Heart of Jesus will not soften to contrition. Though our hearts should be as hard as the diamond, they will be softened by being steeped in the blood of the spotless Lamb and by being united to the Heart of Jesus.

Practice: Never allow yourself to fall into discouragement however strong may be your natural inclinations or however great your faults. Call to mind immediately that you have at your disposal the merits of the Heart of Jesus to make reparation for them all. Cast yourself into this Heart which is ever open to receive even the greatest sinners and say to Him: Ah, Lord, may the deep abyss of my miseries call upon the abyss of Your mercies, for You have said by the Prophet, that deep calls on deep. Abyssus abyssum invocat (Ps. xli. 8). It would be as impossible for a spark of fire to fall into the sea without being extinguished as for our fault not to be effaced by this means. It is only in hell that there is no longer hope in the Heart of Jesus. As long as we are in this life, He invites and calls us to Him, however ungrateful we may have been.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Heart of Jesus! Thou shalt be my hope in trouble, and a refreshing shade against the burning heat of my passions. Spes a turbine, umbraculum ab aestu (Is. xxv. 4).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Sixteenth Day of June

2009-06-16T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

How We Should Approach the Heart of Jesus.

Approach the Heart of Jesus, in the first place, in the spirit of penance, that you may bewail your sins, and obtain pardon for them. Adore Him, like the apostle St. Thomas, with profound respect, and say to Him with a contrite and humble heart, "My Lord and my God!" Dominus meus et Deus meus! Suffer me, my only hope, to seek the remedy for my wounds in the wound of Your Sacred Heart. Permit me, too, to place my hand in Your Sacred Side, not to assure myself of the truth of Your resurrection, but to touch Your burning Heart, and to replace my hand, thus warmed in this sacred fire, upon my own poor heart, that I may inflame it with Your powerful love, and consume it with regret at the remembrance of those offences, that forgetfulness, and ingratitude, which have made you sorrowful even to death. "O Heart infinitely holy, and so filled with a sovereign love of purity that You can not endure the smallest stains, stamp upon my heart a fear and horror of the slightest faults. O Heart, that has paid the ransom of us all, enable me to break my bonds, to combat my bad habits, to mortify my senses, and to restore to You by my penance, the glory of which I have robbed Thee" (Nouet).

Be assured that this humble prayer will draw down upon you the compassion of this Divine Heart, for if it is willing to endure that its own creature, this rebellious nothing, this animated dust, should offend and despise it, it is certain that by a generosity without example, the least act of humility is capable of making it forget all its baseness and ingratitude.

"Go, in the second place, in the spirit of confidence, to the Heart of Jesus, as to your place of refuge, and drown all your sadness, your weariness, your troubles, your pains, and uneasiness in this abyss of sweetness and goodness" (Nouet). The greater sinner you are, the stronger should be your hope in the Heart of Jesus. Love alone is never tired of pardoning. Jesus came not for the just, or rather those who think themselves such, but for sinners. It is among them that He loves to be found. He would be called the Friend of sinners. He runs to meet them, and bathes them in His tears. He would have greater joy in heaven at the return of a single sinner than at the perseverance of ninety-nine just. Oh! how pleasing, how honorable to Him is your confidence after your falls. It inflicts, as He Himself told St. Gertrude, a delightful wound upon His Heart.

One Holy Innocents’ Day, finding herself hindered by strange tumultuous thoughts which crossed her mind from preparing herself for Holy Communion, St. Gertrude implored the aid of God and received this answer: "Whoever, on finding himself attacked by any temptation, takes refuge with a firm hope under my protection, is of the number of those of whom I can say: ‘My dove is one, chosen among a thousand; she has wounded my heart with one of her eyes.’ So that were I unable to come to her aid, the desolation which my divine Heart would feel would be so great, that all the joys of heaven could not give it relief." And our Lord added, "This look of my well beloved which pierces my Heart, is the unshaken confidence which she should have in me, and the assurance that I can and will come to her aid in everything. This confidence offers such violence to my mercy that it would be impossible for me to abandon her." St. Gertrude replied, "But since this confidence is so great a blessing, and yet no one can procure it without Your aid, what are those to do who have it not?" Our Lord replied, "It is in the power of everyone to overcome this distrust by calling to mind the words of scripture, and to say with Job, if not with all his heart at least with his lips: ‘Though I should be buried in the depth of hell, my God would deliver me from it; though He should slay me, I should still hope in Him,’ and other similar words."

A great servant of God, whose filial confidence and abandonment of himself into the hands of Providence, formed, so to say, his distinctive characteristic, illumined at death by a still clearer light upon the greatness of the mercy of God, exclaimed: "Would that I might be restored to health, in order that I might live henceforth by confidence alone." *

In the third place, approach the Heart of Jesus in a spirit of recollection and prayer, by withdrawing yourself from the hurry of business. Then will our Lord hide you under the shadow of His protection, and draw near to you in love, and say to your heart, as He said to St. Gertrude: "Keep but me in view, direct all the powers of your soul to me alone, and you shall enjoy the sweetness of my grace." It is the Heart of Jesus that invites you to this repose of solitude and prayer, as He invited His apostles at the close of their labors. Venite seorsum in desertum locum, et requiescite pusillum. Come alone into this retreat, apart from the bustle of the world; and, with the beloved disciple, repose awhile upon the Heart of your Divine Master. Oh! how soon will your strength be repaired; and what deep truths will you learn!

Practice: You have heard a thousand times the great maxim of Jesus; "Learn of me; because I am meek and humble of heart." Discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde: but you do not understand as yet all its meaning. Beg of Him earnestly to give you grace to understand it. Meekness and humility are the virtues which He brings forth from the good treasure of His Heart and which He teaches us with the authority of a Master. We are not His true disciples, we cannot be truly devoted to His Heart, unless we are firmly resolved to study and practice them; for the proper character, the soul and substance of all true devotion, is to imitate what we honor. Summa religionis est imitari quod colimus (St. Augustine).

Ejaculatory Prayer: O love of the Heart of Jesus, how little art Thou known! How little art Thou loved! Do Thou make Thyself known and loved!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

* It would be a service to those that stand in special need of confidence to have the following well-known prayer of St. Claude de la Colombiere.

Act of confidence in God.

My God, I believe so firmly that Thou watchest over all those who hope in Thee, and that we can want for nothing whilst we look for everything from Thee, that I am resolved to live henceforth without any anxiety, and to cast all my care upon Thee. In peace in the selfsame I will sleep, and I will rest: For thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope (Ps. iv, 9,10). Men may strip me of wealth and honor; sickness may take from me my strength, and the means of serving Thee; I may even lose Thy grace by sin; but I will never lose my hope; I will keep it even to the last moment of my life, and all the demons in hell shall try in vain to tear it from me. In peace in the selfsame I will sleep, and I will rest. Others may look for happiness from their riches, or their talents; they may rely upon the innocence of their lives, the rigor of their penance, the number of their good works, or the fervor of their prayers; but, as for me, O Lord, all my confidence shall be my confidence itself. For thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope. This confidence has never deceived any one; No man hath hoped in the Lord and hath been confounded (Eccl. i, 11). I am sure, then, that I shall be eternally happy; because I hope firmly to be so, and because it is from Thee, God, that I hope it. In thee, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be put to confusion (Ps. lxx, 1). I know, alas I I know but too well, that I am frail and changeable; I know the power of temptation against virtues the most firmly based; I have seen the stars of heaven and the pillars of the firmament fall; but not even this can make me fear. As long as I hope, I am safe from every evil; and I am sure of always hoping, because I hope still this unchanging hope. In fine, I am sure that I cannot hope too much in Thee, and that I cannot obtain less than I hope for from Thee. Thus I hope that Thou wilt uphold me in the greatest dangers, protect me against the most violent assaults, and make my weakness triumph over my most formidable enemies. I hope that Thou wilt love me always, and that I shall also love Thee without abating; and, to carry at once my hope as far as it can go, I hope for Thee from Thyself, my Creator! both in time and eternity. Amen.

The Fifteenth Day of June

2009-06-15T15:04:00.004-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Heart of Jesus Invites Us All to Him.

Venite ad me omnes (St. Matt. xi. 28). "How beautiful are these words!" says St. Basil of Seleucia, "Come to me all; I place no bounds to my promises; my Heart is an inexhaustible source of goodness; it can wash away every crime.

"Come to me all, and I will refresh you. The crimes are yours; the remedy is mine; yours are the wounds, mine the cure.

"Come to me all; my Heart is wide enough for all. The ocean of my mercy is vast enough to receive all sinners, who cast themselves therein, like rivers, to drown their offences in its waves.

"Come to me all; for my word cannot remain without effect. It is a net, which I have cast into the sea of the world, to take and enclose all mankind.

"Come to me all; What power is there in these words, which have triumphed over all the nations of the world! What saving, sovereign efficacy, which has bowed the universe in obedience to the yoke of faith" (Nouet).

Venite ad me omnes. Come to me all; come all to my Heart. Come, children, to the Heart of Jesus: never did the most loving mother feel anything that approaches the tenderness with which this Heart burns for you. Come, you aged, to the Heart of Jesus; He will renew your youth like the eagle’s. Come, you just, to the Heart of Jesus; secure within this retreat, you shall advance each day from virtue to virtue. Come, sinners, come all to the Heart of Jesus, and the robe of your iniquities, were it red as scarlet, shall be made as white as snow. Si fuerint peccata vestra ut coccinum, quasi nix dealbabuntur (Is. i. 18).

It is especially towards those sinners who have most abused His benefits that the Heart of Jesus shows itself most liberal. It takes pleasure in verifying in them the saying of Holy Scripture: Where sin abounded, there shall grace more abound.

Strayed sheep of the house of Israel, poor soul, who have wearied yourself in the way of iniquity, perchance you say to yourself in the sad condition to which your wanderings have reduced you, Our Lord has forsaken me for ever, He thinks no more of me. Dereliquit me Dominus, et Dominus oblitus est mei (Is. xlix. 14). Hear how He speaks to St. Angela of Foligno, whom He had drawn from the abyss of sin, to impart to her the treasures of His mercy: "My children, who have renounced my kingdom by sinning, and have made themselves slaves of the devil, are received kindly by their Father when they return to Him, and, in the transport of joy which He feels at their return, He bestows graces upon them, which He does not always grant to innocent souls. Why is this? First, on account of the boundless love which He bears them; secondly, because the misery in which they are plunged awakens His mercy towards them; and lastly, on account of the sorrow which they feel for having offended so great and so good a God of whose mercy they esteem themselves unworthy, acknowledging in their hearts that they have deserved hell. For all these reasons, a person who has sinned more may obtain a fuller share of grace, and meet with more abundant mercy."

When shall I at length respond, O Heart of Jesus, to such goodness and condescension? When shall I give ear to the voice of Your love? When shall I begin to love You? Alas, whenever I give You my heart, had I given it to You from the first moment of my life, still it would be ever true that You had loved me first, and with a love which I shall never be able to repay.

"The strongest friendship among men is that which lasts till death and for which they count it a glory to die. But the Heart of Jesus is our friend during life, in death, and after death, for He gives eternity to those who love Him. Take, then, this amiable Heart for your friend, in preference to a,l others, for it alone will remain true to you at the day of your death, when all things else will be severed from you. Be assured that it will never leave you, not even when you see yourself abandoned by your truest friends, but that it will remain at your side in your last combat against the devil, and that it will deliver you from the power of darkness, and from the fury of those roaring lions which are on the watch to devour their prey at the hour of death" (St, Augustine).

A great servant of God exclaimed upon his death-bed, "How sweet it is to fall into the hands of Jesus dying for us!" How sweet, too, will it be on quitting this life for you to cast yourself into the Heart of Jesus wounded for you, if you respond now to the invitation which He holds out to you, of choosing it as your abode!

Practice: An effectual means of giving comfort to the Heart of Jesus, and one within the reach of all, is to do what you can for the relief of the souls in purgatory. The holy sacrifice of the mass, the application of indulgences, prayers, the least action directed to this intention, are so many means of relieving these souls to which Jesus has an extreme desire of uniting Himself. His justice prevents His satisfying this desire. He waits, if I may say so, for you to place Him under the sweet obligation of making His divine justice yield to His mercy.

Ejaculatory Prayer: One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek after all the days of my life, that I may dwell continually in His Sacred Heart. Unam petii a Domino, hanc requiram (Ps. xxvi. 4).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Fourteenth Day of June

2009-06-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

What the Heart of Jesus Asks of Man.

"The Heart of Jesus has given itself up wholly to us. His Heart is the source of all His gifts, the principle of all His favors. And what does He ask for in return? He asks but for one thing, our hearts. Our Lord asked of St. Ludegarde what she desired of Him. She replied, "All that I desire is Your Heart" Our amiable Lord replied, "I desire on my part rather to have your heart." It is truly marvelous that the Heart of Jesus, the source of every good, should follow unceasingly after man, and unceasingly solicit him, as if He could not be satisfied without him. And what does He beg of him? His heart: "My son, give me your heart. Jerusalem, cleanse your heart; wash away the stains which disfigure it. You shall love the Lord with all your heart." Is there anything, then, that the Heart of Jesus stands in need of? And even should this be so, can the heart of man satisfy it? What treasure, then, do we carry in this little portion of dust, that Jesus should be jealous of it? Ah! the reason is, that the heart is the first of all gifts, and itself gives a value to all besides. Jesus looks not so much to what we give Him, as to the heart with which we give it. He is jealous of our heart. A single look, a single elevation of the heart towards Him, is capable of ravishing Him with joy. The reason is, that there is nothing which is more truly the property of Jesus, than our heart; it is His own by conquest. Jesus is a warlike and generous monarch, who delights in giving battle and gaining victories. Now there is nothing that can resist Him but the heart. The heart once gained, all is gained. It is for this reason that He places His glory in conquering it; and, when He has once made Himself master of it, I am not astonished that He makes it His kingdom. His heaven, His paradise upon earth.

"The heaven of His glory has not cost Him nearly so dear as this. To gain this. He is not satisfied, says St. Bernard, with a word; He purchases it at the price of His blood and of His life. For what is it that He seeks in the crib, and the stable of Bethlehem? What does He ask by His tears and cries? A heart that will love Him. What does He seek, as He journeys through province after province of Palestine? What does He propose to Himself in undergoing so many toils and hardships? It is to gain the hearts of men and secure their love. What does He seek upon the cross? What in the Blessed Sacrament? What, in fine, in offering to mankind, in this our age, by a last effort of His love. His own most Sacred Heart? It is our hearts that He seeks, and yet He finds none to satisfy His desire. He looks over the earth. He considers all mankind. And amid this vast multitude of hearts, which give themselves each to what they love, there is hardly one that gives itself without reserve to Him" (Nouet).

One day, our divine Lord said to St. Angela of Foligno, "Were I to find any one who wished to receive me into his soul, so far from resisting, I should willingly comply with this desire; were I to find any one who wished to see me, I should disclose myself to him with joy. Should any one wish to converse with me, I should speak to him with gladness and affability. So dear to me are souls that love me, that were I to find one that loved me more tenderly than my saints in time past, of whom such marvels are recounted, I should enrich it with still more signal favors than I have lavished upon them."' Now, no one can allege any just excuse for his being destitute of this love. No, every one has it in his power to love God, for He requires nothing of the soul but that she seek Him, and, if she seek Him, she will be sure to find Him, for she is truly loved by Him, and He is Himself the love of souls. "The love which I bear towards a soul that loves me without disguise knows no bounds." continued our Blessed Savior. It seems to me, adds the Saint, that the wish of our divine Lord was, that the soul should bum, as far as she can, with the same love with which He was consumed for her, and which He would communicate to her, did she only on her part desire it.

"But alas! how few souls are there who aspire after this love! O my Lord! how poor, how abandoned, and neglected You are! How I am touched with compassion at the sight of Your indigence! Tender pity has moved Your servants to beg for alms in order to relieve the poor. I would fain beg for You. I would fain find a heart that will love You and joyfully subject itself to Your sovereign will. O man, Jesus would have your heart. The heart must give itself to some one for it cannot live without loving nor love without selling or giving itself away. If your heart, then, is for sale, who has better claim to buy it than He who alone is its happiness, its end, its everlasting reward? And if it is to be given away, who is so worthy to become its owner as He who made it? The world demands your heart in order to change it into a hell; the Heart of Jesus asks for your heart in order to make of it a heaven even in this life. Whose claim is to be preferred?" (Nouet). Ah I Lord, my heart is already Yours. I give You back what is Your own. Would that I were master of every other heart, that I might secure them all in Yours!

Practice: Set aside a week every year, and a day in each month, for the sole purpose of repairing the strength of your soul in holy retirement. This is one of the most infallible means of securing your salvation and perfection, and of entering into the interior of the Heart of Jesus, according to the words of Holy Scripture: "I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart" Ducam eam in solitudinem et loqiuiar ad cor ejus (Os. ii. 14). O sweet converse! What marvelous secrets it will teach you!

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Heart of Jesus! Thou soughtest me when I fled from Thee; wilt Thou flee from me now that I seek Thee?

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Thirteenth Day of June

2009-06-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Four Desires of the Heart of Jesus.

I find four vivid flames which burnt continually in the Heart of Jesus.

The first is the desire which He expressed to His Apostles, the night of the Last Supper, when He addressed them in these words: "With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer" Desiderio desideravi hoc Pascha manducare vohiscum antequam patiar (St. Luke, xxii. 15). This shows us with what ardor we should go to the holy Table, to receive the Bread from heaven; we can never desire to receive it as earnestly as He did to give it to us. For it seems as if this adorable mystery was the center of all His actions, and that, when He had accomplished it, He regarded himself as having so happily finished the course of His life, that, after this masterpiece of love, nothing remained for Him but to suffer and die for us.

And this is the second desire, which His Sacred Heart, so insatiable in showing its love for mankind, sufficiently manifested when He said; "I have a baptism, wherewith I am to be baptized and how am I straitened, until it be accomplished" (St. Luke, xii. 50). What was this baptism, but a baptism of blood? The Heart of Jesus regarded the Cross as the altar upon which He was to consummate the sacrifice of propitiation for the redemption of the world, and it was for this reason that He sighed after it, and so eagerly desired it.

The ardor, with which He longed to suffer, was but the effect of a third and still stronger desire, that burning thirst for the salvation of souls, which made Him exclaim in the extremity of His sufferings; "I thirst." O Heart of Jesus, what is this burning thirst which consumes You and makes You droop upon the cross? I burn with the desire of your salvation, your repose, your sanctification, your eternal happiness.

But the fourth and strongest of all His desires was to glorify His Father, and to make Him reign by love in the hearts of men. "I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it he kindled?" Ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur? (St. Luke, xii. 49). Such were the holy ardors of the Heart of Jesus; such is the example, upon which all the saints form themselves; such is the fire which warms, bums, and inflames their hearts (Nouet).

They go with an indescribable hunger to the holy Table, like St. Catherine of Genoa, who, at sight of the Sacred Host in the hands of the priest, exclaimed: "Quick, quick, bring me the bread of life!" They desire to suffer, in order that they may become like to Jesus Christ. Thus St. Andrew, on catching sight of the cross which was prepared for him, exclaimed, in transports of joy; "Dear Cross! So long desired, so tenderly beloved, object of my unceasing search, and now at last ready to meet the ardent longing of my soul, I welcome thee with joy." It is the glory of God alone that touches them; to procure it they forget themselves, they take for their maxim the device of St. Ignatius, Ad majorem Dei gloriam: To the greater glory of God. So strongly does their zeal for the salvation of souls bum within them, that, at the prospect of the sufferings and labors which are before them, far from being daunted, they exclaim with St. Francis Xavier; "Yet more, O Lord, yet more!" or with a great servant of God, of our own age, "Oh ! how sad is it to see so many souls, redeemed by the blood of a God, cast themselves into hell with a smile upon their lips, like madmen leaping from some lofty tower! To say the truth, I know of no other sorrow than this, except that which I feel at the thought of my own sins. All else is of the world, and does not deserve a thought."

How far are we from such generous sentiments! How little do we long for the holy Table! How hard does the Cross appear to us! How little are we affected by the salvation of our brethren and the glory of God! O Heart of Jesus, how ardent is Your love for me, and how cold is my heart towards You! Change it, for You have the power and the desire to do so.

Practice: Help Jesus Christ to slake that burning thirst for the salvation of souls, with which He is consumed. They are lost, alas, by thousands, while you are enriched in profusion with every kind of spiritual good. Jesus complains of your indifference for souls which have cost Him so dear; He waits but for your prayer, to allow Himself to be disarmed: "I sought among them for a man that might set up a hedge, and stand in the gap before me in favor of the land, that I might not destroy it; and I found none" Quaesivi de iis virum qui interponeret sepem, et staret oppositus contra me pro terra, ne dissiparem eam; et non inveni (Ezech. xxii. 30). If you are insensible to this loving complaint, you do not love the Heart of Jesus. Pray, then, for those poor souls; pray, and you will become an excellent preacher, however little you may think it. It was made known to St. Theresa that her prayers alone had converted many thousands of Indians.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O love of the Heart of Jesus, ever burning, and never extinguished, light up Thy flames within my heart! O amor qui semper ardes, et nunquam extingueris, accende me (St. Augustine).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Twelfth Day of June

2009-06-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Wound of the Heart of Jesus.

"All the wounds of our Lord are so many gates of salvation, thrown open to all the world; but the wound of His Heart is the widest.

"All His wounds are so many fountains, whence His graces flow in abundance; but the wound of His Heart is the clearest and most refreshing.

"All His wounds are so many streams of purple, in which we may plunge the powers of our soul, and thus heighten the price of our thoughts, words, and actions; but the wound of His Heart gives them a deeper color, a brighter luster, a more precious tint.

"All His wounds are so many characters of the book of life, in which is contained the science of the saints; but the wound of His Heart instructs us in a deeper learning than them all.

"All His wounds are places of refuge, in which the greatest criminals may find their retreat; but the wound of His Heart is the most favorable and most secure.

"The wound of His Heart speaks, like an eloquent tongue, within the secret depth of our hearts, it reminds us of the love which Jesus bears us, and asks for our love in return" (Nouet).

Let us hear the devout St. Bernard on this subject: "'This adorable Heart was pierced, that by means of this visible wound we might gain some knowledge of the invisible wound which love has inflicted on it. Ah, how could Jesus convince us more powerfully of His love, than by allowing not only His body, but even His Heart to be pierced for us?"

The melancholy and disgust, which we feel in this life, are often hurtful to our souls; it is for this reason that the Heart of Jesus has taught us to enter into His wounds, especially into that of His Sacred Heart, in order that we may find there a source of joy and consolation. Blessed Henry Suso, while plunged one day in a deep melancholy at the thought of the uncertainty of his salvation, heard a voice from heaven, which consoled him greatly. "Arise and enter into my wounds; for it is in them that your only happiness is to be found." St Austin says: "I can feel no terror at the sight of the multitude of my sins as often as I call to mind the death of our divine Lord; for my sins cannot outweigh the merits of such a death. The nails and the spear tell me that I am truly reconciled to Jesus Christ, if I love Him. Longinus opened for me the side of Jesus Christ with his lance; I entered therein, and there I rest full of security. Let him who fears, love; love casts out fear."

"O amiable wound!" exclaims St. Bonaventure, "it is by you that I have found an entrance even into the very bowels of the charity of Jesus Christ. There I take up my abode; there I find an abundance of consolation beyond all that I can express. Oh I the blindness of the children of Adam, who know not how to enter into Jesus Christ by His sacred wounds! Through them the happiness of angels is opened to us; the wall, which closed the entrance against us, is broken down, and yet we neglect to enter! Believe me, blinded men, did you but know how to enter into Jesus Christ by these sacred openings, you would there find an admirable abode. What sweetness does the soul taste in uniting itself, through those sacred wounds, to the Heart of Jesus! I have not words to explain it; make but the experiment, and you will find therein a treasure of every good.

"Here the gate of Paradise is thrown open; the flaming sword, which guarded its entrance, has been turned aside by the soldier's lance; the treasure of wisdom and eternal charity is disclosed; enter in, then, by the opening of those divine wounds. O happy lance, which was found worthy to make such an opening! Oh, had I been in its place, never would I have quitted my Savior’s side, but I should have said: ‘This is the place of my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it,’ Faithful soul, created to the image of God, how can you fail to be transported out of yourself! Behold your amiable spouse, who, by an excess of love, has opened for you His side, in order that He might give you His Heart!"

We read in the Chronicles of St. Francis, that a gentleman of rank who had entered a monastery of the order, not finding there the enjoyment and pleasures which he had abandoned, resolved to betake himself again to the world. The temptation was so strong, that no consideration could restrain him. But observing, as he was going away, a crucifix, on the road by which he passed, he threw himself on his knees before it, to beg for mercy. Oh! how tender and good is the Heart of Jesus! He had no sooner finished his short prayer, than he felt himself raised in ecstasy; at the same time our Lord presented Himself to him, with His Blessed Mother, and asked him why he was going away. He replied that, having been accustomed to live delicately in the world, he could not bear the austerity of the rule. Upon this, our Savior, showing him the wound of His side, comforted him, saying: "My son, bring hither your hand, and dip it in the blood of my wound, and you will find that everything will be easy to you, however difficult it may appear in itself." The novice obeyed, and afterwards, whenever any temptation or annoyance came upon him, he called to mind the Passion of the Son of God, and the loving wound of His Heart, and found that every difficulty changed at once into holy delights.

Practice: Set apart one day in the week to honor the Heart of Jesus in a special manner: Friday, for example, which has been appointed for this purpose by the Church. Pay a longer visit than usual that day to Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament, and read some book which treats of His Sacred Heart; this will help you to keep alive your fervor in this devotion. For, if you do not supply it with fuel, it will be in danger of soon dying out.

Ejaculatory Prayer: May my eyes, and my heart, O Jesus, remain forever fixed on the wound of Thy Heart! Oculi mei et cor meum ibi cunctus diebus (2 Paralip. vii. 16).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, hare mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Eleventh Day of June

2009-06-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Sorrows of the Heart of Jesus.

"It was not the lance that first wounded the Heart of Jesus; He had been wounded by love from the first moment of His life, and this was His first and deepest wound which He could not Himself conceal. ‘You have wounded my heart my sister, my spouse, you have wounded my heart.’ Vulnerasti cor meum, soror mea, sponsa (Cant. iv. 9)" (Nouet).

The Heart of Jesus was again wounded by His compassion for our miseries, which inflicted on Him as many wounds as He beheld evils in us.

He was wounded by sorrow for our sins, bearing in His Heart sorrow and contrition for the crimes of the whole world, as He afterwards bore their punishment in His Body. This was a far heavier cross than that of Calvary, on which He died, for it began with His life, and ended only with His death.

St. Angela of Foligno tells us:"The suflferings in store for Him, presented themselves to His mind, and saddened His Heart, from the first moment of His existence, and this not confusedly, but in the clearest and most distinct manner. He foresaw that after a sad and toilsome life of thirty-three years, all the circumstances of which were ever present before His eyes, He should be sold and betrayed by one of His disciples, denied by another, abandoned by all, chained, struck, buffeted, accused, blasphemed, calumniated, scourged, crowned with thorns, led to Calvary, loaded with His cross, crucified, put to death, and pierced with a lance; this He saw and meditated upon during His whole life. Such a prospect could not but be attended by a bitter sadness, and an inconceivable grief of heart and mind." You may judge by this how lively and constant were the sorrows of the Heart of Jesus.

Let us hear St. Margaret Mary, or rather Jesus Christ Himself, on this subject: "One day, as I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, which was exposed upon the altar, Jesus Christ, my divine Master, presented Himself to me all radiant with glory. His five wounds shining like five suns. Flames issued on every side from His Sacred humanity, but especially from His adorable breast, which resembled a furnace; in the midst of this burning furnace He showed me His amiable Heart, which was the source from whence those flames burst forth. It was then that He discovered to me the inexplicable wonders of His love, and to what an excess He had carried it towards men, from whom He received in return only forgetfulness and ingratitude. It is this, He said, which afflicts me more than all that I suffered in my Passion, so much so that if they did but make me a return, I should count but little all that I have done for them, and I would willingly, were it possible, do more still; but they show me only coldness and aversion, in return for all my eagerness to do them good."

The Heart of Jesus suffered not only every hour, but every instant of His mortal life; for, as He taught St. Margaret Mary, His whole life was passed in love and privation, and consumed in sacrifice. Oh! what courage this sight should give us! How light, and how short are our sufferings, when compared with those of the Heart of Jesus! I am no longer astonished, O Lord, that St. John of the Cross, who had meditated upon them, on Thy demanding what He desired in recompense for his services, should have replied "To suffer and to be despised for You" pati et contemni pro te; that St. Theresa, animated with the same sentiments, should have exclaimed: "To suffer or die!" If the barren soil of my heart does not yield such generous sentiments, at least, O Jesus, let me practice a perfect resignation amidst all the sufferings Your love shall provide for me.

Practice: Our Lord Himself begged St. Margaret Mary to set apart the first Friday of each month for the remembrance of the sorrows of His Heart. Form the resolution, then, to offer a Communion to the Heart of Jesus, as far as may be in your power, on the first Friday of every month, with the act of reparation, in atonement for all the negligences which may have attended the Communions you have made in the interval. It would also be very pleasing to our Lord, if you formed the intention of making reparation, not only for your own negligences, but also for those of all Christians.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Heart of Jesus, overwhelmed with insults, teach me to bear with patience contempt and contradictions.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Tenth Day of June

2009-06-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Riches of the Heart of Jesus.

Our Lord informed me, says St. Margaret Mary, that it was His great desire of being loved perfectly by men that had made Him form the design of manifesting His Heart to them, and of giving it to them in these latter times as the last effort of His love; that in it He opened to them all the treasures of love, grace, mercy, sanctification, and salvation, which this Heart contains, in order that all who wish to pay to Him, and procure for Him all the honor and love in their power, might be enriched in profusion with the treasures of which that divine Heart is the inexhaustible source. He said, "Behold my Heart. It is so impassioned with love for men that, unable to contain within itself the flames of its charity, it must shed them abroad by your means. It wishes to manifest itself to them in order to enrich them with those precious treasures which I discover to you, and which contain sanctifying graces suited to draw them from perdition.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the seat of all virtues, the source of all blessings, the retreat for all holy souls; this adorable Heart is ever burning with love for men, ever open to shed upon them every sort of grace, ever touched with a sense of their evils, ever disposed to receive us, to serve as an asylum to us, a place of rest, a heaven even in this life. Come to it, then, you especially who are laden with crosses, temptations, and miseries; the Sacred Heart invites you, waits for you, presses you; it wishes to give you consolation; it is to you that it addresses itself when it says, "Come to me all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you." Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis, et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos (Matt. xi. 28).

It is in this adorable Heart, says St. Peter Damian, that we find every weapon proper for our defense, every remedy for the cure of our ills, the most powerful succor against the assaults of our enemies, the sweetest consolations to relieve our sufferings, the purest delights to crown our souls with joy. Are you afflicted, do your enemies persecute you, are you troubled at the remembrance of your sins, is your heart tossed with uneasiness, fears, or passions? Ah, come, throw yourself at the foot of the altar; cast yourself into the arms of Jesus Christ; enter into His very Heart; it is a refuge and retreat for holy souls, and a place of perfect safety; it is the treasure of heaven. St. Thomas says that, in his time, it was usual to represent at the foot of the crucifix a virgin, who received in a chalice the Blood that issued from the sacred Wound of the side, and another who shed it on the earth. The one bore a rich crown upon her head, the other allowed hers to fall to the ground. The one wore a smiling aspect, all radiant with light, the other had a sad and gloomy look. The first represented the faithful soul, who by meditation receives from the Heart of Jesus joy, light, and a crown of glory; the other, the unfaithful soul, who by sin loses these three incomparable gifts, the light of grace, the joy of a good conscience, and the crown of glory.

"O sweet Jesus!"' exclaims St. Bernard, "what riches You contain within Your Heart, and how easy is it for us to enrich ourselves, for in the Blessed Eucharist we possess this infinite treasure! What riches do we lose from not knowing how to use them! Jesus Christ Himself has promised that those who beg for graces through His Sacred Heart shall receive them in abundance; and we see that those who have practiced this devotion with a lively and ardent faith, have obtained by this means what they had failed to obtain before by repeated and persevering prayer."

As St. Gertrude heard one day at Mass those words of Holy Scripture, Tibi et semini tuo dabo has regiones, "To thee and to thy seed I will give all these countries," our Lord, placing His hand upon His Heart, explained to her what that land was of which, in His boundless liberality towards His creatures, He here spoke. Upon this, the Saint, entering into this mystery of love, exclaimed; "O blessed and beatific land, region of delights, so overflowing is the beatitude You contain, that the smallest grain were enough to satisfy the eager desires of all the elect, and surpasses all that the heart of man could ever imagine as desirable, amiable, agreeable, delectable, and sweet."

Practice: You know what are the terms in which the sentence of life will be pronounced by the Son of God, on the last day, upon His elect: "Come, you blessed of my Father; I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was naked, and you covered me." These words are applicable, in their true sense, to the care which we shall have taken of His suffering members, the poor; and we cannot meditate on them too often, for the Son of God makes our charity towards our brethren the rule and measure of His eternal mercy towards us.

But it must be acknowledged that, owing to the indifference of the greater part of Christians for Jesus Christ, this amiable Savior is truly in the Blessed Sacrament the first among the poor whom we ought to relieve. Be careful to see, then, especially in country churches, that whatever is employed in the service of the adorable Sacrament be kept with becoming cleanliness and decency. Work with your own hands, or get others to work, for churches; and in preference to any brilliant decorations, offer linen necessary for the service of the altar. Your offering will be pleasing to Jesus Christ in proportion as it admits of less ostentation, and as He sees in it a proof of the reverence which you bear towards His Sacred Body. This is a good work, of which He deigns to be Himself the object; this is that ointment which He would willingly see poured over His divine Body, and the pouring out of which He praised on the eve of His death.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Heart of Jesus, how late have I begun to love Thee! Sero te amavi? (St. Augustine).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Ninth Day of June

2009-06-09T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Tenderness of the Heart of Jesus for Men.

The activity with which fire consumes inflammable matter; the rapidity with which a stone seeks its attracting center; the impetuosity with which the swiftest rivers hasten to the ocean, do not equal the ardor with which the Heart of Jesus bums to communicate itself to souls, when they dispose themselves by removing sin, which alone presents an obstacle to the effects of His divine love.

Before I had any being, the Heart of Jesus already beat for me, sighed for my salvation, desired to give Itself to me, thought of me, watched over me, was anxious for me. That Heart is so full of love for me, that it condescends to come and knock at the door of my heart, and to beg an entrance. Sto ad ostium et pulso (Apoc. iii).

Our Lord revealed one day to St. Gertrude two admirable and loving pulsations of His Divine Heart: "By each of these two movements I work the salvation of men. The first is for sinners, the second for the just. By the first beating of my Heart, I speak, in the first place, uninterruptedly to God my Father: I appease Him, and incline Him to mercy towards sinners. I then address myself to all my elect, leading them to excuse, with fraternal charity, the faults of sinners, and to pray for them. Lastly, I speak to the sinner himself, mercifully calling him to penance, and awaiting his conversion with unspeakable desire. By the second beating of my Heart, I speak in the same manner to God, my Father, and invite Him to congratulate me for the blood which I shed so fruitfully for the redemption of my just, in whose hearts I find my delight in so many ways. I then call upon all the host of heaven to praise me for the admirable lives of my saints, and to render me thanks, in their behalf, for all the benefits with which I have loaded them, and continue to load them. Lastly, I address myself to the just themselves, caressing them in different ways, and exciting them to advance daily and hourly in my love. And, as the beatings of the human heart are not checked by the action either of sight or hearing, or of any other sense, so in like manner, neither the government of heaven or earth, or of the whole universe, nor anything else in the world, can arrest, moderate, or slacken for a single instant, even to the end of time, these two movements of my Heart for men" (Inst. iii. 52).

Lord, Thou hast said, "Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also." We must be Thy treasure, since Thy Heart is so continually occupied with ours. O incomprehensible love of God, how small is the number of souls to whom thou art known! Why art thou not known to all? Why art thou not proclaimed throughout the whole world to the learned, and to the ignorant, to the just and to sinners, to those who seek thee, and to those who flee from thee, since all are loved by thee?

The saints are ravished at the excess of this love, and truly they would have reason to be astonished, if all hearts were made like our own, but God has placed such merits in the Heart of His Son, that He cherishes even our own in consideration of Him.

"No, O Lord, I am no longer astonished at Thy wishing to be called the God of my heart, Deus cordis mei; at Thy being jealous of my love, at Thy seeking its affection so earnestly; but I am astonished that my heart should reject Thee, and that it can hesitate to give itself wholly to Thee" (Nouet). Can Thy Heart, so great, so holy, so perfect, love me? What do I say? Thou commandest me to love Thee, and shall I not do so, I who should rather beg on my knees, that I might be allowed to do so? For alas I who am I that I should be raised to such an honor, that Thou shouldest deign to unite Thy Heart to mine, and think only of me? Quid est homo, quia magnificas eum ? aut quid apponis erga eum cor tuum? (Job. vii). Quid est homo, quod memor es ejus? (Ps. viii. 5). My body is nothing but a heap of dust; my soul is the grave in which Thy favors lie entombed; my heart is mere ingratitude, my memory forgetfulness, my understanding darkness (Nouet). Alas! how then canst Thou love me, my God and my love? How canst Thou love me, and permit me to love Thee? Quomodo me amas Deus meus, amor meus? quomodo me amas? (St. Bernard).

This incomprehensible love of God towards His creatures not only astonishes and ravishes the angels and saints who meditate upon it, it is also the terror of the devils, the object of their constant jealousy, the only good which engages their attention in this world, and of which they would fain rob the souls of men. Forced by the power of the prayers of the Church to make this remarkable avowal, Satan once said; "I traverse the whole earth. I observe the interests which occupy the minds of men, their wars, their politics, their governments. I see the buildings they raise, their arts, their sciences. I laugh at all this, as I would at the labors of an anthill. What wholly engages my attention is to thwart the love of God towards His creatures. I gladly quit idolatrous empires for Christendom, to harass and trouble a soul as soon as it has undertaken to serve God. Our joy consists in disquieting a heart which tends to union with God" (Surin,)

Defeat, then, the tempter’s designs, by giving wholly to God that heart of which He is so jealous; love Him, Christian soul, whom He cherishes so fondly, with all your heart, with all that heart which He has Himself given you, so large, so generous, so tender, so devoted, so insatiable in its affections, only that it may be turned towards Him who alone can fill it; answer to the invitation which He makes you. "My son, give me thy heart." Proebe, fill mi, cor tuum mihi (Prov. xxiii. 26).

Practice: We are told in the life of Saint Margaret Mary that the angels did not disdain to join her, in paying an uninterrupted homage of love, adoration, and praise to the Heart of Jesus. Address yourself, then, to the holy angels, and especially to your guardian angel who watches at your side, and prays unceasingly with you and for you. Beg them to supply by their ardent love and continual union with the Heart of Jesus for the coldness and unworthiness of your prayers. Ask also sometimes the angel guardians of those with whom you have contact, to inspire them with devotion to this Divine Heart.

Ejaculatory Prayer: As the hart pants after the fountains of waters, so my soul pants after Thy love, O Heart of Jesus! Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum, ita desiderat anima mea ad te (Ps. xli. 1).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercv on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Eighth Day of June

2009-06-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Tenderness of the Heart of Jesus for Men.

To dazzling qualities and magnificent titles Jesus Christ joins a tenderness for us, which appears excessive. "My delights are to be with the children of men." Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum (Prov. viii. 31). His gentleness is so amiable, that it charmed His most deadly enemies. When a woman taken in adultery is brought to His feet, He refuses to condemn her, and covers her accusers with shame. He allows Himself to be approached by sinners; He mingles with them; He allows Himself to be called, and is, in some sort, the friend of sinners. He sits at the table of publicans and sinners. Whom do you see at His feet, which she appears to have chosen as her place of refuge? Magdalen, a sinner by profession, whom, in return for one single act of love, He pardoned a whole life of disorders and scandals. It was not Magdalen that made the first approach towards this good Master; He knocked. He waited at the door of her heart, before He saw her bending at His feet, bathing them with her tears, and wiping them with her hair. Many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much; but far more still because she has been much beloved.

Jesus extends His care even to little children; they are incapable as yet of knowing Him, but His gentleness attracts them to Him. The Apostles repel them; suffer them, He says, suffer little children to come to me; and He caresses them, blesses them, and deigns to take them into His sacred arms. Should their father and mother abandon them, He will take care of them; for though even a mother should forget her children, He will never forget them. See also how He receives the prodigal, who, prostrate at His feet, confesses that He is no longer worthy to be called His son; how He runs to meet him, folds him in His arms, bathes him with His tears, and fully restores him at the first token of repentance, to his inheritance and his father’s love. This incomparable Pastor passed through the land, scattering his benefits on every side. Pertransiit benefaciendo. His fold, alas, presents too many sick; with His own hand He dresses their sores, heals their wounds, and pours in oil and wine; He restores sight to the blind; at His command the paralytic and lame arise and walk. A mother mourns the loss of her only child; the Heart of Jesus is touched at the sight; He knows what sorrow and tears so many fondly loved children will cost Him by falling into the frightful death of sin, and forthwith says, "Young man I say to thee, arise!" and restores him to his mother.

See Him seated by the well of Jacob, wearied with His journey; He is waiting for the Samaritan woman; His Heart seeks for her, and leads her to come in search of the waters which spring up to eternal life. He excites in her soul a heavenly thirst, to which she had been hitherto a stranger; He reveals to this great sinner the secret of His divine mission. See Him at the grave of Lazarus, whom He deigns to call His friend. He weeps, and the Jews cannot refrain from exclaiming in admiration; "Behold how He loved him!" Ecce quomodo amabat eum (St. John xi. 36). A little later, and the approaching ruin of Jerusalem, that guilty city, which is soon to demand His death, will force from Him with tears, that touching lamentation, "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how often would I have gathered together thy children as the hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and thou wouldst not!"

What is His behavior with His Apostles? With what patience does He bear with them? Judas betrays Him, and He deigns still to address Him by the gentle name of friend; Amice, ad quid venisti? (St. Matt. xxvi. 50). It is the name He had given them all in the touching discourse which He addressed to them after the Supper, when He said to them; "I will not now call you servants, hut I have called you friends." Jam non dicam vos servos, vos autem dixi amicos (St. John xv. 15). Peter denies Him, and, without complaint or reproach, by the sweetness of a single look, Jesus melts the unfaithful Apostle into tears. In a word, the whole life of our Blessed Savior is nothing but gentleness and love for men.

But these toils, labors, and watches are not yet enough. This amiable Savior has said; "The good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep," Jesus will give His life, and will suffer Himself to be put to death by His sheep for them. Before completing His sacrifice, having loved His own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. He assembles His Apostles, and at His last supper, what does He do? Ah, whoever knows this gift of God, can find no expression to speak of it worthily. O loving invention of that amiable Heart, above all His works! Other shepherds feed themselves at the cost of the lives of their sheep, but Jesus finds a means of giving Himself as food to His; He loves them to such an excess, that He would become one with each of them, and remain even to the end of the world as the comforter and companion of their exile.

And yet these ungrateful sheep have attacked their Shepherd; they have reduced Him to such a condition, that He can say with truth, that from head to foot He is but one wound. Will Jesus avenge Himself upon His sheep? Yes, by loading them with fresh favors. He is on the point of breathing His last, He has nothing remaining of Himself. He has given, He has sacrificed all. But He has yet a Mother; He will give her to us to be our own. Jesus looks down from His cross upon His beloved disciple, who, during the Supper, had reposed upon His Heart; "Behold Thy Mother" He says to him; and Mary adopts us for her children. He died for the sins of men. He will rise again for their justification, to give an incontestable proof of His life and death. He will ascend to heaven and pour down His graces in greater abundance upon His favored people. The most precious gift among His treasures. He sends down His holy Spirit upon them; and He ceases not even now to make His wounds, and especially that of His Sacred Heart, plead like eloquent mouths for mercy upon sinners, and for grace and love for the just.

Practice: One day, as St. Gertrude was laying before our Lord a trouble which sensibly afflicted her, our Divine Master, making her repose upon His Heart, said to her; "It is here that you will live sheltered from all affliction; but every time that you abandon this spot, you will be again seized with bitterness of heart, as a salutary antidote to remind you that I am the only all-powerful Comforter." Profit by this lesson; in all your doubts, distresses, and affliction; address yourself to the Heart of Jesus, as a child to its parent, as a friend to a friend, beseeching Him to be your light, your support, your comforter, and not to allow you to find peace or consolation except in Him.

Ejaculatory Prayer: I have found the Heart of my King, my Brother, my loving friend Jesus; what more can I desire in heaven, or seek upon earth? Inveni cor regis, patris, et amici benigni Jesu: quid mihi est in coelo, et quid volui super terram? (St, Bernard).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Seventh Day of June

2009-06-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Of the Nobility and Excellence of the Heart of Jesus.

The Heart of Jesus is the altar upon which He offered to the Creator the most agreeable sacrifice in the world. It is upon this same altar that we should place all our vows, and offer our whole hearts; for it is from thence that He receives and listens to them. It is from thence that all the honor that creatures have ever paid Him, all their praises, sacrifices, adoration, and love, derive their efficacy, and even this united homage is as nothing in comparison with the honor which this same Heart singly renders to the Sovereign Majesty, for it alone loves and honors Him as He deserves.

We can do nothing, then, so pleasing to God as to offer Him the homage and adoration of the Heart of His Son; the surest means of obtaining what we pray for is to address our prayers through the Heart of Jesus, saying to Him in the same spirit as the royal Prophet; Look down upon me, O Lord, in Thy mercy; but, as Thou canst find nothing there which does not deserve punishment, turn Thine eyes upon the face, upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son. "Protector noster, aspice Deus, et respice in faciem Christi tui" (Ps. lxxxiii. 10.) Regard me not except through those wounds, which cry to Thee for mercy, and which are all-powerful to obtain it; call to mind the boundless love of the Heart of Thy Son for me a wretched creature, and destroy not the work of Thine own mercy, the fruit of Thy labors.

Saint Gertrude was given to understand one day that all the Religious of her community, who were praying before the Blessed Sacrament, received each a share of divine grace. Some appeared to draw the sacred stream from the Heart of Jesus, others from His hands, or from His feet, pierced with nails, but with this difference, that the further the source was from the Heart, the greater difficulty did they experience, while those who drew directly from the adorable Heart obtained more readily and easily what they desired.

It is from the Heart of Jesus that the Church drew her birth; the faithful, then should love it as their cradle, and never quit it. It was while Jesus was wrapped in the sleep of death that the Church came forth from His Heart; He wished His Heart to be opened, in order that she might be able to glory in having issued from her Savior’s side. Happy the soul who shall be able to say, at the moment of entering on her eternity, in the words of one of the most ardent Apostles of the devotion to the Sacred Heart: "I used often to say to myself, as I thought of the love of the Heart of Jesus for me; ‘the Heart of Jesus is my cradle, my refuge during hfe, may it be my tomb at death!’ He has made me understand the sense of those words,—cradle, refuge, tomb."

"The Heart of Jesus is the Heart of the Church; it watches whilst she sleeps. Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat (Cant. v. 2). Holy Scripture says that the first Christians had but one heart and one soul. I am not surprised; it is the Heart of Jesus which lived in them, and inspired them all with the love of heavenly things" (Nouet). O happy time, when all conspired in holy concord! Why may it not reappear amongst those who are united, by one and the same devotion, in the Heart of Jesus? Let us at least direct all our efforts to this object, by setting an example of an unreserved devotion to the Sacred Heart; let us exert ourselves by our prayers and good works, in union with those of this divine Heart, that all true Christians may, as in the first ages of the Church, make but one heart to love the Heart of Jesus, but one voice to praise and bless it, but one and the same soul, the united movements of which may be consecrated to the love and glory of the divine Heart.

Practice: The Heart of Jesus is the cradle of all the Faithful; it is through it that you have been called to the spiritual birth of holy baptism. You will please this Divine Heart if, every morning, on waking, you renew your baptismal engagements. You may make use of the following form, or of any other like it:

O Heart of Jesus, I renounce anew Satan with his pomps and works, and I engage myself wholly to Thee for every moment of my life.

Oh! what graces will this practice draw down upon you! It is enough to defeat all the efforts of the tempter.

Ejaculatory Prayer: If any one love not Thee, O Heart of Jesus, let him be anathema. Si quis non amat Dominum Nostrum Jesum Christum, sit anathema.

THe Sixth Day of June

2009-06-06T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Of the Nobility and Excellence of the Heart of Jesus.

The Heart of Jesus is King of all hearts, by its greatness, power, and merit.

It is the greatest of all hearts, for it bears all enclosed within itself. It is the most powerful, for it can dispose them as seems good to itself. It knows all their secrets, all their springs of action, and can give them whatever movement it pleases. It is the most worthy to command, for it is the kindest, the most amiable, and the most loving; it was through love that it would be wounded to heal all hearts, and to prepare for them a bath of its blood.

Its wound forms its crown; the right which it has over us, is most legitimate. We cannot refuse it obedience without injustice, for we are indebted to it for everything; nor without madness, for it commands nothing but what is for our good: its sole object, in the pressing invitations which it makes us to give ourselves to it, is to render us happy as well as holy.

Let us honor, then, the Sacred Heart, since it possesses such nobility and excellence; let us adore it, since it is the Heart of a God; let us follow all its movements, since it is the infallible rule and principle of all the good which is done in the world; let us submit our wills to it, since it is the King of all hearts. Let us regard it as a royal and divine signet; let us stamp it upon our own hearts that we may receive from it all its characters. "Put me," says Jesus Christ, "as a seal upon thy heart;" that is to say, according to the explanation of St. Anselm, let me rule your heart and your thoughts, that I may be the director of all the actions of your life. "We must place Jesus Christ as a seal upon our forehead, upon our heart, and upon our arm," says St. Ambrose; "upon our forehead, to make public profession of our faith; upon our heart, to establish there the reign of His love; upon our arm, to labor without ceasing for the increase of His glory by the practice of good works." Let us exhibit the image of His greatness in our words, affections, and works, and, if possible, let us try to express His virtues in ourselves, for He is the seal of uncreated sanctity which the Eternal Father has engraved with the point of the nails, the thorns, and the lance, in order to stamp our souls with the seal of His humility, sweetness, patience, love, and His other perfections.

Whenever, then, O Christian soul, worldly ambition flatters your heart with treacherous promises, or the world dazzles your eyes with its false luster, raise your mind aloft to heaven, and, as St. Jerome advises, give ear to those words of the Spouse: "Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm" (Cant. viii. 6).

Let us beg of Jesus Christ, then, to turn our hearts and those of all men towards His own, and to make them docile to the pressing invitation by which He urges us to devote ourselves to His Divine Heart, when He says, "O all ye who are parched with thirst amid the false pleasures of all the world, come to My Heart, the center of true joys, the fountain of living waters; poor needy beggars, thirsting for the gifts of grace, draw near, drink and quench your thirst; come, receive without money; why wear yourselves out in seeking after deceitful goods, which cannot satisfy your craving hearts? Here true riches are to be found; My Heart is their source; the deeper you draw from thence, the more will your hearts be satisfied." All you that thirst, come to the waters, &c., (Is. iv. 1).

Yes, it is amongst Christians, the truly favored people, that the prediction of the same prophet is fulfilled; "You shall draw waters with joy out of the Savior’s fountains." Haurietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris (Is. xii. 3). But if all His wounds are so many fountains of grace, we may say with truth, that the one of His Heart is the most life-giving and abundant.

St. Frances of Rome relates that she saw the wound of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and that there issued from it a spring of living water, and that she heard these words; "I am that love which calls aloud, if any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. I wish to refresh those who answer to my call; it is for this that I have opened my Heart, to receive them within it as in a place of refuge." (Bollandists iii. c. 4.)

Practice: Offer your prayers to God each day through the Heart of Jesus; it is the way to render them no less meritorious than powerful. The following is the form which Saint Margaret Mary employed for this purpose:

My God, I offer Thee the Heart of Jesus, Thy well-beloved Son, in thanksgiving for all the blessings which Thou hast conferred upon me; for my petition, my offering, my adoration, and all my resolutions. Receive it, O Eternal Father, to supply for all that Thou desirest of me, for I have nothing to offer Thee which is not unworthy of Thee except Jesus, my Savior, the possession and enjoyment of whom Thou Thyself hast given me.

Ejaculatory Prayer: O Heart of Jesus, Victim of love, be propitious to me a poor sinner! O Cor, amoris victima, propitius esto mihi peccatori!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Fifth Day of June

2009-06-05T00:01:00.003-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Of the Nobility and Excellence of the Heart of Jesus.

"I remark several prerogatives of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which may help us to understand its excellence and nobility.

"The Heart of Jesus is animated by the most beauteous soul that God ever drew forth from His treasures. This beauteous soul brought to it from the first moment of their holy alliance, all the riches of grace and glory, and from that moment inspired it with movements so generous, inclinations so noble, qualities so royal, that there is nothing in all other hearts together that can be compared to them. We shall find none that has loved us so much, or that has compassionated our miseries so tenderly, or that has conceived designs so great and so advantageous for us, or, in fine, that has felt such joy at our good" (Nouet).

"Though the hearts of all men should be closed against you, yet do not be troubled, for the Heart of Jesus will always be faithful and open to you." (Lanspergius).

Yes, my Lord Jesus I though the enemies of my soul should range their legions against me, sheltered within Thy Heart mine can never fear; though the combat should thicken, my confidence in Thy Heart shall make me come forth victorious; though I should even have one foot in hell, still would I hope in Thy Heart. Si consistant adversum me castra, non timebit cor meum, si exurgat adversus me praelium, in hoc ego sperabo (Ps. xxvi. 3).

The Heart of Jesus is holy with the sanctity of God Himself; every movement, then, of the Sacred Heart, every sigh, every affection, every request, every action, every desire, as the dignity of His Person demands, becomes infinite in price and value. It is just, then, that it should be honored by a worship peculiar to itself, for in honoring it we honor His divine Person.

It is within the Heart of Jesus that all the designs of our salvation were conceived, and it is by the love of this same Heart that those designs have been executed. I may truly say that it is to this amiable Heart that I am indebted for every favor, which I owe to each part of His Sacred Body, in the work of my salvation; It is the Heart of Jesus which wept by His eyes over the tomb of Lazarus, and the city of Jerusalem, sad emblems of the piteous condition to which the world was reduced before His Passion, and to which it will be reduced at the consummation of ages; it healed the sick, and raised the dead, by the touch of His sacred hands; it was His Sacred Heart that guided every step, and directed every journey of this good Shepherd in search of His lost sheep; it forced that bloody sweat from every part of His Body in the garden of olives; it trembled in all His limbs, and cried aloud upon the cross with a voice so mighty, that it shook the earth, and penetrated the heavens, where He was heard for His reverence. Exauditus est pro sua reverentia (Heb. v. 7) (Nouet).

What worship, then, what love do we not owe to this Heart, through which every good has come to us! If the heart of an Augustine, a Francis of Sales, an Aloysius, a Theresa, were presented to our veneration, how lively would be our faith, how fervent our love! But here we have the Heart of Jesus, that Heart compared with which all others are but imperfection; that Heart which has ever beat, and still beats for our happiness, is really present in His sacrament of love. And shall we remain cold and insensible? No, Lord, no! I believe, I adore, I love; but do Thou increase my

faith and love!

St. Clare never allowed a day to pass without saluting the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and paying her homage to it with extraordinary care and diligence; and God, to recompense the fervor of His humble servant, never failed whilst she was engaged in this holy exercise, to fill her soul with the purest delights.

Practice: Imitate the conduct of St. Clare, and never allow a single day to pass without honoring the Heart of Jesus.

Ejaculatory Prayer: I will sleep and rest in peace in Thy Heart, O Jesus! In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam (Ps. iv. 9).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Fourth Day of June

2009-06-04T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Object and End of the Devotion to the Heart of Jesus; Points of Difference and Resemblance in this Devotion and That of the Blessed Sacrament.

The devotion to the Heart of Jesus, is an exercise of religion, vrhich has for its object the adorable Heart of Jesus Christ, burning with love for men, and outraged by their ingratitude.

It is easy to see that this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus does not merely consist in loving and honoring by a peculiar worship that heart of flesh, like our own, which forms part of the body of Jesus Christ. The object and principal motive of this devotion are, as has been already said, the unbounded love of Jesus Christ for men; and because, in our exercises of devotion, even in those which are themselves the most spiritual, we require some sensible object to remind us of them, and facilitate their practice, Jesus Christ Himself has presented to us His Heart, as an object the most capable of recalling to our memory the love which induced Him to sacrifice Himself for us, and to remain with us even to the end of the world in the adorable Eucharist. As the heart of man is, in some sort, the source and seat of love, it is with reason that we attribute to it the most tender sentiments of tlie soul. Jesus Christ has a Heart; and if His precious Body and Blood deserve our adoration, who will not allow that His Sacred Heart has still stronger claims upon our homage?

The end which is proposed in the worship rendered to this divine Heart is,

1. To adjnowledge and honor, as far as is in our power, by frequent acts of adoration, by a return of love, by a boundless gratitude and devotion, the infinite love of the Heart of Jesus for men, especially in the adorable Eucharist, in which He is so little known, or at least so little loved even by those by whom He is known.

2. To repair, in every possible manner, the indignities and outrages to which His love exposed Him during the course of His mortal life, and still exposes Him every day in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Heart of Jesus burning with love for us is, then, the object of this devotion; reparation for the contempt shown towards this love, especially in the Blessed Eucharist, is the end; a most ardent love for our Blessed Savior, and numberless graces, will be the fruit and reward.

The devotion to the Heart of Jesus differs from the devotion to His Sacred Body in the Blessed Eucharist; the one has for its object the Heart of Jesus, without any particular reference to His adorable Body; the other the Body of Jesus Christ under the sacramental species, without any special reference to His Heart. In the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the motive is to honor the sacred flesh of Jesus Christ, united with the Word, and by reason of that union truly worthy of the adoration of angels and men. In the devotion to the Sacred Heart, the essential motive is to honor the Heart of Jesus united to the Divinity, and especially to acknowledge the love with which it burns for men, and to make reparation to it for all that it has suffered, and for all that it is willing to suffer daily in His sacrament of love, the most marvelous invention that has ever issued from His divine Heart.

We see, then, that the devotion to the Heart of Jesus, and that to the Blessed Sacrament, though differing in their object, are intimately united; and that the devotion to the Sacred Heart, so far from destroying the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, or weakening it by dividing our homage, embellishes and perfects it. Oh! how rich a treasure we have in the heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! If we do not avail ourselves of it, it is because we do not know how to turn it to account.

Our divine Lord appeared to St. Mechtild, and commanded her to love His Sacred Heart in the Blessed Sacrament, and to honor it to the best of her power; and at the same time He gave it to her as a pledge of His love, and as a place of refuge in life and death. From that moment the saint was penetrated with an extraordinary devotion for the Sacred Heart, and received so many graces from it that she was wont to say, "Were I to write down all the graces which I have received from the most amiable Heart of Jesus, I should write a book larger than the Breviary."

Practice: It is not only a pious practice, but it is a duty, to offer our actions every day to God, for He gave us our being only that we might serve Him. Be careful, then, to do so; but in order to make your actions still more meritorious, offer them through the Heart of Jesus, somewhat in the following manner:

My God! I offer Thee all my actions in union with the merits of the Heart of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin, and of all the saints, and in union with all the good, in opposition to all the evil, which has been, or ever will be done.

Or with St. Mechtild, who was taught the following manner by our Blessed Savior Himself:

Most loving Jesus! to Thee I address the first sigh that issues this day from my heart; deign to accept all my actions, that they may be perfected and purified in Thy most gentle Heart, and thus offered, in union with Thy merits, in eternal praise to Thy Heavenly Father.

Ejaculatory Prayer: The sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself, where she may lay her young ones; Thy Heart, O Jesus, shall be my place of refuge. Passer invenit sibi domum, et turtur nidum sibi, ubi ponat pullos suos; cor tuum, Domine, Rex meus et Deus meus.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Third Day of June

2009-06-03T00:00:00.004-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Divine Love the Principal Effect of Devotion to the Sacred Heart.

The whole law of our Lord Jesus Christ is summed up in this single word, Diliges, You shall love. How sweet and admirable a law, worthy of God who gives it, and alone worthy of man, to whom it is announced. He who made the human heart knows well that there are no chains strong enough to bind it, but those of love. He may have imposed other obligations on His creatures, but they are all summed up in this; Thou shalt love. This is tlie distinctive commandment of Jesus Christ. "This is my commandment , that you love," Hoc est praeceptum meum, ut diligatis (St. John, xv. 12). My chief injunction, the only commandment which I give you is, that you love Me, that you love one another as I have loved you. It is by keeping this commandment that you shall be known as My disciples. Qui diligit, legem implevit. "He that loves has fulfilled the law" (Rom. xiii. 8). He that abides in love abides in God, and God in him. He that loves not, abides in death (1 John, iii. 14).

O Jesus! what return shall we make to You for having commanded us to love You, and for having assured us so often and so solemnly of Your love for us?

If, then, all our duties, labors, combats, triumphs, may be reduced to the gaining this single good, the love of God, we are fortunate in having at our disposal a sweet, easy, and infallible means of securing it. This means, and it is within the reach of all, is devotion to the Sacred Heart; the Person who has attached such promises to it is, as we have seen, no other than Jesus Christ Himself. "I promise you," He says, "that my Heart shall enlarge itself, to pour in abundance the influence of its divine love upon those who shall render it this homage." And on another occasion, "This devotion shall awaken love in the hardest hearts, and enkindle the least fervent with its flames."

"God shall reign in spite of His enemies," wrote Saint Margaret Mary, "and make Himself master of our hearts; for this is the principal end of this devotion, to convert souls to His love."

It may be easily conceived that such is the effect of devotion to the Sacred Heart. For, indeed, everything about it breathes love. Its object is the Heart of Jesus Christ burning with love; its end is to repair the injuries done to love; its practice, exercises of love. It invites to an attentive consideration of all that can enkindle this love, the remembrance and acknowledgment of the love and benefits of our Lord, especially in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

What would Jesus Christ not have done for any one who should have faithfully borne Him company during His sorrowful passion, when all others abandoned Him? Or rather, what did He not do for St. John, who alone attended Him to His last sigh? He made him, in some sort, a second self, leaving him the last and most touching pledges of His love; His divine Mother for his own, His cross for a token of remembrance, His Heart for his place of abode.

He reserves the same inestimable gifts of His liberality for those who are touched by the abandonment and solitude of His churches, and the outrages, contempt, and coldness of Christians towards the sacrament of His love, and who resolve to bear Him company, to receive Him into their hearts, and to make reparation each day by their diligence and fervor, in prayer and their self annihilation in His presence, for the indignities which He meets with so repeatedly at the hands of men. He will not allow Himself to be outdone in generosity; their love will be recompensed by love. He will give it them not by measure; non ad mensuram; (St. John xiii. 34) but with a profusion which will crown and surpass the ardor of those desires which Ho has formed within them Himself. He has promised to do so; He has pledged His word to it. "He that loves me shall ge loved hy my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (St. John xiv. 21).

He has given His word for it. If, in worldly promises, this puts an end to all doubt, what shall we say when the word of Jesus Christ is pledged? From henceforth, then, let us say, full of confidence, with the apostle: I live in the faith of Jesus Christ who has loved me, and has promised me His love, and in these last times has given me His Heart in pledge of it.

We read in the life of St. Gertrude that, one day, when she was favored with an apparition of St. John the Evangelist, she asked him why it was that, though he had reclined during the last supper upon the breast of Jesus Christ, he had written nothing for our instruction on the movements of His Heart; and that the Saint replied in these remarkable words; "I was charged to write for the infant Church the words of the uncreated Word of God; but God has reserved the sweetness of the movements of His Heart to be revealed in the latter times, in the decrepitude of the world, in order to rekindle charity which will be greatly cooled." We have reached the period of which the beloved disciple spoke to this saint. The fire of charity is extinct in almost every heart; but why should we not have confidence? The devotion to the Sacred Heart, which is extending every where, will rekindle its flames.

Practice: The Heart of Jesus has an infinite desire to be known and loved; it wishes that we should address ourselves to it with great confidence, especially in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In order to rekindle your devotion, remember that a single Mass procures greater glory to God than the merits of all the saints together, and that the blessings attached to this adorable sacrifice, are greater than those which you can gain from your other prayers during your whole life. Many do not know how to occupy themselves during Mass. What rapid progress they would make in the love of Jesus Christ, if they applied themselves to meditate on the Passion and sorrows of His Heart, each time that they assist at this divine sacrifice.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Who shall separate us from Thy love, O Heart of Jesus? Quis nos separabit a charitate Chrtsti? (Rom. viii. 35)

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

The Second Day of June

2009-06-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Abundant Graces Promised to Those Who Embrace this Devotion.

We cannot begin this month better, or better excite ourselves to celebrate it with fervor, than by recalling to mind the magnificent promises which Jesus Christ Himself has made to all those who shall embrace the devotion to His Sacred Heart. Our Lord expressed Himself very clearly upon this subject to the Saint Margaret Mary: "I would have you know that you are not to appropriate to yourself those graces which are designed for others also; I wish to make use of your heart as a channel to communicate them to souls according to my designs." He then gave her to understand that it was by a last effort of His love towards men that He had resolved to disclose to them the treasures of His Heart, by inspiring them with this devotion, which is to awaken the hearts of the most insensible to the love of Jesus Christ, and to enkindle those of the least fervent. "Publish everywhere," Jesus Christ said to her, "suggest, recommend this devotion to persons of the world as a sure and easy means of obtaining from me a true love of God; to ecclesiastical and religious persons as a powerful means of attaining to the perfection of their state; and in fine, to all the faithful, as a most solid devotion, and a most powerful means of overcoming the strongest passions, healing the most violent dissensions and quarrels in families, removing the most inveterate imperfections, obtaining a most ardent and tender love of me; in fine, arriving in a short time and in a most easy manner, at the highest perfection." What can be more capable of encouraging us to embrace this devotion than such promises, coming as they do from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself? "Why cannot I recount," writes Saint Margaret Mary the depositary of the secrets of the Heart of Jesus, "why cannot I recount all that I know of this devotion, and disclose to the whole world the treasures of grace which Jesus Christ has laid up in this adorable Heart, and which He designs to pour forth in profusion upon all those who shall practice this devotion? Our Lord proposes by this means to restore many to life by drawing them out of the path of perdition, and to destroy the empire of Satan in souls in order to establish that of His love, which will never suffer any one to perish who shall be consecrated to Him. Yes, I say it with confidence, did men but know how pleasing this devotion is to Jesus Christ, there is not a single Christian, however feeble may be his love for this amiable Savior, who would not at once practice it. Endeavor to induce religious persons to embrace it; for they will derive so great a support from it, that it will be sufficient, of itself, to reestablish primitive fervor and the most exact observance in the most irregular communities; and to raise those which lived before in the most exact observance to the height of perfection. My divine Sa'vior gave me to understand that those who labor for the salvation of souls will have the art of touching the most hardened hearts, and will labor with marvelous success, if they are themselves penetrated with a tender devotion to this Sacred Heart."

Father de la Colombiere was the first to experience this. He recommended this powerful means of salvation to many who addressed themselves to him for the direction of their souls, and amongst them even to Protestants, with whom all the other resources of his zeal had failed, and this with a success at which he was himself astonished. Some obtained an entire conversion of heart by the practice of this devotion, which they had at first rejected: others found in it a means of advancing in perfection, through the abundant graces which they received from God.

"Nothing astonishes me," exclaimed a great servant of God of our age, "when I think of the adorable Heart of our divine Master. In Him we can do all things, even lead unobserved a poor, humble, and loving life in the midst of the world. This Sacred Heart of our Divine Lord is anxious to intercede for us with the Eternal Father, and to inspire us with holy desires; and comes to our aid when it sees us nearly sinking. It removes from our heart, while we are little thinking of it, the obstacles which opposed the execution of the will of God; it enables us to surmount difficulties which, a moment before, we looked upon with terror; it is this adorable Heart which takes from us the attraction of the world, and enables us to discover its deceits and false principles.

"Everything, in a word, comes to us from this most Sacred Heart; let it then be all in all to us; let us offer our whole being to it; let nothing remain in us unconsumed by its flames, until at length, after it has purified our souls, it take them wholly to itself, and secure them in this furnace of love for all eternity."

"One day," says St. Mechtild, "the Son of God appeared to me, holding in His hands His own Heart, brighter than the sun, and shedding on every side rays of light; it was then that this amiable Savior gave me to understand that it was from this divine Heart that all those graces issue which God pours forth unceasingly upon men."

Practice: Do not let a week of this month pass without speaking of the Heart of Jesus, and of the boundless treasures of grace which He has promised to those who shall honor it with a special devotion.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Give me Thy love alone, O Heart of Jesus, and I am rich enough! Amorem tui solum et dives sum satis (St Ignatius).

June - the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

2009-06-01T00:02:00.001-04:00

As the Month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so the Month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Each day during June you will find posted here a reflection, practice, and ejaculatory prayer taken from an anonymous Month of the Sacred Heart which has been translated from the French. Before each meditation it is recommended that the Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart be prayed. Simply follow the link provided each day. To return to the meditation you can use the link provided to the left of the Act of Consecration or your browsers back button. Following the meditation you may make use of any of the prayers found on the web page, Devotions to the Sacred Heart, which you can access from the Links section of the sidebar. On that page you will find various prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

For a brief account of the life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque to whom Jesus appeared, revealing His Sacred Heart and asking for reparation from the cold and ungrateful hearts of men, see this post from last year: Short Account of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.

As we make our way through the Month of the Sacred Heart, let us remember in a special way to pray for all priests that they will be inflamed with the burning love of the Sacred Heart.

Fr. Scott Bailey, C.Ss.R.

The First Day of June

2009-06-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Origin and Establishment of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is as ancient as the Church. It commenced upon the Cross, from the moment when this divine Heart, pierced by the soldier’s spear, opened to the faithful an inviolable place of refuge. When the first Christians and the martyrs, with that faith and love, which made them triumph over torments and death itself, kissed the wounds of Jesus crucified, who can doubt that in applying their lips to the wounded side of their Redeemer, as they meditated on His Passion, they thought at the same time of His Sacred Heart, and of its infinite love which seemed to burst forth in flames through that sacred opening in His side? Thus too did the greatest saints of every age, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Gertrude, St. Mechtild, St. Catharine of Sienna, penetrate the secret of this devotion, long before it was proposed in any special revelation. But it was reserved for the seventeenth century to see the Sacred Heart of Jesus honored by a public worship, and for France to give birth to this devotion. The person whom God employed to make known His designs of mercy in the establishment of this devotion, was a simple Religious of the Visitation, at Paray le Monial, in Charolais, known by the name of Margaret Mary.

Jesus Christ, who had already favored her with His most precious gifts, appeared to her one day, and said: "My divine Heart is so full of love for men, that, no longer able to restrain the flames of its burning charity, it must spread them abroad by every means, and manifest itself to men, to enrich them with the treasures which it contains. To you I disclose these priceless treasures; they contain the graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to draw mankind from the abyss of perdition."

The designs of our Divine Lord were made known to St. Margaret Mary some time afterwards in a still clearer manner: "While praying before the Blessed Sacrament," she says, "one day within its octave, I received from God excessive graces of His love. As I felt myself moved with the desire of making Him a return of love for love, He said to me: ‘You cannot give me any greater mark of your love than by doing what I have already so often asked of you.’ Upon this, disclosing to me His Divine Heart, He said to me: ‘Behold this Heart, which has so loved men 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 part only ingratitude, in the neglect, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness which I meet with from them in my Sacrament of love. But what afflicts me most is, that I receive this treatment from hearts which are specially consecrated to me. For this reason, I ask you to procure the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi to be set apart as a special feast in honor of my Heart, by making an act of reparation, and communicating on that day, in order to atone for the indignities which it has received during the time that it has been exposed upon my altars: and I promise that my Heart shall enlarge itself to shed in abundance the influence of its divine love upon those who shall render it this honor, or procure it to be rendered.’" The humble religious replied; "To whom, O Lord, do You address Yourself? To so wretched a creature, so poor a sinner, that her unworthiness would be even capable of hindering the accomplishment of Your design. You have so many generous souls to execute it." "Do you not know then" replied our Lord, "that I make use of the weakest instruments to confound the strong, and that it is in the little and poor of spirit that I display my power with greater splendor, in order that they may attribute nothing to themselves?" "Give me, then," rejoined the sister, "the means of doing what You command."

Upon this our Lord added: "Address yourself to my servant (this was Father de la Colombiere, S.J.) and tell him from me to do what he can to establish this devotion, and to afford this gratification to my heart. Let him not be discouraged at the difficulties which he will meet with, for there will be no lack of them; but let him remember that those alone are all-powerful who distrust themselves, and place all their confidence in me."

Father de la Colombiere, who had examined the sanctity of this religious with great care, and was satisfied by evident marks of the truth of her communications with God, considered himself called to contribute to the establishment of so holy a devotion, especially as it presented nothing which was open to suspicion. He began with himself, and wished to be the first disciple of the Heart of Jesus, and the first adorer of His love, according to the directions prescribed to the sister Margaret Mary. He accordingly consecrated himself to this Sacred Heart, on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, June 21, 1675, a day which may be regarded as that on which the Heart of Jesus made its first conquest.

Since that time, this devotion, censured and combated, as are all the works of God, has been at length established with marvelous success throughout the whole world, especially after it had received the solemn approval of the Holy See. Thus did the event prove how justly founded was the confidence of Saint Margaret Mary, when she said: "Though I should see the whole world let loose in opposition to this devotion, I should never despair of seeing it established, since I have received an assurance of it from the mouth of our Blessed Savior Himself."

Practice: Engage every one, over whom you have any influence, to celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi; to receive Holy Communion on that day, and to make an act of reparation in atonement for the negligences, scandals, sacrileges, and other faults committed against the adorable Eucharist.

Ejaculatory Prayer: Draw me, O Heart of Jesus; we will run after thee to the odor of thy ointments. Trahe me post te; curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum (Cant. i. 3).

The Last Day of May

2009-05-31T00:01:00.004-04:00

Consecration to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

At the close of this beautiful month, which we have consecrated to thee, O Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, after having meditated upon thy greatness, admired the perfection of thy adoration and Eucharistic service in the Cenacle, it remains to give ourselves entirely to thee, so that thou mayest guard and direct us in our vocation as adorers.

I remit into thy hands the direction of my vocation and the graces of the sublime duties that it imposes upon me.

My vocation of adorer is beautiful, the most beautiful of all, since it retains me forever in the service of the Adorable Person of Jesus Christ in His Divine Sacrament., It is a privilege, since it gives me the right to go directly to His Divine Person without an intermedium.

My vocation is beautiful and sublime, since I share the functions of the angels and, if I dare say it, those of the Blessed Virgin herself, in the service of Jesus. But for this divine vocation, I should have some remarkable qualities, some true virtues, and, at least, ordinary piety but, alas! I have nothing of all this, and I am nothing! I can do nothing! I have, on the contrary, only defects, bad habits, and I am full of self-love. I have no humility, no meekness, no spirit of mortification. I know not how to pray nor how to make prayer. I possess only routine piety, with some meager ideas of virtue, narrow and limited. Alas, my God! Thou who shouldst have at Thy service all that is greatest, most perfect, and most holy, how hast Thou chosen me, poor infirm creature, a nothing full of miseries, still covered with the scars of my sins, all leprous still with the old man that lives in me?

How dare I accept this grace, to dwell with angels, to be in the same house with Thy Holy Mother, to remain in Thy company and in Thy presence?

Mary, my celestial Queen and my Divine Mother, I cannot accept the honor of becoming the happy servant of our Eucharistic Jesus, if thou dost not consent to form me, to raise me, and to clothe me with thy spirit, thy virtues, thy merits; if thou dost not take me for thy child, O thou who art the Queen and Mother of the servants of Jesus, thou who didst love only in Jesus and for Jesus!

1 remit, then, into thy hands, my good Mother, the grace and the training of my vocation. I give myself to thee, do thou give Jesus to me. Formed and presented by thee, O good Mother, Jesus, my sweet Master, will receive me kindly and love me in thee.

II.

If my vocation is beautiful, its duties are great and divine. I should pass my life in adoration at the foot of the throne of Incarnate Love, doing before that Eucharistic throne what the angels and saints do, and will eternally do in heaven, praising His infinite bounty, blessing His boundless mercy, thanking His love, devoting myself to His glory, immolating myself for sinners, and consuming myself for the extension of His reign on earth.

I ought to live always with Jesus in the Host, like the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth and in the Cenacle, like the saints in glory. I ought not to quit Him, even to serve and follow my neighbor. My mission is that of Magdalen, contemplative, with the Queen of the Apostles in the Genacle, praying before the tabernacle, converting the world by her prayer at the foot of the Eucharist; that of St. Teresa, St. Catharine of Siena, and of all those holy souls who carry on an uninterrupted apostolate of prayer and immolation.

I ought to honor in an entirely special manner the interior and hidden life of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, living unknown to men, even the pious and the holy, forgotten by my own, despised by the world, dead to all in order to live more freely and more purely with Jesus in God.

But how can I, all alone, fulfill duties so sublime? How dare I even approach Jesus to serve Him? Alas! all alone I should be ashamed of myself!

But, O my good Mother, since thou dost deign to become my teacher, thou wilt let me adore Jesus with thee, bless Him with thy praises, entreat Him with thy prayers, serve Him with thy hands, love Him with thy heart, glorify Him with thy sanctity. I will be thy disciple, thy child, and, shall I say it? a little Mary, another thyself, the servant of Jesus!

I shall tell thee simply and artlessly my faults, my good Mother! I shall make known to thee my ignorance, my little knowledge, my little success. I shall give thee the tiny flowers of virtue that I shall have gathered, and thou wilt offer all to Jesus, and myself along with thyself.

On this condition alone, do I hope to become a true servant of the Most Blessed Sacrament. My God, behold Thy humble servant! May it be done unto me according to Thy merciful goodness and Thy grace of love!

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Mother and Model of Adorers, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

The Thirtieth Day of May

2009-05-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Triumph.

On the day of her glorious assumption, body and soul, into heaven, Mary received the crown of all her graces. Truly, we may rejoice. We shall not lose our Mother. We only send her before us, to prepare our plans and to acquire for us rights over the heart of God. We can truly say to him: "Our misery is great. Yes, this earth is but a desolate valley, but it sends Thee what it has most beautiful, a marvel that it could not be expected to produce, Mary, Thy Mother! Look upon us with eyes of mercy for the sake of that blessed flower of our garden which we offer Thee. It is the purest and the most beautiful."

But Mary’s triumph is, also, that of Jesus. He will find again His Mother, He will again become a Son by her presence. Jesus loved His Mother so much—how, then, could He separate from her? He did it only through love of us. Having given her to us for Mother, it was right that He should allow us to enjoy the inestimable gift. But the time was come to recall that gift, and Jesus comes Himself to seek His Mother: Innixa super dilectum suum.—Mary died of love. The longing to see her Son, and to be fully united to Him, snapped her thread of life. Jesus is about to accord her a grand triumph. O what passed between Jesus and Mary at the moment of their meeting! We know the joy of a mother and a son meeting after a long separation. Jesus desired to see His Mother again, and, lo! she stands before Him! with what loving embraces He welcomes her!

II.

Jesus introduces her Himself into glory, for He owes her a reward. All her life Mary was poor and despised, but now the time has come to crown her with glory and honor. She enters heaven in splendor, such as was never before seen. She enters by a special gate, open for her alone. She could not pass through that of the simple elect. If the twelve Apostles are the twelve gates of heaven, Mary is the royal entrance to that country, the gate par excellence. O august and holy Gate! How good to pass through thee! Doubtless, the observance of the Law will give us sure entrance into heaven, but it is better still to confide one’s self to Mary’s compassion. Mary seeks only to save. Pass, pass by the way of mercy, and count not so much on your works and your fulfilment of the Law. Examine well, and you will find that fulfilment very imperfect.

Jesus led His Mother by the hand up to the throne of God. "Behold, O Father, her with whom Thou art associated, by choosing her to give Me My Humanity!" And the Father crowned her with her three most beautiful titles, Queen, Mother, Mediatrix. In Mary’s diadem, three pearls are shining with dazzling bright ness, namely, that of her humility, that of her poverty, and that of her sufferings.

III.

Mary was the most humble of creatures; in heaven, she is the most glorious. If she is seated on a throne the nearest to Jesus Christ, it is because she approaches nearer than any other to the perfection of His humility. She passed for a sinful daughter of Eve, she who did not undergo the shame of original sin. She followed her Son. The Jews regarded her as an ambitious woman—she who had never said one word to her own advantage.

No one was so poor as Mary, and never was poverty so meritorious as hers, for she was the Mother of the King of heaven and of earth. To imitate the poverty of Jesus, she labored at Nazareth, begged in Egypt, and what could be poorer than the lowly house of Loreto? The justice of Our Lord owed her a compensation. As she shares all the merits, all the graces of her Son, she has the free disposal of them. All graces of salvation, both natural and spiritual, will be given us by Mary. She is rich with the riches of God Himself. And if Divine Justice did not oppose the inclination of her maternal heart, the gates of hell would soon be closed. The demon has been forced to acknowledge that he is never sure of a victory so long as he whom Mary protects, retains a breath of life. She supplicates, importunes, and, as it were, snatches from God the graces of mercy and pardon for the most hardened criminals.

Lastly, if happiness is in proportion to sufferings, no one in heaven is so happy as Mary; for having never loved so much as she, no one has ever suffered so much. Mary was tried by God. He martyred her constantly. Simeon s prophecy em poisoned all her joys. From the moment of its utterance, Mary took the place of Jesus, still too young to suffer publicly. At the foot of the Cross she is nearest to Jesus that she may suffer more. Because He wished her nearest to Him in heaven, He united her more than any other creature to His sufferings and humiliations on earth.

God has, in one word, crowned Mary with glory and honor as the masterpiece of His love. Above her there is only Himself: Solo tonante minor! But in the midst of her glory, Mary remembers that she is our Mother. She ascended to heaven before us only to facilitate our entrance, and to conduct us there. She herself will come to seek us at the supreme moment, and she will lead us by the hand, if we have known how to call her to our assistance.

Practice: Prepare the agonizing to receive Holy Viaticum. Notify the priest in time. Arrange for Our Lord a proper reception in the homes of the poor.

Aspiration: O Mary, give us Jesus Christ now and at the hour of our death!

The Twenty-Ninth Day of May

2009-05-29T00:01:00.003-04:00

The Perfect Servant of the Blessed Sacrament.

Ecce ancilla Domini—"Behold the handmaid of the Lord!" exclaimed the Blessed Virgin, and her whole life was passed serving Him in the most perfect manner. She is the model, royal and divine, of our Eucharistic service. Her service in the Cenacle sums up her whole life. There she renewed all its phases, all its graces; there her virtues acquired their supreme perfection, which was to render them worthy of heaven and of the immense glory that awaited her. To attach himself to this last link of Mary’s life, is the grace of a servant of the Eucharist; to imitate her virtues and her devotedness, is his strength and his rule.

The spirit of a servant of Jesus is thus defined: Devoted love to the Blessed Sacrament in the spirit and virtues of the Blessed Virgin.

It, is disinterested devotedness. He does not devote himself in order to be perfect or happy, to amass for himself a spiritual fortune, or to gain a beautiful paradise. No, he devotes himself through pure love of the Beloved. Devotedness longs for one thing only, and that is, to give pleasure and to fulfil duty. Now, Our Lord does not ask us to serve Him in the outside world, even in souls; but He says to us: "To ascend My throne of love, I must have adorers. Without adorers, I cannot be solemnly exposed. You will remain with Me, you will be My adorers. You will be attached to My person. You will exist for Me as I shall for you. You shall go so far as totally to renounce your own will, for I want it for Myself. Renounce your personal interests, I will assume them. A king desires to build up the fortune of his subjects, though he does not tell them what he is going to do." So, the field that we have to cultivate is Our Lord Himself, He alone. He retains us for Himself, and commits Himself to our care. And the reward of this devotedness what is it? It is to live near the King, to please Him, to be His favorites. Ah, let us serve Him for His own glory, and efface ourselves in everything!

This devotedness ought, then, to be a devotedness of pure love, most pure and Eucharistic. The Eucharist absorbs everything else. Jesus gives Himself entire, and He wishes us entire. But He brings with Him a sentiment of joy and happiness which spreads over our whole life. What! to be associated to the Eucharist, to adoration, to become one of the staff of Jesus Christ—what is there greater? Go, then, to this service with joy, with gladness. Love flies. It loves the service of Jesus better than its own repose, its own gratification. When we do not love, we go not quickly, we delay. But, like Mary, do you fly to the service, to the adoration of Jesus, who is waiting for you.

II.

The service of Our Lord is our share with Mary. You are called to serve Him, and not yourself. You must guard against using terms that indicate a low understanding of this sublime service. You must not say: "I am going to perform my service." No! No! All employees talk that way. But you must say: "I am going to the service of Our Lord." There is a great difference between the two expressions, and above all, between the two thoughts. A courtier knows that it is proper to say: "I am in the king’s service." Ah, well! we say: "I am in the service of Our Lord." By that we efface self, we lose sight of self, and we put Our Lord in the foreground.

This service embraces several functions. There are some that directly regard His Person, such as the Mass, Adoration, the Office; there are others that refer to His household and to the good of His servants. But all are functions be longing to the royal service of Our Lord. Our Lord’s house exacts varied attention, varied material employments. We are not pure spirits. But in all these labors, it is the King that we must see, for Him that we must act.

Devotedness to the glory of the Blessed Sacrament.—What is this glory that we owe Him? It is to return to Him all the good that we do, to keep nothing for self, not to lay up for self a little sum of money, a little private purse. Let us be servants of the Blessed Sacrament, like Mary; servants who have no more interest, no more individuality, who are absolutely consumed in the service of Jesus.

What a beautiful title! "The hand maid the servant of the Lord!" It is the one that Mary preferred. It is the only one that she ever gave herself. In taking that title of your Mother, you must take with it the duties and virtues that it implies: all are contained in the Magnificat: "The Lord hath had regard to the humility, to the lowliness of His handmaid."—Ah, if any one ought to be humble and devoted, it is the servant! What, if a servant should wish to choose in his master’s service, to economize his moments, keeping time for self?

And all Mary’s virtues, take them in their final character in the Cenacle, are nothing more than acts of her adoration. Mary adores by every one of her virtues. Adoration is the sum total of her whole life. To serve Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament in the spirit and in the virtues of Our Lady of the Genacle, behold the life of a servant. His motto is: "All for the service of Our Eucharistic Jesus in union with Mary!"

Practice: Consecrate yourself to works of Eucharistic devotion, in order to imitate Mary, the handmaid of Jesus in the Cenacle.

Aspiration: Mary, Mother of fair love, make us love Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as thou didst love Him!

The Twenty-Eighth Day of May

2009-05-28T15:02:00.005-04:00

Mary’s Life of Union with Jesus.

Mary lived in the Eucharist. He who loves truly, thinks, desires, acts, rejoices, or sorrows in the person loved, his natural center of life. Indeed, Jesus has said: "Where your treasure is, there is your heart." And to His Apostles: "Remain in Me, remain in My love as I remain in My Father's love."

Mary remained, then, in the Divine Eucharist, the Center of her love. All her thoughts, words, actions came forth from It as the sun’s rays come forth from that luminary. The Eucharist was the oracle that she consulted, the grace that she followed.

II.

But Jesus in the Sacrament lives the same life of love which consumed Him in the days of His mortal existence. In His Sacramental state, He continues to adore His Father by His profound annihilations. He is still the Mediator and Intercessor before the Divine Goodness for the salvation of men.

Mary united with Jesus in prayer, adding thereto the exercise and the merit of the virtues that Our Lord, in His glorified state, can no longer actually practice. To Jesus state of humiliation in the Sacrament, she responded by the virtue and acts of humility; to His condition of victim, by her actual endurance of suffering; to His state of propitiation, by her voluntary acts of mortification. To honor the hidden life of Jesus, Mary effaced herself aiming at being nothing more than a human appearance, as it were, whose whole being and substance are changed, transformed into Jesus Christ. She is poor, like Jesus in the Sacrament, poorer even, since she can experience the real privations of poverty. Like Jesus, she obeys, and honors His sacramental obedience by submitting to the last of the ministers of the Church. To imitate His obedience, so sweet, so simple, and so prompt, she is happy to obey, eager to yield at the least sign. In one word, Mary realizes in herself the Eucharistic life of Jesus Christ.

Mary, moreover, renewed in the Eucharist all the mysteries of the Savior’s mortal life, perpetuating and renewing her gratitude with ever increasing fervor.

III.

Such ought to be the life of the adorer, if he wishes to live in the Eucharist. But to reach this life of union, he must free himself from all slavery, from the life of self-love, which sees only self even in God’s service; which speaks to Jesus only of self, of its own personal interests, of its own affairs; which knows not how to entertain itself with Jesus by speaking of Him and the interests of His glory, of the desires of His Sacred Heart; which knows not how to remain calm and tranquil at His feet, satisfied with Him, desiring nothing but Him. He must free himself from that life which has not the patience to listen to Jesus, but which renders us like mercenaries impatiently awaiting their wages, as commissioners eager to set out on some journey.

Jesus has very few adorers who consider themselves sufficiently recompensed and happy to remain with Him, occupied in serving Him like the angels in heaven, like Mary in the Cenacle. He sees at His feet only beggars, or the fever-stricken, asking for help. In a royal palace, how ever, they w r ho assist before the throne know how to be courtiers, doing nothing but honoring the king by their presence. Alas! there is the reign of sense, and that costs the creature nothing. At the Eucharistic court of Jesus, it is the interior reign of His love, and we are afraid of it, we flee from it, we wish to act. Jesus alone does not suffice for us, we must have something besides Him!

Mary never lost the Eucharistic presence of Jesus. She acted only when He wished it, considering herself sufficiently occupied to be at His feet, sufficiently recompensed in possessing Him.

Practice: In union with Mary, to live the life of Communion and thanksgiving by interior recollection.

Aspiration: Heart of Mary, magnificent Throne of the Hidden God, be thou exalted to the heights of the heavens!

The Twenty-Seventh Day of May

2009-05-27T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Eucharist, the Center of Mary’s Life.

Mary lived of the Eucharistic life of Jesus. Loves desires a life in common with the Beloved. At Bethlehem and at Nazareth, Mary had lived the poor and hidden life of Jesus; in Egypt, she shared His persecuted life; through the little villages of Judea, she led His apostolic life. She had shared His suffering life, consequently, with greater reason, she would live the Eucharistic life of her Divine Son, for it is the crown of all the others.

Mary lived by means of the Eucharist, a life altogether interior and hidden, silent, separated from the world, having only Jesus for witness and confidant. Her life was consumed in contemplating and thanking the sovereign bounty of the Eucharist. This thought absorbed her mind, and nourished it with truth. It sweetly filled her heart, which had no other desire, no other need than to love more, and always to give herself to Him more entirely. Mary’s body even shared the joy and heavenly peace of that life. It became entirely spiritualized: Cor meum et caro mea exultavernnt in Deum vivum—"My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in God, my Savior."

II.

This Eucharistic contemplation is more active than passive. It is the soul giving itself incessantly to God under the ever new and ever more and more delicious impression of His goodness, under the ever increasing action of His love, which purifies her, disengages her from earthly things, and united her more intimately to the Well-Beloved. Recollection is the first condition of this contemplation. The soul then free from the representations of external objects, disengaged from all irregular affections, goes straight to God as the needle to the pole. The soul, recollected and fixed on Jesus, nourishes herself with His truth, His goodness, His love. Prolonged prayer costs little or nothing, because, freed from all things, she can follow her Savior whithersoever He goes, nothing urging or calling her elsewhere; and be cause always recollected in herself, she can study, can fathom the deep mysteries on which she makes her prayer. She sees things as they really are in Jesus Christ. Recollection and contemplation strengthen her sight, and render it reflective and penetrating.

III.

How perfect must have been Mary’s contemplation before the Most Blessed Sacrament with the great light of her faith, the purity of her life, the perfect love of her heart! Assuredly, distractions, that fever of the mind and of the heart, came not to trouble the repose that she took in her Well-Beloved. Her soul, more united to Jesus than to the body that enveloped it, drank in long droughts of the living waters of grace and love. She forgot the earth to remain alone with Jesus alone; for love loves to isolate itself, to simplify itself, to concentrate itself in unity, in order to unite it self always more closely to the Beloved.

Let the adorer, united to Mary adoratrix, apply with patience, with constancy, to the virtue of recollection, to the exercise of the contemplation of Jesus Christ, studying, at first, more to know Him than to enjoy Him; for love comes of truth known, and a grace of light is of more value than the greatest grace of sweetness and consolation. Truth remains, but sentiment passes.

O happy the soul which, like Mary, comprehends this mystery of love, who desires it, who asks it without ceasing, who incessantly exercises herself in it! The reign of God is in her!

Practice: Pray to Mary for the faithful perseverance of spouses consecrated to Jesus in the cloister and in the world.

Aspiration: Mary, like little new-born babes, we ask of thee our spiritual milk, Jesus in the Eucharist!

The Twenty-Sixth Day of May

2009-05-26T00:01:00.001-04:00

The Divine Spouse and King of the Heart.

In her adoration, Mary aimed at honoring all the conditions of Jesus, at exalting Him under titles most dear to Him, and which establish most perfectly His empire over men’s hearts.

She adored Jesus under His title of Spouse of Souls. Union is the perfection of love. Jesus, in giving Himself substantially in the Eucharist, unites Himself to our soul as His cherished spouse. As Spouse, He gives us all His riches, He gives His very name, His Heart, His whole Self, but it is by right of return. The soul, His spouse, must live only for Him. Jesus is a jealous God. Woe to him that steals from Him the spouse of His Heart!

Now, Mary, like a good mother, would have the nuptials of her Beloved Son celebrated happily. As formerly at Cana, she prevented the confusion of the young couple, so does she adorn the faithful soul with her own virtues, that Jesus may find it deserving of Him. O yes!—the best preparation for Communion is that which Mary makes. Is it not the mother’s duty to clothe her daughter for the wedding day? On that day she despoils herself. Who can say the care that this good Mother takes of the spouses of the Eucharistic God, above all, of the purity of their hearts, that they may make the delight of their well-beloved Spouse?

But Jesus is also the Spouse of the Church, whose fruitful virginity makes Him the Father of the new generation of God’s children. Mary adored Him, also, as the Spouse of the Church, and she loved the latter as her daughter, indissolubly united to her very dear Son. Mary would have willingly given her life for the Church. She protected it, defended it by her incessant prayers. She gladly Watched over its progress and shared its dangers, suffering with it and for it. Though the Mother of the Church, she was at the same time its daughter. Like the most submissive of its children, she obeyed Peter and John and all other priests. She honored the holy ceremonies, she adored Jesus by the Church, by its worship, its liturgical prayers, its priesthood, and all its children. O what beautiful adoration was that which united Mary and the Faithful at the foot of the Blessed Sacrament! Heaven could not be jealous of it, for Mary was in the Church as the sun among the stars. God might well love the earth, and Jesus His tabernacle! It was the heaven of love.

II.

Again, Mary adored Jesus in His quality of King, for the Holy Eucharist is the Savior’s royalty. By it He reigns in hearts and over society. Truth, to triumph over men, must needs pass through the Eucharist, in order to catch some of Its sweetness, and to become persuasive and touching. As long as a man has not communicated, he has only the faith of truth, he has not yet the faith of love, the joyousness, the sweetness of faith. He has met Jesus on his way, he has conversed with Him without knowing Him well. The Eucharist alone will reveal to him, in all His power and light, Jesus Christ and all the secrets of Faith. By the Eucharist, then, Jesus is King of truth.

As of truth, so of the other virtues. The Eucharist is necessary in order that they may reign definitively in the heart. Communion is necessary to refine, to soften, to beatify them in the love of Jesus. Jesus must give Himself to me, in order to subjugate me by His love, and be able to say to me: "My child, give Me thy heart." In the Eucharist alone, the love of Jesus Christ is royally served, since in It He has a palace, a court, and adorers.

Mary, then, adored Jesus as her King, no longer in His poor and fugitive royalty of Bethlehem or of Egypt, nor as her Crucified King on Calvary, but in His permanent royalty, seated on His throne of glory, all veiled as He is, invulnerable to the darts of His enemies, invincible in His victory, glorious in the triumph of His love. Mary saw, realized the words of the angel: "He shall reign over the House of Jacob, and of His reign there shall be no end." She saw the Eucharistic thrones daily multiply. Every city, every village, becomes His court, and of fers to Him a palace. She beheld all virtues flourishing in the world by means of the Eucharist, and they are the royal crown of the God who Himself inspires and fosters them.

O what sighs, what prayers for the Eucharistic reign of Jesus, issued from Mary’s heart in the Cenacle! She asked, and she saw in the course of the ages, the Eucharist spreading, and the love of Jesus everywhere triumphing. In fine, Jesus will be loved, His Eucharist will find sympathetic hearts, and Its fire will envelop the world to renew it.

O Divine King! Yes, reign as Sovereign over my heart and my life as Thou didst over Thy Blessed Mother! May Thy truth be my ensign of honor, Thy virtues my arms, Thy love my word of command, and Thy greater Eucharistic glory the fruit of my victory!

This is the ardent prayer of my heart, which I offer Thee through Mary, the Queen of the Cenacle, and the Mother of adorers.

Practice: Pray to Mary constantly to extend the Eucharistic reign of Jesus Christ throughout the whole world.

Aspiration: O Immaculate Heart of Mary, nuptial couch, upon which the Spouse finds His delights, inflame us with the love that consumes thee!

The Twenty-Fifth Day of May

2009-05-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Apostolate.

The soul that lives on the Eucharist ought to occupy itself with all the interests of the Adorable Sacrament. Now, the first, the dearest to Jesus, is the priest hood. By priests, the Blessed Sacrament is given to us. By them, Jesus receives the sacramental life which He consecrates to the glory of His Father; by them, He is more glorified than by even the most pious of the Faithful. He has given to them all His rights and all His power.

Pray, therefore, for the priesthood. Ask that vocations to it may be multiplied. Obtain for the people holy priests, men of fire and flame. This was Mary’s prayer, her apostolate of predilection. And now she protects holy vocations, she implores them of her Son. The priest is the privileged child of Mary.

It is she who trains him to piety when young, and shields his virtue. It is she who nourishes his fervor, who leads him by the hand to the foot of the altar, and who presents him to the Bishop, as she once offered Jesus in the Temple. She encourages him in the thousand sacrifices of study, in the combats against fear of the priestly responsibility. The priest formed by Mary! good and holy priest, most acceptable to Jesus!

II.

Mary lives again in the priest, and through him continues her mission to souls for Jesus glory. The first Incarnation was made in Mary and by Mary. In her the Word took flesh. In the hands of the priest and at his word, Jesus Christ becomes our Bread.

The dignity of Mother of God is incomparable. She is the Mother of the King, consequently, the Mother of angels and of men. The priest is the father of our Eucharistic Jesus, the spiritual king of souls. He is a God on earth, terrenus Dens, who has received all the riches of God, who opens and closes heaven.

Mary reared Jesus. She nourished Him and cared for Him at every age. The priest, also, causes Jesus Christ to increase in souls. He leads them to follow Him, to entertain Him in their interior, until He has reached the perfect age, and has transformed the soul into Himself.

Mary, as Mother, has over Our Lord all the rights that maternity confers. The priest, also, has direct power over the Person of Jesus Christ. Mary is powerful only by Jesus. The priest, also, is powerful only by the graces that Jesus puts .into his hands. He places Himself at his disposition, in order to give him a greater power of action.

But Mary, under certain conditions, may envy the privileges of the priest. She carried the Word made Flesh nine months in her womb, and that was all. The priest is never exhausted. He incarnates Jesus Christ every day. His consecrating power is inherent in his priesthood. Like unto the Father, who engenders the Son without ever exhausting Himself, like the sun, which daily renews the gift of its light and heat, so is the priest of the Most High.

Mary brought forth the Savior in His mortal state, weak and for the Cross; the priest brings Him down upon the altar, but in His glorious and risen state. His glory does not appear to our gross eye, but the angels see it. It is a sun radiant toward heaven, but veiled to earth.

III.

The mission and duties of the priest and those of Mary, in regard to the Eucharist and to souls, are the same. That of the priest is one of adoration and of the apostolate. The priest is, first of all, an adorer and the guardian of the Blessed Sacrament. He is, above all, a man of prayer: "Nos autem," said the Apostles, "orationi et ministerio verbi instantes erimus."—"Let us give ourselves to prayer and preaching." He must unite himself to the prayer of the Victim that he prepares and offers. He must begin at the foot of the altar his exterior apostolate.

Mary in the Cenacle!—Behold the Divine Mother in this first duty. Her office there is that of adorer. She adores by taking care of the Eucharistic worship. She repairs the glory of God outraged by sinners. She consoles the love of Jesus unheeded by His own. To the Father she offers Jesus; to Jesus she shows her maternal heart; to the Holy Spirit, she presents souls, His inheritance and His Temples, that He may renew and animate them with His love.

Behold what the faithful priest, who understands the favor of the Savior’s love for him, owes to Jesus!

The second priestly function is, to announce Jesus Christ to the people. Mary is here again his sweet protectress. She educated Jesus, and she revealed the mysteries of His life to the Apostles and the Evangelists. She spoke of Him incessantly, and made Him loved by all around her. She was the zelatrix of Jesus.

Now, behold what the priest has to do: To preach, to make Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament known, to spread His worship and His reign with indefatigable zeal. For this he addresses himself to Mary, who loves priests with a love of predilection. She loves them in Jesus, her Son, whose ministers they are; she loves them for the glory of God and the salvation of souls whose Apostles they are.

The priest has duties to fulfil toward this tender Mother. He ought to be second to none in the honor he renders her, the tender love that is due her. He should zealously make her known and loved.

And for us. if we love the Eucharist, if we desire that It be served, preached, adored by all, let us incessantly beg of Jesus, through Mary, holy priests, apostolic workmen, faithful adorers. The glory of the Blessed Sacrament and the salvation of the world are the price.

Practice: Pray constantly for vocations to the priesthood, and exercise toward the priests of Jesus the most devoted and respectful charity.

Aspiration: O Queen of the clergy, send workmen into the vineyard of thy Divine Son!

The Twenty-Fourth Day of May

2009-05-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Prayer of Adoration.

Mary devoted herself absolutely to the Eucharistic glory of Jesus. She knew that the desire of the Eternal Father was, to have the Eucharist known, loved, and served by all men; that the hunger of the Heart of Jesus was, to communicate to men all His gifts of grace and glory; that the mission of the Holy Spirit was, to extend and perfect in hearts the reign of Jesus Christ; and that the Church had been founded only to give Jesus to the world. All Mary’s desire, then, was to make Him known in His Sacrament. Her great love for Jesus felt the need of expanding, of consecrating itself as a kind of relief, so to say, for her own inability to glorify Him as much as she desired.

Since the scene on Calvary, men were her children. She loved them with a mother’s tenderness, and longed for their supreme good as for her own; therefore, was she on fire to make Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament known to all, to in flame hearts with His love, to see them chained to His loving service.

To obtain this favor, Mary made a perpetual mission of penance and prayer at the foot of the Most Adorable Eucharist. It was there she treated of the world’s salvation. In her magnificent zeal, she embraced the wants of the Faithful of all places and of all future time, who were to become heirs of the Holy Eucharist and to serve It.

But the mission dearest to her soul was, to pray continually for the success of the preaching and labors of the Apostles and of all members of Jesus Christ’s priest hood. It was not surprising, then, that those apostolic workmen so easily converted entire kingdoms, for Mary remained at the foot of the throne of mercy, supplicating for them the Savior’s good ness. Her prayer converted souls, and, as every conversion is the fruit of prayer, and since Mary’s prayer could meet no refusal, the Apostles had in this Mother of Mercy their most powerful helper. "Blessed is he for whom Mary prays!"

II.

Eucharistic adorers share Mary’s life and mission of prayer at the foot of the Most Blessed Sacrament. It is the most beautiful of all missions, and it is without danger. It is, also, the most sacred, for it is the exercise of all the virtues. It is the most necessary to the Church, which has much more need of souls of prayer than of preachers, of men of penance than of men of eloquence. To- day, more than ever, we want men who disarm by self-immolation the anger of God irritated against the ever-increasing crimes of nations. We must have souls who, by their importunity, reopen the treasures of grace, which general indifference has closed. We must have true adorers, that is to say, men of fervor and of sacrifice. When they have become numerous around their Divine Chief, God will be glorified, Jesus will be loved, society will become Christian, conquered to Jesus Christ by the Apostolate of Eucharistic prayer.

III.

Mary’s apostolate, moreover, consisted in the very persuasive preaching of respect. Such sermons suit all, and a soul zealous to make the Eucharist known and loved, will, in union with Mary, aim thereat with great care. With what modesty and reverence this perfect adorer comports himself before the Blessed Sacrament! Like the angels, he kneels be fore the Divine Majesty. Entirely penetrated with faith, and absorbed in the divine presence of Jesus, he pays no attention to any one or anything around. Such adorers never present themselves before Our Lord without being suitably and modestly clothed, as if for a visit of ceremony. Any negligence in dress, or carelessness of manner, would indicate little faith and a disorderly interior.

As much as she was able, Mary remained on her knees at the feet of her God. That is the posture of adoration adopted by the Holy Church, the homage of the body, the humility of faith. On the knees at Jesus feet, is the place of love.

Respect in the holy place, above all be fore the Most Holy Sacrament, ought to be the great exterior virtue of adorers. This respect is the solemn profession of their faith, and at the same time it is for them the grace of their piety and fervor; for God always punishes irreverence in His sanctuary by the weakening of faith, and the withdrawal of grace and devotion. He who is irreverent or indecorous before Our Lord, should not be astonished at the coldness that he experiences in prayer. That would even be a small punishment compared with what he deserves; for he merits to be expelled from God s presence as a rude, unmannerly fellow, or a senseless fool.

Let us, then, be very severe on the subject of respect. Let us maintain a reserved exterior, a devout attitude, a rigorous silence, and an absolute guard over the senses. When in church, we must have eyes only for Jesus Christ. Friends must then be ignored. Jesus is all. The court has eyes fixed only on the king, it honors only the king. At sight of the profound and religious respect of adorers, worldlings will be forced to say: "Here is something grand, indeed!" The weak, the tepid, will blush for their tepidity and again recognize Jesus Christ, for example is the royal lesson of wisdom, and the most fruitful apostolate.

Practice: Pray for all First Communicants and for the catechists who prepare them.

Aspiration: Hail, Mary! who, by the apostolate of thy prayer, vanquished all heresies raised against the Holy Eucharist!

The Twenty-Third Day of May

2009-05-23T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Adoration of Propitiation.

Mary adored her most dear Son in His character of perpetual Victim, always immolated on our altars, incessantly imploring by His death grace and mercy for sinners. Mary adored the Savior on this new Calvary, upon which His love crucified Him. She offered Him to God for the salvation of her new family, and the sight of Jesus on the Cross with His gaping wounds, renewed in her soul the martyrdom of her compassion. At Holy Mass, she beheld again her crucified Jesus, shedding His Blood in streams in the midst of sorrows and opprobrium, abandoned by God and man, and dying in the supreme act of His love. Mary, adoring her God present on the altar by the Consecration, shed abundant tears at the sight of men who make no account of this august sacrifice, who render sterile this Mystery of their Redemption, who dare offend and despise this Adorable Victim immolated under their eyes and for their salvation.

Mary would have wished to offer a thousand deaths to repair so many outrages; for the unfortunate creatures who thus rendered themselves guilty, were her children whom Jesus, when dying, had confided to her. Poor Mother! Was not one Calvary sufficient for her? Why daily renew her sorrows, and pierce her heart with new words of impiety?

Like the best of Mothers, however, in stead of rejecting and cursing sinners, Mary took on herself the debt of their crimes. She expiated them by sufferings, she became herself a victim at the foot of the altar, asking grace and mercy for her guilty children.

II.

Mary adored the state of prisoner that Jesus took by uniting Himself in separably to the Sacred Species. She contemplated His glorified Body, His feet, His hands, condemned to material immobility, His tongue speechless, His soul without exterior expansion, His love without arms, without wings, but tied, bound, unable to show men aught but His amiable chains.

"O happy bonds that keep Jesus in our midst," said Mary, "be ye blessed! Ye are fiery chains that attach me to this divine tabernacle! Silence of my God, how eloquent art thou to my heart! Sacred members of my Savior, you are still more dear to me than when the nails fastened you to the Cross, or when the folds of the winding-sheet encircled you! It is love that binds you here, and that forever, that I may make of Jesus my Treasure, my Prisoner of love, the Companion of my captivity here below, the God of my heart!"

III.

Mary adored the hidden state of Jesus’ Divinity and Humanity in His Sacrament, veiled that man might not attach himself to the glory and beauty of His Person, but should go unshackled to the Divinity of the Word. Jesus thus veiled Himself only to spiritualize man’s faith, to purify his heart, to stimulate his love, and to attract him to the infinite, to the ever-increasing and always new beauty.

Mary, then, adored Jesus veiled, but discoverable by love. She contemplated behind the cloud the beauty of this Sun that manifests Its ardor by the light which It gives to the mind, and Its presence by Its sweetness.

Mary honored the hidden life of Jesus by her own retired and solitary life. She passed the greater part of her time in making reparation for ungrateful man. At sight of the Eucharistic annihilations of Jesus, she would have wished to be annihilated, also, changed into a Sacramental Species, deprived of her own peculiar mode of life. She had, in fact, lost, transformed into Jesus her natural life, as the bread is transformed into the substance of Jesus Christ.

Seeing His Divine Mother at His feet, the Savior consoled Himself for men’s desertion. He loved the sacrifices that He had so generously made, and He preferred His state of annihilation to that of His glory. Mary, His Mother and the Mother of all adorers, indemnified Him for everything, and Jesus love found in describable satisfaction in receiving her prayers and her tears shed for the salvation of the world.

Practice: Assist at Mass to repair, in union with Mary, the crime of those that fail to do so.

Aspiration: O Mary, thou art the true mystical Table whereon we find the delicious Food of our soul, Jesus in the Eucharist!

Twenty-Second Day of May

2009-05-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Eucharistic Contemplation.

Contemplation naturally follows adoration and thanksgiving, whilst, at the same time, it nourishes and perfects them. Eucharistic contemplation is the look that the soul fixes on Jesus in the Sacrament, to know His perfections in detail, to see His goodness in the institution of the Eucharist, to study its motives, examine its sacrifices, weigh its gift, and appreciate its love.

The first fruit of Eucharistic contemplation is to fix, to recollect the soul in Our Lord, discovering to it the mystery of His perfections and the love of the ineffable Gift of the Eucharist. This view, thoughtful and reflective, of the excessive love of Jesus preparing, instituting, and perpetuating the Adorable Sacrament, produces in us first, adoration, then praise, and lastly, expansion of love. A soul goes out of self in order to unite, to adhere to the Divine Object of her contemplation. Whence it results that contemplation is the essential part of adoration. It is its focus.

II.

Mary before the Eucharist was in contemplation such as neither human nor angelic tongue could express. Jesus Christ alone, the object of it, knew its value. Mary had the highest knowledge of the love that Jesus had shown in instituting the Eucharist. She knew what combats His Heart had to sustain, and the sacrifices exacted of Him by the institution of this Sacrament; combats of His love against the incredulity and the indifference of the greater part of mankind; combats of His sanctity against the impiety, the blasphemy, and the sacrileges of which His Eucharist would be the object, not only from heretics, but even from His friends themselves; combats of His goodness against the ingratitude of Christians who neglect to receive Him in Holy Communion, thus refusing His best graces, His most tender invitations. But Jesus love triumphed over all these obstacles. I shall love men under all circumstances, and their malice shall neither discourage nor conquer My good ness!

Mary had followed these combats, she had shared these sacrifices, and she saw the victory. She revived them in her adoration. She recalled them to the Savior, and she exalted the love that had made Him a victor.

III.

To appreciate the gift of the Eucharist, an adorer ought, like Mary, and with her, to go to Its source, to the sacrifices It demanded of Our Lord’s love. If that love is beautiful on Calvary, it is yet more beautiful in the Cenacle and on the altar. It is there love forever immolated. The sight of those combats and of that victory, will suggest to the adorer what he owes in return to a God so good. And then with Mary, His divine Mother, he will offer himself to Jesus in the Eucharist with his whole heart, to bless Him, to thank Him for so much love. He will consecrate himself to honor the various states of our Sacramental Jesus, practicing in his life the virtues that the Savior continues therein and glorifies therein most admirably. He will honor the profound humility of the Savior, which goes so far as to annihilate Him entirely under the Sacred Species. He will honor the abnegation of His glory and power, which makes Him the Prisoner of men. He will honor the obedience, which makes Him the servant of all. He will take Mary as the mother of his Eucharistic life, in order to aid him in his practical study. He will love her and confide himself to her as to the Mother of Adorers, which is the title most dear to her heart and most glorious to Jesus.

Practice: Pray incessantly to Mary for the interests of the Eucharist.

Aspiration: .Mary, no one can approach so near to Jesus as thou!

The Twenty-First Day of May

2009-05-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Adoration of Thanksgiving.

To her act of humble and simple faith, to her adoration of self-annihilation, Mary added thanksgiving. After remaining abyssed in the sentiment of the grandeur of the Divine Majesty, veiled under the Sacrament, she raised her head toward the Thabor of love, to contemplate its beauty, and taste its ineffable sweetness. Mary gave thanks to Jesus for His love in the gift of the Eucharist, that sovereign act of His infinite bounty. Her thanksgiving was perfect, because she understood the greatness of the gift.

O how happy was Mary when, before the Last Supper, Jesus revealed to her that the hour for the triumph of His love had come, that He was about to institute His adorable Sacrament, by which, perpetuating Himself and living among us, each of the Faithful could share her happiness and, like her, receive Him into his breast; behold Him in some manner; and, in His Sacramental state, enjoy all the graces, and experience the mysteries of His mortal life! "After this Gift, in which I exhaust My power, I have nothing more to give to man except heaven!"

At this glorious news, Mary prostrated at the feet of Jesus, adoring in the effusion of her gratitude His too great love for men, too great for her, His unworthy handmaid. She offered herself to serve Him in His adorable Sacrament. She had consented to see the hour of her reward delayed that she might remain an adorer on earth commissioned to guard, to serve the Eucharist, happy to die at the foot of the divine tabernacle.

II.

In her adoration in the Cenacle, Mary daily renewed her thanksgiving: "How good Thou art, O my Savior!" she exclaimed,—"how good Thou art, my Lord and my Son! How couldst Thou love man to such a degree as to give him more than he can acknowledge, to invent what his heart can never understand! For love of him Thou dost exhaust Thy power and the treasures of Thy Heart!"

Then Mary gave thanks to each of the powers of Jesus soul, to each of the Savior’s members, which had co-operated in the institution of the Eucharist, offer ing to them the flames of love that consumed her heart.

O with what satisfaction, with what happiness Jesus received this first homage of His Blessed Mother, the first rendered to His Sacrament! O how His Heart rejoiced at having left for Mary’s consolation His Sacramental Presence! For Mary alone, Jesus would have instituted the Eucharist. Let us not be astonished at this. Mary’s adoration and thanksgiving were of more value, in the eyes of Jesus, than the united homage of all the saints.

Mary’s thanksgiving was, besides, most agreeable to Jesus, because recognition of benefits received and gratitude for them please Him above all else. That is all that He looks for from us. To adore by thanksgiving, is to adore well. It is to recognize the first of His attributes, that, above all, which He came to manifest here below, namely, His goodness. Let us tarry long at His feet.

Let us thank through Mary. A child receives, but it is his mother who thanks for him. United with the thanksgiving of Mary, ours will be perfect, and very acceptable to the Heart of Jesus.

Practice: Pray incessantly to Mary for seminarians, the altar boys of the various parishes, and for all the Faithful that they may acquit themselves with piety and reverence of their holy functions.

Aspiration: Mary, perfect handmaid of our Eucharistic Jesus, we bless thee!

The Twentieth Day of May

2009-05-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Adoration of Faith and Respect.

How much might be said of Mary’s life of adoration in the Cenacle! Twenty-four years passed in that holy place in which Jesus instituted the Eucharist, in which He erected His first tabernacle! Mary was wholly employed in adoring and honoring Him in His Eucharistic life. She passed the greater part of her days and nights at the foot of that divine tabernacle, for there was her Jesus, her Son and her God.

When she left her poor little cell, to go to the oratory of the Cenacle, she began her adoration. She walked with an air of recollection, her eyes downcast, her step grave and modest, preparing herself in this way to appear before the God of the Eucharist.

When before the tabernacle, she prostrated with great devotion and profound respect. Then she composed her senses in simple and pious recollection, her person erect, her hands joined or crossed on her breast, or, better still, if alone, suppliantly raised toward the tabernacle upon which her eyes were generally turned.

II.

Mary adored with most submissive faith. She adored her hidden Son, veiled under a strange form, her love penetrating the cloud even to the sacred Feet of Jesus, which she venerated with the most tender respect, and to His holy and venerable Hands, which had consecrated and borne the Bread of Life. She blessed the sacred Mouth, which had pronounced the adorable words: "This is My Body! This is My Blood!" She adored the Heart all on fire with love, whence had issued the Holy Eucharist. Mary would have wished to lose herself, to annihilate herself before the Divine Majesty annihilated in the Sacrament, thus to render Him all the honor and homage due Him.

III.

Mary’s adoration was deep, interior, profound. It was the gift of her whole self. She offered herself entirely to the loving services of the Eucharist, for love lays down no conditions, no reservations. It no longer thinks of self, no longer lives for self. It is a stranger to itself, and it lives only for the God whom it loves. All in Mary turned toward the Blessed Sacrament as toward its center and end. A current of grace and love was established between the Heart of Jesus in the Host and the heart of Mary adoring. They were two flames united into a single one. God was then perfectly adored by His creature!

IV.

Following Mary’s example, the adorer kneels with the most profound respect. Like Mary, he recollects himself, and in spirit takes his place at her side to adore. Let him come before Our Lord with that modesty, that interior and exterior recollection, which wonderfully prepare the soul for the angelic office of adoration.

Under the Eucharistic veils that hide from his eyes the Sacred Humanity, let him adore Jesus with the faith of Mary and of the Holy Church, those two Mothers that the Savior has, in His love, given him. Let him adore his God as if he both saw and heard Him, for lively faith sees, hears, and touches with more certitude than the senses themselves.

Practice: Maintain sovereign respect in presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

Aspiration: Mary, thou who didst serve the God of the Eucharist, be our divine teacher in that sweet service!

Nineteenth Day of May

2009-05-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

Life of Adoration in Union with Mary.

In attentively considering the reasons that induced Our Lord to separate from and to leave His Mother, it seems to me that He did so because He distrusted our weakness and inconstancy. Our Lord feared that men, not knowing how to find and adore Him in His Sacrament, would become discouraged and forget Him. The child, as we know, does not search long. If he does not at once find what he wants, he changes his desire, and runs after something else. This is what Our Lord feared for us. So, He left us His Mother, whose mission it should be to take us by the hand and lead us to His tabernacle. The Blessed Virgin, then, became our Mother in view of the Eucharist. It is for her to show us how to find our Bread of Life, to make us appreciate and desire it. It is her mission to form us to adoration. She gathered at Jerusalem a community of pious women; she remained in the midst of them, distributing to each one her treasure and her grace of love. Her influence extended to the disciples, to the first Faithful. Like a true mother she reared her children, training them to virtue and to the duties of their state. What Mary did then she will do again for us. She will instruct us, showing us Our Lord in the Eucharist, sharing with us her own reverence for Him, and her devotedness to His service; for all that a mother has belongs to her children, and it is for them that she stores it up. Mary is a mother. She will, then, educate us. When the child goes wrong in its work, the mother is there to put it right. If it is sick, she cares for it. She never leaves her child, for she must fulfill her mission of teacher. It is Mary who will train you. She will inspire you with her manner of adoring, she will even make your adoration in you, for she can breathe into you the spirit of true and earnest adoration. It is only the heart of a mother that can make itself perfectly understood by her child. The Blessed Virgin must say to you: "Come, adore with me." Our Lord has given us Mary to be the bond of union between Him and us. Mary gives us the first attraction to Jesus. The child goes first to its mother, by instinct; the mother leads it to its father. But it does not run of itself to the father; at first, it follows the mother. Our Lord has, then, given us Mary for Mother, that she may be for us a first center of easy attraction. Before knowing the Eucharist, we knew the name of our Mother, we already loved her. Mary attracted us to herself. She formed us to the virtues necessary for the Eucharistic life. It was meet that it should be thus, and it is evident that there will be good vocation to the Blessed Sacrament, true devotion to the Eucharist, only among those that Mary shall have formed. Yes, yes! The child is formed only in its mother’s arms and on her bosom. To be agreeable to the Heart of Our Lord, all vocations must pass through Mary’s hands.

II.

Study your past life. Had you not a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin be fore devoting yourself to the Eucharist? You sighed for her purity, her love. Without knowing the Eucharistic life of Mary, you said: "O if I had her virtues to serve Jesus!" That was the first attraction. You behaved like a little child. When it cannot take its mother by the hand, it grasps her apron or the hem of her gown. If it leaves her for an instant it thinks itself lost. The mother is the center. She is always the center. We have need to live with her, to dwell with her. The Blessed Virgin is not like the saints, who gain for us certain graces once in a while; she obtains for us all graces. We have need of her at all times. Again, it is the mother who teaches the child the word that pleases the father. She composes the little speech for the child to recite; she prepares the feast according to the father’s taste. Do you see at what I am aiming? I would say to you: Adore Our Lord in the company of the Blessed Virgin. I do not say dwell in her. No! Jesus is there before you, that you may address yourself directly to Him; but do so in union with Mary. Live with her, live in her house. Since Our Lord has given her to you as a teacher, never adore without her. Say to her: "Sweet Mother, come with me. A mother always goes with her child. With out thee I should not know what to say."

Represent to yourself Mary on her knees in the Cenacle. Behold her adoring her Son hidden in the Eucharist. O how pleasing to Him were her words! How well she knew how to touch the heart of her Son! Kneel at Mary s side. Seek not to walk alone. Do not walk before her, but keep at her side. Make the same adoration as she does, offer the same homage. "O Jesus, I do not know how to adore, but I offer Thee the words, the ecstasies of Thy Mother’s heart, which is mine, also. I do not know how to adore, but I repeat to Thee her adoration for sinners, for the conversion of the world, and for all the wants of the Church."

By so doing, you will rejoice Mary’s heart. She will show you to Jesus, saying: "Behold, my Son, how I live again in this soul, how I again adore Thee in and by him."

O yes, if anyone ought to honor, love, and serve Mary, it is he who makes profession of living for the Eucharist. He has need of Mary, in order to adore. He must make but one with her in his adoration.

Ah! let the Blessed Virgin govern your life. Let her lead you to Jesus. She desires only one thing, the glory of her Divine Son and your happiness.

Practice: As much as possible, prepare yourself for Holy Communion by assisting at Holy Mass.*

Aspiration: The Divine Sparrow of the tabernacle has found in thee His nest, O Blessed Virgin, and He lovingly dwells therein.

*To us this practice seems strange, but at the time St. Peter Julien Eymard wrote these meditations there were two practices regarding Holy Communion which differed from the present day. The first is that the faithful received Communion at most only once or twice a month. The second is that Communion was not always received at Mass, but sometimes at an earlier hour in the morning before Mass. People would often spend a number of days preparing themselves to receive the Eucharist, at times up to a week. It was partly through the Saint’s efforts that the practice of more frequent reception of Communion became the custom. It was not fully realized until the latter half of the twentieth century.—Ed.

The Eighteenth Day of May

2009-05-18T00:01:00.000-04:00

Our Lady of the Cenacle.

Let us follow our Mother to the Cenacle, and listen to the lessons that she gives us. She receives them from her Divine Son. With Him she converses day and night. She is the sweet and faithful echo of His Heart and His love. Let us love Mary tenderly, labor under her eyes, and pray by her side. Let us be to her tenderly devoted children. By so doing we shall honor Jesus who has given her to us for our Mother, that she may rear us in His love and according to her own life.

Place yourself, then, under Mary’s direction. Think her thoughts, speak her words, imitate her manners, perform her actions, tell her love, share her sufferings and all in her will speak to you of Jesus, the greatest service to Jesus, the greatest glory of God!

Honor in Mary, at the foot of the tabernacle, all the mysteries of her life. All were stations leading to the Cenacle.

Find in her life in the Cenacle the model and the consolation of your own life. True, in the Cenacle, this august Queen kneels as adoratrix and servant of the Blessed Sacrament. Kneel at your Mother’s side, adore and pray with her, and you will thus continue her Eucharistic life on earth.

When you go to Holy Communion, clothe yourself with the virtues and merits of Mary, your Mother, and you will communicate with her faith and her heart. O how happy Jesus would be to find in you the image of His sweet and holy Mother!

When you labor for the Eucharistic adoration, unite with Mary’s intention and joy when working for Jesus in the Sacrament, and you will be happy.

O how Mary will love you if you serve her Jesus well! How she will protect you if you labor only for the glory of Jesus! How she will enrich you if you live only for the love of Jesus! You will render her still more a Mother, since you enable her more perfectly to discharge her mission as Mother of the adorers of Jesus.

But be modest like her. Remember her modestly in the angel’s presence, and reflect with what modesty she served her Son in the Sacrament.

Be pure like Mary. Remember that, to guard the flower of her virginity, she would have refused even the glory of the divine maternity.

Be humble like Mary, entirely lost in her own nothingness, entirely abandoned to God s grace.

Be sweet and amiable like Mary. Mary was the expression of the sweetness of the Heart of Jesus.

Be devoted like Mary. Mary loved even to Calvary. She loved even to death. It was on Calvary that she became the Mother of love. It is there that you will become a true adorer, worthy of the Cenacle, worthy of Jesus and Mary.

Practice: Labor zealously for the adornment of the Eucharistic altars, particularly for those of poor churches.

Aspiration: The Lord, Mary, has adorned thee as the tabernacle of His choice, and Jesus in the Host has made it His delight to dwell in thee!

The Seventeenth Day of May

2009-05-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary, Our Mistress in the Cenacle.

"Disciple, behold thy Mother." When Mary heard from Jesus lips these words so consoling to us, she could have died of sorrow. Alas! the disciple instead of the Master, John instead of Jesus, the creature instead of the Son of God! But the divine Mother lovingly accepted the substitute. She covered us with Jesus blood and merits, and began to love us with a boundless love, so far as to be happy in tarrying still twenty-four years here below, in order to nourish us with her love and incomparable favors, and in spite of her intense desire to be at once united to her Son in glory.

Mary’s mission will be to superintend our Christian education. Jesus acquired all the treasures of grace. Mary will have but to draw from them, to distribute the bread that He left us, to make us follow the law that He gave us. Jesus could not remain among us in His glorified state. We should have been afraid of Him. He remains, indeed, in the Sacrament, but His love deprives Him of all exterior action, whilst keeping Him there to render Him more attractive, more accessible to all. But behold our Mother, who is His, also. She possesses the secret of His Heart and of His life. She is going to bring Jesus virtues down to our level, showing us under that amiable and easy aspect how to imitate what a Mother alone knows how to present.

O how beautiful and touching will be the words of Jesus repeated by Mary’s lips! How amiable, how easy of imitation are His virtues, so sublime in them selves, going to become when explained to us by Mary! How beautiful and lovely Jesus will be when painted by Mary! How easy will our education be under so good a Mistress!

II.

She will conceive, will form and perfect Jesus in us. She conceives Jesus in us, she gives Him to us. The Father has delivered to her His Son, that she may give Him to us. The world was unworthy to receive the Word directly from God. Mary was our Mediatrix in the Incarnation, and she continues to exercise that function. No one comes to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and embraces His holy law, no one obtains the Faith that saves, but by Mary’s prayers. Her mission, and she is faithful to it, is to give Jesus. He must be received from her hands, and in vain shall we seek Him elsewhere. Moreover, Jesus will increase in us only by Mary. All the graces of spiritual progress will come to us only through her. It was under her maternal direction that He grew at Nazareth, and He wishes us to follow the same law. We see in the Gospel, also, that all His principal favors were granted through Mary and with her. By her He sanctified St. John the Baptist; He glorified His Father, and constituted Himself our Model at Nazareth under her eyes; He strengthened at her prayer, the faith of His disciples at Cana; lastly, on the Cross, He solemnly charged her with the duty of forming us. It is, in short, by Mary that He will perfect Himself in us. The perfection of Jesus in us is properly the work of the Holy Spirit. But as the Spirit of Love willed to make His Masterpiece, the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, in union with Mary, so to establish in us the perfect image of the Savior, to transform us into other Christs, He claims Mary’s co-operation. The more of Mary he finds in a soul, the more powerfully He works therein. Ask all the holy souls in whom reigns sovereignly the love of Jesus, whence they drew it, and they will tell you that it was from Mary. Is she not the Mother of beautiful love? Has she not the secret of the Spirit of Jesus? She has it in plenitude.

It is for Mary to give us the family spirit, if we may so say. For that she takes all the qualities of Jesus, all His virtues, and passing them through her maternal heart, she renders them sweeter and easier, and thus encourages us to imitate them. By Mary’s love, we proceed even to the sanctity of Jesus. By living of Mary s holiness, we live of Jesus sanctity.

III.

How beautiful it would be to study Mary instilling into some little child the idea of Jesus, rousing some youth to generosity in the service of Jesus, preparing him for First Holy Communion, and leading him to make choice of a holy and suitable state of life! By the sentiment of her love and piety she makes an impression on his heart that even future disorder cannot efface, a habit of respect and of love for her which will last even in forgetfulness of God. Mary’s grand and winning presence accompanies us everywhere in life. Happy he who has received from her his first education! Mary will be to him a lever to raise him from evil; her name will always rouse in his heart a thrill of love.

It is, again, Mary who educates the Christian maiden. From infancy she inspires her with her own piety, her own love for Jesus. She lights in her heart a noble flame. She excites in her a divine ambition. She shows her her own immaculate lily, and, making of it a crown for her, she presses her to her motherly bosom. Kissing her with a chaste and maternal kiss, she says to her: "O my daughter, be a lily, be the spouse of my Divine Son! Give Him thy heart, and receive His virginal ring. Look at my crown, the reward of my love for virginity, and be doubly my daughter."

Thus Mary forms virgins, guards and defends them. Adducentur virgines post eam. Mary is their Queen.

This is the education that Mary gives. She makes piety sweet and easy. What she did in the first days of the Church, she still continues. Like us, the Apostles had the Eucharist. But the first education is not given by the father. An education destitute of maternal tenderness, always shows the want. Sanctity fashioned by Jesus alone, is more austere. That which Jesus and Mary form together is more winning, witness St. John and St. Paul. Let Mary lead us to Jesus, let her make us know and love Him as she knows and loves Him. In that consist sanctity and happiness.

Practice: Pray to Mary that all in their last agony may receive Holy Viaticum worthily.

Aspiration: Hail, Mary, celestial Cloud, which sheds the Eucharist over the world like a beneficent dew!

Contact Information

2009-05-16T21:55:00.002-04:00

A number of readers have asked questions in the comments. This is a wonderful way to ask questions that may be helpful to others or for people to add their insight if applicable. However some readers may have questions of a more personal nature that they would rather not ask in the comments or wish to contact me about some other matter. In order to make that easier I will soon be adding a contact service to the sidebar. Until then, please feel free to contact me at my email address which you will find by clicking on the link "view my complete profile" at the bottom of the "About Me" section of the side bar.

The Sixteenth Day of May

2009-05-16T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary, Our Mother in the Cenacle.

It is to our best interest to honor with an entirely special devotion the life of Mary in the Cenacle, altogether given up to the service and glory of the adorable Eucharist. We must try to catch something of her spirit and her love, in order to render to our Divine Savior present among us, a worship of adoration more agreeable and more perfect in union with that which His most holy Mother offered Him. To become good servants of the Eucharist, we must be docile and devout children of Mary. It was not an empty claim that Jesus from the Cross gave us over the heart of His Mother. By that testament of love, we take His place in Mary’s heart. That good Mother loves us henceforth as her true children.

Let us, then, breathe in Mary’s spirit. It is the same as that of Jesus. She inhaled it from its divine Source. She is full of His grace, in order to communicate it to us. She is the only true and perfect copy of His virtues. She labored for three and thirty years, the Divine Original before her eyes. She possesses all the secrets of the Savior’s love for men. She shares His unbounded love for us. like Mary, let us tenderly love, let us love devotedly! She loves us as Jesus loves us. She loves us as only a Mother so good and so powerful can love.

II.

Her great mission is to form Jesus in us. It is the mission that He gave her on Calvary.

Mary wished at that moment to die with Jesus at the foot of the Cross. But when the flame of the love of her virginal heart encircled His Divine Person, Our Lord seemed to say, when giving to her St. John: "By My sacrifice I become the Savior and the Father of the great human family; but these poor children still so young, must have a mother. O strong Woman, be thou their Mother! Love them as thou has loved Me, as I have loved them. It was through love for them that I became man, and that My Heavenly Father made thee My Mother. It is for them that I am giving My Blood and My life. I love them more than Myself, and I transfer to them all the claims that I have to thy maternal love. Whatever thou wilt do for them, will be done for Me. I remit into thy hands the fruit of My Redemption, the salvation of mankind, the care of My Church, the service of My Sacrament of Love. Form for Me true adorers in spirit and in truth, that they may adore Me as thou hast adored Me, that they may serve Me as thou hast served Me, that they may love Me as thou hast loved Me!"

This was Jesus last legacy, signed with His Blood, and ratified by the heart of Mary, His divine Mother.

She ascended Calvary with Jesus to die with Him. She came down from it with the disciple, her son of adoption, with the holy women, her daughters, and went to the Eucharistic Cenacle, there to begin her Christian maternity at the foot of the Divine Sacrament.

It is she who will form for Jesus in the Eucharist His court of honor, it is she who will train for Him His servants.

O do not doubt it! If you have entered into the Cenacle, if you have the happiness of knowing, loving, and serving the Most Holy Sacrament, it is to Mary that you owe it. It is she who demanded you of the Heavenly Father as a guard of love for the Eucharistic King. It is she who preserved you pure in the midst of the world, who led you by the hand to the foot of the Eucharistic throne.

O thank this good Mother! You owe to her all the graces of your life, and the greatest of all, that of loving and serving, by consecrating your entire life to Him, the King of kings on His throne of love.

Practice: Render to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament the respect, the duty, and the love of a true child.

Aspiration: It is thou, O Mary most amiable, who dost nourish thy children with the Bread of immortality.

The Fifteenth Day of May

2009-05-15T00:01:00.001-04:00

Mary after the Resurrection.

As Mary had suffered in union with her Son dying upon the Cross, so did she live of His happiness and joy after His resurrection. Mary’s life was always conformed to that of Jesus, which it faithfully reflected.

To whom was the first visit of Jesus risen? Assuredly, to His Mother. It was just that, having participated more than any one else in the sacrifice of His death, she should receive the first news, the first grace, the first joy of the resurrection. Hardly had He issued from the tomb glorious and triumphant, when He went to visit her. He had parted from her in tears, He returned to her in joy. What a moment for Mary when her risen Christ embraced her with all the respect and love that she deserved! What passed in that blissful interview? Scripture does not tell us, but we may imagine things the most delightful. What a glorious reception in Mary’s little room! Love’s contemplation alone can picture what passed therein. Without doubt, Jesus appeared to His Mother in all His risen beauty. No Apostle saw Him in such beauty as did Mary. The spiritual sight is proportioned to holiness, and so Mary penetrated even to His interior beauty, the perfection of His love, His happiness. She must have seen the glory of His Divinity at that blessed moment, since theologians declare that she was at times privileged to see God face to face. Our Lord conversed with her. He showed her His hands and feet, which had been pierced with nails, those dear hands and feet that she had kissed with so many tears on His descent from the Cross, and that were now radiant with purest light, whose wounds shot forth luminous waves, for the greater the suffering of any member, the greater its glorification. Mary must have kissed those Wounds in transports of joy, and felt the influence of the floods of grace that flowed from them. She must have seen Jesus Sacred Heart through the pierced side. He showed It to her now beating, now palpitating with life, and shooting forth flames of love. Ah! we cannot doubt that Mary pressed her lips to It in holy tenderness. And if St. John, from having laid his head upon that Divine Heart, hidden in the Sacred Side and under Our Lord’s clothing, drew from It, nevertheless, so many graces, what must it have been for Mary when she embraced It, kissed It uncovered and palpitating under her pure lips? Then it was that she comprehended still more perfectly that suffering and glory, death and life are but one and the same thing before God.

II.

But our Lord came not alone to visit Mary. He was followed by a cortege of all the saints who had arisen with Him, from the Patriarchs down to St. Joseph and the Good Thief. All came in the suite of their triumphant King to salute their Queen. Adam and Eve, to whom God had promised this daughter, this Mother of the Savior Messiah, prostrated themselves at her feet. It was to her after Our Lord that they owed their pardon. It was she who had given them their Liberator. And to all the felicitations of the saints of the Old Law, who thanked her for having given them a Savior, Mary replied, without doubt: Magnificat "My soul doth magnify the Lord, because He has regarded the humility of His servant." And St. Joseph, and St. Joachim, and St. Anne, were they not come, also, to make to this daughter, this heavenly spouse, their visit of respect and love? The sight of her must have filled them with joy, for she was the pure reflection of the splendor of Jesus.

At last, Our Lord left His Mother perfectly consoled, embalmed with His divine presence, in order to go to Magdalen and the Apostles. No doubt, He often returned to see her before His Ascension, and talked over with her all the events, the joys, and the sorrows of His mortal life.

III.

From the silence of the Evangelists on that apparition, as well as upon all the rest of Mary’s life, we may draw precious instruction. After having giving Jesus to the world, it was for Mary to hide herself. She had to remain in the shade, in order to become the model of interior souls, the patroness of the lowly and hidden life. Mary’s mission after her Son’s resurrection was only one of love and prayer. Our Lord seems to have kept for Himself alone the secret of His Mother’s life. He desired it entirely for Himself.

There is also another reason. Jesus concealed Himself in the Blessed Sacrament, He veiled Himself still more than in His mortal life. Mary had to imitate that state, share that annihilation. As Jesus deprived Himself of speech, movement, and sensible action in the Eucharist, Mary was no more to speak, no more to appear in the world. Because Jesus had become a silent prisoner, Mary devoted herself to guard Him in the secrecy of a life entirely given up to prayer. Had not Mary consecrated herself to this state, we adorers of the Eucharist could never have found in her our model. But Mary, the unknown servant and custodian of the Holy Eucharist, is our Mother, and her life is our grace.

As the light and heat of the sun in crease until it reaches its meridian, so Mary became more perfect every day. Her last years were filled with love of such breadth and extent, such depth, that we can form no idea of it.

The resurrection of her Son produced in Mary this prodigy, that it buried her, transformed her into the resuscitated life of Jesus, a life entirely interior, invisible, separated from all created things, and uninterruptedly united with God. Let us in this imitate our Mother. Let us remember that the more interior the life, the more perfect it is; that a covered fire is long-lived, but uncovered it soon burns out. There are few who wish to live the life of annihilation, because it is the final immolation of self-love. But it is the portion of souls who, like Mary, desire to love only Our Lord and to be known only to Him.

Practice: Live in union with Mary the risen life that Jesus leads in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Aspiration: Hail, Mary, vessel of pur est gold, which contains sweetness it self, our Eucharistic Jesus, the Manna of our soul!

The Fourteenth Day of May

2009-05-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

Mary’s Compassion.

Mary had neither original nor actual sin to expiate. She had not, like Jesus, been charged by God with the weight of our iniquities. How was it, then, that all her life she suffered so much; first, from the foreseen death of her Son, which was incessantly before her; and secondly, from His actual sufferings on Calvary itself?

It was because suffering is the law of love. It was Mary’s love that made her a martyr; and because she loved more than any creature, she suffered an incomparable martyrdom. It was, again, because suffering is the actual glorification of Jesus Christ in us. By suffering, we continue and finish His sacrifice. Again and above all, it is because maternity is purchased by suffering. In bringing into the world her spotless Son, Mary escaped that law; but when she was to become our Mother, to bring us forth to grace, she felt all its rigor. What did Jesus Christ not suffer in order to create us anew in Himself? And Mary, also, stood at the foot of the cross, and underwent in her heart all the torments of the Passion, in order to become our Mother by adoption.

Let us reflect upon Mary s share in the Passion of Jesus. Let us, if we can, comprehend the part she took in it.

II.

By supernatural light, Mary saw Jesus in the Garden of Olives. She shared in His prayer, His sadness, His agony, for there was so much sympathy of life and love between those two Hearts!
She afterward saw Him betrayed by Judas, abandoned by all, denied by Peter, alone before His judges, without a defender, ignominiously buffeted, treated as a fool! Ah, poor mother! How cruel that absolute abandonment must have been to her! What! is there no one, not even among his friends, who will take up His defense? Will no one dare even to recognize Him?

And when St. John recounted to her the scenes in Pilate’s judgment-hall, the iniquitous condemnation to death, her heart must have burst with grief. When she arrived at the pretorium, she heard the strokes of the scourging, she saw Jesus exposed with Barabbas and presented to the populace as the equal of that malefactor; she heard the Ecce Homo, and the ferocious cries of the impious multitude: Tolle tolle, cracifige! "Let Him be crucified! Let Him be crucified!" To snatch Him from His executioners,—ah! poor Mother!—she had only her tears!

III.

She followed Him to Calvary. She met Him upon that dolorous journey which He was moistening with His Blood. Their eyes, their heart, their sorrow united in one same sacrifice, and in one same perfect resignation.

Behold Jesus on Calvary! Mary gazed on Him as they inhumanly and cruelly despoil Him of His garments. She beheld Him extended on. the cross, and she heard the blows of the hammer that fastened to it His hands and His feet. What a spectacle for a mother! She, too, was crucified. The blows rebound, and inflict wounds on her.

She saw Him when they raised Him above the earth. She followed Him with her eyes. Hardly was the cross planted firmly in the ground, before that brave Mother, spurning all obstacles, hastened to the feet of her beloved Son. There, abyssed in an ocean of sorrow, she contemplated Him. She felt every one of His pains. Her soul was fastened to His wounds. She was stronger than death, but more crucified by her union with Jesus than by all deaths and all martyrdoms.

She listened to every word her Son uttered, and she laid it up in her memory in order to repeat it. She saw His Blood flowing, His life ebbing away. Without being able to relieve Him, she heard Jesus asking for water—O what sorrow for a Mother!—And, at last, she heard Him complaining of being abandoned even by His Heavenly Father! Her well-beloved Son yielded His last sigh, and what did Mary do? Ah! she agonized in sorrow and love. She received His sacred Body in her arms, she embraced it with the tenderness of a mother, she adored It with the faith of a Christian, she entombed It as the desolate widow her only son. And after all was over, she wept. Her life thence forth was passed in recalling the sorrows of His Passion, in order to renew her own martyrdom, and the glory that her sufferings would render to God. She often made the Dolorous Way, being the first to teach us that devotion so pious, so powerful with Jesus, and so useful to the soul, the Way of the Cross.

Practice: In union with Mary, to repair by every possible means the sacrileges committed against the Eucharist.

Aspiration: O Mother of love, grant that we may feel the immensity of thy grief at the sight of thy Jesus outraged in the Blessed Sacrament!

The Thirteenth Day of May

2009-05-13T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Life of the Holy Family.

Let us meditate upon the life of the Holy Family, the life of Mary and of Joseph in Jesus.

Jesus was the center of Mary’s and Joseph’s love. Where the body is, there shall the eagles be. Where the treasure is, there is the heart. To possess Jesus was the sole joy of those happy parents. They held neither to Bethlehem, nor to Nazareth, nor to Egypt. To possess Jesus was their all. He was the home of their heart.

After a forced absence, how quickly did St. Joseph return, with what eagerness and joy, to the house in which was the Divine Child! He lost no time far from Him, for he knew that Jesus was Divine Love incarnate.

My house, my family, my center, is the Eucharist, the tabernacle near which I dwell. Like Mary and Joseph, I ought to be happy only there.

II.

Jesus was the end of Mary’s and Joseph’s life. They lived only for Him, they labored only for Him. O how gladly did good St. Joseph labor to gain for Him and His Divine Mother their daily bread! With what satisfaction he brought home the small returns of his work! And when it had cost him a little more fatigue, how sweet that fatigue was to Him, since it was all for Jesus!

And so should Jesus in the Eucharist be the object of my life, the joy of my life, the joy and happiness of my labor. And what life more beautiful than that passed in the companionship of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament?

III.

Jesus was the constant nourishment of Mary and Joseph’s life of union and love. They were so happy in looking at Him, in listening to Him, in seeing Him working, obeying, praying, for He did all things so well.

But, above all, were they happy in regarding His interior, in studying His intentions, in discovering His sentiments, the motives of His virtues. They beheld Him incessantly seeking and choosing, by preference, occasions of poverty, obedience, and penitence. They contemplated His abasement, His self-annihilation. They admired His fidelity in referring all to the glory of His Father, wishing as man to be the object of no praise, no glory, but giving all to the Divinity.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph had but one end in their whole life, and they wished but one thing, the glory of the Heavenly Father.

Behold what I have to do! For that I must unite with Mary and Joseph. I must share their life, their family life, the interior life of which God alone holds the secret.

O how happy is the soul in contemplating the interior of the Holy Family, all that is said and done therein, the Gospel of the family of Jesus! The beautiful evenings spent in heavenly conversation and the prayers at Nazareth! Surely, Jesus explained to Mary and Joseph all that the Scriptures said of Him. He revealed to them Calvary and all the scenes of humiliation and suffering through which He was to pass. He showed them in His hands the place through which the nails were to pierce, and He did so, in order to plant in His Mother and His holy guardian the virtues of Calvary. He must have spoken to them of the Church, of the Apostles, of the Religious Orders which would consecrate them selves to His and their honor. He spoke to them of me, of my misery, and of the immense love that He bore me.

Nazareth had become a heaven of love, a paradise of the second Adam and of the new Eve, a heaven of the purest virtues, of the holiest love. What a delicious perfume ascended to the Lord from that delightful garden, in which flourished the Word Incarnate, Mary and Joseph the Just! The Heavenly Father found therein His delights; the angelic spirits looked upon it in admiration; and as for me, I desire to glean from it love for a life pious and recollected in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Practice: In union with Mary, accompany the Blessed Sacrament when borne to the sick.

Aspiration: Queen of Mercy, we be hold thee beside the King of kings, our Jesus, in the Eucharist!

The Twelfth Day of May

2009-05-12T00:01:00.000-04:00

Jesus Presented in the Temple by Mary.

Our Lord would not delay to offer Himself publicly to His Father. Forty days after His Birth, He inspired Mary to take Him to the Temple. Mary carried her Infant in her arms, about to over Him to the Father, and to buy Him back with two turtle-doves. Jesus willed to be purchased for these little creatures, which speak to us of His purity and simplicity. The joy, the bliss of the Most Blessed Virgin ended on that day. Hark to the words of the old man chosen of God: "This Child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce."

How can the Holy Trinity, how can God so good, so tender, thus discover such a mystery of sorrow to a poor young mother of only fifteen, still inebriated with joy at the birth of her Son? It is the first visit she has made since His birth, and she is told of the cruel death awaiting her beloved Child. O she understands all! From that day, Calvary is wherever Jesus is, at Nazareth, in Egypt—everywhere does she behold before her Jesus crucified. Ah! the soul that is not possessed of virtue, God allows to slumber on in a certain kind of security; but give Him a loving soul, and He is eager to crucify it for His own glory. Love lives on sorrow. Mary accepts it. Henceforth she converses with her Son but of Calvary, of His sufferings and death. She had strength to endure a Calvary that last thirty-three years. "Thine own soul a sword shall pierce." Do we comprehend the crucifixion implied in these words? From the moment that Mary heard them, she saw all the sufferings of her Son in their smallest details, she pondered them incessantly, and from that day she became the Queen of Martyrs.

II.

What must we glean from the mystery of the Presentation of Jesus by Mary? The lesson is this, that we must not give ourselves to God’s service in order to enjoy, to have consolations, to possess unalterable peace and tranquillity. Doubtless, Jesus says: "Take My yoke, for it is sweet, and My burden is light." But He has also said: "He that does not take up his cross daily and follow Me, is not worthy of Me."

What, then, shall we do? We should offer ourselves in union with Mary, our Mother, give ourselves to God, and accept the pain, the sufferings, and all the crosses that He may will to send us. At first, after giving herself to God, the soul receives consolation, the service of God is full of sensible sweetness for her. There are many souls who, disgusted with the world in which they find only deceit, return to piety, to find in it peace and consolation. They seek that alone, they desire to find only that in God’s service. They serve Him as long as the Lord bestows upon them divine favors; but when He hides Himself, and wishes to substitute stronger nourishment instead of children’s food, they become disgusted, discouraged, and scrupulous. They torture their imaginations to find out what could have drawn upon them such punishment. They fancy that their confessions have not been sincere, that they have made bad Communions. They wish to find in themselves the cause of that change; but not succeeding, they become despondent, and end by abandoning their pious exercises.

We must not, indeed, disdain God’s consolations, we must receive them with joy when He sends them; but we must not seek them alone. Such sweetness, such favors pass, while Jesus alone remains forever. There have been saints who were favored with great sweetness from God, with ecstasies and transports—but O how they suffered! God gave them those celestial favors only at long intervals. They were the recompense of their sufferings, and an encouragement to suffer still more for His love. It is by suffering that we are sanctified. It is by crosses and trials that the soul is strengthened and disengaged from self, in which blessed state it no longer seeks its satisfaction in the service of God, but in God alone.

Such is the teaching of the mystery of Mary’s Purification and of Jesus Presentation in the Temple. Let us put it in practice if we wish to be worthy of the august Victim whom we incessantly contemplate in the Blessed Sacrament, and of His Mother who so generously offered Him for us.

Practice: To offer one s self to Jesus, the Victim of love on our altars, for all that He may desire of us in union with Mary.

Aspiration: O Mary, fruitful Vine, that hast given us the Eucharistic Wine! Be thou forever blessed!

The Eleventh Day of May

2009-05-11T00:01:00.001-04:00

Mary at Bethlehem.

The mystery of Bethlehem is full of love and sweetness. Jesus there shows Himself more lovable than upon Calvary. Let us enter into the dispositions of the Most Blessed Virgin.

Let us unite with Mary in her expectation, during the hours that preceded the blessed moment of her Son’s birth. Like her let us redouble our love and fervor. Let us unite in her recollection, and from her dispositions draw this lesson, that we must serve Our Lord as He wishes us to serve Him, and not as we would ourselves. Mary knew by the Prophets all that her Son would have to suffer, and she disposed herself to serve Him as He willed, and to follow Him everywhere. Let us imitate her true love and devotedness. It would appear perfectly natural to Mary for Jesus to be born in a beautiful palace, or at least, as most children, in a certain degree of comfort. But no, He was born in a cave, in the hollow of a rock, into which, after being everywhere repulsed, Mary and Joseph were constrained to retire. St. Joseph’s sorrow must, indeed, have been great. It was upon him, the head of the family, that devolved the care of finding a shelter for his holy Spouse, and we may well imagine his pain and anxiety when, refused admittance everywhere, he was forced to lead Mary at the moment of accouchement into so poor a refuge: as for Mary, she was happy in the midst of rebuffs. She possessed Jesus in her bosom, and she knew that it was He who permitted that they should be rejected and despised, and who had led them to that stable in which He had resolved to be born.

Thus it was that God accomplishes His aid, and when he has vainly exhausted all ends. Man is disturbed, he seeks human means, God leads Him where He wills. God permits that we fruitlessly seek the help of men, in order that we may abandon ourselves to Him, and allow ourselves to be conducted like Mary and Joseph. It is in this state of abandonment that we feel most sensibly the goodness of God. He then takes care of us, and we confidently draw near to Him, like children around their Father. When success crowns our efforts, when Divine Providence has shown Himself more sensibly, our love is no longer the same, for we, perhaps, count too much on our own efforts, and not sufficiently on God. The Israelites received more favors in the desert than in the Promised Land, and God was nearer to them; and Jesus was more lovable in His crib at Bethlehem or in the poor house of Nazareth, than in His public life in the midst of all the wonders that He wrought.

II.

And when Jesus was born—O let us comprehend, if we can, the adoration, the homage, the attentions of Mary. Let us adore Jesus in her arms, or sleeping on her breast. O what a beautiful ostensorium! It was wrought with skill by the Holy Spirit. What more beautiful than Mary even exteriorly? She is the lily, the lily of the valley, pure like it, and grown in an immaculate soil. Mary is the paradise of God! Let us see what flower flourishes therein—Jesus, the Flower of Jesse! And what harvest does it produce Jesus, the Wheat of the elect! And now let us enter into Mary’s soul, and contemplate its beauty, for there is in it a beauty capable of forming our eternal happiness when we know it well. Almighty God exhausted Himself, as it were, in embellishing Mary. Behold the ostensorium of the Word Incarnate! Behold the channel by which Jesus came to us!

Ah, yes! The Eucharist began at Bethlehem, and in the arms of Mary. It was she who brought to humanity the Bread for which it was famishing, and which alone can nourish it. It was she that took care of that Bread for us. Divine Sheep, she nourished the Lamb whose life-giving Flesh we feed upon. She nourished Him with her virginal milk, she nourished Him for the sacrifice, for she already foreknew His destiny. Yes, she knew, and soon she will know still better, that her Lamb as only for immolation. She accepted God’s will and, bearing Him in her own arms, she prepares for us the Victim of Calvary and of our altars. On the day of sacrifice, she will herself conduct her Divine Lamb to Jerusalem, to deliver Him up to Divine Justice for the world s salvation. Ah, Bethlehem already foretells Calvary! Truly, Mary had heard her Son’s first word: "Father, sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not. Behold I come!" and she united in His offering and anticipated immolation.

III.

But Bethlehem has its joys, also, joys most sweet. The shepherds, those simple souls, come to adore the Infant God. Mary rejoiced at seeing their homage, and the willing offerings that they made to her Jesus.

Some days later, the Magi bring their tribute of adoration and their royal gifts, and Mary presents her Babe to their love, for they found Him in her arms.

O how often may we not share the happiness of the Magi! How happy is the loving soul when it has found Jesus with Mary, His Mother! They who know the Tabernacle in which He resides, they who receive Him into their soul, know that His conversation is full of divine sweetness, His consolation ravishing, His peace superabundant, and the familiarity of His love and His Heart ineffable.

To find Jesus in the arms of Mary, to unite one s self to the sentiments of Mary when she pressed Him to her heart—O delicious moment! Like the joy of Thabor, it passes all too quickly. It is a moment in which all else is forgotten, in which we no longer desire anything more, not even heaven, for we possess Him, we have Jesus and Mary!

Practice: Let us constantly ask Mary to give us Jesus.

Aspiration: Hail, Mary, holy mountain upon which the Eucharistic Lamb found rich pasturage!

The Tenth Day of May

2009-05-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Modesty, a Characteristic of Mary’s Life.

The hidden life of Mary possesses a characteristic that distinguishes it from that of Jesus. We do not find in Mary that humility which astonishes and confounds, that mingling of power and weakness of greatness and obedience, which we admire in the life of Jesus. The life of Mary is always equal, always simple and hidden; it is the reign of sweet and humble modesty. Modesty formed the characteristic of her piety, of her virtues, and of all her actions.

Mary was modest in her exterior. She was distinguished neither by the severity of her deportment, nor by an affected carelessness. Humble and sweet like the spirit of Jesus, all that she had in her use spoke of her lowly condition, and in no way distinguished her from the women of her rank. We, too, ought to bear the insignia of lowliness, neither to much nor too little, if we wish to resemble our Mother in her life.

II.

Mary was modest in the world. She eagerly sacrificed her privacy and the sweetness of contemplation, in order to go to her cousin Elizabeth, to felicitate her and to serve her. For three months she was her companion, her humble servant, making the happiness of that privileged household. When her Son’s glory demanded it, Mary appeared in public. She assisted at the wedding at Cana. She spoke no word in her own praise, nor did she bring forward her title of Mother of God, nor the power and glory of her Son, in order to rise in the esteem of men. Her modesty was such that she lent her self to the call of charity, and withdrew when she was no longer needed.

III.

Mary was modest in her duties. She fulfilled them with sweetness, without eagerness, always satisfied whatever might happen, always ready for a new duty. She discharged all with such equality of humor that she never gave evidence of chagrin, nor asked for any consolation. She never attracted the attention of any one, because everything about her was natural and ordinary. She is a beautiful model for him who wishes to live the life of our Eucharistic Jesus, and for an adorer consecrated to His service. His whole life is composed of little acts of little sacrifices, which God alone knows and rewards. The humility of his service constitutes all the honor, all the joy of his filial devotedness, and his only ambition is to please his Master by a constant sacrifice of self.

IV.

Mary was modest in her piety. Mary, raised to the highest degree of prayer to which any creature can attain, lived in the habitual exercise of perfect love, exalted above all the angels, and forming, by her dignity of Mother of God, an order apart in the wonders of God. She served her Lord, nevertheless, in the common and ordinary way of piety. She followed the prescriptions of the Law, she assisted at the legal feasts, she prayed with the multitude. Nothing distinguished her, not even her modesty, for she knew how to conceal it. Nothing, not even extraordinary fervor, revealed in her exterior the perfection of her piety.

Such ought to be our piety. Nothing conspicuous in its practices, simple in its means, and modest in its action, care fully shunning singularity, the subtle fruit of self-love, and everything extra ordinary as too subject to vanity and illusion.

Mary was modest in her virtues. Mary possessed them all in a supreme degree, and practiced them all in their sovereign perfection, but under a form simple and common. Her humility saw only the goodness of God, and for all the favors that she had received, she showed only humble gratitude, the gratitude of the poor, silent and undemonstrative, unnoticed by the world. Can anything good come from Nazareth? and so, no attention was paid to Mary.

Behold the great secret of perfection, to know how to find it in what is most simple, to know how to nourish it in what is most common, to know how to preserve it in the midst of indifference and forgetfulness. Virtue flaunted in public is greatly exposed, virtue praised and extolled is very near a fall. The flower that everyone admires quickly fades.

Let us love the little virtues of Nazareth, the little virtues that grow at the foot of the cross, under the shadow of Jesus and Mary. We shall not then fear the tempests that lay low the cedars, nor the thunderbolt that strikes the mountain top.

VI.

Mary was modest in her sacrifices. Mary accepted exile silently and sweetly, and without a word of remonstrance. She did not esteem herself be cause called to great sacrifices, nor did she complain or beg for a mitigation of their rigor.

She was modest whilst enduring the trouble of her holy spouse. Rather than speak to him of the great mystery operated in her, and which was revealing it self to his eyes, she endured his doubts, she abandoned the care of it to God, and calmly left herself in the hands of His providence.

Pierced with sorrow she followed her Son bearing the Cross. But she did not fill Jerusalem with her cries and lamentations. Plunged on Calvary into sorrow great as her love, Mary suffered in silence, and after having uttered a last mute farewell to her Son, she withdrew, a mother desolate, but resigned.

VII.

Lastly, Mary was modest in her glory, and this is the most beautiful triumph of Mary’s modesty.

As Mother of God, what titles she has to the homage of the universe! Yet Mary retained only the anguish and the sacrifice of her motherhood. Never was she seen when her Son was proceeding in triumph; but when there was a humiliation or a cross to be shared with Him, then was she in His suite.

If, then, we desire to be the children of this loving Mother, we must clothe ourselves with her modesty. Let us make it the ordinary subject of our meditation, for it is the heritage left us by Mary. Let her modesty be the rule of our virtues. Let her simplicity, which forgets itself to see only God, which inclines to duty rather than to pleasure, to God rather than to His consolation, to love for love, be our portion, the aim of our efforts, and the seal of our life.

Modesty is the royal virtue of an adorer, since it is the virtue, the livery of the servants of kings, and the virtue of the angels before the Divine Majesty. It is modesty that composes our demeanor in the presence of God, which makes to Him the homage of all our senses and of all our faculties. It is the etiquette of His royal service. In the service of Jesus, we must be modest like Mary.

Practice: Let us try to show forth in our life the modesty of Jesus and His holy Mother.

Aspiration: We bless thee, chaste Dove, who didst bring to us the olive branch, and didst announce to us Jesus in the Host, who will save us from the spiritual deluge!

The Ninth Day of May

2009-05-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Interior Life of Mary.

Mary adorned with all gifts, enriched with all virtues, perfect in all her graces, appeared to the world under a most ordinary exterior. There was nothing brilliant in her actions, her virtues were not striking, her life was passed in silence and obscurity, and the Gospel narrative says nothing of it. This was be cause Mary was to be the model of the life hidden in God with Jesus Christ, which we ought to honor and faithfully copy in our conduct. I wish to show that the law of holiness which God follows in our souls, is the same that He followed in Mary.

The Church sings of Mary: "ll the glory of the King s daughter is within." Such is the character of Mary s sanctity. Nothing exterior, nothing known, all to God alone and known to Him alone. And yet Mary was the holiest, the most perfect of creatures. More beloved of God than any other creature, the Blessed Virgin received from His goodness graces the richest and the best, gifts the most excellent. The Eternal Father communicated to her all the virtues of a mother; the Son, all the graces of the Redemption; the Holy Spirit, all the graces of love. But with all this Mary led only an ordinary life hidden and unknown. What must we conclude from this save that the hidden and interior life is the most perfect? And so it is without doubt. The active, outer life, although devoted to God, is less perfect. It was the same in Our Lord’s case. His life was much more hidden than exposed to the gaze of men. All the saints were formed on His model. To be a friend of God, one must be ground to powder, reduced to nothing, annihilated like Jesus and Mary.

II.

Hence I say: Do we wish to be come saints? Then we must become interior. We are obliged thereto by our vocation of adorers. Without the interior spirit, how can we pray? If before Our Lord, we know not how to pass a single instant without a book, if we have nothing to say to Him from our own heart, why do we go to make our adoration? What! can we never speak our own thoughts? Must we always borrow the thoughts and words of strangers? No, no! Let us labor to become interior.

Every one cannot be like Jesus and Mary, but every one can be according to his own grace and his own virtue. Without that we shall never receive consolation and encouragement in prayer, we should be too unhappy at the feet of Our Lord. To be an adorer, one must be interior. We must talk when kneeling before Our Lord. We must ask Him questions, and listen to His answers. We must enjoy God. We must be happy in His company, happy in His service. We need His familiarity, so sweet, so encouraging. But in order to find the Heart and the love of Jesus, we must be interior. After all, what is it to be interior? It is to love enough, to be able to converse and to live with Jesus. But Jesus does not make Himself heard by the ears, nor seen by the eyes of the body. He speaks only to the recollected soul. Jesus is wholly interior in the Blessed Sacrament. He no longer enters into the heart through the sight, as during His mortal life. He now enters the soul directly and speaks to it alone. When our soul does not expand in His presence, it is because He does not act upon it, there is some obstacle between it and Him. Ah! let us not give the lie to Our Lord. He has said that His yoke is sweet, and His burden light, but that means sweet and light for him who carries it with prayer and the interior life. Without that it would be heavy and fatiguing. When we are not interior, everything goes wrong in our life. O how I should wish to see accomplished in us that word so fully realized in the Blessed Virgin: "The kingdom of God is within you," the kingdom of love, of virtue, and of interior grace! Then we would begin to be adorers and saints. The grass of the field dies annually, because its roots do not strike deep in the soil; but the oak, the olive, and the cedar stand year after year, because their roots are sunk deep into the bottom of the earth. To last, to be strong, we must sink, we must descend to the bottom, even to self-annihilation. There we shall find Jesus. He is annihilated: exinanivit; and it was there that Mary found Him. O may that perfect Mother of the interior life make us live as she did in Jesus! May we, like her, remain always in Him and never leave Him!

Practice: To live in recollection and in union with Jesus present in us, in imitation of our Mother.

Aspiration: O Mary, true daughter of the great King, all thy glory is in thy interior, because Jesus dwells therein!

The Eighth Day of May

2009-05-08T00:01:00.003-04:00

Greatness of the Divine Maternity.

Mary, Mother of Jesus, the Son of God, Maria de qua natus est Jesus! Behold the sublime eulogium that the Gospel pronounces on Mary! The Holy Spirit praises neither her gifts nor her virtues. He limits Himself to pointing out the divine principle, the law of expediency, namely, her divine maternity. Because she was to be the Mother of God, Mary received all graces, all honors. But when we call her the Mother of God, we say all that can be said of her, we recount all her greatness.

She came to raise up the human race, to restore to mothers that crown of honor and nobility which Eve lost by her sin. Satan uncrowned our first mother. Mary reinstated her. She came as the queen, the liberatrix, prefigured by those noble women of the Old Law, Judith, Esther, Deborah. When the angel presented himself before Mary, he saluted her with sovereign respect, not daring to pronounce her name: Ave, gratia plena. Behold the difference between the angel’s language to the true mother of the living, and that of the fallen seraph to our unhappy mother Eve.

Mary conceived of God. She bore in her womb the Savior of the world, the source of love, Him who came to bring peace to men; whilst the first-born of Eve is a sinner, Cain the fratricide.

Mary was honored by shepherds and kings, by the poor and the rich. Her quality of Mother of the Messiah established her Sovereign of the whole world. The Son of God honored Mary as His true Mother, and rendered to her all the duties of a son. He gave us the example of the perfect fulfilment of this Commandment: "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother."

II.

Eve, by her transgression, lost her liberty and her power, sub potestate viri eris: "Thou shalt be," said God to her, "under the power of man." It was then that woman became subject to man, the slave of man.

Behold the strong woman, the Mother par excellence. A mother has a right over her son, be he king or be he God, and so Mary commands Jesus, and Jesus, before whom the powers of heaven tremble, obeys Mary! She alone commands Him, addresses Him in public, claims the rights of a mother over Him: Fili, quid fecisti nobis sic? Do we comprehend the power of Mary? She it is who will unbind the power of Jesus at Cana, who will, in a way publish His majority. Crown of power, such is the second privilege of Divine Maternity.

III.

It gives Mary a crown of glory, also. By her ambition Eve lost her glory. She was shamefully driven out of Paradise, and she brought forth in sorrow and ignominy.

Mary gave birth to the Savior in joy. She knew not the sorrows of maternity. Passing through her womb, Jesus left there His glory; and Mary shall be a queen, because she brought into the world Jesus the King. She shall be the Queen of the angels, the Queen of the Church. Kings will lay their empires at her feet. Nations will confide to her their safety, and wherever Jesus will have a throne, Mary will have hers, also. Mary’s altar will always be side by side with that of Jesus.

Behold the honor, the power, the glory of the Divine Maternity! Mary is honored, powerful and glorious in Jesus and by Jesus. She is His Divine Mother!

Practice: Frequently to receive the God of the Eucharist as a remedy against concupiscence, and a safeguard of purity.

Aspiration: Hail, Mary, spiritual Paradise of God, in which flourished the spot less and fragrant Lily, our Eucharistic Jesus!

The Seventh Day of May

2009-05-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

The First Adorer of the Incarnate Word.

Behold, behold my model, my Mother, Mary, the first adorer of the Incarnate Word in her womb. how perfect must this adoration of the Virgin Mother have been in itself, how pleasing to God and how rich in graces!

What ought to have been the perfection of Mary’s adoration at the first instant of the Incarnation?

An adoration of humility, of annihilation before the Sovereign Majesty of the Word, at the sight of the choice He has made of His poor handmaid, under the weight of so much goodness and love for her and for men. Such ought to be the first act, the first sentiment of our adoration after Holy Communion. Such was Elizabeth’s sentiment when receiving the Mother of God, who was bringing to her the Savior still hidden in her womb. Unde hoc mihi? Whence comes to me this happiness which I so little deserve? It is the word of the centurion, also, at whose house Jesus chose to sojourn: Lord, I am not worthy!

II.

The second of Mary’s acts of adoration should naturally be an act of joyous gratitude for God s ineffable and infinite goodness to men, an act of humble gratitude for His having chosen this unworthy, but thrice happy, handmaid for the reception of so signal a grace. Her gratitude breathed forth in acts of love, of praise, of thanksgiving. She exalts the Divine Goodness. Gratitude is an out pouring of the soul in the person benefitted, a great and loving expansion of the soul. Gratitude is the heart s love.

III.

The third act of the Blessed Virgin’s adoration had to be one of devoted- ness, the offering of self, the gift of self and of her whole life to the service of God: Ecce ancilla Domini; also an act of regret for being so little, for having so little, of being so incapable of serving Him worthily.

She offered herself to serve Him in whatever way He willed, by all the sacrifices that He might be pleased to exact of her, too happy to be able to please Him at any price, thus to respond to His love for men in His Incarnation.

IV.

The last act of Mary’s adoration was, doubtless, an act of compassion for poor sinners, for whose salvation the Word became incarnate. She knew how to excite His infinite mercy in their favor. She offered herself to repair for them, to do penance for them, in order to obtain their pardon and return to God. She begged for them the happiness of knowing their Creator and their Savior, of loving and serving Him, thus rendering to the Most Holy Trinity the honor and glory due from every creature, but above all from man, the tender object of the love and mercy of a God so great and so good. that I could adore Our Lord as that good Mother adored Him, for I possess Him as she did, in Holy Communion!

O my God, hearken to the great, the important petition that I now make Thee! Give me the Most Blessed Virgin Adoratrix as my true mother. Let me share in her grace, in that state of uninterrupted adoration in which she was during the whole time that she bore Thee in her pure womb, that paradise of virtue and of love.

I feel, my God, that would be one of the greatest graces of my life. I desire henceforth to adore in union with that Mother of adorers, the Queen of the Cenacle.

Practice: Make faithfully, and in union with Mary, your thanksgiving after Holy Communion.

Aspiration: Mary, I have received thy well-beloved Son, and I shall never let Him go!

The Sixth Day of May

2009-05-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Annunciation.

Reflecting on the circumstances of the mystery of the Annunciation, we discover in Mary the most sublime qualities. What glory for her to have been called to take part in the work of the Incarnation of the Word, the grandest of the divine works! And what virtues her example teaches us!

An archangel is deputed by God, an archangel of the divine power comes on the part of God to treat with a creature. It is the most important mission ever fulfilled by a heavenly messenger. The angel descends from heaven full of glory, beautiful as a star, flooded with rays of the Divinity.

To whom does he go? Ah! had the world known of the celestial messenger’s coming to earth, it would have sought among the rich and the powerful for the happy mortal to whom he bore the grand message, because the world willingly believes that perfection is found in greatness. But the angel goes to a virgin of fifteen, humble and unknown, legally espoused to a poor artisan, dwelling in a poor home, in a town despised and ignored. He goes to Mary! What! so much preparation for this unknown maiden! Yes. Worldly prestige soon comes to naught and human pride is confounded. We see only what shines, we value only gold and diamonds. Ah! at the General Judgment they will be trodden under foot like vile stones, and hell will be paved with them.

The angel goes to a virgin. God admits only pure souls to intimacy. He pardons the sinner, but He unites Him self only to purity.

The angel is the first to salute. He is, indeed, the less worthy of the two. Mary is sovereign here, and since the Three Divine Persons are awaiting an answer, she holds in her hands the fate of the world. Ah, how powerful is that lowly maiden!

Hail, full of grace!—Among all the daughters of Eve, Mary alone is full of grace. We are full of the miseries of original sin. Mary is pure as the sun. God formed her of special earth, and fashioned her with singular care.

The Lord is with thee.—Yes, for He dwells in the purity of thy heart, Mary, as in a paradise of delights, and thy virtues are so many flowers that send up to Him the sweetest perfume. At what hour did the angel appear? The Gospel does not say. Commentators think that it was about midnight, at the moment that one day ends and another begins, for Mary is the aurora which separates darkness from light. She was at that moment in prayer. She was sighing for the coming of the Messiah. We may suppose this without fear of being deceived, for God ordinarily gives to souls a prayer conformable to the grace that He designs to bestow upon them, and which prepares them for it. Let us at that solemn hour of the conception, and later at the birth of the Son of God, made flesh, pray with Mary, and in union with her adore the God who be came incarnate for us.

II.

Mary was troubled.—It is characteristic of virgins, says St. Ambrose, to be troubled at the approach of a man, and to fear his words. Mary was troubled, also, at the praise addressed to her, although she well deserved it. But true virtue never recognizes itself.

The angel reassures Mary. It is characteristic of divine visions first to trouble, and then to give peace, whereas those from the evil one begin in peace and end in war.

"Thou shalt conceive a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus."—Heavenly Name! Divine Name, that no man could give, that had to be brought from heaven by an angel! This Son will be powerful. He shall be called the Angel of the Great Council, the Mighty One, the Admirable. The Blessed Virgin had so great a love for virginity, which she had vowed to God, that at first she did not consent. "How shall this be done?" she asked. "I am, and I wish to remain a virgin." What a moment! Mary holds heaven and earth in suspense. God is waiting the consent of this lowly maiden! He cannot proceed! At that instant, Mary was more powerful than God. How could the Lord endure that species of inferiority before Mary? Ah! it was because He preferred the virginity of His Mother to every other consideration!

The angel yielded to Mary in the name of God. Mary triumphs, and hears these words: "The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; in becoming a mother, thou shalt remain a virgin."

III.

Mary replied: "Ecce ancilla Domini, Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Be it done unto me according to thy word!" word full of deep significance! O admirable word full of humility! But how much is contained in the word: "Ecce!" When the Church presents to us the Sacred Host, before Communion, she says: Ecce Agnus Dei! When St. John wished to point out Our Lord to his disciples, he exclaimed: Ecce! In that word is contained the gift of one’s whole self. Behold me ready, entirely at the disposition of the Lord. There is in it a perfect act of faith.

Mary did not say: Behold the Mother of the Lord! although she was actually His mother at that moment. The saints are so much the humbler as God has elevated them higher. With reason, St. Bernard could say of Mary: "Virginitate placuit humilitate concepit: She pleased the Lord by her virginity; she conceived Him by her humility."

Let us notice how sparing Mary was of her words. She said what was strictly necessary, and nothing more. Silence and modesty are the safeguards of purity.

The Holy Spirit wrought in Mary His divine work. The consent of that lowly maiden changed the face of the earth. God entered again into His domain. He began again that converse with man much more perfect and much more lasting than in the earthly paradise.

This mystery of the Annunciation ennobles us. It brings God back to earth. It is at the same time a mystery entirely interior, a mystery of communion. In Communion, the Eucharistic Jesus becomes, in a manner, incarnate in us, and Communion is one of the ends of His Incarnation. By communicating worthily, we enter into the divine plan, we perfect it. The Incarnation prepared the way for and heralded Transubstantiation. Mary did not receive the Word for herself alone. She rejoiced that we participate in her happiness. Let us, then, unite with her when we receive Jesus Christ. Let us sing her Magnificat. The Lord, in this mystery, has done great things in her; and by coming to us, He has again done great things. Let us try to imitate her virtues, in order that Jesus Christ may find in us, as in His holy Mother, a dwelling worthy of Him.

Practice: To prohibit one’s self every word, every species of noise, every distraction, when in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

Aspiration: The fruit of my womb, Jesus in the Sacred Host, is more precious than all the gold and silver in the world. Et fructus meus pretiosior auro et argento (Eccles.).