Sacred Heart Litany Meditations

LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
scroll down for the selection of meditations on the litany

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

Heart of Jesus, Son of the eternal Father, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mother’s womb, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Word of God, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, of infinite Majesty, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, holy Temple of God, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of Heaven, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, vessel of justice and love, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, wherein are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, wherein dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, in Whom the Father is well pleased, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, of Whose fullness we have all received, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, rich unto all who call upon Thee, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, fount of life and holiness, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our offenses, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, overwhelmed with reproaches, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, bruised for our iniquities, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, obedient even unto death, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who hope in Thee, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, delight of all the Saints, Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us.

V. Jesus, meek and humble of Heart,
R. Make our hearts like unto Thine.

Let us pray
Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well beloved Son and upon the praise and satisfaction which He offers unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, of Thy great goodness, grant them pardon when they seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee for ever and ever. R. Amen.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 1 : Heart of Jesus, Abyss of All Virtues

We think of an abyss as an immeasurable depth. We use the word frequently in a figurative sense, of good as well as of evil. Thus we speak of an abyss of love, of goodness, but also of an abyss of malice, of vice. The goodness or malice in either case is so great that we cannot fathom it. In calling the Sacred Heart of Jesus an abyss of all virtues we wish to say that He possesses all virtues in such perfection that we cannot grasp their grandeur nor sound their depth. There is no virtue, no matter how difficult to practice and how rare among men, that is not found in Him, none that is not present in Him in all its possible perfection, without flaw or deficiency.

Christian Perfection
Christian perfection calls for the presence of all virtues. However, it is possible that the one or other virtue may be weak and deficient, or that, because of such deficiency, virtue coexists with faults and even sin. A man may be pious but at the same time proud and domineering, charitable but also impatient and intolerant, temperate but still narrow and greedy, just while he is harsh and unforgiving. Even among the Saints, we find heroic sanctity along with human faults and shortcomings. Virtues may also be present in various degrees of perfection. Frequently Saints distinguish themselves in the practice of one particular virtue. Thus, St. Paul was distinguished by indomitable zeal in his missionary labors, St. Francis of Assisi by love of poverty, St. Francis de Sales by meekness, St. Aloysius by contempt of the world, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus by childlike simplicity. But all Saints could have been more perfect even in the virtue in which they excelled, and one Saint may be more perfect than another. Our blessed Mother certainly possessed all virtues in a higher degree than all Saints put together.

Perfection of Christ
In Jesus we behold a wonderful harmonious blending of all virtues. His virtues are without flaw or deficiency, in a degree of perfection that cannot be increased, because in Him virtue shares in the unfathomable depth and infinity of the Godhead. In Him there is love without selfishness, obedience without servility, patience without weakness, firmness without pride, courage without recklessness, authority without haughtiness.

Absorbed in the presence of God Whom He beholds face to face, He is yet most active in behalf of men, whether it be in the carpenter shop at Nazareth doing manual work, or following the highways and byways of Palestine in quest of the lost sheep, preaching to the multitudes, healing their sick, driving out devils, consoling the sorrowing. Obedient unto death and respecting authority, He is fearless in denouncing vice. Though full of kindness and mercy toward the sinner, He is unyielding toward sin. Having healed the man who had been sick for 38 years He dismisses him with the warning, “Behold, thou art cured; sin no more, lest something worse befall thee” (John 5:14).

Harmony of love and firmness shines forth in the relation of Jesus to His Apostles. He had chosen them to be the pillars of His Church and He loved them. Yet even in their regard He insists upon His unchangeable rights as God-Man. It was at the Last Supper, when Jesus had instituted the blessed Eucharist and celebrated the first holy Mass, had made the Apostles the first priests and bishops of the New Testament and had given Himself to them in Holy Communion, that He addressed to them the awe-inspiring words, “You are My friends, if you do the things I command you. . . . You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:15 f.). Notwithstanding their election and the privileges bestowed upon them, His friendship with them comes to an end the moment they refuse to do what He commands. This is the most perfect harmony of virtues, governed by the unchanging principles of justice and love.

Jesus and the Saints
Thus above all the Saints, Mary the Queen of all Angels and Saints not excepted, stands Jesus in the unapproachable majesty and holiness of His Sacred Heart. Compared to His holiness the virtues of all Saints disappear. Just as the beauty of the starry sky becomes invisible at the rising of the sun, so does the holiness of the Saints disappear in the presence of the Divine Sun of justice. And just as the light of the moon is but the reflection of the light of the sun, so are the virtues of the Saints nothing but a faint reflection of the virtues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Whatever virtue and holiness is found in them has its origin in but is infinitely surpassed by the holiness of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the abyss of all virtues.

Called to Imitation
Although the perfection of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is beyond our reach, Jesus calls upon us to imitate His example: “I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you also should do” (John 13:15). Not equality but similarity is possible. In particular Jesus calls our attention to two of His virtues: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Humility is the foundation of Christian perfection. The humble man is conscious of his nothingness and his need of God’s mercy; therefore he submits to God’s holy will and prays for and relies upon the grace of God. The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds and God will exalt him. Therefore St. Augustine lays down as a principle for the Christian who strives after perfection, first of all to lay the foundation of humility.

Out of humility grows meekness. Meekness controls our temper, prevents the outbursts of anger and impatience, enables us to bear with the faults and failings of others, even to suffer their injustices without resentment or revenge. For the preservation of peace among men there is probably no other virtue of greater importance. Meekness fosters charity and charity is the fulfillment of the whole law. In an atmosphere of peace and charity all other virtues will flourish and bring forth the most beautiful fruits of holiness.

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine!

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 2 : Heart of Jesus, Most Worthy of All Praise

We praise a beautiful piece of art, a noble deed, a good intention, the excellence of a man’s character. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is most worthy of all praise, because every excellence of nature and grace, of character and work is found in Him. In connection with the above invocation we wish to consider the Divinity of Jesus and His work as the basis of the praise due to Him; these reflections will in their turn suggest the practical form in which such praise should be rendered.

The Heart of God
Jesus is the Son of the eternal Father and substantially united with the Word of God, equal to the Father in perfection and glory. The words of the Psalmist therefore apply also to Him, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and of His greatness there is no end” (Psalm 47:2).

Jesus is eternal; before Abraham was made He is. He is the Word of God that was in the beginning, and all things that were made were made by Him. It is He, therefore, through Whom all things were made according to number, measure, and weight. He is infinitely wise and together with the Father and the Holy Spirit governs the world with such providence that not even a sparrow falls from the roof without His will. Jesus is the Holy One seen by Daniel in prophetic vision and as the Holy One He is announced to the Blessed Virgin by the Archangel Gabriel. Not even His most bitter enemies can accuse Him of sin, because He always does the things pleasing to the Father.

If the Saints are deserving of praise because of their heavenly wisdom and holiness of life, then the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy One and abyss of all virtues, is most worthy of all praise. “Thine, O Lord, is magnificence and power and glory and victory and to Thee is praise; for all that is in Heaven and on Earth is Thine . . . in Thy hands are greatness and the empire of all things” (1 Paralipomenon 29:11-13).

The Heart of the Savior
When Jesus made His solemn entry into Jerusalem, crowds of people gathered around Him, broke branches from the trees and scattered them on the road, spread their garments before Him, and rent the air with their shouts of joy and jubilation: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew21:9).

We hear the same words in every holy Mass as the Church prepares for His coming upon the altar for the unbloody offering of the sacrifice of our salvation. Blessed, indeed, is Jesus by the Father and the Holy Spirit, for never was a work undertaken that brought greater glory to God than the saving mission of the Redeemer of the world. Blessed is He by the Saints in Heaven, for all their holiness is due to Him, to His grace and the inspiration of His life. Blessed is He by the just on Earth, for He is their strength and their hope of salvation. Blessed is He, because He is our Savior. He has saved us from the slavery of Satan.

He has brought good news to the poor; He has proclaimed release to the captives and sight to the blind, set at liberty the oppressed, enriched us with heavenly blessings and made us heirs of Heaven. He has announced the day of recompense when we shall hear the appraisal of our work from the lips of our Divine Judge, “Well done, good and faithful servant . . . enter into the joy of thy Master” (Matthew 25:21). Is not the Savior’s Sacred Heart deserving of all our praise? And how shall we praise Him?

Prayer and Imitation
For all too many people prayer means only petition for material blessings. The greatness and glory of the God-Man and His right to praise and thanksgiving escape their attention; at least it finds no place in their private devotion. Let us lift up our minds and hearts to contemplate the majesty of the God-Man, the ardor and unselfishness of His love, and we shall spontaneously break into prayer of praise, “We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we give Thee thanks.” What we praise we shall seek to acquire if it is within our reach, and imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is within our power. In fact, Jesus calls for it. We are to learn from Him as He is meek and humble of heart; we are to do as He has done. The Apostle assures us, “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). The imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is practical praise and exceeds in excellence any praise of words.

Zeal for Souls
The praise of the Sacred Heart by imitation also will prompt us to join Him in His work of saving souls in order that He may be glorified the more. Jesus wants to save men through men; He wants our co-operation. The desire of His Sacred Heart for our co-operation is expressed in His words, “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2). Before His eyes stood those millions of souls ripe for the grace of salvation and waiting for someone to bring to them the message of the Gospel. The same desire prompts the last command He gives to the Apostles before He ascended into Heaven, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20).

A vast field of action is open for fulfilling our desire to praise the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We can pray for the extension of Christ’s kingdom on Earth, implore by acts of faith, hope, charity, patience in suffering, and mortification the grace of faith and conversion for pagans and sinners; we can support the mission work of the Church in a material way; we can foster priestly, religious, and missionary vocations. We shall then consider ourselves privileged to have a member of the family in the army of Christ’s Apostles and gratefully accept the call to such work, should God extend it to us personally.

To give praise to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the glorious task assigned to us as members of His Church. Let us dedicate ourselves to it with renewed fervor and love, so that soon the one cry, “Praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to It be honor and glory forever,” may resound throughout the Earth.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 3 : Heart of Jesus, King and Center of All Hearts

In the jubilee year of 1925 Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical on Christ the King and established the feast. “That Christ should be styled king in the figurative meaning of the word has long been of common usage,” he wrote, “on account of the exalted excellence by which He eminently surpasses all created things. Thus it happens that He is said to reign in the minds of men, not so much because of mental power or great extent of knowledge as because He is the very truth, and mortal man must necessarily derive and obediently accept from Him the truth. He reigns likewise in the wills of men, because in Him there is an altogether perfect integrity and compliance of the human will with the holiness of the Divine will, and He so subjects our free will by His Own influence and impulse as to make us aspire to all that is most noble. Christ, finally, is acknowledged as King of hearts on account of His charity, surpassing all knowledge, and a meekness and benignity attracting souls.”

These words of the encyclical give us a brief commentary on the present invocation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as King and Center of all hearts.

Prophecies
The Old as well as the New Testament speaks of Christ as King in the most exalted and comprehensive meaning of the term. He is the Ruler that will come out of Jacob and is constituted by the Father King over His holy Mount of Sion, Who will receive the nations as His inheritance and the ends of the Earth for His possession. He is the Prince of peace and government is laid upon His shoulders. His empire shall be multiplied and there shall be no end of peace.

The first announcement of Him in the New Testament dwells on the greatness of His kingship. Gabriel, the Archangel, informs the Blessed Virgin, chosen to be the Mother of the Messias, that, “The Lord God will give Him the throne of David His father, and He shall be King over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Lk. 1: 32 f.).

Before Pilate Jesus speaks of Himself as King only once. It is the morning of the first Good Friday. Jesus stands before Pilate. Jesus, weak and exhausted from what He has suffered during the terrible night, manacled, with the smirch of spittle on His face, stands before Pilate, the King of kings before the representative of the Roman emperor, the Creator before the creature, the Holiest of the holy before a cowardly judge. It is under such circumstances that Pilate asks the question, “Art thou the king of the Jews?” A solemn question, and Jesus gives a solemn answer, “My kingdom is not of this world. . . . My kingdom is not from hence.”

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Thou art then a king?” Jesus answered, “Thou sayest it; I am a King. This is why I was born and why I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth . . .” (Jn. 18: 33 ff.). The kingdom of Christ is a spiritual kingdom; He rules over the minds and hearts of men as supreme teacher, lawgiver, and judge.

The King
Jesus is King of truth. We have a summary of His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the sorrowful, they that hunger and thirst after justice, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice. We could not imagine a sharper contrast between the principles enunciated by Jesus and those of the world. But they are true and Jesus has come to give testimony to the truth.

Jesus’ kingdom is the kingdom of holiness. The idea of Christ’s kingdom is not external appearance, not lip service, but the perfection of a sincere heart. Men are to be perfect as their Father in Heaven is perfect. God sees their innermost thoughts and intentions and these are decisive for the goodness of the external act. God must be loved with the whole heart, the whole mind, the whole soul, and all our strength. His followers must always bear in mind that the way of salvation is the close way with the narrow gate. The broad way to which the world invites leads to ruin, temporal and eternal.

Jesus is Judge. The Father has given all judgment to the Son. In the full consciousness of His Divine kingship Jesus describes His coming for judgment. He will come in the clouds of Heaven with great power and majesty. All nations shall be gathered before Him and He will pronounce the sentence of eternal salvation or damnation. And then His heavenly kingdom in all its glory will begin.

Center of All Hearts
The heart of man has been made for God and only in and through the Heart of Jesus can men find Him. The goodness of God has appeared in visible form in Jesus. During His earthly life the charm of His love attracted the people with irresistible force, so that they followed Him wherever He went. He went about doing good. In the same manner He continues to attract souls and to do good in the Blessed Eucharist, the memorial of His love.

From every tabernacle, from every consecrated Host issues the invitation to all who labor and are heavily burdened to come to Him. He will refresh them and with Him they will find rest for their souls. But love kindles love, and so we behold the wonderful spectacle of millions of men and women loving Jesus as they love no other man, ready to shed for Him the last drop of their blood.

No man was ever loved as Jesus is loved. The great heroes of nations may be loved by their countrymen during life, they may be honorably mentioned in books of history, monuments may have been built in their honor, but who of them could be said to be loved centuries after his death? To be loved a man must be present, must live. Jesus lives. He lives in the Eucharist, He lives in the Church, He lives in the hearts of men. And it is living, personal love that speaks when the faithful consecrate themselves again and again to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, “Thine we are and Thine we wish to be.”

The more men love Jesus, the closer they approach His Sacred Heart as the center of their love, the more they will love one another; they come closer to one another just as lines drawn from the periphery of a circle come closer to one another the closer they approach the center. Therefore the hope of mankind lies in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let men gather around the Heart of their King and the love and peace of His kingdom will descend upon this troubled world.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 4 : Heart of Jesus In Whom Are All the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge

Wisdom is the ability to choose the best means for the attainment of a given end. The most important and all-decisive end of life is God, the blessed vision of Whom is eternal beatitude. Therefore the highest type of wisdom is to make all earthly things serve for the attainment of this end. Knowledge is the possession of truth. The most important truth for us to know is that we are on earth to know, love, and serve God and thus to save our souls. Hence the author of the Imitation of Christ can say, “This is the highest wisdom: through contempt of the world to strive after the kingdom of Heaven” (Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 1). Such wisdom and knowledge are treasures of inestimable value and they are found in all their fullness and perfection in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him; the Spirit of wisdom; . . . the Spirit of knowledge and godliness” (Isaias 11:2).

Wisdom at Work
Wisdom seeks God in all things and rejoices in doing the things that please Him. The very first act of Jesus’ soul was an act of wisdom, an expression of His readiness to do His Father’s will: “Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not, but a body Thou hast fitted to Me. . . . Behold, I come . . . to do Thy will: O God” (Hebrews 10:5 ff.). When He was born at Bethlehem Angels announced the program of His life: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among men of good will” (Luke 2:14). As a boy of twelve He remained in the Temple, even without the knowledge of Mary and Joseph, because He must be about His Father’s business.

When in holy indignation He drove out of the Temple buyers and sellers, the Apostles remembered that it had been written of Him, “The zeal for Thy house has eaten Me up” (John 2:17). Jesus assured His hearers that in His teaching as well as in His miracles He did not seek His Own glory but the glory of the Father. In His high priestly prayer He summed up His life’s work by saying that He had glorified the Father.

To glorify the Father He became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross. And as the priest and victim of the Eucharistic sacrifice He will glorify the Father to the end of the world. The clean oblation is offered from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, and the name of God is great among the Gentiles. There could be no more perfect subordination of a whole life to one leading idea than what we behold in the life of Jesus. Everything from the beginning to the end is subordinated to the glory of the Father, and that is wisdom. All the treasures of wisdom are found in His Sacred Heart.

Knowledge Assisting Wisdom
True knowledge makes us see in all created things means to glorify God and to save our souls. Thus knowledge stands in the service of wisdom. The value of created things lies in the help which they offer toward the attainment of this end; for the rest they are worthless. They may even become a danger and obstacle to salvation. Such true knowledge fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Nature Speaks of God
For Jesus all the things of nature are souvenirs of His Father. He sees the lilies of the fields clothed by the Father more beautifully than Solomon arrayed in all his glory. The birds of the air are fed by the Father and not one of them falls to the ground without His will. It is the Father Who lets the sun shine upon the good and the evil and gives rain to all in due season. If God thus takes care of irrational creatures, how much more will He take care of men who are His children. Let them cast all their cares upon their Father in Heaven. One thing only they must attend to and that is to seek God and His justice and all things needful for their lives shall be added unto them.

A Necessity
But to us in our fallen state, the good things of this earth can become a danger to salvation. In enjoying these things we are liable to forget the Giver and the purpose for which the things were given. A very determined attitude, therefore, is demanded by our Lord in such circumstances. Even an eye must be plucked out, a hand or a foot cut off, if they are an obstacle to salvation. For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his soul?

Example of Jesus
Jesus illustrates His teaching by His example and thus proves Himself in the possession of perfect knowledge. Though divinely rich He became poor; though all honor is due to Him He humbled Himself taking the form of a servant. Though all power is given to Him in Heaven and on earth, He becomes a helpless babe, and for the years of His hidden life He is subject to Mary and Joseph. In His public life He prefers hardships and privations to the comforts of wealth and shows no regard for the opinion of men. Having set joy before Him He chose the sorrows and disgrace of the Cross, because they served the glory of His Father more effectively. Thus Jesus exemplifies the work of knowledge. He loves and uses earthly things where they direct the mind to God and are helpful in giving honor to the Father; for the rest they are worthless to Him.

Wisdom and knowledge are of incalculable value and all their treasures are found in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We can and must make them our own through prayer and reflection on the words and the example of our Blessed Saviour. They will be for us a source of fervor, contentment, and strength in adversities. Holy Church puts a beautiful prayer for such wisdom and knowledge on our lips in the Postcommunion of the feast of the Sacred Heart: “May Thy sacred mysteries, O Lord Jesus, give us a holy fervor, so that perceiving the sweetness of Thy most loving Heart, we may learn to despise earthly things and to love those of Heaven.”

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 5 : Heart of Jesus, In Whom Dwells the Fullness of the Divinity

The divinity of Christ has been and is still denied by millions of men. The idea of a God in human form is relegated to the realm of fairy tales and poetic fiction. At the same time many of those who deny the Divinity of Christ would make Him the greatest teacher and social reformer the world has ever seen; they say His Own claim to be the Son of God is due to some mental complex for which He cannot be made responsible. It escapes their attention that one who suffers from mental aberrations cannot be a reliable leader in the field of morality or social reform. Proofs for the Divinity of Christ are contained in most of the invocations of the Litany of the Sacred Heart as we consider them. Here we wish to confine ourselves to the testimony which Christ gives of Himself and draw from it some conclusions as to the significance of Christ for the world.

Equal to the Father
Jesus claimed to have the same nature as the Father when He said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). He attributed eternity to Himself when He told the Jews that “Before Abraham came to be, I am” (John 8:58). In both cases the Jews wanted to stone Him, because they considered Him guilty of blasphemy, thus showing that they understood Him to mean exactly what He said. His power and authority are equal to that of the Father, “For whatever He does, this the Son also does in like manner. . . . As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He will . . . that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father. . . . As the Father has life in Himself, even so He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself” (John 5:19 ff.).

Forgiving Sins
When Jesus was about to heal a certain paralytic, He first said to him, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee.” At once the Jews accused Him of blasphemy, for God alone can forgive sins. Thereupon Jesus asked the question, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and take up thy pallet, and walk?” Of course, neither of these is easier, for both call for the exercise of Divine power. And so Jesus continued, “But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins . . . I say to thee, arise, take up thy pallet and go to thy house” (Mark 2:4 ff.). And immediately the health of the sick man was restored.

Profession of St. Peter
Since many of the people took Jesus for one of the great prophets, He asked the Apostles on a certain occasion Whom they thought Him to be. Then Peter, in the name of the other Apostles, made this solemn declaration, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus accepted this clear profession of His Divinity as He answered, “Blessed art thou Simon, Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father in Heaven. And I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it . . .” (Matthew 16:13 ff.).

Before the High Priest
Jesus is brought to trial before Caiphas, the high priest. Since the testimony of the witnesses does not agree, Caiphas turns to Jesus with this solemn question, “I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us whether Thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus answers with equal solemnity, “Thou hast said it,” which is the same as saying: “I am.” And enlarging on what He has said He continues, “Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Power of God and coming upon the clouds of Heaven.” The words of Jesus are unmistakable and the high priest rends his garment as he cries out, “He has blasphemed; what further need have we of witnesses? . . . What do you think?” And they answered and said, “He is liable to death” (Matthew 26:63 ff.).

The strength of Christ’s testimony lies in the fact that He wrought countless miracles during His life, that He rose from the dead, and that the Catholic Church in her victorious march through the centuries is a standing proof of the truth of Christ’s prophecy that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her.

Conclusions
If Christ is God, then His teaching is true and final. It is not theory or opinion that might be overthrown by the progress of science. But then, all views of life, all systems of philosophy contrary to the teaching of Christ, are utterly and hopelessly false.

If Christ is God, then His law is binding on all. His commandments are not mere counsels that may be accepted or rejected at pleasure. His authority is universal and every knee must bend to Him, not only the masses of the people, but also all governments and public institutions. If Christ is God, then no power on earth has the right to interfere with the work of the Church, to limit or control her in the mission given her by Him. Then the authority of the Church is supreme in all matters of faith and morals; she is the divinely established court to pronounce on the moral aspects of all human affairs and not confined to teaching a few pious practices to the faithful.

If Christ is God, then in Him alone can salvation be found. There is no other name given us by which we can be saved. No man will be forced in this life to submit to His authority; each one must make his choice for or against Him freely, but upon this choice his eternity depends.

St. Hilarion says that there is nothing more dangerous for the world than not to know and not to accept Christ. A world reduced to misery and chaos is in our days a tragic illustration of the truth of the Saint’s words. Under such circumstances the task of the faithful is clear. By a fearless profession of their faith in Christ, by their living deeds of faith, they must show the world the way back to Christ. “The more Thy Divinity is attacked, the more we will profess it, O Heart of Jesus, in Whom dwells the fullness of Divinity.”

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 6 : Heart of Jesus, In Whom the Father was Well-Pleased

To do the will of God and thus to please Him is the purpose of human life. To do so when the will of God binds under mortal sin is necessary for salvation; to do so in all things which God commands or desires is Christian perfection. Jesus, Who not only taught us the ways of salvation but also showed us the ways of perfection, always did the things most pleasing to His heavenly Father. The Father was pleased with Him and gave solemn expression to His pleasure. He will be pleased with us also if we follow in the footsteps of our Divine Savior.

The Father Pleased
While St. John was preaching penance on the banks of the Jordan our blessed Savior was among those who approached him asking for the Baptism of penance. John was overwhelmed by the humility of the request and hesitated; he yielded, however, when Jesus said that it was necessary in order to fulfill the Scriptures, that is, the will of the Father. No sooner had Jesus been Baptized than the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and a voice was heard from Heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

As the end of the public life of Jesus approached, at least three Apostles were to be especially fortified for the tests of faith that awaited them in the Passion of our Lord. Therefore Jesus took them with Him to a high mountain. All at once He was transfigured before their eyes. His face shone like the sun and His garments became white as snow; Elias and Moses appeared and spoke with Him. The Apostles were beside themselves with heavenly delight, and Peter thought of building three tabernacles, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elias, and then to dwell there forever. But whilst he was still talking a white cloud overshadowed them and a voice was heard out of the cloud, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him” (Matthew 17:1 ff.). Overawed, the Apostles fell on their faces, and when Jesus woke them up He stood before them again in the form of His lowliness. The memory of this event, however, lingered on in the Apostles and what it meant for their labors we can gather from what St. Peter wrote about it many years later. They knew that, doing the work of Christ, they were also pleasing to the Father; and even though their lives, like that of their Divine Master, should end in suffering and death, the pleasure of their heavenly Father and the glory of their own transfiguration would be their reward exceedingly great.

Jesus Pleasing the Father
Jesus is pleasing to the Father because He is His Son: “the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance” (Hebrews 1:3). In the Divine nature of Jesus the Father sees His own infinite beauty, wisdom, power, and holiness; and in His human nature He sees the most perfect reflection of His love in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the abyss of all virtues and the burning furnace of charity.

Again, the Father cannot but be pleased with Jesus when He receives the infinite glory which Jesus renders Him as the Head of the human race. Even though the least act of the Son of God carries in itself the full and adequate atonement for the sins of the world, nevertheless, in order to glorify the Father so much the more, Jesus offers Himself on the Cross as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Thus Jesus gives to the Father what men had denied Him and, even if they had never sinned, could not have given: infinite homage and glory.

Notwithstanding their sins, God loves men; they are the work of His hands, His children, and He longs to see them saved. Jesus fulfills this desire of the Father. By word and example He shows them the way to the Father and pays the price of their ransom in His Blood. Even after His Ascension He continues in the Blessed Eucharist to be their sacrifice and bread of life so as to insure their perseverance on the way of salvation. Must not the Father be pleased with Jesus when He beholds the millions of souls that are and will be with Him in Heaven, saved through the work and the Blood of His Divine Son?

Our Way of Pleasing the Father
Through grace we become the adopted children of God, and the image of the Father is impressed upon our souls. We please the Father by guarding this image and perfecting it through the imitation of Jesus. Hence the Christian, eager to please the Father, will seek the glory of the Father in all things as Jesus did; he will submit to the will of God in all conditions of life, will accept and patiently carry the crosses of life as Jesus did.

In a very special manner we shall be pleasing to the Father, if we love our fellow men because they are the children of God. Love of neighbor is dear to our Blessed Lord. He speaks of it as a new commandment, as a sign by which men would recognize His disciples, and He accepts whatever we do to the least one of our brethren for His sake as done to Him. So intimately are the love of God and the love of neighbor bound together that the one cannot be separated from the other. St. John in a very straightforward way tells us that anyone who says that he loves God, but does not love his neighbor, is a liar and the truth of God is not in him.

We can have no nobler and holier ambition in life than to be pleasing to our Father in Heaven. Whatever may be our condition and state of life, our endowments of body and soul, the successes and failures of our work, one thing always remains possible: to love God and our neighbor. Yet love is the fulfillment of the whole law, all that God expects; love makes us pleasing to the Father.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 7 : Heart of Jesus, Of Whose Fullness We Have All Received

The words of this invocation are taken from the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel. Having spoken of the majesty of the Word of God, that became man and dwelt among us, the Evangelist summarizes what he has said in these words: “And of his fullness we have all received” (John 1:16). Jesus possesses all the perfections of the Divine nature and all the gifts of grace of which human nature is capable, and through Him they are communicated to us. We will consider the three principal gifts by which we share in His fullness.

Adoption of Sons
All the fullness of the Divinity dwells in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, because He is the Son of the eternal Father. At the moment appointed from all eternity He became the Son of Mary in order to make us the children of God. St. John tells us that He gave to all who believe in Him the power of becoming the sons of God. It is through Baptism that this communication of sonship is accomplished. In Baptism we are born again of water and the Holy Spirit, and the new life which we then receive is truly Divine life.

True, we are only adopted children, but Divine adoption stands immeasurably above human adoption. Human adoption is an external relation which produces no change in the nature, life, or character of the adopted. Divine adoption produces a real internal change; we are raised to a higher order and receive an altogether new life. The same Holy Spirit that dwells in Christ now dwells in us also and gives testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God. He becomes our guide as He was the guide of Jesus; but, again, as the Apostle says: “Whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Holy Church gives thanks for this great gift of the Sacred Heart, when on the feast of Pentecost she sings in the Preface: “Who, rising above all the heavens and sitting at Thy right hand, has today poured out the promised Spirit upon the sons of adoption.”

Gifts of Grace
As children of adoption we share in all the gifts which the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The prophet Isaias spoke of the Holy Spirit as resting on Jesus with the fullness of His seven gifts. As if to ratify and fulfill this prophecy, the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus at His Baptism. We too receive the Holy Spirit with all His seven gifts in Baptism and in Confirmation, since in Christ we are the children of God.

When Jesus cried out in the Temple: “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, from within him there shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). He said this of the Holy Spirit, for until then the Holy Spirit had not been given, for Christ had not yet been glorified. In like manner we partake in all the other virtues and gifts of grace of the Sacred Heart. All the perfection and holiness of the Saints in Heaven and the just on earth is a participation in that fullness of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus is our life; He lives in us and we in Him.

Heavenly Glory
The gifts of grace bestowed upon us in this life are to prepare us for the yet greater gifts of the life to come. The blessed vision of God in Heaven with all its bliss and glory is but a participation in Christ’s vision of the Father. Faith and hope shall come to an end and we shall behold the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit face to face through what is called the light of glory. So wonderful is the splendor and transforming power of this light that it will change us into the likeness of God. “Beloved, now we are the children of God and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like to Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

On the day of resurrection the glory of the soul shall be communicated also to the body. Does not St. Paul tell us that in Christ we all have risen and that, if we die with Him, we shall also live with Him, and if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him? Our body shall rise in the glory of Christ’s glorified body; it shall be resplendent like the sun, beyond the reach of pain and suffering, independent of all material wants and needs. So the children of God shall be at home with their Father in Heaven and enjoy the fullness of the gifts of the Sacred Heart in undisturbed peace and security forever. Our heavenly glory is the object of Christ’s priestly prayer before His Passion: “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me; in order that they may behold My glory . . . and that the love with which Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:24 ff.).

Now that we have become children of God, let us walk worthy of our Christian dignity. Since we have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit out of the fullness of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us keep in touch with this Holy Spirit, that He may perfect in us the work which He has begun. And, while waiting for the final participation in the glory of the Sacred Heart, let us arouse within ourselves a great desire for Heaven, for the coming of Jesus in glory. It was this desire that put the closing words of the Apocalypse upon the lips of the beloved disciple: “Come, Lord Jesus!”

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 8 : Heart of Jesus, Desire of the Everlasting Hills

By the everlasting hills the whole of creation may be understood. It is everlasting in the sense of eternal, because it will not be destroyed but renewed and glorified at the end of time. The significance of Jesus, the God-Man, for all creation is stated by St. Paul when he writes to the Colossians: “He is the firstborn of every creature. For in Him were created all things in Heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible. . . . All things have been created through Him and unto Him, and He is before all creatures, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15 ff.).

The God-Man is the first thought in the eternal decrees of creation; in Him and through Him created beings are to find their ultimate goal and perfection. Therefore Jesus is the Desire of the eternal hills, of Heaven and earth, of Angels and men and the whole irrational creation.

The Desire of Angels
Even without the sin of Adam the Son of God would have become Man, according to the opinion of many theologians. The Incarnation of the Son of God was revealed to the Angels and the adoration of the God-Man was the test upon which their future happiness was to depend. Many of the Angels refused to adore and they were cast into the abyss. But ever since the moment of that revelation the good Angels longed for the coming of the God-Man; their desire increased when man was created and they beheld the nature which the Word of God would assume. The Incarnation would be the grandest manifestation of God’s wisdom, power, and love.

The Desire of Men
The story of the Fall of our first parents is well known. In punishment for their sin they were driven out of Paradise and Heaven was closed to them. All seemed to be lost. But God’s designs were not thwarted; His wisdom and love had prepared a more glorious restoration of what had been ruined by sin. God’s promise of a Redeemer now became the star of hope that guided men in their misery.

The sign of the Virgin Mother and her Divine Son appeared on the horizon. Hope lived on and grew stronger among the patriarchs. Jacob blessed his son Joseph and the effects of this blessing were to last until the Desire of the eternal hills would come. Prophets spoke of Him; they described His life and death, the time of His coming. The desire for the Redeemer increased from century to century, even as the curse of sin exacted a heavier toll in the growing corruption of men. Isaias gave heart-stirring expression to this desire, and his words are heard to the present day in the Advent liturgy of the Church: “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened and bud forth the Savior, and let justice spring up together” (Isaias 45:8).

Fulfillment
The Desire of the everlasting hills appeared in that silent, holy night at Bethlehem. He brought forgiveness of sin and peace within the reach of all men of good will. But the final restoration of all things has to wait until the full number of the elect has been gathered from all nations and generations. Universal peace, the one fold and one shepherd, the ultimate, decisive defeat of the powers of darkness, is still far away. Today, in tear-filled eyes and in hearts afflicted with sorrow and grief, the desire is strong for the day when “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Apocalypse 21:4 ff.). From the night of bombed-out cities, from the darkness of prisons and death chambers, we hear cries and prayers for the time when night shall be no more. In the general poverty and destruction left by wars the desire grows so much stronger for that “incorruptible inheritance, undefiled and unfading, reserved for you in Heaven” (1 Peter 1:4).

Desire of Irrational Creation
Because the whole visible creation was called into existence for the sake of man, it also shared in the curse of man’s sin. Thus ran the sentence: “Cursed is the earth in thy work . . . thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee . . .” (Genesis 1:17). The hills and mountains preceded man in creation and they witnessed the harmony and beauty of the beginning, the happiness of the first parents in Paradise; they also saw the ruin and misery which sin brought into the world. The curse of sin has overflowed upon the whole Earth. It is not the original, God-willed state of nature that we behold now. But it shall be changed when all things shall be restored in Christ at the end of time. In the words of the great Apostle: “The eager longing of creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God . . . because creation itself also shall be delivered from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. For we know that all creation groans and travails in pain until now” (Romans 8:19 ff.).

The Sacred Heart of Jesus will in due time eliminate every remnant and vestige of the curse of sin. He, the Desire of the everlasting hills, is also our Desire. May He come soon and may men find everlasting eternal rest in His heavenly kingdom, in the fulfillment of all their desires: “And He will dwell with them. And they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. . . . Behold I make all things new” (Apocalypse 21:3, 5).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 9 : Heart of Jesus, Patient and Rich in Mercy

Patience enables us to bear the manifold adversities of life with peace of mind and full submission to the will of God. Mercy is sympathy and pity stirring in the heart at the sight of misfortune and helplessness, prompting us to relieve suffering; very especially it is charity toward the guilty, the ungrateful, and undeserving on the part of the very one who has been offended and has the power to punish the guilty. There was and there can be no greater guilt and wretchedness than that of sin, and there were not nor can there be greater sufferings than those endured by Jesus. The Sacred Heart of Jesus endured the sufferings in order to save the sinner and therefore He must have been most patient and merciful. See how He practiced these virtues during His hidden and public life.

Hidden Life
Jesus spent thirty years of His short life in the obscurity of Nazareth, earning His daily bread in the sweat of His face, while He could have enjoyed all the wealth and all the honors of the world. He could have relieved the poverty of His holy parents and of His countrymen and led them to a higher standard of living. Moreover, Nazareth was a small and insignificant town that could never attract the attention of the world. Why should Jesus spend so much time in such a place after He had come to save the world? And mankind was waiting for Him. He could have associated with the intellectual and spiritual leaders of the time; the depth and soundness of His argumentation would have convinced them of the truth of His doctrines, and the charm of His personality would have made them His enthusiastic followers. He could have had the whole world at His feet. But God’s ways are not our ways. It was the will of the Father that Jesus should spend that time in obscurity, and Jesus submitted patiently and waited.

Public Life
Even more painful were the tests of patience during Jesus’ public life. His activity was confined to a small and insignificant country, to a people that showed very little understanding for the kingdom of the Messias, although their whole history had prepared them for it. On the whole, the people with whom Jesus had to deal were of a materialistic, narrow, nationalistic mentality. Of course, they delighted in listening to Him, they were amazed at the greatness of His miracles, they were impressed and charmed by the goodness of His heart, and they flocked to Him and brought along their sick to be healed.

But they did not grasp the deeper meaning of His doctrines and His miracles. They wanted to make Him king after the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, but before Pilate they rejected Him and called down His Blood upon themselves and their children. Even the Apostles, in spite of their close association with Jesus, showed an astounding lack of understanding for the ideas of their Master. On the eve of His Passion they quarreled among themselves about which of them would be the greatest, and on the way with Him to Mount Olivet on the day of His Ascension, they asked Him whether He would now establish His kingdom.

Lastly, the leading classes of the people, the high priests, priests, and scribes, were His bitter enemies. They opposed Him at every step, spied on Him, misinterpreted His words, accused Him of breaking the law, of blasphemy, of rebellion, and even of dealings with the devil. They did not rest until they saw Him on the Cross and, as they thought, His name and work ruined. Yet Jesus bore all this with endless patience, without bitterness or complaint, and continued to do good. He saw in all these disappointments and persecutions the chalice which His Father had prepared for Him.

Most Merciful
The sinner has offended God and proved himself to be most ungrateful; he has abused the gifts of God and dishonored his greatest benefactor. He, who was formed out of the dust of the earth and is nothing whatsoever of himself, has defied his Maker. God holds the sinner in His hands; He could annihilate him, thrust him into the abyss of Hell in the very moment in which he sins. Jesus is God, yet He does nothing of the kind. He has come to save, not to destroy. He lovingly calls the sinner to repentance, offers forgiveness, takes the punishment of sin upon Himself, and makes atonement for it in His Blood.

All that has been lost through sin and much more is placed within the reach of the sinner. And the price the sinner has to pay for such unheard-of goodness is nothing but a sincere change of mind, sorrow for his sins, and amendment of life, no matter how great or how numerous his sins may have been. Such was the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus while on earth, such it is now in the Sacrament of Penance, and such it will remain to the end of time, as long as there will be sinners to save. There is no limit to the mercy of the loving Heart of Jesus.

The follower of Christ must also be patient and merciful. Life is filled with many miseries; by patience we can turn them into blessings. We can be patient and merciful toward the materially and spiritually poor and miserable who surround us on every side, ungrateful and undeserving as they may often be. Our acts of patience and mercy are the keys that will open for us the treasury of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, when we stand in need of His patience and mercy.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 10 : Heart of Jesus, Rich Unto All Who Call Upon Thee

We call people rich if they possess an abundance of the wealth of this earth, money, lands, houses, factories, and the like; but we also speak of men as rich in virtue, knowledge, experience. In whatever sense we take the word, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is infinitely rich, and, what is of special interest to us, It is rich for us. While the rich of this world often guard their riches carefully, hold on to them tenaciously, and communicate them to others sparingly, Jesus is eager to distribute His riches lavishly to all who ask Him.

Infinitely Rich
Even the richest men of this world own only a very small portion of the wealth of the earth. Moreover, all their possessions are uncertain, depending upon many conditions beyond their control. Thousands of rich people have been impoverished in consequence of depressions and wars. And even the richest must leave it all behind in death. The riches of Jesus are not subject to such limitations and uncertainties. Because all things were made by Him, He is absolute and permanent owner and master of all things. His are all the gold and silver and precious stones, the coal and oil buried in the bosom of the earth. His are the grass of the meadows and the grain of the fields, the birds of the air and the fish in the water, all living beings on the face of the earth.

Besides all these material riches, Jesus has the spiritual riches of truth and grace. He knows all truth because He is the Truth; He possesses all virtue, because He is the abyss of all virtues; He possesses Divine immortal life because He is the Son of the almighty, living God. We see these riches of Jesus displayed in the doctrines of our holy faith and in the Sacraments and blessing of our holy Church. It is these riches that St. Paul has in mind when he writes: “I give thanks to my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, because in everything you have been enriched by Him” (1 Corinthians 1:4 ff.).

Invoking Jesus
Whereas the rich of this world are generally anxious to keep what they have, Jesus is most eager to let us share in His riches. The initial gift of prayer He bestows upon us even without our asking, and the amount of the gifts He offers is unlimited. “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. . . . Or what man is there among you, who, if his son asks him for a loaf will hand him a stone? Or, if he asks for a fish will hand him a serpent? Therefore, if you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11 ff.).

One thing must be borne in mind. Jesus is most eager to bestow His gifts upon us, but He will not grant our petitions when they would be harmful to our soul. A good mother will not give her child a loaded revolver or a bottle of poison, no matter how much she loves him nor how insistently the child may ask for it. Jesus is our Savior; He cannot give us things that would ruin us. But He will give something else instead, something conducive to our salvation.

Material vs. Spiritual Riches
Jesus loved poverty and called the poor in spirit blessed. With all the goodness He showed to the poor during His earthly life, we do not read of a single instance when He bestowed material wealth upon a person, not even upon His holy Mother and His foster father. He Himself wished to be poor, poor in His childhood, poor in His public life, but poorest on the Cross. Thus He impressed upon His followers the truth that material goods possess no value in themselves, that they have been created solely for the purpose of assisting us in saving our souls and that only for this purpose should they be asked for.

On the other hand, Jesus is most eager to bestow spiritual riches upon us. The very fact that He revealed His Sacred Heart to us proves His eagerness to share the gifts of His love. The wonderful promises He made to St. Margaret Mary for all those who would foster devotion to His Sacred Heart cannot but fill our souls with grateful joy and unlimited confidence. We are assured of all graces necessary for our state of life, peace in our homes, comfort in affliction, special assistance in the hour of death, forgiveness and mercy for our sins, blessing for our undertakings, spiritual fervor, our names written in His Sacred Heart forever.

Convinced of this love of the Sacred Heart, we will gladly leave it to Him to answer our petitions as He sees fit. If our prayers, especially for temporal favors, are not heard, we will know that what we asked was not for the best, and that we shall receive something better, an increase of His grace and love which brings with it an increase of heavenly glory, the essence of which is the possession of Him Who is our God and our All.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 11 : Heart of Jesus, Source of Life and Holiness

All life, natural as well as supernatural, has its source in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, because it is the Heart substantially united to the Word of God, of Whom St. John says: “All things were made through Him, and without Him has been made nothing that has been made” (John 1:3). Now we will consider only supernatural life, which is the life of sanctifying grace. This life, inasmuch as it is a participation in the Divine life, is also holiness. That is why, in early times, the faithful who had been sanctified through Baptism were called saints. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the source of all supernatural life and of every degree of holiness.

Life
In the Easter Preface, holy Church states that Jesus by His death has overcome death and by His Resurrection has restored life. The death which He has overcome is the death of sin; the life which He has restored is the life of grace and heavenly glory. At the Last Judgment the body shall rise and share in this life of the soul. The manner in which this life is communicated to us has been wonderfully illustrated by our Lord Himself in the parable of the vine and the branches. He says: “As the branch cannot bear fruit unless it remain on the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he shall be cast out as the branch and wither; and they shall gather them up and cast them into the fire and they shall burn” (John 15:4 ff.). It is the same sap that flows in the vine and in the branches, the same life that is active in both. Thus Christ, the Divine vine, with His roots in the divinity, has grafted us on Himself as branches and now sends forth His Own life and fruit-bearing power into us. But we remain living branches only as long as we remain united to Him. Separated from Him, we are dead spiritually and our lot is to be burned in the fire of Hell. It is for this reason that holy Church prays with such tender solicitude in her preparation for Holy Communion: “Deliver me through this Thy most sacred Body and Blood from all my iniquities and from all evil, make me always cleave to Thy commandments, and never suffer me to be separated from Thee.”

Holiness
Supernatural life is given to the soul in an incipient stage and now it must develop and grow. To keep alive, the human body must be active, the lungs must breathe, the heart must beat, the blood must circulate, food must be assimilated. The same holds for the supernatural life; according to the vigor and intensity of its operations, we are holy in a lesser or higher degree. Holiness consists in hating what is evil and loving what is good. What these things are in particular God has made known to us in His commandments and counsels, and we share in His holiness to the extent that we avoid what offends Him and do what is pleasing to Him. Holiness is indeed nothing else but the practical conformity of our will with the will of God. “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me” (John 14:21).

To hate evil we must know its malice, and to love the good we must be aware of its beauty and blessings, but before we can do these things the weakness of our nature must be strengthened by the power of grace. That strength comes to us through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In His Passion, Jesus demonstrated the malice of sin. His humiliations were punishment and atonement for the pride of sin. The cruel tortures inflicted upon Him were punishment and atonement for sinful pleasure. Prayerful meditation on the Passion will arouse a deep and lasting hatred of sin. On the other hand, love for what is good will be enkindled by reflection on the beauty and grandeur of His holy life as He places it before us in His teaching and example. Jesus always does the things most pleasing to the Father, and that is the highest degree of holiness. He is the holiest of the holy but He calls on us to learn of Him, to do as He has done, to love as He has loved. And even though human weakness may be great, His grace is all-powerful; strengthened by His grace, we can do all things.

At the Source
The loving Heart of the Savior offered us the help we need. “Come to me,” He said: “all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28 f.). Prayer keeps us close to Jesus; it illuminates the mind and warms the heart, lifts thoughts and desires heavenward and thus lightens the burdens of the Christian life. In holy Mass we share in the atoning power of His Passion and learn the lessons of a holy life: profound reverence for the majesty of the Father, humility, obedience, and patience. In Holy Communion our whole being is more strongly and deeply penetrated with His Divine life. “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood, abides in Me and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he shall also live because of Me” (John 6:57 f.).

Jesus has come that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Through His death He has merited it, through His words and example He has made it known to us, through incorporation into Him He conducts it into our souls and makes us live in Him and by Him. Thus all grace and holiness has its source in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. If then we are eager to possess Divine life and increase it in our souls, we know where to find it: “Abide in Me and I in you. . . . Abide in My love” (John 5:4, 10). All the Saints without exception give testimony with St. Paul that: “It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 12 : Heart of Jesus, Propitiation for Our Sins

St. John, the beloved disciple, gave us the words of the above invocation: “My children, these things I write to you that you may not sin. But if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Just; and He is a propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but for those of the whole world” (1 John 2:1 ff.). St. John returns to the same idea in the fourth chapter of the same epistle, when he speaks of the great love of God, Who has loved us first and “sent His Son, a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the propitiation for our sins because He restored to the Father the honor which men had refused to render, paid our debts, and merited for us the Father’s friendship and adoption as sons.

Honor Restored
God, our Creator, Lord, and Father, surely deserves honor, and He has made the fact known in the Ten Commandments. Observance of the commandments honors Him. Yet men refused to give God this honor, and by way of punishment God allowed them to fall into idolatry. This was a most shameful degradation of man, since it gave the honor due to the one true God to gods and goddesses of his own making. The progress of civilization, it is true, has done away with crass idolatry among the vast majority of men, but it has not brought mankind back to the worship of God. Now a subtle, disguised idolatry has stepped into the place of the ancient worship of gods; it is the idolatry of race and nationality, of wealth and power, of pleasure and unrestrained liberty. Never before in the history of the world, have we witnessed as in our days such deification of men who, according to Christian standards, are criminals and moral outlaws. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the propitiation for all this dishonor offered to God. His whole life, His teachings, His miracles, His sufferings have for their object the honor of the Father. “I have glorified Thee on earth; I have accomplished the work that Thou hast given Me to do” (John 17:4). And since Jesus is God, the honor He renders to the Father is of infinite value, making full and adequate reparation for the dishonor of sin.

Debts Paid
Stronger than any human claims upon the services of other men are the claims which God has upon our service, since all we are and possess belongs to Him. By our very nature we are the servants of God, bound to use the gifts which He has bestowed upon us according to His will. However, we have not done this. We have rendered service to the prince of this world and made ourselves his slaves; our time and God-given faculties have been squandered and the gifts of God abused. We contracted an immense debt in this way, a debt so great that we could never have paid it by ourselves. But the loving Heart of our Redeemer became our propitiation by paying this debt in our place. According to the prophet Isaias He was the great servant of God. Jesus Himself declared: “I have come down from Heaven, not to do My Own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me” (John 6: 38). And St. Paul writes of Jesus: “He emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave and being made like unto men. And appearing in the form of Man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to death on a Cross” (Philippians2:7 ff.). Jesus rendered service to make up for our failure. He served in poverty and humility, in His teaching and miracles, in His agony and death. Thus our injustices were rectified, our debts paid, and right order restored.

Friendship and Adoption
By nature we were children of wrath; through Jesus we have again become the children of God’s love. As holy Church sings in the Easter Sequence: “The Lamb has reconciled sinners to the Father.” Through the propitiation rendered by Christ we have again been made partakers in the Divine life, and endowed with the most precious Divine gifts. What was hidden from the beginning and unknown to our first parents, even in their original innocence, has been revealed to us. Through the mysteries of faith we have been introduced into the family secrets of God. And yet, wonderful as the light of faith is, compared to the darkness of paganism, it is but shadow compared to the light of glory that awaits us in Heaven.

The yearning of the human heart for God and family and home and friendship has been satisfied. God is again the beloved Father of His children, and the closer they come to Him the closer they come to one another, the more they love one another. What a difference between the cold and selfish spirit of the world and the warm and cheering spirit of love that animates the children of God. But no matter how generous and blissful this mutual love may be, as long as we are in this life human imperfections and shortcomings will enter into our mutual relations. The full fruits of our Savior’s propitiation, the perfect blossoming forth of the love of the children of God, is reserved for the life to come. Then our Savior’s prayer will come true: “And the glory that Thou hast given Me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are One. I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and that Thou hast loved them, even as Thou hast loved Me” (John 17:22 ff.).

Where sin abounded mercy has abounded more. When at last faith shall be changed into vision, hope into possession, and love has entered its final and beatific stage, then we shall sing the mercies of God forever and ever. This is full reparation of all that was wrong, restoration of all that was lost, bestowal of gifts never thought of, propitiation beyond measure, and we owe it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 13 : Heart of Jesus, Overwhelmed With Reproaches

The wisdom of God ordained that all those elements which constitute the malice of sins should have their corresponding punishment in the propitiation made by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The pride of sin is atoned by humiliation, sensual pleasure by the terrible sufferings of the Passion, disobedience by obedience unto death, the narrowness and selfishness of sin by the piercing and opening of the Savior’s Sacred Heart. These features in the atonement of sin form the object of the following invocations of the litany. The root and beginning of all sin is pride, and in atonement Jesus suffered every kind of humiliation and abuse throughout His life but especially during His Passion. It will be enough to recall the incidents; the lessons to be derived are self-apparent.

Taken Prisoner
Betrayed by a faithless Apostle, Jesus is taken prisoner and led in chains to the palace of the high priest. The modem counterpart of the event would be a man handcuffed and led by a squad of policemen to police headquarters. Even hardened criminals feel the humiliation. What must be the feeling of a man in high station, innocent of any crime, highly respected in the community, under such circumstances.

Struck in Face
Jesus stands before the high priest. As the testimony of the witnesses does not agree, the high priest, against the provisions of the law, calls upon Jesus to defend Himself or to admit His guilt. Jesus calls the attention of the high priest to the illegality of the question; guilt must be proved by the accusers. No sooner has He finished than a soldier strikes Him in the face. We shudder at the very thought of such an indignity inflicted upon the Son of the almighty God.

Mocked by Soldiers
After the caricature of a trial before the high priest, Jesus is given into the custody of the soldiers for the rest of the night. The soldiers look upon Him as a fool, a dreamer, a man with an unbalanced mind. So they play with Him as naughty boys might play with a drunken man or an idiot. They play prophet with Him, blindfolding Him and slapping Him in the face, and then calling upon Him to guess who struck Him. They renew their cruel sport the next morning after Jesus had been scourged. Now they play king with Him. They clothe Him with an old purple cloak, put a reed into His hand as a scepter, put a crown of thorns upon His head, and then march around Him, genuflecting in derision and mockingly saluting Him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” Hell is jubilant; Angels are horror-struck at the sight.

Barabbas
Pilate sees at once that Jesus is innocent; he would like to set Him free. Yet, he lacks the courage of his conviction, and, above all, he is the politician who looks to his own advantage. He thinks he has found a way out of the difficulty when he remembers Barabbas. This man is a notorious murderer and now in prison. According to Jewish custom the people may ask at Easter for the release of one prisoner. So Pilate gives them the choice between Jesus and Barabbas. Whom will they choose? The mere fact of being thus associated with a criminal and murderer is an unspeakable humiliation for Jesus, but the climax of the ignominy is that Barabbas should be preferred to Him.

Scourged
Failing to free Jesus, Pilate makes use of another expedient which, he hopes, will satisfy the Jews and save His life. He has Jesus scourged, that is, whipped publicly and in such a cruel manner that the sight of Jesus might arouse the pity of the Jews. Of course, a man thus scourged will be ruined socially for the rest of his life, and perhaps in health. After suffering this punishment Jesus would cause the Jews no further trouble. Behold, then, Jesus, most worthy of praise, “despised and the most abject of men” (Isaias 54:3).

Crucified
Finally Jesus is condemned to die on the Cross, the most painful and most disgraceful death penalty. If ever a man arouses our sympathy it is when he is in pain and agony of death. There is no such sympathy shown to Jesus dying on the Cross. Even in His death agony the Jews taunt Him with their mockeries and insults: “He has helped others, Himself He cannot help. . . . Well, well, did you not say that we could destroy the temple and You would build it up in three days? Come down from the Cross and we will believe in You. . . . He has called upon Elias; let us see whether Elias is going to save Him.” The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a human heart; He feels the cruelty of these mockeries.

Aggravating Circumstances
To appreciate more profoundly the humiliations of Jesus we must add a few considerations. Jesus is known throughout the country, admired by the people as a great prophet and miracle worker. Has He now been unmasked as a fraud and impostor? Add to this that it is Easter, and hundreds of thousands of people from all parts of the world have come to Jerusalem. They will take the report of what they have witnessed to their home countries and the first news that these countries will receive will be about a man who was crucified because of blasphemy and rebellion.

How the Heart of Jesus must have shuddered under the impact of these humiliations. Thus He atoned for the pride of sin.

In one of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary, Jesus complained about the coldness and indifference of so many souls, even of those consecrated specially to Him. Such indifference implies disregard and contempt of the love of His Sacred Heart and adds to His opprobrium. We must not become guilty of it. The best way of showing our gratitude for the humiliations Jesus endured for us is to bear humiliations patiently for His sake. There is no better way of atoning for the pride of our sins or of sharing in the atoning power of Christ’s opprobrium, no better way of escaping the opprobrium of eternal damnation. Sharing now in the humiliations of the Savior’s Heart we shall also share in His heavenly exaltation.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 14 : Heart of Jesus, Bruised For Our Iniquities

In a prophecy of the Passion of Christ we get a description of what is meant by the present invocation. “There is no beauty in Him nor comeliness; and we have seen Him, and there was no sightliness [beauty] that we should be desirous of Him . . . and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His bruises we are healed” (Isaias 53:2 ff.). The body and its faculties are abused in sin and this abuse is atoned by the bodily sufferings of our Lord. Let us look up to Him hanging on the Cross and there behold the work of sin.

The Body Lacerated
The scourging Jesus suffered was administered by a whip made of leather thongs, to which small iron hooks or pieces of lead or wood were attached. The effect of the punishment was so terrible that the victim frequently died on the spot or remained broken in health for the rest of His life. Now since Pilate ordered the scourging of Jesus to arouse the pity of the Jews and to save Him from crucifixion, it was particularly cruel. As the blows fell upon the body of Jesus, the skin began to swell and break, blood oozed out, increasing in volume until it actually streamed down to the ground. As the lashes were lifted for a new stroke they showed red, dripping with the Savior’s blood; pieces of skin and flesh adhered to them and were scattered about the place. Indescribable pain raged through His body and forced tears into His eyes and gentle moans from His lips. It is of this lacerated body that we must think when we look upon the Crucifix. Thus Jesus atoned for the abuse of the body in sinful pleasure, particularly the sins of the flesh.

The Head Crowned With Thorns
A special torture was devised for our Savior’s Sacred Head. Jesus was crowned with thorns to ridicule His royal dignity. The crown was made from a bush common in Palestine, which grows large and sharp thorns. Branches of these were plaited together and then tied around the head of Jesus in such a way that the thorns would turn inside. The procedure must have caused Him the most intense pain, and the soldiers increased it when they took the reed from His hands and struck Him on the head. With each blow the thorns pierced deeper into His skin, some even injuring the bones of His skull; blood streamed into His eyes and over His face and matted His hair into stiff, unsightly strands. He wore the crown of thorns as He carried the Cross; and the crown remained on His head as He hung there for three hours. All the while these thorns burned into His head, and the least movement racked His whole body with excruciating pain. Thus the Savior’s loving Heart atoned for pride and vainglory, for the sinful display of fashions and the abuse of physical beauty in the seduction of numberless souls.

Nails in Hands and Feet
The body of Jesus was fastened to the Cross by means of large nails. Crucifixion was considered the most painful of all punishments and modern medical science agrees with this opinion. The nailing itself must have caused unbearable pain. First the arms were tied to the transverse beam of the Cross and then the nails were driven through the hand into the holes in the wood with blows of a heavy hammer. The blood gushed forth profusely, the fingers bent and moved convulsively, and a sensation of burning spread through the whole body. The cruel procedure was repeated as the feet were nailed to the Cross. The Cross then was dragged to the place where it was to be raised and set into the ground. It went into place with a jerk that sent a quivering pain through every fiber of the body.

The agony of three hours followed. Merely to be suspended by the hands that long with ropes would be intolerable. Jesus was suspended, not with ropes, but with nails in His hands and feet. The blood still left in Him after the scourging could not circulate properly and a sensation of unbearable pressure on the heart was the result; the lungs breathed heavily, the face turned pale and blue, an intense thirst caused the mouth to open and showed the tongue parched and dry. Long ago the psalmist had foretold it all: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd, My tongue cleaves to My jaws, . . . They have dug My hands and My feet, they have numbered all My bones” (Psalm 21:16 ff.).

Thus Jesus atoned for the sinful pleasure procured by the abuse of hands and feet. The hands have been employed in deeds of violence and lust, they have tom down the temple of God and built monuments to human pride, they have amassed gold and silver to buy every pleasure the world could offer, but they have left the works of salvation undone. The feet have carried the sinner on paths of sin, but failed to walk on the narrow road that leads to Heaven. Indeed, there is not a feature or element in sin for which the Heart of Jesus has not atoned.

Saints have called the Crucifix their book. St. Philip Benizi on his deathbed asked for his book; he meant the Crucifix. Clasping it to his heart he said: “This is my book, of all books the most precious and most cherished. In this book I read throughout my life; with this book I want to die.” Jesus Himself directed St. Angela of Foligno to read in this book; from it she would learn the depth of His humility, the disgrace and bitterness of His Passion. In this book we too will learn most precious lessons. It speaks to us of the malice of sin and the greatness of our guilt; it teaches us to do penance and to love Jesus in return. In this book we find consolation in all trials, invincible strength in temptation, perseverance and life everlasting. And so: “It behooves us to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for in Him is our salvation, life, and resurrection; through Him we have been saved and delivered” (Introit, Holy Thursday).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 15 : Heart of Jesus, Obedient Unto Death

Every sin is an act of disobedience; it is the following of one’s own will in opposition to the will of God. The proper atonement for disobedience is obedience, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus has rendered it by becoming obedient unto death. “Just as by the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners, so by the obedience of the one many will be constituted just” (Romans 5:19). The whole life of Jesus is a long drawn-out act of obedience.

Life’s First Moment
It is the common teaching of theologians that the soul of Christ had the perfect use of reason from the very first moment of its existence. The soul of Christ in the very moment of its creation beheld the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Beatific Vision, and its Own exaltation through the hypostatic union with the Person of the Divine Word. It fully realized the purpose of this union, namely, to give to the world a Savior Who would be God and Man at the same time. The thoughts and sentiments of Jesus in that moment were foretold by the prophet, and St. Paul quotes the words of the psalmist in his Epistle to the Hebrews: “Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not, but Thou hast fitted a body to Me. . . . Then said I, Behold, I come . . . to do Thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:5 ff.). The first act of the Savior is an act of obedience and this obedient attitude never changes throughout His life.

Hidden From the World
Every event and circumstance in the life of Jesus was preordained by the Father, and Jesus took them precisely as manifestations of His Father’s will, which He had come to fulfill. So He welcomed His birth at Bethlehem amid circumstances which must have been extremely painful to His holy Mother and because of His Mother also to Him. Yet, He gave expression to the joy of His heart in the hymn of the Angels which announced His life’s program as He had accepted it: “Glory to God in the highest and peace on Earth among men of good will” (Luke 2:14).

Unintelligible from the human point of view is the fact that the Savior of the world, the Giver and Restorer of life, must flee to Egypt to save His Own life. But the Father had sent the message to Joseph: “Arise, and take the Child and His Mother and flee into Egypt, and remain there until I tell thee” (Matthew 2:13). Jesus asked no question; He obeyed.

Jesus spent the greater part of His life at Nazareth, a small and insignificant village. The Evangelist characterizes this period of our Savior’s life by these simple words: “And He went down with them to Nazareth and was subject to them” (Luke 2:51). A few words, but an eternity of thought and reflection will not exhaust their depth. God subject to men, the Creator to the creature, the All-wise to persons limited in their wisdom and judgment, even though they were the holiest persons on Earth. And all this for a period of time far exceeding the length of time men remain under parental authority. But Jesus had come to do His Father’s will and He obeyed.

In the Sight of the People
During the three years of His public life Jesus went about the country doing good, preaching, healing the sick, casting out devils, raising the dead to life. By His wisdom and power He astounded the people and by the charm of His manners He attracted them, so that they would flock to Him in crowds. But the spirit that animated Him in this work was the spirit of obedience to the will of the Father. He said to the Samaritan woman: “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).

Obedience made Him go after the lost sheep and associate with sinners, repulsive as sin must have been to Him, the Holy One. The Pharisees were scandalized, but Jesus told them: “I came down from Heaven, not to do My Own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me. Now this is the will of Him Who sent Me that I should lose nothing of what He has given Me, but that I should raise it up on the last day” (John 6:38 ff.). And again: “It is not the healthy who need a physician, but they who are sick. I have not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). The Father’s will is that all men should be saved.

In Suffering and Death
The most painful tests of obedience were reserved for the end of our Savior’s life. At the Last Supper, as He was about to begin His Passion, He told the Apostles why He must suffer: “That the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do as the Father has commanded Me” (John 14:31). About two hours later He bore the terrible agony. His human nature shuddered and shrank from the terrors of the Passion. Bathed in bloody perspiration He lay on His face and cried to His heavenly Father: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me; yet, not as I will but as Thou willest” (Matthew 26:39). It was the Father’s will that this cup of suffering should not pass away, but that He should drink it to its very dregs. Therefore Jesus forbade the fiery Peter to resort to violence in order to defend Him: “Put up thy sword into the scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup, that the Father has given Me?” (John 18:11.) Obedient to the will of the Father He allowed Himself to be betrayed, put in chains, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed to the Cross, and He persevered in the pain and agony of the Cross until all was consummated. Then only did He bow His head and die.

Thus Jesus atoned by His obedience for the disobedience of sin. Disobedience is forgetfulness of God, self-exaltation, refusal to serve; obedience is forgetfulness of self, self-immolation, loving service. In this lies the atoning power of obedience, its greatness and glory. It does the will of God, which is infinitely wise and powerful and loving and holy. Nothing could be more perfect, more blissful, more meritorious, nothing stronger and more powerful. Therefore the obedient man shall always speak of victory, even though it be victory through death. In a time of the most widespread self-exaltation and rebellion against the authority of God, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, obedient unto death, shows us the way to a truly great, fruitful, holy life on Earth and to the exaltation of the children of God in life everlasting.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 16 : Heart of Jesus, Pierced With A Lance

St. John relates the event to which this invocation of the litany refers: “The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first and of the other, who had been crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers opened His side with a lance, and immediately there came out Blood and water” (John 19:32 ff.). Thus the soldiers unknowingly fulfilled what had been foretold: “Not a bone of Him shall you break.” And: “They shall look upon Him Whom they have pierced” (John 19:36 ff.). We too wish to look up to Him Whose Heart has been pierced and reflect on the profound mystery of the event.

The Mystery of Death
Besides the loss of the supernatural life of grace through the sin of our first parents, men also suffered the loss of their bodily immortality. “As through one man, sin entered into the world and through sin death, and thus death has passed into all men, because all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). The most appropriate punishment of sin as the destroyer of life is death. Body and soul are separated in death; the very being of man is torn asunder. Body and soul are made for one another, are incomplete without each other; their separation means the end of man as a human being. Thus death atones for the separation of the soul from God through sin.

God is the life of the soul much more than the soul is the life of the body. This blessed and life-giving union of the soul with God was broken asunder through sin. Like the branch cut off from the vine, so the soul cut off from God cannot live. Nothing remains to the sinner but a remembrance of happier days with an unquenchable thirst for their return. The Sacred Heart of Jesus has quenched this thirst of the human heart; He has died and through His death has restored to us the life of God with all its bliss and happiness. This is now the life of grace; in due time it will be the immortal life of the body.

Blood and Water
According to St. Ambrose the Blood and water that issued from the pierced Heart of the Savior is the Blood of our reconciliation and the water of our purification. In the Old Testament the high priest alone entered the holy of holies on the day of atonement, with only the blood of the victims slain beforehand. This rite was to signify that Heaven, the eternal holy of holies, had been closed to men through sin. Jesus, our Divine High Priest, entered and opened Heaven for us by means of His Own Blood. The day of Christ’s death is the atonement day of the New Testament, and His Blood is the Blood of the new and everlasting testament.

The Blood is followed by water, the water of purification. That we eventually may enter Heaven we must be purified from sin and animated with Divine life. Baptism, which gives us the beginning of this Divine life, is the laver of regeneration, by which through water and the Holy Spirit we are born again and made the children of God. Waters of grace flow in abundant streams from the opened Heart of the Redeemer in the other Sacraments and they divide into numberless streamlets, flowing into every nook and corner of the human being, purifying it, giving it fertility and growth in good works. Now the thirst of the soul for God can be satisfied. “As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted for the strong and living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?” (Psalm 41:2). This prayer of the Psalmist is answered by our blessed Savior pointing to His Sacred Heart: “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37).

The Opened Heart
Commenting on the gospel text that records the piercing of the side of Jesus, St. Augustine says: “The Evangelist expresses himself carefully so as not to say: He struck or wounded His side, or something like it, but that he opened it. It was then that, as it were, there was opened to us the door to life, whence came forth the Sacraments of the Church, the Sacraments without which there can be no access to that life, which is the true life.” It was His opened Heart that our blessed Savior showed St. Margaret Mary Alacoque with flames of fire issuing from it. The opened Heart impresses upon us the greatness of the love of Jesus, the inexhaustible riches of His mercy. He has given us His life, His merits, His virtues, His all. He has given Himself and there remains nothing else that He could give.

“Come to Me all you that labor and are burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Sacred Heart of Jesus pierced with a lance has thus become for us the fountain of life and holiness. Through the Blood and water issuing from It we have been cleansed from sin and shown the way of grateful, joyous, strong, self-sacrificing love. Love is strong as death. “Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it; if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing” (Canticles 8:7).

As Love has opened this Heart, so love alone can enter it.

Should it be hard to love Jesus after such manifestations of His love?

Thou, Savior, cause that every soul
Which Thou hast loved so well,
May will within Thy open Heart
In life and death to dwell.
(Feast of the Sacred Heart)

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 17 : Heart of Jesus, Source of All Consolation

Consolation suggests the idea of suffering and sorrow. “The life of man is filled with many miseries” (Job 4:1), and so there will always be such as stand in need of consolation. Unfortunately men frequently seek their consolation where it cannot be found, in things which only aggravate their trouble. The source of all true consolation is the infinite love of God, and that love burns in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From this source men must draw consolation, joy, and peace.

Wrong Sources of Consolation
There are many who attribute their troubles to poverty. They do not have, and because of conditions cannot acquire, the means to secure the ambitions of their lives. They cannot buy what they desire in food, clothing, furniture; they cannot take care of themselves in sickness as people of means can do; they cannot give their children the education which they see others enjoying. They feel embittered and in their bitterness throw themselves into a mad chase for money, paying little attention to the means which they use to acquire it. Others there are, who would drown their sorrow in the maelstrom of pleasure. Alas, it is usually sinful pleasure. Here is one who in his trouble takes to drink and ruins himself, body and soul; another stoops still lower and seeks his comfort in the pleasures of the flesh, forgetting what the Apostle says, that “they who sow in the flesh, from the flesh also will reap corruption” (Galatians 6:8).

Again, there are such as seek their consolation in escape from the scene of their trouble, in a change of job, residence, companionship. All these may succeed in forgetting their original sorrow, at least for some time, but in the end they must agree with Solomon when he writes: “I said in my heart: ‘I will go and abound with delights and enjoy good things!’ . . . And whatever my eyes desired I refused them not; and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared. . . . And I saw in all things vanity and vexation of mind” (Ecclesiastes 2:1 ff.). Money, honor, pleasure, and worldly success leave the soul empty, disillusioned, and disgusted. All these things cannot bring true and lasting consolation, because they cannot satisfy the heart that is made for God and restless until it rests in Him.

Mission of Jesus
Jesus is the Prince of Peace. His mission is a mission of peace to men of good will, and therefore also a mission of consolation. The Heart of Jesus Itself is filled with the peace of the Godhead and is therefore the source of all true consolation.

It was on a Sabbath, in the synagogue of Nazareth. Jesus attended the customary religious service and the people of the town expected Him to address them. Jesus rose and the book of Isaias was handed Him. He opened the volume and read out this passage: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent Me to proclaim to captives release and sight to the blind; to set at liberty the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense” (Luke 4:17 ff.). Jesus sat down again and the eyes of all present were riveted upon Him. What would He say now? Jesus told them that these words of the prophet had found their fulfillment in Him.

True, the mission of Jesus was not in the first place one of relieving bodily distress; the words of the prophecy must be understood principally in a spiritual sense. But as all bodily suffering ultimately has its source in sin, so the healing of sin will also alleviate the suffering. Spiritual gifts, heavenly hopes and aspirations, therefore, will bring true relief, and Jesus offers them in His teaching and His example.

True Consolation
What better and more gladdening news could be given to the poor? Though they lack material wealth, they are rich in Christ, and there is no limit to the treasures which they can lay up for themselves in Heaven. What greater consolation than to know that we can obtain forgiveness of all our sins, throw off the fetters of Satan, and regain the liberty of the children of God? And no matter what may be the sufferings that afflict us, we can learn to bear them patiently and lovingly, when we remember that: “the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

To the consolation of His words Jesus has added the consolation of His example. He has experienced all the grief and sorrow that could fall to the lot of man and suffered what no other man could endure. Labors, privations, disappointments, humiliations were His inseparable companions, and the cruel sufferings of the Passion stood before His mind all the days of His life. What a load of sorrow did He carry in His Sacred Heart until the dark night of His passion broke upon Him, beginning with His agony in the Garden. Jesus knows what suffering means and therefore His invitation to all that labor and are burdened to come to Him is full of understanding and sympathy.

Saints in Suffering
The wonderful effects of Jesus’ consolation are visible in the lives of the Saints. The more they love Him, the more they love to suffer with Him. St. Paul writes: “I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all my troubles” (2 Corinthians 7:4). St. Elizabeth, driven from her home with her three children during a cold winter night, goes to the nearby Franciscan monastery and has the monks sing the Te Deum in thanksgiving for the sorrow God had sent her. St. Magdalen of Pazzi prays: “O Lord, let me not die, but suffer.” St. Teresa of Avila has no other desire but to die or to suffer. Such is the power and sweetness of the consolation that flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus that sorrows can be changed into delight. Then, indeed, the yoke of Jesus is sweet and His burden light.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus has not changed and It is in our midst in the Blessed Eucharist. If men would know the gift of God and seek relief from all their woes in this source of all consolation, the face of the Earth would be changed, and happy faces would meet us everywhere.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 18 : Heart of Jesus, Glowing Furnace of Charity

“Charity is of God―and every one that loves, is born of God! He that loveth not, knoweth not God―for God is charity!” (1 John 4:7-8). “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, Who is given to us” (Romans 5:5). “God so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins!” (1 John 4:10). “Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us!” (1 John 4:19).

Neglected Furnace of the Sacred Heart
The Heart of Jesus is a burning furnace of God’s love because charity is the very love of God. Thus, Jesus is a burning furnace—not just a furnace, which already brings the idea of ardor. He is then a very ardent furnace—a figure that expresses well the idea that He is the focus of all the love of God. The Sacred Heart of Jesus seeks to communicate this fire of the His furnace of charity. “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what do I want? That it be kindled!” (Luke 12:49).

In his Sacred Heart apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673 and 1674, Our Lord stated: “My Divine Heart is so passionately inflamed with love for men, that, not being able any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its ardent charity, It needs to spread them abroad! … Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love. And in return I receive from the greater part of men nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat Me in this Sacrament of Love … This is more grievous and painful to Me than all that I endured in My Passion! If they would only give Me some return of love, I should not reckon all that I have done for them, and I would do yet more if possible! But they have only coldness and contempt for all My endeavors to do them good!”

Who dare claim that they love Christ with the love He desires? Nobody! Christ knows that we have a tendency to love the world more than we love Him―that is why He warned: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth! … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven! … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). And Holy Scripture adds: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).

Love Burns to Death
The Sacred Heart is often portrayed along with the symbol of the cross, which signifies His love for others. The flames shooting out His Sacred Heart represent the fiery furnace of Christ’s love for us sinners. Another frequent feature of Sacred Heart images―Christ’s outstretched arms―shows that His love is welcoming, especially welcoming of sinners, for Jesus Himself says: “The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:56) … “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10) … “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).

Furthermore, images of Sacred Heart almost always portray His Heart encircled by a crown of thorns. All of this reminds us that the love of Jesus for us was not some theoretical love. He actually suffered with us and for us, in the midst of brutality and injustice greater than anything you or I will ever experience. That love is not superficial, but involves the readiness to enter into suffering, to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Such is the love of Christ symbolized by the Sacred Heart. Such is the love expected of a disciple of Christ. As He Himself said: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

For a Christian the love signified by the Sacred Heart is not a passing emotion―but the steady, reliable, faithful, life-giving love which we experience in Jesus as we encounter him in the Gospels, in the Sacraments, and in our life of Faith. We are called to imitate that faithful love.

Faithful Love Requires the Faithful Keeping of the Commandments
“Love the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways, and keep all His commandments, and cleave to Him, and serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul” (Josue 22:5). Love is not mere lip service―there are many who say that they love God, but there are hearts are far from Him. That is why Christ said: “Hypocrites! Well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me!’” (Matthew 15:7-9). Elsewhere He adds: “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

There we have the proof of loving God, loving Christ―if we love, then we obey. Our Lord points this out at the Last Supper: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love … This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10; 15:12).

Doing Everything Out of Charity―Out of a Love of God
Charity is first and foremost a love of God. “He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:37). Secondarily charity is a love of neighbor out of a love of God and because our neighbor is a creature created by God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37-38). “And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these!” (Mark 12:30-31).

Yet that is not enough―for charity should be the fire that drives all our thoughts, actions and words: “Let all your things be done in charity!” (1 Corinthians 16:14). Without that driving force and motive of charity, whatever we do is worthless: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

“Above all have charity, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14). “Let us love one another, for charity is of God―and every one that loves, is born of God!” (1 John 4:7). “If any man say, ‘I love God’ and hateth his brother; then he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom He seeth not?” (1 John 4:20).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 19 : Heart of Jesus, Vessel of Justice and Love

A Marriage Made in Heaven
Instinctively, we tend to divorce justice from love―for we imagine “justice” as being some strict, something harsh, something that punishes, something unwanted and unapproachable; whereas we imagine “love” to be the opposite of justice, as being something kind, gentle, understanding, and approachable. Yet God, Who possesses all virtues to extreme perfection, is able to “marry” those seeming opposites into a compound, or ‘composite’ virtue―you could humorously call it “Just-Love” or “Lovestice”.

The virtue of mercy belongs to charity―mercy is a room in the mansion of charity. God is never merciful without also being just―and God is never just without also being merciful. Our puny minds cannot grasp how mercy and justice can be ‘married’ and live together―yet that is how God always acts. His mercy (love) is always accompanied by His justice.

A Just Love Loves Justice
In the Old Testament Scriptures we read: “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth” (Proverbs 3:12); and the New Testament echoes that truth: “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth!” (Hebrews 12:6). Our Lord alludes to this at the Last Supper, where He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love … This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10; 15:12).

Which Side of God Do You Prefer?
In the Book of Leviticus, God clearly puts before us two options with their consequences―we can either obey Him or disobey Him. Obedience will earn God’s Love; whereas disobedience will earn God’s Justice. We wrongly imagine justice to be all about punishment―justice is not merely about punishing, but also rewarding. Justice gives what is deserved―it rewards good and punishes evil. God points that out in the Book of Leviticus: “If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you and make you increase―you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people!” (Leviticus 26:3-12)

So what happens if we do not show love to Our Lord and God by keeping His commandments? What happens if we break God’s commandments? God clearly tells us in the same chapter of Leviticus:

“But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant, then I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you. I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass! Your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins! And I will send in upon you the beasts of the held, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies! I will destroy and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if any of you remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own―until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed Me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will walk against them, and bring them into their enemies’ land until their uncircumcised mind be ashamed: then shall they pray for their sins!” (Leviticus 26:16-41).

You Reap What You Sow
“The just judgment of God will render to every man according to his works!” (Romans 2:5-6). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men!” (Galatians 6:7-10). “For the Son of man shall come and will render to every man according to his works!” (Matthew 16:27).

We need to practice charity and justice―and our justice needs to be fair, praising and rewarding what justly deserves praise and reward; and criticizing, condemning and punishing what justly deserves criticism, condemnation and punishment. To do this, we have to be grounded in truth. “Mercy and truth have met each other; justice and peace have kissed!” (Psalm 84:11). Therefore, “let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but by deeds and in truth” (1 John 3:18). “Let all your things [words and deeds] be done in charity!” (1 Corinthians 16:14). “Be clothed with justice!” (Psalm 131:9). “Do judgment and justice!” (Genesis 18:19) ― meaning, judge correctly and fairly; and do not be unjust, nor make rash judgments. “Judge thy neighbor according to justice!” ― according to what is fair (Leviticus 19:15). “The Lord will reward every one according to his justice” (1 Kings 26:23). “Unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20).

Likewise, if you fail to show charity, you will fail to enter the Kingdom of Charity, “He that loveth not, knoweth not God―for God is charity” (1 John 4:8). “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Besides, “charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves―for charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). “But above all have charity, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 20 : Heart of Jesus, Full of Goodness and Love

Nobody is as Good as God
God is good and God is love! “None is good except one―and that is God!” (Mark 10:18). “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). Everyone loves what is good―and the more goodness something possesses, then the more it should be loved. “The Lord is good! Sing ye to His Name, for it is sweet!” (Psalms 134:3). “The Lord is good, for His mercy endures for ever!” (Jeremias 33:11). “Give glory to the Lord for He is good―for His mercy endures for ever!” (Psalm 105:1). “The Lord is good to them that hope in Him, to the soul that seeks Him!” (Lamentations 3:25).

The heart of Jesus can be compared to an ocean of goodness and love, to a vessel that is so full that it will not take a single drop more. Our Lord Himself says: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13) … “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep!” (John 10:11) ― and He showed the greatest goodness and love as He died for our sins on His cross of Calvary, saying: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” (Luke 23:34).

God is a “Do-Gooder”
A man of good heart feels happy when he can do good. The goodness of the human heart is a precious and desirable quality. Other qualities often arouse admiration ― but goodness captivates and encourages love. This is how we understand human goodness―but what is God’s goodness? Our words and concepts applied to God are only analogies, comparisons infinitely far from reality. God’s goodness is immeasurable, eternal, infinite and incomprehensible to us. It reveals itself to people in the most visible way in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Goodness, Like Heat, Needs to Spread
Goodness is diffusive of itself. Like heat, which radiates out from its source to warm things around it, goodness issues from the good thing to those around it. The saintly person edifies others. God―in creating us and elevating us by grace to share in his divine nature―diffuses His goodness into us. Jesus, who is both Saint and God, continuously breathes forth goodness from His Cross and from the Altar. If we but appreciated the radiation of goodness that is the Mass! No wonder St. Padre Pio compared it to the sun.

St. John Vianney often used to refer to God as “the good God.” It seems like very childlike language, but it is also profound and says so much. St. Thomas Aquinas links the two terms “being” and “good” ― for simply “to exist” is a good far greater than “not to exist”. In Genesis, we read that all that God created was “good” ― “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth … And God saw that it was good … And he said: ‘Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the Earth!’ And it was so done … And God saw that it was good … God said: ‘Be light made!’ And light was made. And God saw the light that it was good … And God made two great lights―a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night, and the stars … And God saw that it was good … And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good … And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and everything that creepeth on the Earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:1-27).

God Acts Out of Love
In the Old Testament, God often turned out to be a God of severity. However, there are also many examples of touching kindness. In the New Testament, however, God’s goodness and love are fully revealed. The Gospel is nothing but a book of God’s love. In the Gospel and in the writings of the Apostles, if one word expresses God’s righteousness, the next ten words speak of His love. God uses such a form of teaching because our imperfect mind makes it difficult for us to grasp the magnitude of His love. God is so great and we are so small, that we believe in His power and justice more easily than we believe in His love. Nevertheless, everything that God has done, has been done out of love.

Goodness and love radiate in every deed of Jesus, in each of His miracles, most of His words. Our Lord is loving, approachable and humble. He said about himself: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11); “I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12); “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (cf. Matthew 5:44).

Jesus was good to everyone. The Gospel mentions His goodness to the Apostles, whose faults he endured with great patience. He was kind to children, to a Canaanite woman and a Samaritan woman, to Magdalena and Nicodemus. Christ taught his disciples understanding and love. To the women who wept over him when he went to Calvary with the cross, he told them not to weep over him, but over themselves and over their children (cf. John 23:28). Jesus was always seen so good and gentle that no one was afraid of Him. The Good Savior, who passed through our earthly homeland, doing all things well, who said: “I have set an example for you to do as I did” (John 13:15) which helps us break away from our egoism and set ourselves a selfless goal of helping everyone in need.

We Should Act Out of Love
Holy Scripture commands: “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalm 33:15) … “Trust in the Lord and do good!” (Psalm 36:3) … “Do good to thyself! … Do good to thy friend … Do good to the just! … Do good to the humble! … Do good to them that hate you! … Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith” (Ecclesiasticus 14:11; 14:13; 12:2; 12:6; Matthew 5:44; Galatians 6:10).

We also see a lot of goodness in people. Human goodness is a tendency to do good to others. It manifests itself in kindness, generosity, sacrifice, also in patience and in forgiving fault. As Our Lord says: “Blessed are the merciful―for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice―for your reward is very great in Heaven! … You have heard that it hath been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ … But I say to you: ‘Love your enemies! Do good to them that hate you! Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you! So that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, who makes His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the sinners do this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you that is more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:7-12; 5:38-48).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 21 : Heart of Jesus, Holy Temple of God

Stone Temple or Human Temple?
Too many churches today are too concerned with their material ‘temples’ resulting in the demise of the ‘spiritual temple’. They are more concerned with “bricks and mortar” than they are concerned with souls and grace. This was also true in Our Lord’s day―and Our Lord took violent action in denouncing their error:

“The Pasch of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the Temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, He drove them all out of the Temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables He overthrew. And to them that sold doves He said: ‘Take these things out of here, and make not the House of My Father a house of traffic!’ The Jews, therefore, answered and said to Him: ‘What sign dost Thou show unto us, seeing Thou dost these things?’ Jesus answered, and said to them: ‘I will destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up!’ The Jews then said: ‘It took forty-six years to build this Temple―and wilt Thou raise it up in three days?’ But Jesus spoke of the temple of His Body. When, therefore, He was risen again from the dead, His disciples remembered, that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture, and the word that Jesus had said” (John 2:13-22).

When the time of His Passion and Death had arrived, Jesus was accused of the above in the presence of the Sanhedrin council that had been convoked to put Him on trial: “The chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death―and they found not, even though many false witnesses had come in. And last of all there came two false witnesses―and they said: ‘This Man said: “I am able to destroy the temple of God, and after three days to rebuild it!”’” (Matthew 26:59-61).

He received the same reproach from bystanders as He was dying upon the cross on Calvary: “And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying: ‘Vah! Thou that destroyest the Temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it! Save Thy own self! If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross!’ In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said: ‘He saved others, but Himself He cannot save! If He be the king of Israel, then let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him! He trusted in God―then let Him now deliver Him if He will have Him; for he said: ‘I am the Son of God!’ And the selfsame thing the thieves also, that were crucified with Him, reproached Him with” (Matthew 27:39-44).

What is it harder to do? To come down from the cross while still alive―or to rise from the dead after being killed? Jesus chose the most difficult option―even though He had the power to come down from the cross when sarcastically challenged.

The Temple of the Soul is More Important
Never mind the material ‘temples’ that we acquire or build for ourselves; never mind the ‘temples’ of the body that are so adored and worshiped today―what really matters in life is the ‘temple’ of our soul. Holy Scripture tells us this: “Know you not, that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? … “Or know you not, that your members are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 3:16-19). “And what agreement hath the Temple of God with idols? For you are the Temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’” (2 Corinthians 6:16). “But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the Temple of God is holy―which you are!” [or are supposed to be] (1 Corinthians 3:17).

Our Lord alludes to the pre-eminence and superiority of the spiritual ‘temple’ over the material ‘temple’ when He says: “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more important than the meat: and the body more important than the clothing? Behold the birds of the air―for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns―and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you, by being worried, can add to his stature by one cubit? And for clothing, why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field and how they grow―they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even King Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these! Be not solicitous therefore, saying: ‘What shall we eat?” or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek! For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice―and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Matthew 6:19-33).

Are We Living in the Temple of Our Soul, or the Temple of the World?
“Be not deceived! God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that sows in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that sows in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).

Just as Christ overturned the tables of sellers and money-changers in the Temple of Jerusalem, so too will God destroy our false idols and profane worldly temples: “When he had destroyed the altars, and the idolatrous groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land, he returned to Jerusalem” (2 Paralipomenon 34:7).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 22 : Heart of Jesus, Tabernacle of the Most High

The Old Testament Tabernacle
The English word “Tabernacle” is derived from the Latin “tabernāculum” meaning “tent.” The Hebrew word for Tabernacle is “mishkān” meaning “residence” or “dwelling place.” In this sense we see the Tabernacle as being the “House of God” or “dwelling-place” of God. Just like any man building a house for his own use, God Himself―in an extremely detailed manner―produced the design and gave instructions on how He wanted the Tabernacle and the Ark (of the Covenant) to be made. The Ark would be placed in the Tabernacle. God commanded: “They shall make Me a sanctuary, according to the likeness of the Tabernacle which I will show thee, and I will dwell in the midst of them … Frame an ark of setim wood … And thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold within and without; and over it thou shalt make a golden crown round about … And thou shalt put in the ark the testimony which I will give thee” (Exodus 25:8).

The main source describing the Tabernacle is the Book of Exodus―specifically Exodus chapter 25 to 31 and chapters 35 to 40. Those passages describe an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, created by the veil suspended by four pillars. This sanctuary contained the Ark of the Covenant, inside which were the two stone tablets brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses on which were written the Ten Commandments, a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which had miraculously budded and borne ripe almonds. An outer sanctuary (the “Holy Place”) contained a gold lamp-stand or candlestick. On the north side stood a table, on which lay the showbread. On the south side was the Menorah, holding seven oil lamps to give light. On the west side, just before the veil, was the golden altar of incense. It was constructed of 4 woven layers of curtains and forty-eight 15-foot tall standing wood boards overlaid in gold and held in place by its bars and silver sockets and was richly furnished with valuable materials taken from Egypt at God's command.

Essentially, there were two forms of the Tabernacle―the ‘mobile’ Tabernacle that was used during the exodus from Egypt and the consequent 40 years in the desert wilderness; and then the ‘fixed’ Tabernacle in the Temple of Jerusalem once it was envisaged by King David and then built by his son, King Solomon. During the Exodus, the wandering in the desert and the conquest of Canaan, the Tabernacle was in part a portable tent, and in part a wooden enclosure draped with ten curtains. The Tabernacle of the Exodus, from its construction at Mount Sinai under the supervision of Moses, was a portable and ornate tent shrine, that served as the earthly dwelling-place for God, until it was replaced by Solomon’s Temple.

Our Hearts should be New Testament Tabernacles of the Most High
You were made to be a Tabernacle of the Most High―for you are a Temple of God: “Know you not, that you are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? … “Or know you not, that your members are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God; and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 3:16-19).

Is that what you are? Is that how you live your life? Is God at the center of your life? Is God in the center of your heart? Or have you leased your heart to other things? We are all addicts! We were all made to be addicts! We have to be addicts! We can only be addicts! We will only be saved if live and act like addicts!

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition for the verb “addict” reads as follows: “to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or obsessively.” The Cambridge Dictionary definition for the noun “an addict” is “a person who is unable to stop doing or using something.” The Oxford Dictionary defines “an addict” as: “a person who is very interested in something and spends a lot of their free time on it.” The Cambridge Dictionary definition for “addiction” is “the need or strong desire to do or to have something, or a very strong liking for something.” It is only recently―and wrongly―that the words “addict” and “addiction” have been applied to negative things, to wrongdoing, to things like overuse of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, etc. Addiction is also applicable to good things―and it is this sense that the above claim is made: “We are all addicts! We were all made to be addicts! We have to be addicts! We can only be addicts! We will only be saved if live and act like addicts!”

Taking the words “addict” and “addiction”―being understood as already defined above―“to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or obsessively” … “a person who is unable to stop doing or using something” … “a person who is very interested in something and spends a lot of their free time on it”―how else can you explain the following commands of God and Our Lord: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind” (Luke 10:27) … “He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:37). “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all whatever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven―and come follow Me!” (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22) … “And they [Peter and Andrew] immediately leaving their nets, followed Him … And they [James and John] forthwith left their nets and father, and followed Him” (Matthew 4:20-22) … “We ought always to pray, and not to faint!” (Luke 18:1). In addition to those words of Our Lord, Holy Scripture adds: “Give thanks to God without ceasing! … Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians ; 2:13; 5:17) … “Prayer was made without ceasing by the Church” (Acts 12:5) … “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do―do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31) … “And do ye all things without murmurings and hesitations!” Philippians 2:14) … “All should everywhere do penance” (Acts 17:30), and many more such commands! If this is not a command to and addiction and to obsession, then what on earth is? God―through Holy Scripture―is commanding an addiction to Him, an obsession about Him. Yet God never commands the impossible―therefore He must have made us capable of addiction. The problem is that we use this “gift” and “capability” in a bad way, by being addicted to the wrong things, instead of being addicted to God.

Jesus Speaks from the Tabernacle of His Heart
Today I want to tell you about My Heart, which is the tabernacle of the Most High. I told you yesterday much about what it means, but I want you to remember one thing. My Heart is the house of God, a perfect temple filled to the brim with the glory of the Most High. The Spirit of God fills My Heart as a tabernacle not built by human hand, but erected by God Himself for the purpose of giving Him glory. In this tabernacle, God is glorified in a perfect and infinite way. Remember about this, when you suffer because of the imperfections of human tabernacles, in which I do not receive proper glory. Let your tears not fall in vain. Open your heart and behold Mine in it. Move your praise and sorrow because of the imperfections of the temples erected by human hand to the inner temple of your heart. There, unite our hearts, so that your tabernacle may shine with My light. In this temple, kneel down together with Me and apologize for all the mistakes and the shortcomings of human tabernacles. Comfort God by becoming a perfect tabernacle in the image of My Heart.

In My Heart, everything suits God and rises to His glory. Unite your heart with Mine during the duration of the Holy Mass, in order to make amends with your love to God the Father for all the human flaws, neglects of the liturgy, distortions and belittling of worship. Invoke angels, so they may beautify your heart with their presence and help you build the tabernacle of the Most High, in which I will always have delight, which will be perfect in the manner of My Heart. Remember that what you cannot change in the world, you can make amends for in the inner temple of your soul. Place on the altar of your heart all the sorrow and pain, which your mind is filling with. I will accept this sacrifice. Together with you I will weep over the devastated tabernacle and I will strengthen its walls, accepting your sacrifice and presenting it to the Father. Cry always together with Me. Let each of your tears join with My tears, which I have shed over Jerusalem.

Make amends to Me for every imperfection by building an internal tabernacle of the Most High in you. It is for Me the most pleasing prize and the most beautiful sacrifice that I want to offer to the Father. In this way, you will pay Me for the flaws of human tabernacles. Understand, daughter, neglect and belittling of the glory of God in his temples is only the image of its decrease in human hearts. So, deploring this outer dimension, you will make amends to Me the most effectively by rebuilding the inner temples, human hearts, beginning with your own heart. We need to rebuild these inner tabernacles, cleanse their worship and expand their love, and only then can happen the external transformation of the Church. Without the transformation of human hearts, the improvement of the liturgy, the purity of worship, the rules of law, the appearance of the tabernacles and their customs is not possible. Rebuild the tabernacle inside, and I will rebuild it on the outside. But do not be concerned with the result itself. Go back to the cause. It is sin that kills Love. Where there is sin, love has to go away. The tabernacle of the Most High must be free of sin so that love may bloom in it.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 23 : Heart of Jesus, Our Life and Resurrection

Everyone Wants to Live and is Afraid to Die
We all want life. We all want to live and stay alive. We instinctively fear death―no matter how brave a face we pretend to put on. We spend thousands of dollars just to stay alive and just as much in trying to prevent death. There is nothing more important than life and death―and then, the resurrection from the dead and eternal life. Everything else pales away into insignificance compared to those monumental things.

Already in Christ’s infancy St. Simeon prophesied to Our Lady: “Behold this Child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many!” (Luke 2:34). St. John would later write: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men!” (John 1:4).

Jesus Himself, would later say: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly!” (John 10:10). “He that followeth Me, shall have life” (John 8:12). “I am the resurrection and the life―he that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall live!” (John 11:25). “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you!” (John 6:54). “I am the Bread of life! He that cometh to Me shall not hunger; and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst!” (John 6:35). “To him that thirsteth, I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely!” (Apocalypse 21:6). “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life!” (John 6:64). “Everyone who seeth the Son, and believeth in Him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up in the last day!” (John 6:40). “I give them life everlasting and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of My hand!” (John 10:28). “Be thou faithful until death―and I will give thee the crown of life!” (Apocalypse 2:10).

Our Lord not only promised resurrection and eternal life―but, “talking the talk” He foretold His own death and resurrection: “Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again” (Matthew 16:21). “No man taketh My life away from Me―but I lay it down of Myself, and I have power to lay it down; and I have power to take it up again” (John 10:18). He then “walked the walk” and resurrected Himself: “And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, came into the holy city, and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:53).

The Life of Soul is More Important than the Life of the Body
In the Catechism, My Catholic Faith, we read: “Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God. Holy Scripture, the Word of God, teaches that the soul is immortal. ‘And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always’ (Daniel 12:2). On Calvary, Our Lord Himself said to the Good Thief on the cross: ‘This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise!’ (Luke 23:43). Elsewhere, Our Lord says: ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul!’ (Matthew l0:28). ‘He is not the God of the dead, but of the living!’ (Matthew 22:32). The soul of man is immortal, because man’s acts of intelligence are spiritual; therefore, his soul must be a spiritual being―not dependent on [physical] matter, and hence not subject to decay or death.”

The Baltimore Catechism #3 states: “We must take more care of our soul than of our body, because in losing our soul we lose God and everlasting happiness.” This is indicated by Our Lord’s words: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

To Gain Eternal Life, We Must Die to the Spirit of this World
“Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall save it!” (Matthew 16:25; Luke 9:24; 17:33; Mark 8:35). “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25).

Jesus points out: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world … My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Concerning His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7).

“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) … “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).

As the Imitation of Christ tells us (in a variety of chapters): “It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides … The Apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and all the rest who willed to follow in the footsteps of Christ! They hated their lives on Earth that they might have life in eternity … They renounced all riches, dignities, honors, friends, and associates. They desired nothing of the world. They scarcely allowed themselves the necessities of life, and the service of the body, even when necessary, was irksome to them ... It is often better and safer for us to have few consolations in this life, especially comforts of the body ... They were poor in earthly things, but rich in grace and virtue. Outwardly destitute, inwardly they were full of grace and divine consolation. Strangers to the world, they were close and intimate friends of God … Anyone, then, who aims to live the inner and spiritual life must go apart, with Jesus, from the crowd … Living on Earth is truly a misery. The more a man desires spiritual life, the more bitter the present becomes to him, because he understands better and sees more clearly the defects, the corruption of human nature.

“I do not doubt that you would correct yourself more earnestly if you would think more of an early death than of a long life. And if you pondered in your heart the future pains of Hell or of Purgatory, I believe you would willingly endure labor and trouble and would fear no hardship. But since these thoughts never pierce the heart and since we are enamored of flattering pleasure, we remain very cold and indifferent. Our wretched body complains so easily because our soul is altogether too lifeless.

“Very soon your life here will end; consider, then, what may be in store for you elsewhere. Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten. Oh, the dullness and hardness of a heart which looks only to the present instead of preparing for that which is to come! Therefore, in every deed and every thought, act as though you were to die this very day. If you had a good conscience you would not fear death very much. It is better to avoid sin than to fear death. If you are not prepared today, how will you be prepared tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow? What good is it to live a long life when we amend that life so little? Indeed, a long life does not always benefit us, but on the contrary, frequently adds to our guilt.”

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 24 : Heart of Jesus, House of God and Gate of Heaven

House of God
Where is the House of God? Where does God live? God lives in His Kingdom―but where is His Kingdom? The answer is not as straightforward as you might imagine! You might well say: “God lives in Heaven―for Heaven is His Kingdom!” That is true―but the Baltimore Catechism, asks the question: “Where is God?” ― to which it then replies: “God is everywhere!” The Catechism then asks: “How is God everywhere?” ― to which it replies: “God is everywhere whole and entire as He is in any one place. This is true and we must believe it, though we cannot understand it.” (Baltimore Catechism #2, Questions 166 & 167). If God is everywhere, then is His Kingdom everywhere? Our Lord said: “No! My Kingdom is not of this world! … You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 18:36; 8:23). So it seems that God’s Kingdom is not of this world―but, then, why do we speak of “the Social Reign of Christ the King”?

Our Lord says that Satan is the prince of this world: “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30) ― adding: “But if I, by the finger of God, cast out devils―then without doubt the Kingdom of God is come upon you.” (Luke 11:20).

Yet, on another occasion, Jesus said: “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21) ― further adding: “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God! … Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal! But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal! For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters! For either he will hate the one, and love the other―or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24, 33). Further adding: “How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God!” Mark 10:23).

We are told to make sure that we “be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God” (2 Thessalonians 1:5), for “Not everyone that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that does the will of my Father Who is in heaven, only he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:21). “Why call you Me ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father! … My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our abode with him!” (John 14:15; 15:14; 14:21-23).

Jesus is the Straight Path and Narrow Gate to Heaven
There are many roads that lead to Hell―but only one road that leads to the Gate of Heaven. Jesus is our ultimate Gate to Heaven: “Jesus said: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life! No man cometh to the Father, but by Me!’” (John 14:6). “Neither is there salvation in any other! For there is no other name under Heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved!” (Acts 4:12). “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned!” (Mark 16:16). “For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God!” (Ephesians 5:5). “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God!” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars―they shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Apocalypse 21:8). “No, I say to you, unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).

“Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14).

“And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out!’” (Luke 13:23-28).

Enter the Correct Gate
Almost all souls―before they stand a chance of getting into Heaven―must convert from their worldly ways. As Our Lord says: “Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God!” (John 3:3) ― adding in a similar vein: “Do penance, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 4:17). “I say to you―unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3). Conversion is a pain and the cross is a penance! Not many people want pain and penance―therefore they do not really convert from the heart, only from the lips; and they do not accept and carry the crosses that God in His kindness sends to them as a means of paying for their sins which bar them from Heaven: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10).

Yes―as Our Lord said above―“Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life―and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus is “the House of God, and the Gate of Heaven” (Genesis 28:17). “Jesus said to them: ‘Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep! … I am the door! By Me, if any man enter in, he shall be save!” (John 10:7-9). “Behold the judge standeth before the door!” (James 5:9). He says to us: “Behold, I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall hear My voice, and open to Me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me!” (Apocalypse 3:20).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 25 : Heart of Jesus, Our Peace and Reconciliation

Losing Peace and Heaven
We are all sinners―there is no doubt about that: “For all have sinned, and do need the glory [mercy] of God!” (Romans 3:23). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). Furthermore, “Sin, when it is completed, begetteth death” (James 1:15). “The sting of death is sin!” (1 Corinthians 15:56). “For the wages of sin is death!” (Romans 6:23).

Sin ultimately loses―not only sanctifying grace which is our key to Heaven―but sin also loses peace and the friendship of God. Through sin we become enemies of God. Love of the world is a sin that makes us an enemy of God: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). Our Lord, in speaking of the world, said: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own! But because you are not of the world―for I have chosen you out of the world―therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). On top of that, Scripture points out: “He that loves iniquity hates his own soul!” (Psalm 10:6). How can there be peace in all of that? Through sin we become enemies of God, we implicitly hate God, and we hate ourselves!

God Wants to Restore Peace Through Reconcialiation
Despite our sinfulness and the implicit hate towards God that sin implies, God seeks to reconcile us to Him and bring us peace. “He that committeth sin, is of the devil―for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

We would find it extremely difficult―almost impossible―to love those who sin against us with the kind of merciful love that God shows to us sinners! We are more likely to hate our enemies, rather than love them! We tend to be more of the “Eye for an eye! Tooth for a tooth!” brigade―who are all too ready to call down fire from Heaven to destroy our enemies, much like St. James and St. John did when the inhabitants of a certain town refused to welcome and accept Our Lord: “They entered into a city of the Samaritans, to prepare the way for Jesus. And they received Him not, because His face was of one going to Jerusalem [the Samaritans and Jews mutually hated each other]. And when His disciples James and John had seen this, they said: ‘Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them?’ And turning, Jesus rebuked them, saying: ‘You know not of what spirit you are! The Son of man came not to destroy souls, but to save!” (Luke 9:52-56). “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance!” (Luke 5:32).

God makes this desire for reconciliation with sinners absolutely clear: “The soul that sinneth, the same shall die … But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die … Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore! Is it my way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse? … For when the just turneth himself away from being just and committeth iniquity, he shall die therein! In the injustice that he hath wrought he shall die! And when the wicked turneth himself away from his wickedness and doeth judgment and justice―he shall save his soul alive! … Therefore will I judge every man according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Be converted and do penance for all your iniquities and iniquity shall not be your ruin! Cast away from you all your transgressions by which you have transgressed, and make unto yourselves a new heart and a new spirit―and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-32).

Finding Peace and Reconciliation
That lost peace and friendship can only be restored by a reconciliation with God―and that can only come about through the Sacrament of Confession (or as some prefer to call it: the Sacrament of Penance, or the Sacrament of Reconciliation). Most people will also admit that once they have made a good, honest, sincere and repentant confession of their sins, they immediately find a tremendous peace in their souls. When we hear God’s forgiving words to us, coming through the lips of the priest in Confession, a burden is lifted off our shoulders and we can again feel the peace of heart and soul that comes from being in a good relationship with God.

This Sacramental Reconciliation removes our guilt and once more makes us innocent before Almighty God. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity” (1 John 1:9). “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!” (Isaias 1:18).

“If the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment and justice, then living he shall live and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done―in his justice, which he hath wrought, he shall live. Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … And when the wicked turns himself away from his wickedness, which he hath wrought, and doeth judgment and justice―he shall save his soul alive. Because he considers and turns away himself from all his iniquities, which he hath wrought, he shall surely live and not die … Therefore be converted and do penance for all your iniquities―and iniquity shall not be your ruin! Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit―and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dies, saith the Lord God, return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:21-32).

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 26 : Heart of Jesus, Victim For Our Sins

The Words of the Victim Jesus
Today I want to show you that My Heart is the payment for all the sins of the world. Only innocence can make amends for a fault, and My Heart is the image of innocence. Pure and without blemish, I had to take upon Myself all the sin of the world, be judged and sentenced in view of people. My Heart suffered not only because of this unjust accusation, but also because of the human ingratitude, which did not want to recognize God as God.

The Just Jesus Searched for Injustice
My Heart curled up in Me, having accepted all the possible pain. I was not looking for justice on Earth, but for injustice, in order to enclose it all in My Heart that was making amends. My Heart was supposed to be reparation for the injustice of men towards God. The injustice is its base―so, for those who wish to apologize to Me in the name of mankind, injustice should become their daily bread, which they will eat without disgust.

I came into the world to make amends to My Father for the sins of mankind. So I was looking for souls that were immersed in sin, to take away their sin and accept upon Me its effects. I dwelt among sinners to offer them My innocence for their fault. I was looking for sin, for what has fallen. They were seeking help and could not find it. It is the help that had to find them. I have accomplished in My Heart the only exchange―good for evil, justice for injustice, peace for fear, and innocence for fault. I had to accept all that, of what I was the negation, in order to gift mankind with truth and forgiveness.

The Test of Injustice
The victim has to dwell on Earth, among sinners, as reparation for sins. My Divine Heart had to experience so many humiliations to pay off the debt of pride. I would like for human hearts to recover their vocation in becoming a payment for the sins of mankind, like My Heart. I am not looking for perfect hearts, but sinful ones, to teach them life in justice. When they will fall in love with justice, I test them with injustice, so that they may fall in love with justice even more. And when they will love justice above all, I test them again, and this time I expect payment for this teaching. The injustice experienced by the soul should be accepted for Me, and offered with a blessing together with the accompanying heart ache as reparation for sins offending Me.

The Gift of Injustice
Injustice towards those who love justice is always a gift from Heaven, a grace, calling upon the righteous soul. While experiencing humiliation and injustice, the soul should listen to My quiet voice accompanying each trial. I am telling her: “Follow Me!” I call her to a higher vocation, to the imitation of the Son of God in His humanity. This is the highest vocation of man, to become a faithful copy of the perfect Man, the Man-God.

So when your hearts experience humiliation and suffering sneaks into their interior, open their gates, because it is I that am knocking together with My cross and plead: “Follow Me! Take My yoke upon you and come together with Me to make amends to My Father for the sins of mankind!” Your sacrifice together with My Sacrifice will delight My Father. He will accept it and pour upon the world His forgiving grace. Do not refuse Me and do not reject the poor sinners, who alone cannot find help. It is the help that must find them. You and I must find them and take upon ourselves their sins, so they can live and arise from the dead.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 27 : Heart of Jesus, Salvation of Those Who Hope in Thee

The Words of the Savior
I want to talk to the world about My Heart―which is foreign to the world and which it does not know. I am Salvation. Into My Heart enter those who desire it. Into My Heart enter those who are destined for eternal happiness. The worship given to My Heart is the guarantee of Salvation. No one, who gave himself to My Heart, can be rejected. My Heart surrounds him with its mercy.

Hope and Trust in the Savior
Trust in the fact that I am good and merciful brings reassurance that the gate of Heaven will open at the hour of death and will bring the desired deliverance. No one, who comes to Me full of trust, can be rejected. Trust in My mercy commits Me to give grace and to show mercy to the one, who has trusted in My Heart. Call on Me through this Heart. It is always the seat of perpetual love and speaks a language that you understand. If the mind and human judgments overwhelm you, give yourself only to My Heart and trust that it will protect you from any error and will lead to the desired Salvation.

Total Trust
The trust, for which I am asking, is a total trust. It goes beyond human frames. The one who believes in what is grasped by the human mind has no merit. Faith consists of putting trust in what one does not understand and what cannot be grasped by the mind. The lack of understanding does not bother Me and the failure to comprehend My designs does not insult Me. But while looking at the cross, the human soul should trust and not doubt of My goodness. My Heart is not the heart of man in its human meaning and limitation. My human Heart is united with the love of the Father, and therefore remains limitless and inconceivable to man. Understanding is not needed here, but faith in the fact that in My Heart everything is saved from death. In My Heart, love transcends any fault and the lack of hope is filled with its excess.

Salvation is the Fruit of My Heart
Turn to My Heart in your crippled nature, and you will be saved. Salvation is the fruit of the Passion of My Heart, and not the fruit of your perfection. If human perfection was the guarantee of Salvation, would the Son of Man have had to descend on Earth and suffer? In My Heart was accomplished the atonement and My Heart is this guarantee for every sinner who will come to it. In My Heart is the Salvation of the world and the Salvation of every soul. I want souls to come and take what I have suffered for them. Salvation belongs to every soul, which will come for it and accept it from My merciful Heart. I want to bestow the grace of Salvation upon the whole world, but only those will attain it who will come at the call of My Heart and accept it. My Heart calls upon all nations to give themselves to the mercy, which overfills My Heart. You reject what you desire and you despise what is your last hope. I have called and I am calling. There is no hope and there is no recourse for the sinner outside of My merciful Heart. Only in it and through it you will achieve Salvation.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 28 : Heart of Jesus, Hope of Those Who Die in Thee

The Words of the Savior

Life Must End
My words today will take you to the deathbed. The loss of hope is the greatest enemy of the dying. For them remains fear, because they know how fragile is life and how infinite is eternity, which awaits them and which they can no longer change, being on the verge of death. The time of merits has passed. The world lives them helpless in the face of the inexorable reality of the end of the earthly life. No human hand can stop death. Man passes into the hand of God and for the first time in his life realizes this fully. The present world seems to be a departing illusion. The heart is squeezed with the pain of separation and fear of the unknown. The experience of death is always hard, but depending on the purity of the soul and the degree of her connection with Me, the soul passes it with great fear or with great confidence.

Spend Life Wisely
Time on Earth is a time of collecting merits, collecting treasures, sometimes trials, in which the soul defines herself as My friend or My enemy. However, there is a huge amount of souls, which never wanted to get to know Me, in order to be defined. Now, in the face of death, they see this truth, that My tender presence and love accompanied them throughout their entire lives, neglected and rejected. My tender face will however take the expression of severe justice, because it is always the Truth and reflects the Truth to the soul. The Truth is inexorable. It is not subject to influences. There is no escape from it, because it is omnipresent and all-encompassing. The Truth is and the Truth penetrates everything through. The soul on the verge of death sees her misery and the situation from which there is no escape. She must go where she does not want to go, and leave what she does not want to leave. Therefore, all earthly ties hamper the departure from this world and turn away the sight of the soul from God, and direct it towards the worthlessness of the world, infusing the soul with sorrow and despair.

Graces Given Prior to Death
The moment preceding death is a time of grace in which the soul can still obtain the mercy of God for herself at the time of judgment. If she manages to turn to God with confidence, she will not be damned. However, she must do so before she dies. Later, time ends and the attitude of the soul becomes fixed and magnifies her feeling of despair or confidence. The thoughts or words with which man dies freeze on his lips. With such he shows up before My throne. If he begs: “Mercy!” then My mercy must appear at the judgment. If, however, his thoughts and words are directed towards the worthlessness of the world, possessions, temporal concerns or openly rebel until the last moment against the decrees of the Providence, rejecting Me, the soul cannot obtain the Mercy of God because she has shown disdain towards it, not calling it, not believing in it, or not seeking it because of the pride that blinds it. Man, in the face of death, is afraid of Me.

The Sacred Heart and Death
Thus, I want to tell you about how you should direct your thoughts in the face of impending death, so that you do not succumb to fear. Show these words of Mine to the dying, so they know My Will and My desire to save them from their sins. The hope for the dying is My Heart. All sinners have access to it. I have shown it to the world on the cross pierced with a spear, so that every sinner could see it and believe that it is precisely for him that I allowed Myself to be nailed to the cross and to open My Heart with a spear. I did it so that every sinful soul, regardless of the amount of sins that cover her, could enter into it and escape from the angry face of justice of My Father. Let no soul be afraid to enter into My Heart. I will not close it. It will always remain open on the cross. I will abide on the cross until I will shelter in My Heart the last soul, which will want to accept My Sacrifice for her and take refuge in it. I do not count the sins of the one who approaches Me, but I extend hands to attract the soul, which wants to hide in My Merciful Heart. My Blood exceeds with its merit all your faults. My Blood justifies all crimes. My Blood is the future life of your souls. He who possesses it and worships it in his interior cannot die forever.

Beg for Mercy
Beg My Heart to defend you against just punishment. Call upon My Heart, so its Mercy may show itself upon you. Ask My Heart to hide you in its most innocent interior and wash your faults by its martyr’s sacrifice. Believe that My Heart suffered precisely for you, out of love for you, to save you. My Will did not change. I still desire your salvation and if you wholeheartedly turn to Me, asking for forgiveness, My Heart will not be able to refuse you. Ask Me. Enter into the depth of My Heart, which is entirely overfilled with love for you, and ask. My Heart is only love. It will listen to you, because it wants to save you. Above all, I desire to forgive. Above all, I desire to save. My justice is for those who will reject My mercy. For My Heart there is only mercy. As long as you are in it, you do not have to fear. Invoke wholeheartedly My grace. I want to forgive and I will forgive, but let your begging be true, let it shake up My Heart and encompass it with the joy of the return of the prodigal son, although in this last hour. And in this last hour I desire your souls and then I fight for them until the end.

Christ Wants to Save
In this last hour, when everything already seemed finished to Me, when My body already issued the final breath, I still delivered to sinners My Heart, so it may also be killed and tormented to the last drop of Blood. This is for you. For those who will be late under My cross, who will come running too late; it is precisely for those who did not get on time to obtain mercy and forgiveness from My lips. Now, when I hang dead on the cross, and My lips will not issue words of forgiveness, and My eyes will not show mercy, and My face will no longer take in a crying sinner, I open My Heart to you. It does not know death and despite the death of My body, it still desires to save every soul. For you I open it with a spear, so it may tell you the words: “I forgive. I forgive and love.”

I also take in to the gates of paradise those who will come too late. For you, there is still My Heart, which does not want to die but wants to save souls till the end. Here is My Heart, wide open. I give to you, sinners, the last drop to save the last of the last. For you it remains always open. Do not waste My Sacrifice by rejecting My forgiveness. My heart speaks to you in this hour: “Yes, I forgive you. I desire you. I love you. Enter into the gate of My Mercy and accept the Blood, which I spilled for you, and hide in it from the penetrating gaze of justice. Cover your every sin with My Blood and be saved by the power of this Blood, whose help you are calling in this last hour!” My Heart has power over the justice of the Father. My Heart has the power to save those, who will have recourse to it. Pray. Do not lose hope. My heart is for you.

SELECT MEDITATIONS ON THE LITANY TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Part 29 : Heart of Jesus, Delight of All the Saints

The Words of the Savior

A Delight for Pure Hearts
My Heart is the delight for all people of a pure heart. The one who desires war cannot find peace in it. Peace unites itself only with peace. Those whose hearts are free from desires, open the affluent treasures of My Heart and take them according to their merits. Saint people are worthy of My graces and receive them in the extent to which they are capable. Life on Earth enables the soul to draw My graces or, conversely, makes her resistant to any grace.

Possessing the Heart of Jesus
The heart of the righteous man draws My action and encourages Me to embrace him in My ownership. When I conquer the heart of man, I give him My own, so it may become his possession. All the Saints received the Kingdom in My Heart and through My Heart, which became their lost paradise.

Entering the Heart of Jesus
The contemplation of the treasures and the mysteries of My Heart is a grace given to few, because to few it is given to enter into its depth and to admire its virtues. Many praise Me with their lips, but only Saints enter into the depth of My Heart to admire its virtues. To enter into its interior means to accept the Will of My Heart and to fulfill it. Then it opens completely and allows the soul to watch its mysteries.

Meditate the Litany
By saying the litany in honor of My Heart, contemplate the attributes of this Heart, its love and its merits, so you may have a part in them. I desire for My Heart to be known in the world, to be revered in the world, to be the escape of all sinners and the assurance of Salvation through the trust of the soul in the mercy of My Heart. By saying the subsequent calls, ask My Heart to reveal itself before you, so you may be able to truly fall in love with it.