Sacred Heart

STARTING TODAY, JUNE 1ST, A SERIALIZATION OF THE BOOK...

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
BY ST. JOHN EUDES

For the remainder of the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we will run a serialization of St. John Eude's book on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 1

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF BURNING LOVE FOR HIS ETERNAL FATHER

Innumerable reasons urge us to offer our worship and honor to the Sacred Heart of our most adorable Savior with extraordinary devotion and reverence. All these reasons are embodied in the words of St. Bernardine of Siena, who calls this loving Heart: Fornacem ardentissimae caritatis ad inflammandum et incendendum orbem universum ― “A furnace of ardent love to enkindle and inflame the whole universe.” (Sermon 514, de Passione Domini, p. 2, tit. 1. In the picture called Our Lady of Hearts St. John Eudes represented the Sacred Hearts; of Jesus and Mary by the emblem of a furnace of love, whither his disciples go to light torches to enkindle the universe. It is really but a beautiful application of the words of Our Lord in St. Luke 12:49: “I am come to cast fire on the Earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled?”)

Most certainly the admirable Heart of Jesus is a furnace of love for His Divine Father, for His Blessed Mother, and for His Church Triumphant, Militant and Suffering, and also for each one of us. This we shall see in the following chapters.

Let us consider, first of all, the most brilliant flames of this great furnace of love for the Eternal Father. What mind can conceive and what tongue express the tiniest spark of this illimitable flaming furnace of love for His Father? It is a love worthy of such a Father and of such a Son. It is a love that most perfectly equals the ineffable perfections of its beloved object. Here is a Son infinitely loving& a Father who is infinitely lovable, a God loving a God. Here is love in its very essence loving eternal love: a love that is boundless, in. comprehensible, infinite, passing all limits, and loving i n turn a love that is boundless, incomprehensible, infinite, and passing all limits.

In a word, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whether considered in His divinity or in His humanity, is more ardently enkindled with love for His Father, loving Him infinitely more at any given moment, than all the hearts of angels and saints together can love Him throughout all eternity.

There is no greater love than to give one’s life for the person one loves. The Son of God so loves His Father that He would be ready to sacrifice His own life again, as He sacrificed it upon the Cross, and to sacrifice it by suffering the same torments for the love of His Father (if such were God’s holy will) that He suffered on Calvary. Since His love is boundless, He would be ready to lay down His life throughout the whole universe as He did upon Calvary. Since His love is eternal and infinite, He would be ready to make this sacrifice over and over again, if it were possible, and with infinite suffering.

“O Divine Father, Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of the whole world, there is no one so lovable as Thou. Thy manifold and infinite perfections, and the unspeakable blessings Thou hast i n store for all Thy creatures, place upon them endless obligations to serve, honor and love Thee with all their strength. Yet there is no one in the whole world who is so little loved as Thou, no one who is so scorned and insulted by most of Thy creatures. Oderunt me et Patrem meum. ‘They have hated both me and my Father” (John 15:24). Jesus Thy Son has said, ‘without cause they have hated me. I have never done them any harm but have lavished on them all manner of good’: Odio habuerunt me gratis (John 15:25). I behold Hell filled with an untold number of the damned, ceaselessly venting their multitudinous blasphemies against Thy divine majesty. I behold the Earth filled with unbelievers, Jews, heretics, and false Christians who treat Thee as if Thou wert their archenemy.

“But two thoughts are my consolation and joy. The first is that Thy perfections and Thy splendors, O my God, are so admirable. Thou dost take so great a pleasure and so perfect a satisfaction in the infinite love of Thy Divine Son and in all that He hath suffered with that infinite love, to repair the injuries that Thy enemies have striven and still strive to do Thee, that they have not been able or ever will be able to detract the least iota from Thy glory and Thy felicity.

“The second joyful thought is that Jesus, Thy Well-beloved Son, by His incomparable overflowing goodness willed to be our Head and chose us to be His members. He has associated us with Himself in His ineffable love for Thee. He has given us as a result the power to love Thee with the same love wherewith He loves Thee, with a love eternal, boundless, and infinite.”

To understand this truth well, take note of three important facts. First, the love of the Son of God for His Heavenly Father, being eternal, does not pass away, but remains forever, stable and abiding. Secondly, the love of the Son of God for His Father fills all things by its immensity; consequently it abides in us and in our hearts: Intimo meo, intimior, as St. Augustine says. Thirdly, as the Father of Jesus has given us all things in giving us His Son―cum ipso omnia donavit (Romans 8:32)―the love of the Son of God for the Father belongs to us, and we can and must make use of it as a possession that is ours. On this basis, I can, with my Savior, love His Divine Father and mine, with the same love wherewith He loves Him; with a love which I can put into practice, thus:

“O my Savior, I give myself to Thee to unite myself to Thy eternal, boundless, and infinite love for Thy Almighty Father. O Adorable Father, I offer Thee all the eternal, boundless, and infinite love of Thy Son Jesus as a love which is mine. Just as our lovable Savior says to us: ‘Sicut dilexit me Paler, et ego dilexi vos’ ― ‘As the Father hath loved Me, I also love you’ (John 15:9). I may say to Thee: ‘O Divine Father, I love Thee, even as Thy Son loveth Thee.’”

The Father’s love for the Son is no less mine than the Son’s love for the Father; therefore I can make use of it, thus.

“O Father of Jesus, I give myself to Thee to be united to Thy boundless and eternal love for Thy Beloved Son. O my Jesus, I offer Thee all the eternal, boundless, and infinite love of Thy Father, and I offer it to Thee as a love which is mine:’ In this way, as our loving Redeemer says to us: ‘I love you as my Father loveth me; I can say in turn to Him: ‘I love Thee, my Savior, as Thy Eternal Father loveth Thee.’”

O ineffable goodness! O wondrous love! What bliss for us that the Eternal Father gives us His Only-begotten Son, and with Him all things else! He gives Him to us not only to be our Redeemer, our Brother, and our Father, but also to be our Head. What a privilege to be members of die Son of God, to be one with Him, as the members are one with the Head, hence to have but one spirit, one heart, one love with Christ, and thus to be able to love His Divine Father, and our Father, with one and the same Heart and level.

It is, therefore, not surprising that, speaking of us to His Heavenly Father, Our Lord says: Dilexisti eos sicut et me dilexisti, “Thou hast loved them as Thou hast also loved Me!” (John 17:23), and He implores Him to love us always: Dilectio, qua dilexisti me, in ipsis sit ― “The love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them” (John 17:26). If we love the Father as His Son loves Him, He loves us as He loves His Divine Son. He beholds us in His Son as members of Christ who arc but one with the Son and love the Father with the same filial love. Truly He loves us with one and the same Heart and love wherewith He loves His Son. Would that Heaven and Earth and all creatures might be changed into a pure flame of love for the Father of goodness and for the only Son of His divine delight, as St. Paul calls him: Transtulit nos in regnum Filii dilectionis suae! ― “Who hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13).

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 2

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF ARDENT LOVE FOR HIS MOST HOLY MOTHER

Nothing is easier than the proof of this truth. The ineffable graces with which our Savior endowed His Blessed Mother clearly manifest that His love for her is a love without measure or limit. She is, after His Divine Father, the first and most worthy object of His love. He loves her incomparably more than all His angels, saints and other creatures together. The extraordinary favors with which He honored her and the wonderful privileges He conferred upon her, far beyond any other creature, are clear proofs of this truth. Let us examine these numerous and impressive privileges.

First of all, the Blessed Virgin is the only human being whom the Son of God chose from all eternity to elevate above all created things, to set on the highest throne of glory and grandeur, and to adorn with the most admirable of all dignities, the Motherhood of God.

Let us descend in spirit from eternity to the fullness of time, and we shall see this hallowed Virgin alone among the children of Adam in her preservation from Original Sin, through a very special privilege, in testimony of which Holy Church celebrates annually throughout the world the Feast of her Immaculate Conception.

Not only did the love of God’s Son for His most holy Mother preserve her from Original Sin, but over and above that, He filled her from the moment of her conception with such eminent grace that, according to several great theologians, it surpassed the grace of the chief of the Seraphim and of the greatest of all die saints even taken in its perfection. She alone among all the children of Adam enjoyed this privilege.

Moreover, from the first moment of her existence, she possessed the privilege of the light of reason and faith, by which she began to know God, to adore Him, and to give herself to Him. In virtue of another privilege she alone began to love God from the initial moment of her life, and she loved Him more ardently than the most flaming of the Seraphim. She alone loved Him continuously, incessantly, throughout the whole course of her life. For this reason we say that her life was one single act of love from the first to the last moment, an act that was never interrupted.

She is the only creature who has always perfectly accomplished the first of the divine commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Hence several Doctors of the Church assert that her love was doubled with each hour, or even, according to some, with each moment.

When a soul makes an act of love with his whole heart and according to the whole extent of the grace within him, his love becomes twice as great as i t was before. The Blessed Virgin loved God continuously with all her heart and all her strength. If she had ten degrees of love at the first instant of her life, she had twenty at the second; if she had twenty at the second, she had forty at the third. Thus her love was doubled every moment or at least every hour throughout the course of her life.

You can imagine, therefore, what a furnace and what fires of divine love inflamed that virginal heart in the last days of her abode upon Earth. Let us pass on to the consideration of the matchless privileges by which the Only Son of Mary enriched His holy Mother. According to several eminent Doctors, He gave to her alone the grace to merit, by her prayers and tears, the accomplishment of His Incarnation. She alone gave human flesh, from her own substance, to Him who was born from all eternity in the bosom God of the substance of the Father.

Yes, Mary gave a portion of her virginal substance and of her most pure blood to fashion the sacred humanity of the Son of God. In addition, she cooperated with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the union which was formed of her substance with the Person of die Son of God. Thus she participated in the accomplishment of the mystery of the Incarnation, and consequently in the greatest miracle -that God ever has or ever will or even ever can perform.

There is another privilege that contributes to the matchless honor of Our Lady. The most pure blood and the virginal flesh which she offered for this mystery will remain united forever, by the hypostatic union, to the Person of the Incarnate Word. The virginal blood and the precious flesh of Mary are, therefore, to be adored in the humanity of the Son of God with the same adoration that is due to that very humanity itself, and they will be forever the object of the adoration of all the angels and saints. O incomparable privilege! O ineffable love of Jesus for His most holy Mother!

There are still other prerogatives. That loving Mother also gave the flesh and blood from which the adorable Heart of the Child Jesus was formed. The Sacred Heart of the Son of God received its nourishment and its increase from that same blood, during the nine months of its abode in the holy womb of the Blessed Virgin.

The incomparable Virgin is alone in occupying the place of father and mother in respect to the God-Man, and hence in having paternal and maternal authority over Him, and in receiving the honor of being obeyed by the Sovereign of the Universe, an honor that is greater than she would receive from the homage of all created beings.

She alone is Mother and Virgin together, and according to some holy Doctors she made the vow of virginity from the moment of her Immaculate Conception. She alone bore in her womb for nine months Him whom the Eternal Father embraces in His bosom for all eternity. She alone gave life to Him who is eternal life and who gives life to all living things.

Accompanied by St. Joseph, she abode with that adorable Savior for the space of thirty years. O wondrous thing! Our divine Redeemer came upon Earth to save mankind. Yet He set aside only three years and three months of His life for the work of preaching and instructing. The other thirty years He devoted to the ever-increasing sanctification of His holy Mother.

What a wealth of graces and blessings He incessantly poured into the soul of His Blessed Mother! With what flames of heavenly fire did the divine Heart of Jesus enkindle ever more and more the virgin Heart of His most worthy Mother, especially when those two Hearts were so close to each other and so firmly united, while she bore Him in her womb, nursed Him, and held Him in her arms; during the whole time that she lived with Him familiarly as a mother with her child, eating and drinking with Him, praying with Him, and hearing the divine words coming from His adorable lips as so many coals of fire ever enkindling more and more her most holy Heart with the sacred fire of divine love!

After this who can estimate how ardently the blessed Heart of the Mother of the Savior was afire with love for God? Certainly there is great reason to believe that, if her Son had not miraculously preserved her until the decreed hour of death, she would have died of love, not only once, like St. Teresa, but a thousand times, since her love was immeasurably more than that of the great Carmelite mystic. From earliest childhood her love was sufficiently intense to have caused her death and, when her Beloved Son did call her, she died of love that He might give her, after His own, the happiest and most glorious life possible.

Let us repeat concerning the marvelous Virgin that she is the only one, after her Divine Son, to have been transported body and soul into Heaven. In accordance with the tradition of Holy Church, Mary’s Assumption is solemnly celebrated throughout the world. She alone is raised on high above all the choirs of angels and saints and sits at the right hand of her Son. She alone is crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth, of angels and men, the Sovereign Empress of the universe. She alone has all power over the Church Triumphant, Militant, and Suffering. “In Jerusalem potestas mea” ― “and my power was in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiasticus 24:15). She alone has more influence with her Divine Son Jesus than all the citizens of Heaven together: “Data est tibi omnis potestas in coelo et in terra” ― “To thee is given all power in Heaven and on Earth” says St. Peter Damian.

There is yet another particular privilege, emphasized in these words of St. Anselm: “Te, Domina, tacente, nullus orabit, nullus adjuvabit; te autem orante, omnes (nempe Sancti) or omnes adjuvabunt: ― “O my Queen, if thou prayest not for anyone or for anything, no one shall proffer help, but when thou prayest all the saints pray with thee, all the saints put forth their aid.”

Is it not true then that here is a great number of privileges and advantages with which our Savior has honored His most holy Mother? What has constrained Him to do so? The burning love with which His filial Heart is all on fire for her. Why does He love her so much?

(1) She is His Mother, from whom He received a new being and a new life by the new birth which she gave Him on Earth.

(2) He loves her alone more than He loves all creatures together because she loves Him more than all created things.

(3) He loves her most ardently because she cooperated with Him in the accomplishment of His great work of the Redemption of the world. Her cooperation was to, give Him a mortal body capable of suffering and of sustaining the torments of His Passion. She also imparted to Him the Precious Blood which He shed for us, and she offered that body, that blood, and that life as a sacrifice at the foot of the Cross.

As our Savior’s love for His Blessed Mother is so great, we must be obliged to love and serve her to the best of our ability. Let us then love her with her Son Jesus, and if we love them let us hate what they hate and love what they love. Let us have but one heart with them, a heart detesting what they detest, that is, sin, especially the sins against charity, humility and purity, and a heart that loves what they love, particularly the poor, all Christian virtues, and trials. O Mother of goodness, obtain for us these graces from Thy Son!

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 3

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS HAS ENDOWED HIS BLESSED MOTHER
WITH WONDROUS AUTHORITY AND POWER IN HEAVEN

Let us add to the foregoing privileges still another prerogative, the greatest of all. It is this: the Mother of God is eternally associated in Heaven not only with the highest authority of the Eternal Father, His adorable paternity, but likewise she possesses the authority of the Mother of the Divine Son as on Earth: “Et erat subditus illis” ― “and He was subject to them” (Luke 2:51). This is a greater glory for her than if she exercised power over a million worlds. Her Son infinitely surpasses her in glory, power and majesty; yet He will eternally look upon her and honor her as His real Mother. His place as Son of God, says St. Ambrose, did not dispense Him while on Earth from the divine and natural obligation which He had like all other children of obeying His Mother, according to the words: ““Et erat subditus illis” ― “and He was subject to them”. This submission was to Him not a matter of shame, but rather of honor and glory; it was voluntary and proceeded not from weakness but from filial devotion: “Non utique infirmitatis”, as this holy Father declares, “est ista subjectio, sed pietatis.”

Several eminent theologians are agreed that the Mother of the Savior had actual authority over the person of her Son, whether it was by a right of nature or by virtue of His goodness and humility. The greatest of all names that one can bestow upon the Blessed Virgin, says the devout Gerson, is that of Mother of God, all the more because that character gives her authority and natural dominion over the Lord of the whole world: “Quoniam per hoc habet veluti auctoritatem, et naturale dominium ad totius mundi Dominum.” (Serm. de Annunt.) One must not imagine that her Son, having given her this power on Earth, would take it away from her now that she is reigning in Heaven. His respect and love for her now are just as great as when He was on Earth. It is only right, therefore, to believe that she is as powerful in Heaven as she was on Earth and that she still maintains there a measure of authority over her Divine Son. “Eadem potestas est Matris et Filii,” says Arnold Of Chartres; or as Richard of St. Lawrence puts it: “Quae ab omnipotente Filio omnipotens facta est.” The Son and the Mother, having but one and the same flesh, but one and the same heart and will, have also, in a certain way, but one and the same power.

Let us listen to the words of a worthy and learned prelate, George, Archbishop of Nicomedia. Addressing the glorious Virgin he says: “Nothing resists thy might, everything obeys thy imperium; He who is born of thee hath raised thee above all things; thy Creator makes thy glory His and deems Himself honored by those who honor thee; thy Son rejoices beholding the honor that we give thee, and as if He wee paying off the obligations He hath to thee, He gladly grants thee whatsoever thou dost ask Him: Nihil, O Virgo, tuae resistit potentiae; tuam gloriam Filius putat esse propriam, et quasi exsolvens debitum, implet petitiones tuas.” (Orat. de Oblat. Deiparae).

We know for certain, says St. Anselm, that the Blessed Virgin is so filled with grace and merit that she always obtains the fruition of her desires: “Scimus beatam Virginem tanti esse meriti et gratiae apud Deum, ut nihil eorum, quae velit efficere, possit aliquatenus effectu carere.” (De Excel, Virg. cap. 12). It is impossible, says St. Germanus, Archbishop of Constantinople, that her prayers should not be heard, everywhere and in all things, because her Divine Son is always submissive to her behests: “Non potest non exaudiri, cum Deus ut verae Matri; suae, quoad omnia, et per omnia, et in omnibus morem gerat.” (Serm. 2 in B. Mar. dormit.).

“Utrinque stupor,” says St. Bernard, “utrinque miraculum; miracles on both sides. Quod Deus feminae obtemperet, humilitas absque exemplo; et quod Deo femina principetur, sublimitas sine socio” ― “That God should obey a woman is humility unexampled, and that a woman should command God is an, authority which has no like.” Hence it is that St. Peter Damian is not afraid to say that our Blessed Lady appears in Heaven, before the sacred altar of our reconciliation, “non solum rogans sed imperans” ― “not only as a servant but as a mother who commands.” (Serm. de Nativ. B. Mariae).

Roga Patrem, jube nato, jure Matris impera, sings the Church of Paris in one of its sequences: “When thou hast aught to ask of the Eternal Father, O holy Virgin, resort to prayer and supplication; but when it is :a question of the Son, then thy maternal authority gives thee the right to utter a command.” If anyone should claim that here the creature is being put above the Creator, I would ask him whether Sacred Scripture raises Josue above God when it says that the sun stood still and God obeyed the voice of a man. (Josue 10:74).

No, this is Hot putting the creature above the Creator; the fact is that the Son of God has such love and respect for His holy Mother that her prayer to Him is equal to a command. The Blessed Virgin, says St. Albert the Great, (De Laud. Virg., Lib. 2), is able to entreat her Son for the salvation of her servants, and she is able to command Him with the authority of a Mother. This is the favor we ask of her, he adds, when we use the words: “Monstra te esse Matrem.” It is a frequent prayer of the Church, a prayer that is most pleasing to her and most profitable to our souls. It is as if we said to her: Most holy Mother of God, let us see the incomparable mercies with which thy motherly heart is filled on behalf of thy most unworthy children; show us the mighty power that thy most benign heart hath upon the most merciful Heart of thy beloved Son: “Monstra te esse Matrem, sumat per te preces, qui pro nobis natus tulit esse tuus.”

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 4 - Part 1 of 4

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS WAS FILLED WITH BITTER SORROW AT THE SIGHT OF
HIS LOVING MOTHER’S ANGUISH DURING HIS PASSION

PART 1 OF 4

As the Adorable Heart of our Savior was on fire with infinite love for His most holy Mother, the anguish which He bore in seeing her plunged into a sea of sorrow at the time of His Passion was beyond the power of human word or thought. The Blessed Virgin was the Mother of our Redeemer and she ever sustained in her heart an unceasing combat of love. She knew that it was God’s will that her Beloved Son should suffer and die to save souls. Thus her most ardent love for that divine will and for the salvation of souls placed her in utter submission to the commands of God. Her incomparable motherly love for her dear Son, however, caused her unspeakable sorrow, in view of the torments that He was to suffer to redeem the world.

The saints teach that when the day of His Passion had come, in accordance with the loving obedience with which He always honored His holy Mother, and the goodness He always showed in consoling His friends in their affliction, He took leave of His dear Mother before the beginnings of His sufferings. To do all things out of obedience to the will of His Father and His Mother, since she had not a will different from the Father’s, He asked permission of her to carry out what His Eternal Father had commanded Him. He told her that it was the will of the Father that she should accompany Him to the foot of the Cross and that, after His death, she should wrap His body in a shroud and place it in the tomb. The saints also teach that He commanded her what to do and where to remain until His resurrection.

It is also possible that He revealed to her what He had to suffer, as much to prepare her as to encourage her to accompany Him in His sufferings. Because their interior sorrows were unutterable, they did not declare them to each other in words; their eyes met and their Hearts understood their mutual afflictions. The most perfect love of both and their entire conformity to the divine will did not permit any imperfection in their natural feelings.

On the one hand, the Savior being the Only Son of His beloved Mother felt very keenly her sorrows; but, on the other, being her God and willing to fortify her in the greatest sorrow ever borne by a human being, He consoled her by His divine words, which she heard and kept carefully in her Heart. He poured an abundance of new grace into her soul so that she might endure and overcome the exceedingly terrible sorrows prepared for her. These sorrows were so great that if it had been possible and fitting for her to suffer in place of her Son, it would have been easier for her to do so. Her torments would thus have been much more bearable than the sight of her Son’s Passion. It would have been infinitely preferable for her to give her life for Him than to watch Him suffer such dreadful tortures. Since God had willed otherwise, she offered her Heart and Jesus gave His body, so that each should suffer what God had ordained. Mary had to suffer all the torments of her Son in her extremely sensitive Heart; Jesus had to endure in His body inexplicable torments and in His Heart the inconceivable sufferings of His holy Mother.

When He had taken leave of His Mother, the Savior plunged Himself into the immense ocean of His sorrows, and His desolate Mother accompanied Him in spirit as she remained in constant prayer. Thus that sad day began for her with prayers, tears, inner agonies, and a most perfect submission to the divine will, as she uttered in the depths of her Heart what her Son said to His Father in the Garden of Olives: “Father, not My will but Thine be done!” (Luke 22:42). The night that our Redeemer was seized in the Garden of Olives, the Jews led Him, bound and manacled, first to the House of Annas, then to that of Caiphas, where, weary of mocking and insulting Him, they kept Him a prisoner until the next day.

St. John the Evangelist also left the house of Caiphas, whether by in order from our Savior or by some divine inspiration, and went to the house of the Blessed Virgin to inform her of what had taken place. Who, O my God, could express the grief and sorrow of the Mother of Jesus as His beloved disciple recounted what had happened since the opening events of the Passion? Surely the feelings and the griefs of them both were such that whatever one might say of them would be as naught compared with the reality. They conversed more with their hearts than with their tongues, more with tears than with words, particularly the Blessed Virgin, whose grief was so intense that she could give no outward expression to it. Later, when the time came to accompany her Only Son to Calvary, she set out at daybreak in silence, even as her Divine Son, her Lamb, took up His Cross without a word. She bathed the way with her tears and her Heart set up a thousand ardent sighs to Heaven. Let the devout followers of this sorrowing Virgin henceforth gladly pursue a way whereby they can accompany her in her sorrows.

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 4 - Part 2 of 4

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS WAS FILLED WITH BITTER SORROW AT THE SIGHT OF
HIS LOVING MOTHER’S ANGUISH DURING HIS PASSION

PART 2 OF 4

The Jews led the Savior to the house of Pilate and Herod, with every sort of insult and shame, but His sad Mother could not see Him because of the multitude and the noise of the people, until that moment when Pilate, after the scourging and the crowning of thorns, showed Him to the populace. Then it was that she heard the voices of the rabble, the uproar of the city, the insults vomited forth against Her Son, the outrages done Him, the blasphemies flung at Him. Her heart underwent immeasurable suffering and her eyes streamed with tears: “Deduc quasi torrentem lacrymas!” (Lamentations 2:18). As she had placed all her love in Him, she desired His presence above all else, even though it must have afflicted her the most, for love can be so ardent that it endures much less the absence of the object loved than the pain caused by the beloved’s presence, however great the pain. In all this bitterness and anguish, passing all imagination, this innocent Mother aspired to the sight of her Divine Son.

Finally she saw Him all torn from head to foot with whips. His sacred head was pierced with cruet thorns, His adorable face bruised, swollen, stained with blood and spittle. With a rope around His neck and His hands bound, He wore the scarlet robe of mockery. Well did He know that His sorrowful Mother was there; and she, too, knew full well that His divine majesty read the feelings of her Heart, which was pierced with sorrows not inferior to those He bore in his own body. There she heard die false testimony given against Him; she heard them prefer Barrabas, a thief and a murderer. She heard thousands of voices shouting in anger: “Tolle, tolle, crucifige, crucifige!” ― “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (John 19:15).

She heard the cruel and unjust sentence pronounced against the Author of life. She saw upraised the Cross, on which they were to crucify Him; she saw Him bearing it on His shoulders and beginning His march to Calvary. She followed his blood-stained footsteps and washed the way with as many tears as He shed drops of blood; and she bore inwardly the burden of the Cross, as heavy upon her heart as upon His shoulders. At last she reached Calvary, accompanied by the holy women who sought to console her. Like her gentle Lamb she was silent, suffering unspeakable agony, hearing the hammer-blows struck by the executioners on the nails fastening her Son to the Cross.

As she was extremely weak from her night of watching, tears and fasting, when she saw Him whom she loved more deeply than herself raised on the Cross, without being able to relieve Him in any way, she fell into the arms of those accompanying her, as ordinarily happens under the stress of great and excessive sorrow. Then as her tears dried, she lay there, pale, trembling mightily. No other fragrant water could be found to throw upon her face but the tears of grief of those who were supporting her, until such time as her Son restored her strength that she might accompany Him unto death. (The fact mentioned here by St. John Eudes is reported by several authors, but the most reliable theologians reject it because they think it is in opposition to the perfect control of all the notions of sensibility which they unanimously recognize in Mary, and to the quasi- priestly role that she had to fulfil during the Passion of her divine, Son. (Cf. Terrien: La Mère des hommes, vol. 1, p. 200, note).

Whereupon, shedding new streams of tears, she began to suffer a fresh martyrdom of sorrow at the sight of her Son and her God hanging upon the Cross. Nevertheless, this did not prevent her from performing, within her soul, the office of mediatrix between God and sinners, cooperating with their Redeemer in saving diem, and offering to the Father for them His blood, His sufferings, and His death, with the most ardent desire for their eternal happiness. On the one hand, the unspeakable love that she bore her dear Child made her fear to behold Him expire and die; on the other, it filled her with sorrow that His torments were dragging on so long, only to end i n His death. Although she wanted the Eternal Father to soften the rigor of His torments, she also wished to conform wholly to His every command. Thus divine love engendered in her Heart a combat between conflicting desires and feelings which, from this same love, caused her to suffer unspeakable sorrows.

These sacred Lambs, divine and human, beheld and understood each other and communicated to each other their sorrows. It may be said with certainty that no one can understand their anguish except the two Hearts of Son and Mother who, loving each other perfectly, together suffered these cruel torments. Their mutual love being the measure of their sorrows, those who consider their excruciating pain are all the less able to understand it the further they are from comprehending the love of such a Son for such a Mother, and of such a Mother for such a Son.

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 4 - Part 3 of 4

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS WAS FILLED WITH BITTER SORROW AT THE SIGHT OF
HIS LOVING MOTHER’S ANGUISH DURING HIS PASSION

PART 3 OF 4

The sorrows of the Blessed Virgin went on increasing. They were being renewed continually by new insults and torments inflicted on her Son by the Jews in their wrath. What sorrow when she heard Him utter these words: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). What sorrow to see gall and vinegar given Him to quench His burning thirst! What sorrow when she watched Him die on the gibbet between criminals! What sorrow to behold His Heart pierced with a lance! What sorrow when she received Him dead, taken down from the Cross and placed in her arms! What sorrow when the disciples took His holy body from her embrace to enclose it in the sepulchre! With what sorrow must she have returned home, there to await His resurrection! How gladly would the holy Virgin have suffered all the pains of her Son rather than witness His endurance!

It is a result which perfect charity produces in the hearts of those who strive to imitate their Divine Father and their good Mother that they bear with joy their own afflictions and keenly feel those of others. Thus it is easier for them to endure pain themselves than to see the loved ones suffering. That is what our Savior did throughout the course of His life and particularly on the day of His Passion. Knowing that the traitor had sold Him for money, He showed far deeper concern over the lost soul of Judas (saying it would have been better for him if he had never been born rather than merit damnation), than over the torments that He had to suffer by betrayal.

He also showed to the weeping women who were following Him as He carried His cross on His shoulders, how the tribulations which they and the city of Jerusalem would have to suffer, were more painful to Him than all that He was undergoing. “Daughters of Jerusalem,” He said to them, “weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days shall come wherein they will say: ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have never borne, and the paps that have not given suck!’” (Luke 23:28-29).

Even while He was fastened to the cross, forgetting His own torments, He made it clear that the trials of sinners were felt more by Him than His own sufferings, in that He prayed His Father to pardon them. From this we know that His love for His creatures rendered Him more sensitive to their afflictions than to His own.

The greatest torture that our Savior suffered on the Cross, a torture more painful to Him than His own bodily sufferings, was to see His most holy Mother whom He loved more than all creatures together, overwhelmed with sorrow. She was of all mothers the most perfect, the faithful companion of His journeys and of all His labors, who, being immaculate, deserved not to suffer for any fault that she had committed. Her motherly love was greater than that of all angels and saints. She saw Him suffering torments that never had nor ever will have their like. How great is the agony of such a Mother, who sees before her eyes such a Son so unjustly tortured and agonizing in a sea of sorrows, without being able to help Him! Truly this cross was so huge and heavy that no human soul is capable of comprehending it. It was a cross which was reserved for the grace, the love and the heroic virtues of the Mother of God.

The fact that she was the innocent Mother of God did not prevent her from suffering such great torture. On the contrary, her Son would not permit anyone, even those who were crucifying Him, to date to offer her insult or cause her grief. Desiring to make her like unto Himself, whose love was the principal and first cause of His sufferings and His death, He also willed that His love for His Mother and her love for Him should be the cause of the martyrdom of His heart at the end of His life, just as at the beginning it had been the source of His joys and satisfaction.

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 4 - Part 4 of 4

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS WAS FILLED WITH BITTER SORROW AT THE SIGHT OF
HIS LOVING MOTHER’S ANGUISH DURING HIS PASSION

PART 4 OF 4

The Son of God witnessed from His cross all the griefs and sorrows of the holy Heart of His Blessed Mother; He heard her sighs, He saw her tears and the loneliness in which she was to remain after His death. Each vision was a new torment and a new martyrdom for the divine Heart of Jesus. Thus everything was present that could afflict and crucify the most lovable Hearts of the Son and the Mother. Therefore, some authorities think that when the Savior spoke from the Cross to His sorrowful Mother, He did not wish to call her Mother, so as not to cause her more pain. He spoke only words which showed that He had not forgotten her and that, in accordance with His Father’s will, He was succoring her in her loneliness, giving her the beloved disciple to be her son, saying: “Mulier, ecce filius tuus” ― “Woman, behold thy son!” and to the disciple, “Behold thy Mother!”― “Ecce Mater tua!” ( John, 19, 26-27). Henceforth, St. John remained bound to the service of the Queen of Heaven, honoring her as his Mother and serving her as his Lady, esteeming the service to her as the greatest favor that he could receive in this world from his loving Master.

All sinners have a share in this grace of St. John, for he represented all human beings at the foot of the Cross and our Savior beheld them all in him; so in speaking to him He was addressing all men in general and each soul in particular, saying, “Ecce Mater tua!” ― “Behold thy Mother!” I give you my Mother to be yours, and I give you to her as her children. What a precious gift! What an inestimable treasure! What an incomparable grace! What an obligation we have to our Savior in His unspeakable goodness! What thanks we should render Him! He has given His Divine Father to be our Father; and He gives us His most holy Mother to be our Mother, so that we shall have with Him but one and the same Father and Mother. We are not worthy to be the slaves of this great Queen, and lo! He makes us her children! What reverence and humility we must have for such a Mother! What zeal and affection in her service! What pains we must take to imitate her holy virtues, so that there will be some resemblance between Mother and children!

This gentle Mother received great consolation when she heard the voice of her Dear Son. At the hour of death any word whatsoever from one’s child or dear friend lends great comfort and peculiar consolation. Since those two Sacred Hearts, the Hearts of such a Son and of such a Mother so well understood each other, the Blessed Virgin. accepted most readily St. John as her son, and in him all sinners in general, knowing well that that was the intention of her dying Son. He was shedding His blood for sinners, and their sins were the cause of His death. He desired in that last hour to remove from them any possible mistrust of Him, when they saw the great sufferings that they had caused Him by their sins. To that end He gave them His most valued treasure, a treasure most capable of influencing Him, His most holy Mother, so that by her mediation and protection they might have the confident assurance of being received and welcomed by His divine majesty. One cannot doubt, therefore, the inestimable love of the Mother of goodness for sinners, since, in that spiritual begetting at the foot of the Cross, she suffered unspeakable pain which was absent from the Virgin birth of her Son and her God.

All these things clearly show that the sorrows of the Mother and the sufferings of the Son culminate in immense graces, blessings, and favors for sinners. What an obligation we have, therefore, to honor, to love and to praise those two most lovable Hearts of Jesus and Mary; to employ our whole life in serving and glorifying them; and to endeavor to imprint on our hearts a perfect image of their most eminent virtues! It is impossible to please them if we follow any other path except the one they trod upon Earth.

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 5 - Part 1 of 2

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF LOVE FOR
THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT, MILITANT AND SUFFERING

PART 1 OF 2

It is certainly true that this adorable Heart is a burning furnace of divine love, radiating its fire and game in all directions, in Heaven, on Earth, and even in Hell: in Heaven in the Church Triumphant, on Earth in the Church Militant, and in Purgatory in the Church Suffering, and to some degree even in the Hell of the damned.

If we lift our eyes and hearts to Heaven, to the Church Triumphant, what shall we see? We shall behold an innumerable army of saints, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins. What are all these saints? They are so many flames from the immense furnace of the divine Heart of Jesus. Is it not the love of that kind Heart which brought them into the world, enlightened them with the light of faith, and gave them strength to conquer the devil, the world and the flesh ? Is it not the goodness of that amiable Heart which adorned them with all virtues, sanctified them in this world and glorified them in the other; which kindled in their hearts the love they bear to God, inspired their lips with His divine praises, which is the source of all that is great and holy and admirable in them? If then one celebrates during the course of the year so many feasts in honor of these same saints, what a solemnity is due to this divine Heart which is the principle of everything that is glorious and noble in all the saints!

Let us come down to Earth and see what is most worthy and great in the Church Militant. It is the holy Sacraments―the Sacrament of Baptism by which we are made children of God; Confirmation, which gives us the Holy Spirit; Penance, which washes away our sins and restores us to God’s favor; the Blessed Eucharist, which feeds our souls with the flesh and blood of the Son of God, making us live by His life; Matrimony, which forms children for God, to serve and honor Him on Earth and to love and praise Him forever in Heaven; Holy Orders, which gives to the Church priests who shall continue the functions of the great High Priest and thus cooperate with Him in the great work of the salvation of the world, so that they bear the name and the character of saviours in Holy Scripture: “Ascendent salvatores in montem Sion” (Abd. 1, 21); and Extreme Unction, which at our departure from this world fortifies us against the enemies of our salvation, who at that last hour make their final endeavor to ruin us.

The seven Sacraments are so many inexhaustible fountains of grace and holiness, which have their source in the immense ocean of the Sacred Heart of our Savior; they are so many flames of a divine furnace from which proceed all spiritual blessings. But the brightest of those flames is the most Holy Eucharist. It is true that this great Sacrament is a compendium of all the wonders of the power, wisdom and goodness of God, but it is also true that it is one of the fruits of the incomparable Heart of Jesus and one of the flames of that wondrous furnace.

Since a solemn feast is celebrated by Holy Church in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, what a solemnity should also be kept in honor of His most Sacred Heart, which is the source of all that i s great and rare and precious in this august Sacrament?

Let us, as it were, descend in spirit to Purgatory, to the Church Suffering. What is Purgatory? It is the awe-inspiring throne of divine justice, which metes out in this place punishments so terrible that St. Thomas says: “Minima poena purgatorii excedit omnes poenas huius mundi” ― “The slightest pain suffered there surpasses all the sufferings of this world.” (Summa IIIa, q. 46, a. 6, ad 3). St. Augustine says the same thing as the Angelic Doctor: “Gravior est ille ignis, quam quidquid potest homo pati in hac vita” ― “That fire is worse than anything man can suffer in this life!” (Super Psalm. 37). “Ille purgatorius ignis durior erit, quam quidquid potest in hoc saeculo poenarum videri, aut cogitari, aut sentiri” ― “That fire of Purgatory will be harder than anything that can be seen in pains of this world, or thought, or felt!” (Serm. 4 pro defunctis).

Nevertheless, the terrible justice of God does not hold such sway in Purgatory that mercy has no part there. Mercy with justice has constituted Purgatory, to open paradise, which would remain closed to the majority of men if Purgatory did not exist, because it is a truth of our faith that nothing contaminated shall enter Heaven: Nihil coinquinatum intrabit in regnum caelorum (Apocalypse 21:27). Thus a soul, even though it had but one venial sin on quitting the body, would never enter paradise unless the merciful Savior had established Purgatory to purify it. And so Purgatory is a result of the goodness and charity of the most benign Heart of our Redeemer.

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 5 - Part 2 of 2

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF LOVE FOR
THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT, MILITANT AND SUFFERING

PART 2 OF 2

Let us descend still lower. Let us go in spirit into Hell, since St. Chrysostom declares that not one of those who thus go there during this life to inspire themselves to the work of their salvation with fear and trembling shall descend there after death.

What is Hell? It is a place of torment, according to the Holy Gospel: “Locus tormentorum” ― “place of torments” (Luke 16:28); it is “gehenna ignis” ― “hell fire” (Matthew 18:9); “supplicium aeternum” ― “everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46); “the pain of fire, an eternal punishment, in a place of torments” ― in short, it is the place of the vengeance and anger of God. But the infinite mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is manifested there in three ways.

First, His goodness provides that the damned are not punished as much as they deserve; for sin deserves infinite punishment, seeing that it is an offense committed against a God who infinitely deserves to be served and obeyed, and against a God to whom we have infinite obligations. Sin deserves infinite punishment not Only as to extent and duration, but also intensively as to the degree and quality of the punishment. Now, although the pains of the reprobate are infinite as to extent and duration, they are limited as to intensiveness and degree, seeing that Our Lord could increase them ever more and more. This He does not do because of the ineffable goodness of His most tender Heart.

Secondly, His justice has established a Hell to punish the wicked who die in their sins, but His mercy too has fashioned it, says St. Chrysostom, to inspire the fear of God in the hearts of the good and to lead them to work out their salvation cum timore et tremor (Ephesians 6:5), with fear and trembling.

Thirdly, the unparalleled goodness of our Savior employs the fires of Hell to enkindle in our hearts the fire of divine love. In what way? In this manner. If you had deserved punishment by fire, what an obligation you would have to love the person who delivered you from such a heavy penalty!

How few persons there are on Earth who have never committed a mortal sin! There are very few indeed. And what was the just desert of all those who offended God mortally even but once in their whole life? They have merited Hell, but on them alone does it depend to be freed therefrom. To whom do they owe this obligation? To the immense charity of the most kind Heart of our Redeemer, which gives them infinite obligations to serve and to love Him. Acknowledge that the loving kindnesses of the amiable Heart of this divine Savior are exceedingly admirable; that He uses even the fires of Hell to draw us to love Him and hence to belong to the number of those who shall possess Him eternally.

And so this divine furnace, the adorable Heart of Jesus, diffuses everywhere its fiery flames, in Heaven, on Earth, and even in Hell. O ineffable goodness! O wondrous love! O God of my heart, would that I possessed all the hearts that have ever been, are, and shall be, in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth, to employ them in loving, praising and glorifying Thee unceasingly! O Jesus, only Son of God, only Son of Mary, I offer Thee the most loving Heart of Thy divine Mother which is more precious and pleasing to Thee than all hearts. O Mary, Mother of Jesus, I offer Thee the most adorable Heart of Thy well-beloved Son, who is the life and love and joy of thy Heart.

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 6 - Part 1 of 2

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF LOVE FOR EACH ONE OF US

PART 1 OF 2

To appreciate this truth, let us consider the wondrous effects of the inconceivable goodness and the unspeakable love of the Sacred Heart towards us. Two of these effects which embody many more are here given.

The first is that of having delivered us from the abyss of evils into which sin had plunged us. By sin we were made enemies of God, the object of His wrath and curse, excommunicated from the Most Holy Trinity, anathematized by the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, separated from the company of angels, banished from the home of our Heavenly Father; by sin we were driven from paradise, cast into Hell, plunged into the devouring flames of eternal fire, subjected to the terrible tyranny of Satan, enslaved by demons, given over to their rage and fury, condemned to the rightful punishments of Hell, an without hope of help or relief.

Exceedingly terrible as are those evils there is yet one which exceeds them all. What is that but sin, which is die evil of evil and the sole cause of all the others on Earth and in Hell. What an evil is sin! To understand something of its malice, imagine all men who have lived, are now living, and will live upon Earth; imagine that each of them possesses the holiness of a St. John the Baptist; imagine also all the angels of Heaven as having taken mortal flesh and being joined to the multitude of men.

Even if all these men and angels were to shed their blood to the last drop and suffer all the torments of Hell for eternity, they would not be able to deliver us from the tiniest venial sin; they would not be able to render perfect and worthy satisfaction to God for the offense done Him, nor consequently to free us from the slightest evil we should have merited by that sin, nor give us that drop of water which the rich man craved so long ago. If one venial sin is so great an evil, what of mortal sin? What is it to be the slave of that infernal monster, which is more hideous and terrible than all the monsters and dragons of Earth and Hell?

Such is the pit of evils into which we had been plunged, from which there was no hope of escape, since all human powers and all the forces of Heaven and Earth were powerless to deliver us. Yet it has transpired, by a boon which we cannot comprehend, that we were liberated! To whom do we owe this? To the most loving Heart of our adorable Redeemer. We were delivered from so many evils by the immeasurable goodness, the infinite mercy, and the matchless love of that divine Heart. What had we done, what service rendered, to constrain Him thereto? Nothing whatever. It was out of purest love that He honored us with such a favor. What did He do to obtain for us so great a blessing? He did and suffered all. The cost to Him was dear, His blood, His life, a thousand torments, and a most cruet and shameful death. What obligations we have to honor, praise, and love that most benign Heart in return for all these benefits!

Suppose a man is a bandit-gunman. He has robbed a wealthy merchant by violence. He is caught, imprisoned, tried, condemned to death, and there he is in the hands of the hangman who is putting the rope around his neck. The merchant arrives at that very moment. By dint of money, the entreaties of friends, and even by the offer of his own life for the culprit, he obtains a pardon for the criminal and sets him free. How great is the bandit’s debt to his rescued?

For our crimes we were condemned to the pains of Hell. The only begotten Son of God, out of the inconceivably abundant goodness of His divine Heart, suffered a most atrocious and shameful death in order to deliver us. Try to estimate how indebted we arc to that adorable Heart. An elephant will give itself entirely for the rest of its life to serve a man who had released it from a pit. What shall I give in return to Thee, my Savior, and what shall I do for Thy love of me? Thou hast snatched me out of the frightful jaws of Hell as often as ever I have fallen into them by sinning, or would have fallen if the charity of Thy dear Heart had not held me back. Does it take a dumb animal to teach me the lesson of gratitude which I owe Thee for Thy unspeakable mercies?

Such is the first effect, or rather the effect without number or measure of the tremendous love which the Sacred Heart of our Redeemer has manifested in delivering us from immeasurable evils. But it is not enough for him to have freed us from all those punishments; He would likewise shower us with inconceivable gifts. What a favor and fortune it is, not only to be snatched from Hell but to be raised to Heaven, to be made a citizen of paradise where there is a general exemption from all sorts of evils and where one possesses fully, entirely, unchangeably, eternally all sorts of boons! What a favor and a fortune to be associated with the angels, to be their companion, to be seated beside their throne, to live the angelic life, to be clothed with their glory, to enjoy their felicity, in short, to resemble the angels: “Erunt aequales angelis Dei!” ― “they are equal to the angels” (Luke 20:36).

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 6 - Part 2 of 2

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF LOVE FOR EACH ONE OF US

What extraordinary fortune to be ranked with the children of God, the heirs of the great God, the co-heirs of the Son of God: “Videte qualem caritatem dedit nobis Pater, ut fiIii Dei nominemur et simus!” ― “Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). What a remarkable privilege to be kings of an everlasting kingdom and to possess the same kingdom that the Father of Jesus has given to His Son: “Sicut disposuit mihi Pater, et ego dispono vobis regnum!” ― “And I dispose to you, as My Father hath disposed to Me, a kingdom” (Luke 22:29). What a blessed invitation to eat at the table of the King of Heaven: “Ut edatis et bibatis super mensam meam” ― “That you may eat and drink at My table, in My kingdom” (Luke 22:30). What a great joy to be clothed in the glorious royal robe of the King of kings: “Claritatem quam dedisti mihi, dedi eis!” ― “the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to them” (John 17:22). What a supreme favor to share the throne of the Sovereign Monarch of the universe: “Qui vicerit, dabo ei sedere mecum in throno meo!” ― “To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with Me in My throne” (Apcalypse 3:21). What an incomparable blessing to dwell quietly with our Savior in the bosom and in the adorable Heart of His Divine Father: “Pater, quos dedisti mihi, volo ut ubi sum ego, et illi sint mecum” ― “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me” (John 17:24). Where art Thou, my Savior? “In sinu Patris” ― “in the bosom of the Father,” says St. John (John 1:18).

What a fortune, moreover, to share all the good things that God possessed He who has God shall enjoy all the manifold glory, happiness and wealth of God: “Amen dico vobis, super omnia bona sua constituet eum” ― “Amen I say to you, he shall place him over all his goods” (Matthew 24:47). What a blessing to be wholly transformed into God, to be clothed, filled, penetrated with all the perfections of God, more perfectly than the iron in the midst of the furnace is penetrated by the qualities of the fire! Finally, what a blessing to be united to God: “Sicut tu Pater in me, et ego in te, ita et ipsi in nobis unum sunt: divinae consortes naturae” ― “That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21).What a privilege to be by grace and by participation what God is by nature and by essence!

What created mind can understand these surpassing gifts? Could all the tongues of men and angels express the least part of them? Is it not true what St. Paul says, that all those blessings are so great that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him” ― “Nec oculus vidit nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit quae praeparavit Deus diligentibus se” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Now, to whom do we owe all those blessings? To the boundless generosity and infinite love of the most kind Heart of our lovable Savior. Hence, what honor, what praise, what thanksgiving we must render Him, and with what devotion we must celebrate the solemnity of that most august Heart! Suppose that the aforesaid merchant who was robbed not only delivered the gunman from the hands of the executioner and from the shameful death he was ready to suffer, but also gave him half of his goods. How would that criminal ever be able to repay such goodness? Our divine Savior has done more for us. Not only has He delivered us from eternal death and all the tortures accompanying it, but He has also heaped upon us a superabundance of unspeakable blessings. Indeed, He has given us all His blessings without reserve.

What shall we give Him in return? “Quid retribuam Domino, pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi?” ― “What shall I render to the Lord, for all the things He hath rendered unto me?” (Psalm 115:12). If we had the hearts of as many Seraphim as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, blades of grass on the Earth, grains of sand and drops of water in the sea, and if we devoted them solely to love and glorify Him, it would be as nothing compared with the love He has for us and the obligations we have of consecrating our hearts to Him. Yet what are we and the great majority of men doing? Is it not true that we treat this adorable Redeemer as ungratefully as if we had never received any boon from Him? Is it not true that we treat Him as if He had done us all the evil in the world? But is it not true that He has neglected nothing, that if it came even to all His glory and His own safety, He would not have been able to do more than He has done for love of us? ― “Quid potui facere et non feci?”― “What is there that I ought to do more that I have not done?” (Isaias 5:4).

If it were possible, He says to St. Bridget, that I should suffer all the torments of My Passion as many times as there are souls in Hell, I would most gladly suffer them, for charity is as much aflame in my Heart now as it was then. Even so, is it not still true that the majority of men on Earth treat that loving Savior as if He were their enemy? What insults, what crimes, what cruelty and abuse could they practise against Him that they do not already practise? In short, what more despicable thing could they do than to crucify Him every day? Yes, crucify Him; for anyone who mortally offends Him crucifies Him again, “rursus Christum crucifigentes” ― “crucifying Christ again” (Hebrews 6:6), and commits a greater crime than did the Jews, for they did not know Him.

Let us detest and recoil from such ingratitude and such abominable wickedness. Let us open our ears to the voice, or rather the voices of our Savior. I say “voices,” for all the evils from which He has delivered us and all the blessings without number that He has given us are so many voices crying out to us: “Sic Deus dilexit nos” ― “God so loved us” (John 4:21). Therefore let us love Him who so loves us. If a man of no account, the weakest and lowest of all men, should manifest some kindliness towards us, we could not help loving him. Nay, if even a dumb animal, a mongrel, for instance, attaches itself to us and does us some slight service, we love it. Why then should we not love God who is our creator, our preserver, our ruler, our king, our most faithful friend, our most loving father, our treasure, our glory, our supreme good, our life, our heart, our all? He is all heart and soul and love for us.

O my Savior, I know not if I have yet begun to love Thee as I ought. “Dixi, nunc coepi” ― “Now have I begun” (Psalm 76:11). I now mean to love Thee with all my heart with all my soul, and with all my strength. I renounce forever all that is contrary to Thy holy love. Let me die a thousand deaths rather than ever offend Thee. I give Thee my heart; take full and absolute possession of it; destroy in it everything not pleasing to Thee, and rather destroy it itself than to allow it not to love Thee: “aut amare Jesum meum, aut mori” ― “Either to love my Jesus, or to die.” But am I giving Thee anything in giving Thee my empty heart?

O my Lord, if I had the hearts of as many Seraphim as Thy omnipotence could create, with what joy would I consecrate them all to Thee! I offer Thee die precious heart of Thy most worthy Mother, who has more love for Thee than all hearts that have been, are, or shall be. O Mother of Jesus, love Thy Adorable Son for me. 0 good Jesus, love Thy sweet Mother for me. O all ye citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, love Jesus and Mary for me, and unite me with your great love, now and eternally.’

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 7 - Part 1 of 2

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF LOVE FOR
EACH ONE OF US IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

PART 1 OF 2

St. Bernard appropriately refers to the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist as “the Love of loves,” Amor amorum. If we use the eyes of faith to contemplate the marvelous effects of our Savior’s ineffable goodness to us in this adorable mystery, we shall see eight flames of love issuing continually from this wondrous furnace.

The first flame is the inconceivable love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which impelled Him to imprison Himself in this Sacrament and has constrained Him to abide there continuously night and day, for nearly two thousand years, to be always with us, so as to fulfil the promise of these words: “Ecce ego vobiscum sum onmibus diebus, usque ad consummationem saeculi” ― “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28:20). He is the Good Shepherd who wishes always to be with His flock. He is the divine Physician who wishes always to be at the bedside of His patients. He is the Father full of affection who never leaves His children. He is the Friend most loyal and tender, whose delight it to be with His friends: “Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum” ― “My delights were to be with the children of men” (Proverbs 8:31).

The second flame of this fiery furnace is the love of our Savior’s adorable Heart vibrating in great and significant actions on our behalf in this Sacrament. He is there adoring, praising and glorifying His Father unceasingly for us, to satisfy to the full our infinite obligations of adoring, praising and glorifying. He is there continually giving thanks to the Father for all the corporal and spiritual blessings, natural and supernatural, temporal and eternal, which He has ever given to us, which He gives at each moment, and plans to give us, provided we interpose no obstacle. He is there loving His Father for us, paying to the full our debts and obligations of loving Him. He is there offering His merits to satisfy His Father’s justice and w pay Him on our behalf what we owe Him by reason of our sins. He is there continually praying to His Father for all our spiritual and temporal needs. “Semper vivens ad interpellandum pro nobis” ― “Always living to make intercession for us” (Hebrews 7:25).

The third flame of this furnace is the infinite love of our dear Redeemer, who exercises His omnipotence so as to perform in this adorable Sacrament many stupendous miracles, changing bread into His body and wine into His blood, and performing several other wonders incomparably surpassing all those of Moses, of the prophets, and of the apostles, and even of our Savior during His sojourn on Earth. All those miracles were performed only in Judea, while these take place throughout the universe. The visible miracles were transitory and of short duration; the invisible have been continuous for more than nineteen hundred years and they will endure till the end of time. The former were effected on bodies separated from their souls and then restored to life, on sick persons who were healed, on water changed to wine, but the latter are effected on the adorable body of God, on His Precious Blood, and even on the glory and grandeur of His divinity, which is hidden in this Sacrament.

The fourth flame is indicated in the inspired words of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles: “Mixit Deus Filium suum benedicentem, vobis” ― “God hath sent His Son to bless you” (Acts 3:26). This Adorable Son has come filled with love for you and with a most ardent desire to pour , out His blessings upon those who honor Him and love Him as their,, Father. It is chiefly in this divine Sacrament that He showers His blessings upon those who open the way to His grace.

The fifth flame is His immense love which constrains Him to give to us all the treasures of grace and holiness which He acquired on Earth. To us He does give them, indeed, in the Blessed Eucharist boons immeasurable and infinite, graces most abundant and special, provided we have the dispositions required for receiving them.

The sixth flame is that burning love always impelling Him to enrich us with the gifts and graces which He acquired by His Precious Blood, and to give Himself to us without reserve in Holy Communion. He gives us His divinity, His humanity, His divine person, His adorable body, His Precious Blood, His holy soul, in short, all that He has and all that He is, as God and as man. Consequently, He will give us His Eternal Father and His Holy Spirit which are inseparable from Him, just as He will inspire us with devotion to His most holy Mother, who everywhere follows her divine Lamb, much more than do the holy virgins of whom it is said: “Sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit” ― “These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Apocalypse 14:4).

The seventh flame is the incredible love of the Blessed Savior in immolating Himself continually for us, a love that surpasses in every way the charity by which He was immolated on the altar of the Cross. There He sacrificed Himself on Calvary only; here He sacrifices Himself all over the world by means of the Blessed Eucharist. There He immolated Himself once only; here He sacrifices Himself thousands of times daily. It is true that the Sacrifice of the Cross was accomplished in a sea of sorrows and that it is accomplished here in an ocean of joy and felicity, but the Heart of our Redeemer is still, in our day, as flaming with love for us as it was then. Jesus is ready, if it were possible and necessary for our salvation, to undergo the same sufferings that He bore in His immolation on Calvary, as many times as He sacrifices Himself on the altars throughout the world because of His infinite love for us.

The eighth flame of this wonderful furnace of love consists of the love that our most benign Redeemer manifests to us when He gives men continual evidence of His goodness at a time when He receives from them nothing but the most furious hatred imaginable. At what moment does He thus manifest such love? At the time of the institution of this divine Sacrament, the last day of His life, the flight before His death. At that very moment men are not less moved with rage and fury against Him than the devils themselves; for what does He say? “Haec est hora vestra, et potestas tenebrarum” ― “This is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).

St. John Eudes on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Chapter 7 - Part 2 of 2

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS IS A FURNACE OF LOVE FOR
EACH ONE OF US IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

PART 2 OF 2

O my Savior, on that first Holy Thursday evening, Thy thoughts were only of peace, charity, and good will for men, whereas die Jews thought only of malice and cruelty. Thou didst seek only to save them; they sought only to do away with Thee. Thy whole Heart and Thy whole mind were bent on breaking the chains that held them bound as the slaves of demons; and they would sell Thee, betray Thee and deliver Thee into the hands of Thy cruel enemies. Thou wast preoccupied with establishing an adorable Sacrament whereby always to abide with them, but they were striving to drive Thee from the world, to banish Thee from off the Earth, and even to destroy Thee if they could but do so.

Thou didst prepare for them on Earth boundless graces and in Heaven thrones magnificent and .glorious crowns, if they were willing to render themselves worthy of them, but they were preparing for Thee ropes, lashes, thorns, nails, lances, crosses, spittle, revilings, blasphemies and all sorts of shameful outrageous cruelties. Thou didst set before them a most delectable feast of Thy own flesh and blood, and they gave Thee gall and vinegar to drink. Thou didst give them Thy holy and immaculate body and they bruised it by blows, they cut it with their lashes, they pierced it in a thousand places with thorns and nails, they covered it with wounds from head to foot, they dismembered it on the Cross, causing it to suffer the most atrocious tortures. Finally, my Savior, Thou didst love them more than Thy own life and blood since Thou didst sacrifice them for Thy enemies. In return, they rent Thy soul from Thy body by violence.

What goodness! what charity! what love flowing from Thy adorable Heart, O my Savior! What ingratitude! what wickedness! what cruelty stemming from the heart of man!

What happened then still happens today. Thy most loving Heart, O Jesus, dwells in this Sacrament, burning with love for us. It is there continually performing thousands of good deeds towards us. How do we repay Thee, O Lord? We repay Thee with ingratitude and injuries a thousandfold, in thought, word and deed, trampling under foot Thy divine commandments and those of the Church. Ungrateful wretches, our most gracious Savior so loved us that, while He was on Earth, He would have died a thousand deaths for love of us if He had not miraculously preserved His life. He is still ready to die a hundred thousand times for us if it were possible and necessary for our salvation. Let us then die, die of sorrow in beholding our sins; let us die of shame that we have so little love for Him; let us die a thousand deaths rather than ever offend Him again. O my Savior, grant us this favor, we implore Thee! O Mother of Jesus, obtain for us this grace from thy Well-beloved Son!

* * * * * * *

DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
BY FR. CROISET
(the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)

Our Lord personally demanded that Fr. Croiset write a book on Devotion to the Sacred Heart

INTRODUCTION

This book was composed during the lifetime of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and published in 1691, the year after her death. The letters of St. Margaret Mary show that the book was written at the request of Our Savior Himself, conveyed to Father Croiset by St. Margaret Mary; in her letter to him asking him to compose this book she assured him on the part of Our Savior that he was to get special assistance, and when the work was near completion she told him that it was so completely in accordance with the wishes of Our Lord that it would never be necessary to make any change in it. The book, then, rests on the authority of Our Lord Himself; as He promised, no change in it was ever found necessary―even now, after the lapse of two and a half centuries during―which time innumerable books on the devotion have appeared, it still remains the most practical book on the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

The book remained only thirteen years in circulation, during which time it was translated into nearly all the European languages. At that time the Catholic religion was being persecuted in England; Saint Claude de la Colombière, who had introduced the devotion to the Sacred Heart there, was first imprisoned and afterwards banished from England, so no translation of Father Croiset’s book was made into English. Since the book was restored to circulation at the end of the last century, a very much abridged edition has appeared in English, in which the space available did not permit the inclusion of many important chapters.

The following are the circumstances under which the book made its first appearance: St. Margaret Mary Alacoque wrote many times to her director, Father Croiset, at the behest of her Divine Master, asking him to write a book to make the devotion to the Sacred Heart [which hitherto had been practiced by chosen souls as a private devotion] known to the general body of the faithful. In her letter to him of April 14th, 1689, she said:

“If you knew the ardent desire which urges me to make the Sacred Heart of my Sovereign known and glorified, you would not refuse to undertake this work. If I am not mistaken, He wishes you to do so.”

And on September 15th of the same year she wrote to him: “Since you wish me to tell you what I think about your plans for honoring the Divine Heart of Jesus, I believe [if I am not mistaken] that they are most pleasing to Him . . . And I tell you that you are happy to be among the number of those whom He will employ for the execution of His designs, as I can have no doubt but that He has chosen you for this work; follow the lights which He will give you for the execution of it. With regard to all that you propose to me in your letter both about meditations and the indulgences, it seems to me that I see clearly, and in a way which leaves no doubt, that it is He who has inspired you in this manner with these ideas. He has given me to understand that this manner is so pleasing to Him, that none other but Himself could have arranged everything so much to His wishes, and I believe that He will be very much glorified by it.”

When she was aware that Father Croiset had undertaken the work she said to one of the sisters in confidence: “I shall certainly die this year in order not to be an obstacle to the great fruits which my Savior intends to draw from a book on devotion to His Sacred Heart which Father X will get printed as soon as possible.”

In two letters during the last year of her life, while assuring Father Croiset again of special Divine assistance for his work, she warned him of how much he would have to suffer on account of the publication of his book. On January 17th, 1690, she wrote to him: “If I am not mistaken, our amiable Savior seems to promise me that He will furnish you with all the graces and helps necessary, and even that He will supply on His part for all that may be wanting on ours. But all that will not be accomplished without much pain and suffering, which you are to receive as the strongest proofs of His will.”

On August 21st of the same year, she wrote to him: “You are surprised at that [some trial he had to endure], but that is nothing; more is to come, for you must be purified like gold in the crucible for the execution of the designs of God. Those designs are truly great; therefore you will have much to suffer from the devil, from creatures and from yourself. But what will appear to you hardest to bear, will be when God will seem to take a share in making you suffer, but you have nothing to fear, for this is the way to show that He loves you . . .

“But to return to the question of your work on the adorable Heart of my Jesus, I have no doubt that He has assisted you, since the whole work, if I be not mistaken, is so perfectly in accordance with His wishes, that I do not think that it will be necessary to change anything in it . . . Once again I pray you not to be downcast on account of all the contradictions, troubles and obstacles which this work which you have undertaken will encounter. Consider that He for Whom you are doing it, being all-powerful, will not allow you to lack any of the helps necessary to accomplish it perfectly according to His desire.”

Everything happened as St. Margaret Mary had foretold: she died before the end of the year; her death removed an obstacle to speaking freely about the revelations which she had received, and permitted Father Croiset to include an account of her life and the favors which she had received; the book was published as soon as possible during the year after her death; God was very much glorified by it, for in a short time it was the means of spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart to the ends of the earth; and finally it was a cause of great trouble and suffering to Father Croiset himself, for after being translated into most of the continental languages and enjoying an immense circulation for thirteen years, it was put on the Index by a Decree of the Congregation of the Index of March 11th, 1704, because the author, though in good faith, had omitted certain formalities required for a book dealing with such an important subject.

During these thirteen years, other books on the devotion appeared; among these was a book by Father Galliflet, who had been a novice under St. Claude de la Colombière. Other works continued to appear in various languages by distinguished authors; in the course of time several papal encyclicals explaining and advocating the devotion were issued, and Father Croiset’s book became forgotten for the space of nearly two hundred years.

However, when Divine Providence deemed the time opportune, the book was restored to circulation by the same Congregation that had ordered it to be withdrawn. The letters of St. Margaret Mary make it clear that the book was completely in accordance with the wishes of Our Divine Savior and was published according to His desires, and that the withdrawal from circulation was foretold and permitted for His own wise purposes: we are, therefore, justified in concluding that the reappearance of this book by the permission of the Church in modern times is also providential, and that reappearing at a time when Our Savior has issued a new appeal from His Sacred Heart to a world that is turning away from God, it is given to the Church to aid in restoring the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to its original fervor.

The following are the circumstances under which this book made its reappearance: when the hierarchy was reestablished in the former Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Hertzegovinia, Monsignor Stadler, Professor of Theology at the University of Agram, was appointed to be the first Archbishop of Sarajevo. Immediately after his appointment, he announced his intention of consecrating his archdiocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and of putting all his trust in the Sacred Heart to reestablish the Catholic religion in these provinces.

No book on devotion to the Sacred Heart existed in the language of his archdiocese. He selected Father Croiset’s book as what he considered to be the most suitable book to explain the theory and practice of this devotion to the priests and laity of his diocese; he translated it, had his translation printed and was about to circulate it when he was informed that this book was on the Index. He wrote to the Sacred Congregation of the Index asking for permission to publish his translation.

When the Sacred Congregation suggested to him that he should select some other of the numerous books on this devotion, he replied that he could find none other so suitable for his purpose, and requested the Congregation to have the book examined and to make any changes deemed necessary. The Sacred Congregation acceded to his request, and had the book submitted to a rigorous examination in the light of the papal encyclicals and decrees of the two centuries that had elapsed since the book had been written. The result of this examination was that no error whatever could be found in the book and no change necessary; the book was removed from the Index, and permission given to publish it in all the languages of the world, as the author had written it.

Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that no change would have to be made in Father Croiset’s book, as it was perfectly in accordance with the wishes of Our Lord.

In recent years Our Savior appeared to another member of the Visitation Order, Mother Louise Margaret, with a new message from His Sacred Heart for His priests to be conveyed by them to the world. The message is, in brief, that He wishes His bishops and priests to unite in a new association for the purpose of promoting devotion to His Sacred Heart. The Holy See, while not pronouncing on the supernatural origin of this message of Mother Louise Margaret, has sanctioned the establishment of the Priests’ Universal Union and three allied societies for religious and laity of both sexes for the purpose of promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart as Mother Louise Margaret had asked.

Mother Louise Margaret in The Book of Infinite Love urges the clergy not to be content with a mere superficial knowledge of this great devotion, but to make a deep study of it so as to be able to explain it to the faithful who do not all yet understand the treasures of grace and regeneration which are found in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

To help towards acquiring a knowledge of both the theory and the practice of this devotion, what book could be more suitable than the one which was written at the command of Our Lord Himself, under the direction of His chosen apostle of the devotion, St. Margaret Mary, by her director, Father Croiset, specially selected and assisted for the accomplishment of this work!

Father Croiset states in his preface that the essence of the devotion to the Sacred Heart consists in the perfect love of Jesus Christ, especially in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, and that this perfect love of Jesus Christ forms the subject matter of this book. It is evident, then, that this book, while intended for all who wish to acquire true devotion to the Sacred Heart, is specially suitable for priests and religious.

For the convenience of those who wish to use the meditations and prayers, we have placed them in this sub-directory, rather than in the main Christ the King index. The prayers written by St. Margaret Mary are a manual of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, suitable for visits to the Blessed Sacrament and for the Holy Hour. We have included many of them in this excerpted version.

May our adorable Savior deign to bless this humble effort to make His Sacred Heart more widely known and honored, and more perfectly loved!

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 1
What Do We Mean by Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and in What Does It Consist

The particular object of this devotion is the immense love of the Son of God, which induced Him to deliver Himself up to death for us and to give Himself entirely to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. The thought of all the ingratitude and all the outrages which He was to receive in this state of immolated Victim until the end of time did not prevent Him from operating this prodigy; He preferred to expose Himself each day to the insults and opprobrium of men rather than be prevented from testifying, by working the greatest of all miracles, to what excess He loved us.

This has excited the piety and zeal of many people, for when they consider how little the world is moved by this excess of love, how little men love Jesus Christ in return, and how little pains they take to be loved by Him, His faithful friends have not been able to endure seeing Him treated with such contempt day after day; they have endeavored to show their just sorrow at such treatment, and by their ardent love, their profound respect and by special acts of homage, to testify their great desire to make reparation to the utmost of their capacity for this ingratitude and contempt.

With this end in view, they have chosen certain days of the year to recognize in a more particular manner the extreme love which Jesus Christ has shown us in the Blessed Sacrament, and at the same time to make some reparation of honor to Him for all the indignities and all the contempt which our amiable Savior has received and which He still receives every day in this mystery of love. And certainly the regret which they show at the sight of the little love which men have for Jesus Christ in this adorable Mystery, the sensible sorrow which they feel at seeing Him so badly treated, these practices of devotion which love alone suggests and which have as their sole object to make reparation as far as possible for the outrages which He suffers there, are certain proofs of the ardent love which they have for Jesus Christ and visible marks of their just gratitude.

The object and the principal motive of this devotion is, as has been already said, the immense love which Jesus Christ has for men who, for the most part, have nothing but contempt or at least indifference for Him. The end which is proposed is, firstly, to recognize and honor as much as lies in our power by our frequent adoration, by a return of love, by our acts of thanksgiving and by every kind of homage, all the sentiments of tender love which Jesus Christ has for us in the adorable Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist, where, however, He is so little known by men, or at least so little loved even by these people who know Him; secondly, to make reparation, by all possible means, for the indignities and outrages to which His love has exposed Him during the course of His mortal life, and to which this same love exposes Him every day in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

This devotion consists, therefore, in ardently loving Jesus Christ, whom we have always with us in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, and in showing this ardent love by our grief at seeing Him so little honored by men, and by our acts of reparation for this contempt and this want of love. But just as in the case of even the most spiritual devotions, we have always need of material and sensible objects which appeal to our human nature, act on the imagination and memory and facilitate the practice, so in the case of this devotion, the Sacred Heart of Jesus has been chosen as the sensible object most worthy of our veneration, and at the same time most proper for the end proposed by this devotion.

In truth, even if we had no particular reasons to give to these exercises of piety the title of “Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus;” it seems that we could not better express the particular character of this devotion than by this title; for indeed this devotion properly understood is nothing else than an exercise of love. Love is its object, love is its motive and principle, and it is love that ought to be its end. The heart of man is, says St. Thomas, in a certain manner, both the source and the seat of love; its natural movements follow and continually imitate the affections of the soul and serve to no small extent either by their vehemence or their weakness to increase or diminish the passions.

It is for this reason that we commonly attribute to the heart the most tender sentiments of the soul, and it is also that consideration which renders so precious the hearts of the Saints.

From what has been said so far, it is easy to see what is meant by the devotion to the Sacred Heart: by this devotion we mean the ardent love which we conceive for Jesus Christ at the remembrance of all the marvels which He has wrought to show His tender love for us, especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is the miracle of His love; we mean the keen regret which we feel at the sight of the outrages which men commit against Jesus Christ in this adorable Mystery; we mean the ardent desire which presses us to leave nothing undone to make reparation for these outrages by every possible means. That is what we mean by the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that is what it consists in. It cannot be reduced ― as some people might think at seeing this title ― to merely loving and honoring by special worship this Heart of flesh like ours, which forms part of the adorable Body of Jesus Christ.

It is not that the Sacred Heart is not worthy of our adoration; it suffices to say that It is the Heart of Jesus Christ; and if His Sacred Body and His Precious Blood deserve our respect and homage, who does not see that His Sacred Heart has still more special claim to respect and homage? And if we feel in ourselves such a strong attraction to the devotion to the Sacred Wounds, should we not feel ourselves still more penetrated with devotion to His Sacred Heart? What we wish to make clear is that the word “heart” is taken here only in the figurative sense, and that this Divine Heart considered as a part of the adorable Body of Jesus Christ is, properly speaking, only the sensible object of this devotion and that it is nothing less than the immense love which Jesus Christ bears to us which is its principal motive.

Now as this love is altogether spiritual, it cannot be perceived by the senses. It was necessary, therefore, to find a symbol, and what symbol could be more proper and more natural for love than the heart?

For the same reason, the Church wishing to give us a sensible object for the sufferings of the Son of God which are not less spiritual than His love, represents to us the image of His Sacred Wounds; so that the devotion to the Sacred Wounds is, properly speaking, only a particular devotion to Jesus Christ suffering; in like manner the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a more warm-hearted and ardent devotion towards Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, its principal motive being the extreme love which He shows us in this Sacrament, and the principal object, to make reparation for the contempt and the outrages which He suffers in this same Sacrament. [1]

The Sacred Heart of Jesus has, certainly, as much relation to His love, for which we endeavor by this devotion to inspire sentiments of gratitude and love, as the Sacred Wounds have to His sufferings, for which the Church endeavors to inspire her children with sentiments of gratitude and love by devotion to these Sacred Wounds. Now if people had at all times such devotion to the Sacred Wounds of Jesus Christ, and if the Church, wishing to inspire all her children with love for Jesus Christ, unceasingly puts before their eyes these Sacred Wounds, what ought to be the effect of the remembrance and of the image of the Sacred Heart?

We shall see later on that this devotion is not new; that several great Saints confirmed the use of it by their example. We can claim that the Holy See authorized the use of it under the same title, since Pope Clement X, by the bull of October 4th, 1674, accorded great indulgences to an association of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the church of the Seminary of Coutance consecrated in its honor, and our Holy Father, Pope Innocent XII, by a special brief, has accorded a plenary indulgence in favor of the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

It is not necessary to give here the numerous reasons which show the solidity of this devotion. It suffices to say that the immense love which Jesus has for us, and of which He has given such a signal proof in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, is the principal motive; that reparation for the contempt with which men have treated this love is the principal end proposed; that the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all inflamed with love for men, is the sensible object; and that a most ardent and tender love for the adorable person of Jesus Christ ought to be the fruit. [2]

REFERENCES
1. The devotion to the Blessed Eucharist and the devotion to the Sacred Heart are not only two sister devotions, in reality they are only one and the same devotion. They complete each other and develop each other; they blend so perfectly together that one cannot go on without the other and their union is absolute. Not only can one of these devotions not be prejudicial to the other, but because they complete each other and perfect each other, they also reciprocally increase each other.

2. “If we have devotion to the Sacred Heart, we will wish to find It to adore It, to love It, and where shall we look for It but in the Blessed Eucharist where It is found, eternally living? . . . The devotion to the Divine Heart infallibly brings souls to the Blessed Eucharist; and faith in and devotion to the Blessed Eucharist necessarily lead souls to discover the mysteries of Infinite Love of which the Divine Heart is the organ and the symbol.” (Extract from The Book of Infinite Love by Mother Louise Margaret).

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 2
The Means Which God Made Use of to Propagate this Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Saint Claude de la Colombière, S.J., was among the persons selected by God to publish this devotion to the faithful. This great servant of God was illustrious both as Confessor of the Faith in England, and as Chaplain to the Duchess of York, afterwards Queen of England. He was celebrated for his works on religious subjects, but more celebrated for his sublime virtue. He was sent by providence to St. Margaret Mary to assist her in her mission of establishing the public worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Having examined the private revelations received by St. Margaret Mary, he came to the conclusion after careful inquiry that those revelations were genuine, and guided by Divine help he consecrated himself to the Sacred Heart. The devotion was for him the means of arriving at great perfection. Convinced by his inquiry and by the great favors which he himself received that the devotion was the work of God, he regarded himself under an obligation to do all in his power to make public the treasures of grace and mercy hidden in the Sacred Heart which hitherto had been revealed only to chosen souls.

The following is what he wrote in his Journal of Spiritual Retreats which he composed in London and which was published after his death. [It is of great historic interest because it was the first explanation of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus addressed to the ordinary faithful]: “At the close of this retreat, full of confidence in the mercy of my God, I have made it a law for myself to procure by all means possible the execution of what I was ordered by my adorable Master concerning His most precious Body in the Blessed Sacrament, in which I believe Him to be truly and really present. Filled with sweetness which I have been able to taste and receive from the mercy of my God without being able to explain it . . . .

“I have come to recognize that God wishes that I serve Him by procuring the accomplishment of His desires concerning the devotion, which He has suggested to a person [St. Margaret Mary] to whom He has communicated Himself very intimately, and for whose benefit He has deigned to make use of my weakness. I have already preached this devotion to many people in England and have written about it in France, and have asked one of my friends to make it known in the place where he is. It will be very useful there. The great number of chosen souls which there are in this community makes me believe that the practice of it in this house will be very pleasing to God. Would that I could be everywhere, O my God, and could publish what Thou dost expect from Thy servants and friends!

“God having revealed Himself to this person [St. Margaret Mary] who, from the graces which she has received has, I believe, according to His Heart, informed me about the revelations which she received. I obliged her to write down for me what she had told me. I have gladly transcribed the account into my Journal of Retreats because the good God wishes to make use of my weakness for the execution of His designs.

“This Saintly soul says: ‘Being one day before the Blessed Sacrament during the Octave of the Feast, I received from my God excessive graces of His love. When I was moved by the desire to make some return to Him and to render love for love, He said to me: ‘You can give Me no greater return than by doing what I have so many times commanded you to do,’ and revealing His Heart to me He said: ‘Behold this Heart which has so loved men as to spare Itself nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, to testify to them Its love, and in return I receive nothing but ingratitude from the greater part of men by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges, and coldness which they have for Me in this Sacrament of My love; but what is still more painful is that it is hearts consecrated to Me that treat Me thus. For this reason I ask that the First Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a particular feast to honor My Heart; I ask that reparation of honor be made to My Heart, that Communion be received on that day to repair the indignities which It has received during the time It has been exposed on the altars; and I promise you that My Heart will expand Itself and pour out in abundance the influences of Its love on those who will render It this honor.’”

“But my Lord, to whom dost Thou address Thyself?” said this person [St. Margaret Mary], “To a wretched slave, to a poor sinner who by her unworthiness would be capable of hindering Thy designs. Thou hast so many generous souls to execute Thy commands!” “Poor innocent that you are,” said our Savior, “do you not know that I make use of the weak to confound the strong? that it is usually on the lowliest and the poor in spirit that I show My power with greatest effect, in order that they may attribute nothing to themselves:’ “Give me then,” said I [St. Margaret Mary], “the means to do what Thou dost command me to do.” Then our Savior said, “Address yourself to My servant [Saint Claude de la Colombière] and tell him on My part, to do everything possible to establish this devotion and to give this pleasure to My Divine Heart; tell him not to be discouraged by the difficulties which he will meet because they will not be wanting; but he should be aware that he is all powerful who distrusts himself completely, in order to put all his confidence in Me.”

Saint Claude, who had the gift of discernment, was not a man to believe anything lightly; but he had too striking proofs of the high and solid virtue of this person [St. Margaret Mary] who spoke to him to dread any illusion. Therefore he applied himself immediately to the ministry that God had confided to him. But to acquit himself of it solidly and perfectly, he wished to begin by himself; he consecrated himself entirely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; he offered to It all that he thought capable of honoring and pleasing It. The extraordinary graces which he received from this practice soon confirmed him in the idea that he already had of the importance and solidity of this devotion. He had no sooner considered the sentiments full of tenderness that Jesus Christ has for us in the Blessed Sacrament in which His Sacred Heart is always burning with love for men, always open to pour out on them all kinds of graces and blessings, that he could no longer think without grieving of the horrible outrages which Jesus Christ suffers at the hands of heretics and of the strange contempt with which even the generality of Catholics treat Jesus Christ in this august Sacrament. This neglect and contempt, and these outrages touched him sensibly and obliged him to consecrate himself anew by this beautiful prayer which he calls the offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and which will be found at the end of this chapter.

The voyage of this servant of God to England, his imprisonment and his early death after his return to France, did not permit him to give further instruction on this devotion to the public. But God did not leave His work unfinished. He Himself made use of the mysterious influence of His grace to accomplish His designs. In former times He had made known to St. Gertrude that this devotion was reserved for these last ages as a means to arouse the faithful from their tepidity and cowardice; now He makes use of a humble sister [Sister Joly] to compose a little book which, though it had neither art nor design, was the means of winning over to the devotion those very persons who formerly had no relish for it, and who, without hardly knowing what it was about, had opposed it; and God made use of these very people to spread the devotion everywhere.

Thus, in less than a year we saw this devotion happily established. The most prudent directors, doctors and prelates have praised it; preachers have preached it with success, chapels have been built in honor of the Sacred Heart, images have been engraved and painted, altars have been erected in Its honor; the religious of the Visitation, who in this matter have been the zealous pioneers, have had the pleasure of hearing solemnly sung in their chapel at Dijon, which they had built for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Mass composed in Its honor. Their example has been followed with great fruit by many other religious. This solid devotion has been spread and established with marvelous success through almost the whole of France; it has passed into foreign countries; it has gone even across the seas to Quebec and Malta, and we have reason to believe that by means of missionaries it is already spread in Syria, in India, and even in China. Finally, the universal approbation which this devotion has received, and the esteem which people of recognized merit and virtue have for it, gives us ground for hope that Jesus Christ will henceforth be less forgotten, better served and much better loved.

OFFERING TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Composed by Saint Claude de la Colombière

Saint Claude de la Colombière, having learned by his own experience how powerfully devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus helps to inflame the heart with great love for Jesus Christ and to arrive in a short time at great perfection, composed the following offering which he was accustomed to renew several times each month with great devotion.

This offering is made to honor the Divine Heart of Jesus, the seat of all the virtues, the source of all blessings and the retreat of all holy souls. The principal virtues which we propose to honor in the Sacred Heart are: First, a most ardent love for God, joined with the most profound respect and the greatest humility that ever existed in any heart; second, infinite patience in suffering, and most perfect contrition and sorrow for the sins of the world which He was charged to expiate; the confidence of a tenderly-loved Son joined with the confusion of a great sinner; third, a most keenly felt compassion for our miseries and immense love for us in spite of these miseries, and notwithstanding these movements of the Sacred Heart, each of which was in the highest degree possible, unalterable calmness caused by perfect conformity with the will of God which could not be troubled by any event however contrary it might appear to Its zeal, Its humility, Its love, and all Its other dispositions.

This Heart of Jesus has still, as far as it is possible, these same sentiments, and especially, It is always burning with love for men, although in return It finds nothing in the hearts of men but unkindness, neglect, contempt and ingratitude. Jesus loves and He is not loved; His love is even unknown, because men refuse to receive the gifts by which He wishes to show His love, and to listen to the secret declarations of that love which He wishes to make to their hearts.

PRAYER

In reparation for so many outrages and such cruel ingratitude, O most adorable and amiable Heart of my amiable Jesus, and as far as is in my power, to avoid falling into such an evil, I offer Thee my heart with all the sentiments of which it is capable; I give myself entirely to Thee, and from this hour I protest most sincerely that I desire to forget myself and all that can have reference to myself, in order to remove the obstacles which might prevent me from entering into this Divine Heart which in Thy Divine goodness Thou openest to me, and where I desire to enter in order to live and die with Thy most faithful servants. Penetrated and inflamed with Thy love, I now offer to Thy Sacred Heart all the merit and satisfaction of all the Masses, of all the prayers, of all the acts of mortification, of all the religious practices, of all the acts of zeal, humility, obedience and all the other virtues which I shall practice until the last moments of my life; not only will all this be to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Its admirable dispositions, but in addition, I most humbly beseech Him to accept the entire donation which I make to Him of them, and to dispose of them in the manner which pleases Him, and in favor of whomsoever it pleases Him: and as I have already given to the Holy Souls in Purgatory all that is in my actions capable of satisfying Divine justice, I desire that it be distributed to them according to the good pleasure of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

This will not prevent me from acquitting myself of the obligation which I have of saying Mass and praying for certain intentions as prescribed by obedience, from offering Mass out of charity for poor people or for my brothers and friends who may ask for them. But as on such occasions, I make use of a good that does not belong to me, I intend, as is just, that the obedience, charity, and other virtues, which I shall practice on such occasions, be all for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. From It I hope to receive the grace to practice these virtues which, consequently will belong to It without reserve.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, teach me to sacrifice myself completely, teach me what I must do to arrive at the purity of Thy love with the desire of which Thou hast inspired me. I feel in myself a great wish to please Thee and great powerlessness to succeed in doing so without great light and very special help which I can expect only from Thee. Do Thou accomplish Thy will in me; I know well that I am opposing it. But I eagerly wish, at least it seems so to me, not to oppose it. It is for Thee to do everything, O Divine Heart of Jesus, Thou alone wilt have all the glory of my sanctification if I become a Saint; that appears to me clearer than daylight, but it will be a great glory for Thee, and it is for that alone that I wish to attain perfection. Amen.

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 3 : Part 1
How Eminently Just and Reasonable it is to Practice this Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

PART 1 of 4

The reasons which should induce us to love Jesus Christ do not depend on mere sentiment; people realize them according to their state of grace or holiness. It would seem that to wish to seek for motives to induce us to love Jesus Christ is to forget what we are, or not to know who He is.

It might then appear useless to give here the motives which should induce us to practice devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus since this devotion consists in the exercise of the love which we ought to have for Jesus Christ. However, as all men are not always in the same dispositions and as grace in all men is not always the same, we deem it advisable to make some reflections on the three principal motives which influence us most, and by which all reasonable men are convinced.

These motives are taken from the three things which have most influence over our minds and hearts, namely, reason, interest and pleasure. We shall endeavor to show in this chapter and the two following ones: (1) how just and reasonable the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is; (2) how much it helps towards our eternal salvation and towards attaining perfection; and (3) what sweet spiritual consolation it brings to the soul. Truly, whether we consider the sensible object of this devotion, which is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, or meditate on the principal and spiritual object, which is the immense love of Jesus Christ for me, must we not feel our hearts filled with sentiments of reverence, gratitude and love?

§ 1. THE EXCELLENCE OF THE ADORABLE HEART OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

The Heart of Jesus is holy with the holiness of God Himself; from this it follows that, as all the movements of His Heart participate in the dignity of the Person who is the cause of them, they are actions of infinite price and value since they are actions of the Man-God. It is therefore just that the Sacred Heart be honored with a special worship since in honoring It, we honor His Divine Person.

If the veneration which we have for the Saints makes us esteem their hearts so highly, if we regard these hearts as the most precious of their relics, what ought we not think of the adorable Heart of Jesus Christ? What heart has ever had such admirable dispositions, and has been so devoted to our real interests? Where could we find a heart whose movements have been so advantageous to us? It is in this Divine Heart that have been formed all the designs for our salvation, and it is by the love with which the same Heart burns that these designs have been executed.

This Sacred Heart, said a great servant of God, is the seat of all the virtues, the source of all blessings, the place of refuge for all holy souls. The principal virtues to be honored in the Sacred Heart of Jesus are: in the first place, His most ardent love for God the Father, joined with the most profound respect and the greatest humility that human heart ever possessed; in the second place, Its infinite patience in adversity, extreme sorrow for the sins with which It was laden, the confidence of a most tender son, joined with the confusion of a very great sinner; in the third place, Its most tender compassion for our miseries and immense love for us in spite of these same miseries. Finally, although all these movements of the Sacred Heart were each in the highest degree possible, It preserves unalterable tranquility because It is in such perfect conformity with the will of God that I cannot be troubled by any event, however contrary it might appear to Its zeal, Its humility, Its love and all Its other dispositions.

This adorable Heart has still, as far as it is possible, these same sentiments, and especially, It is always burning with love for men, always open to pour out on them all kinds of graces and blessings; always touched by our evils, always urged by the desire to make us share in Its treasures and to give Itself to us; always disposed to receive us and to serve as a place of refuge, as a dwelling place and paradise for us during this life. For all that, It finds nothing in the hearts of men but unkindness, neglect, contempt and ingratitude. Are not these motives capable of inducing Christians to honor the Sacred Heart, and to make reparation for such contempt and for so many outrages by giving manifest proofs of their love?

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 3 : Part 2
How Eminently Just and Reasonable it is to Practice this Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

PART 2 of 4

§ 2. THE AMIABLE QUALITIES WHICH ARE FOUND IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST

If we apply ourselves to the study of the sacred character of Our Lord Jesus Christ we shall find in it all that is amiable in creatures, both those endowed with reason and those without reason. Men are attracted to love by various motives, according to their dispositions: some are affected by beauty, others by great meekness; for others, uprightness that is merciful, nobility of character that is modest are charms which they cannot resist. We see people who allow themselves to be attracted by the virtues which are wanting in themselves, because these virtues appear to them more admirable than those which they themselves possess. Others are more captivated by qualities which have more relation to their own inclinations; beautiful qualities, real virtues conquer the love of everyone. But, says a great servant of God, if there is a person in whom all these qualities are united, who could refuse him his love? Now everyone is agreed that all these qualities are found united in an eminent degree in the adorable Person of Jesus Christ, and yet, Jesus Christ is loved only by a very small number of people.

The most dazzling beauty, says the Prophet, is only a dried-up flower compared with the beauty of this divine Savior. “It seems to me,” said St. Teresa of Avila, “that the rays which the sun casts on the earth are only pale shadows since I have seen in an ecstasy some rays of the beauty of Jesus Christ.” The most perfect creatures of this world are those which have the least defects; the most beautiful qualities in men are accompanied by so many imperfections that, while on the one hand the former attract us, on the other, the latter repel us. Jesus Christ alone is perfect to a sovereign degree; everything in Him is equally amiable, we find nothing in Him but what ought to attract all hearts to Him. In Him we find united all the advantages of nature, all the riches of grace and glory, all the perfections of the Divinity. We discover nothing in Him but abysses and, as it were, immense spaces and an infinite extent of grandeur. In fine, this God Incarnate who loves us so tenderly and whom men love so little, is the object of the love, the homage, the adoration and praise of the whole heavenly court.

It is He who has sovereign authority to judge men and angels. The destiny and the eternal happiness of all creatures are in His hands. His domain extends over all nature. All spirits tremble in His presence; they are obliged to adore Him either by voluntary submission: of love or by sufferings which are the effects of justice. He reigns absolutely in the order of grace and in the state of glory, and the whole world visible and invisible is under His feet. Is there not here, O insensible men, an object worthy of your homage? And does not this Man-God with all His titles and the glory which He possesses, who loves us to such extremes as He does, merit your love?

But what appears still more amiable in our adorable Savior is that He combines all these splendid qualities, this sublime excellence, with the most excessive meekness and tenderness for us. His meekness is so amiable that it has charmed even His mortal enemies. “He shall be led,” said the Prophet, ‘’as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before His shearer, and He shall not open His mouth.” (Isaias 53:7). He compares Himself at one time to a father who cannot contain his joy at the return of his prodigal son, at another time, to a shepherd who having found one sheep that has gone astray, puts it on his shoulders and calls his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him because he had found his sheep. (Luke 15:9). “Has no man condemned thee?” He says to the woman taken in adultery. “Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!” (John 8:11). He displays no less meekness towards us every day. It is strange what restraint one must keep over oneself in company so as to avoid shocking a friend. Men are so sensitive that a mere display of bad humor is enough to make them forget many years of kindness, and a single word said at the wrong time sometimes breaks the greatest friendship.

It is not so with Jesus Christ. It appears incredible, but it is nevertheless true, that we get better terms from Him than from our most grateful friends. We must not even imagine that He is capable of breaking with us because of a slight act of ingratitude. He sees all our infidelities. He knows all our weakness and He endures, with incredible goodness, all the failings of those whom He loves. He forgets them; He pretends not to see them. His compassion goes so far as even to console people who are excessively afflicted by these infidelities. He does not wish that the fear we have of displeasing Him should go so far as to trouble us. He desires us to avoid the slightest faults, but He does not wish us to worry too much even about the great ones. He decrees that joy, liberty and peace of heart shall be the eternal inheritance of all those who love Him truly.

The least of all these qualities in one of the great ones of this world would be enough to gain the hearts of all His subjects. The mere narration of some of these virtues about a prince whom we have never seen and whom we shall never see, makes an impression on our hearts and makes him loved even by strangers. Jesus Christ is the only one in whom all these fine qualities, all these virtues and all the grandeur, excellence and amiability imaginable, are found united; and must it be that so many reasons for loving cannot make us truly love Him? In the world, a mere nothing is often sufficient to gain our hearts. We give our hearts, we lavish them on so many occasions for a mere trifle; Thou alone, O Lord, can have no share in them!

Can we make even a little reflection on these things and not love Jesus Christ ardently, and not have at least keen regret that He is so little loved? In truth, we owe Him our hearts on several titles; and can we refuse them to Him, if we add to all these titles the immense benefits which he has gratuitously conferred upon us, and the extreme tenderness with which He has loved us and still loves us, never ceasing to give us striking proofs of His immense love for us?

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 3 : Part 3
How Eminently Just and Reasonable it is to Practice this Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

PART 3 of 4

§ 3. THE VISIBLE PROOFS OF THE IMMENSE LOVE WHICH JESUS CHRIST HAS FOR US

Men are usually more affected by benefits received than by any other mark of love, either because nothing else proves so well that the love is genuine, or because nothing is so pleasing to our self-seeking human nature as a love which is useful. It is by this way that Jesus Christ has tried to engage us to love Him. He has anticipated our wishes. He has conferred upon us countless benefits, the least of which surpasses all that we could merit, all that we could expect, all that we could reasonably desire. Everyone receives these favors continuously, everyone is agreed about the excess of His love of which these benefits are striking proofs; and yet how few are those who are gained by these benefits? How few respond to His love?

From constantly hearing mention of the Creation, the Incarnation and the Redemption, we become familiar with these words and with what they signify, and yet we remain unmoved; but even the most unreasonable of men would go into ecstasies of love for another man, if he learned that he had received from him the hundredth part of the least of these favors.

As our soul depends much on our senses in its operations, we are naturally little touched by the remembrance of a Being that is purely spiritual. Hence it is that before the Incarnation of the Word, however great the prodigies God performed in favor of His people, He was always more feared than loved by them; but finally God made Himself perceptible, so to speak, by becoming man, and this Man-God has done things that go beyond anything that we can imagine to induce men to love Him.

Even if He had not willed to redeem us, He would not have been either less holy, or less powerful, or less happy; nevertheless, He has taken our salvation so much to heart, that on seeing what He has done and the manner in which He has accomplished it, one would say that all His happiness depended on ours; whereas He might have redeemed us at little cost, He has willed to merit the grace of our redemption by His death, even by the most shameful and cruel death on the Cross; and whereas He might have applied His merits to us in a thousand other ways, He has chosen that way which involves such prodigious abasement that it has amazed both Heaven and earth; and all this is done to touch hearts that are naturally sensitive to the least benefit and to the least mark of friendship. Birth in poverty, an obscure life full of labors, a Passion full of opprobrium, an infamous and sorrowful death are marvels that go beyond our comprehension, and these are all the effects of the love which Jesus has for us.

Have we ever formed an adequate concept of the greatness of the benefit of our redemption? And if we have formed a concept of it, is it possible for us to be only a little moved by the remembrance of this benefit? The sin of the first man brought great evils upon us, and deprived us of great advantages; but can we see Jesus Christ in the crib, can we look upon Him on the Cross, or in the Blessed Eucharist, without confessing that our losses have been repaired with advantage, and that the blessings of the man redeemed by the adorable Blood of Jesus Christ surpass the privileges of the man in the state of innocence?

The quality of universal Redeemer is a motive no less powerful to make us love Him. “All men,” says the Apostle, “died by the sin of Adam, and Jesus Christ died for all men.” (Romans 5:12-18). No one has been able to defend himself from the contagion of so great an evil and everyone has felt the effect of such a powerful remedy. This amiable Savior gave all His Blood both for the infidel who knows Him not, for the heretic who refuses to believe in Him, and for this member of the faithful who, while believing in Him, still refuses to love Him.

And if we reflect on the infinite value of His Blood! How great a Savior! and what abundant Redemption! Jesus Christ was not content with paying the debts which we had contracted, He anticipated all the debts that we might contract in the future; He has, so to speak, paid them in advance before they have been incurred. Add to this, those powerful helps, those great graces, those signal favors which He lavishes on faithful souls and by which He charms and sweetens all that is hard and rough in our exile.

My God! If Thou wouldst confer on us the grace to understand this excess of mercy, could it be that we would not be moved by it and that we would not love Jesus Christ with our whole heart? How worthy of love is not this Divine Savior for having willed to redeem us in such a difficult manner! But is He not still more amiable for having desired to deliver us in this manner without being forced to do so, but being moved to it only by His immense love and by His desire to induce us to love Him by such striking proofs of His ardent love? The Eternal Father, says Salvien, knows us too well to have set such a high price on us, so that it is Jesus Christ Himself who has fixed our price, and with His full consent, has offered this excessive ransom. And after all this shall we not love Jesus?

But remark! Inexpressibly great as are all these things which Our Lord has done for our salvation, the love which induces Him to do these things is still greater than the things themselves, because it is infinite; and as if this love of Jesus would not be satisfied so long as there remained a prodigy which He had not done, He instituted the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, which is the abridgment of all marvels, for in it He remains with us really and truly until the end of the ages; He gives Himself to us in the Blessed Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine; He makes His Flesh and Blood the nourishment of our souls in order to unite Himself more closely to us, or rather to unite us more closely to Him.

Christians, can one be a rational being and remain unmoved by the mere narration of this prodigy? Can a person retain any sentiments of humanity and not be all on fire with love for Jesus Christ at the sight of this benefit? God making a mere man the object of His tender love and complacence, and eager to confer benefits upon him! God desiring to unite Himself to man in a manner that involves emptying Himself and immolating Himself daily, and condescending to make Himself man’s daily food; and all this in spite of the indifference, the aversion, and contempt of those who never receive Him; and the coldness and even the crimes of those who receive Him often! God consenting to remain shut up in the ciborium day and night, century after century! Christians, are not these marvels convincing proofs of the love which Jesus Christ has for us? Are they not motives capable of making us love Him? Ungrateful men, for whom alone these marvels are performed, what do you think of them? Does not Jesus Christ on our altars deserve to be honored by you? and does He not still show sufficient love to merit to be loved by you? “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema!” (1 Corinthians 16:22).

“In truth,” says a great servant of God, “if anything could shake my faith in the Mystery of the Eucharist, it would not be the infinite power which God shows in changing bread and wine into His Body and Blood that I would doubt; it would be rather the extreme love of which He gives proof in this Mystery. How can what was bread become Flesh, without ceasing to appear bread? How can the Body of Jesus Christ be present in several places at the same time? How can He be enclosed in a space that is almost indivisible? To all that I have only to reply, that God is omnipotent; but if I am asked how can it be that God loves a creature so feeble and so miserable as man and loves him with such eagerness, with such ecstasy, loves him to the degree that He has loved him? I confess that I have no reply to make; that it is a truth that passes my comprehension, that the love which Jesus bears us is an excessive love, an ineffable love, an incomprehensible love, a love which ought to amaze and astonish any reasonable man.”

I do not know whether these reflections will be capable of touching the faithful today, but I do know that in the past they have deeply touched peoples, even the most inhuman and the most barbarous; and that these peoples were heard to cry out at the bare mention of these marvels: “Oh! How good the God of the Christians is! How generous He is! How amiable! Oh! Who could prevent himself from loving a God who loves us so passionately!” As a result of these reflections, in order to make some return to our Savior who has loved so tenderly, and to show Him some gratitude, the cloisters were filled with religious, and the deserts peopled with a prodigious number of holy anchorites wholly devoted and consecrated to the praise and the love of Jesus Christ.

However fitting this way of showing gratitude is, Christians of today are not asked to do so much; they are only asked not to forget altogether Jesus Christ, who has performed the greatest of His miracles with the sole object of satisfying His extreme desire to be always with them. They are only asked to be a little less insensible to the outrages which the excessive love of Jesus Christ brings upon Him; in fine, they are exhorted to be at least as grateful to Jesus Christ who loves them so constantly and who has performed marvels in their interest that surpass their comprehension, as people of the world are to their friends ― who, for the most part, are ready to sacrifice them if their own interest demands it.

Now does not a devotion seem reasonable which tends to inspire gratitude to Jesus Christ, and which in itself, properly speaking, is but a continual exercise of perfectly grateful love? And is it not just that we seek means to show our tender love for Jesus Christ, especially at a time when He is so little loved? He is little loved in the world where people are so little sensitive to His benefits, where they follow His counsels so little, where they decry His maxims so strongly; He is little loved at a time when people have nothing but indifference for His Person, when all the gratitude and respect which people show Him are reduced to a few prayers and a few ceremonies, which by custom have degenerated into pure routine; and finally at a time when His Divine Presence causes ennui and His precious Body and Blood cause aversion.

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 3 : Part 4
How Eminently Just and Reasonable it is to Practice this Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

PART 4 of 4

§ 4. THE EXTREME INGRATITUDE OF MAN TOWARDS JESUS CHRIST

Incredible as may appear the love which the Son of God shows us in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, there is something which is still more astonishing: it is the ingratitude which men show in return for this love. It is astonishing that Jesus Christ should be willing to love men, but it is strange that men should not be willing to love Jesus Christ, and that no motive, no benefit, no excess of love can inspire them with the least sentiment of gratitude. We might, perhaps, be able to give some reasons why Jesus Christ should love men: they are His work, He loves in them His own gifts; He loves Himself in loving them; but can we have any reason for not loving Jesus Christ, for only loving Him coldly, for sharing with anyone else our love for Him? Speak, ungrateful men, unfeeling men, is there anything in Him which repels you? Perhaps He has not yet done enough to merit your love? What do you think of it? Would we have dared to desire, could we have even imagined all that He has condescended to do to gain our hearts in this adorable Mystery of the Blessed Eucharist? Nevertheless, all this has not been able to induce men to love Jesus Christ ardently!

What advantage did this prodigious abasement bring to Jesus Christ? It might be said that, in some degree, all the other mysteries which are all effects of His love have been accompanied with circumstances so glorious and with prodigies so striking that it is easy to see that, while taking care of our interests, He did not altogether neglect His own glory. But in this amiable Sacrament, Jesus Christ seems to have forgotten all advantage for Himself, and to have made it completely and entirely the Sacrament of His love. After this, who would not say that such a prodigious excess of love would at least excite an eagerness, a desire, an excessive love in the hearts of all men? Alas! It is quite the contrary, and it seems that people would love Jesus Christ more, if He had loved men less. I shudder with horror, O my God, at the mere thought of the indignities and the outrages which impious and wicked Christians and furious heretics have committed against Thee in this august Sacrament. By what horrible sacrileges have they not profaned both our altars and our churches? And with what opprobrium, with what impiety, with what infamy, have they not hundreds of times treated the adorable Body of Jesus Christ? Can a Christian think on these acts of impiety without conceiving an ardent desire to make reparation for such cruel outrages by all means possible? But can a Christian live without even thinking of it?

If Jesus Christ, who has received such indignities from heretics, were at least assiduously honored and ardently loved by the faithful, people could console themselves that their love and sincere homage would in some manner atone for these outrages. But alas! Where do we find these numerous adorers eager and assiduous in paying court to Jesus Christ in our churches? Rather do we not find our churches deserted and empty, without faithful adorers? Really, could people show more coldness and more indifference to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament than they do? Is not the small number of people found in our churches during the greatest part of the day a visible proof of the neglect and the want of love of almost all Christians? Those who approach the altar oftenest become accustomed to our most awe-inspiring Mysteries; and it may be said that priests are found who become so familiar with Jesus Christ as to treat Him with indifference and contempt! How many of them do we find who, although they daily offer up this adorable Victim inflamed with love for them, love Jesus Christ the more for it? How many of them are there who celebrate these adorable mysteries with the reverence that is a fitting expression of their faith in them?

Can we think that Jesus Christ is insensible to such treatment and can we ourselves think on this disrespectful treatment and remain insensible, and not seek every possible means to make reparation? How could anyone who reflects but a little on these truths not devote himself completely to the love of this God-Man who ought, by so many titles, to possess the hearts of all men?

Those who do not love Him must either not know Him or be worse than this unhappy demon spoken of in the life of St. Catherine of Genoa, who did not at all complain of the flames which burned him, nor of the other pains which he suffered, but only that he was without love, that is to say, without that love which so many souls ignore or reject, to their eternal woe.

Do we remember that the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament has still, as far as it is possible, the same sentiments as It always has had: that It is always burning with love for us, always sensibly touched by the evils that befall us, always urged by the desire to make us share in His treasures, and to give Himself to us; always ready to receive us and to serve as a dwelling place and as an earthly paradise for us in this life, and especially as a place of refuge at the hour of our death? And for all this, what sentiments of gratitude are found in our hearts, what eagerness to serve Him, what love? He loves; and He is not loved; people do not even know of His love because they are not willing to receive the gifts by which He deigns to show it, or to listen to the tender and secret declarations which He wishes to make to our hearts of this love.

Is not this a pressing motive to touch the hearts of all those who have even the least sentiments of reasonableness or the smallest particle of love for Jesus Christ? Our amiable Savior, when instituting this Sacrament of love, foresaw clearly all the ingratitude of men, and He felt in advance all its bitterness in His Sacred Heart; all that, however, has not been able to repel Him or prevent Him from showing us the excess of His love by instituting this Mystery.

It is not just that amidst such incredulity and coldness, amidst so many profanations and outrages, this God of love should find at least some friends of His Sacred Heart who would grieve for the want of love that people show Him, who would feel the insults that are offered to Him, who would be faithful and assiduous in paying Him court and who would leave nothing undone to repair by their love, by their adoration and by every kind of homage, all the outrages to which the excess of His love exposes Him at every hour in this august Sacrament?

This is the end proposed in this devotion which consists in honoring the Sacred Heart, which should be infinitely dearer to us than our own heart; the reparation of honor, the offerings, the regular visits to the Blessed Sacrament, the prayers, the Holy Communions, and all the other practices will help to make us more and more grateful and more faithful by making us love Jesus Christ more ardently. What other devotion can we find more just and reasonable or more useful for helping us to attain salvation and acquire perfection?

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 4
How the Practice of this Devotion Conduces to Our Salvation and Aids in the Acquiring of Perfection

PART 1 of 2

If Jesus Christ has performed so many prodigies to induce us to love Him, what favors will He not confer on those whom He sees eager to testify to Him their gratitude and their ardent love? He has loved us tenderly, says St. Bernard, and He has lavished His blessings on us when we did not love Him, even when we did not wish Him to love us. What gifts and graces will He not pour out on those who love Him and who are grieved at seeing Him so little loved?

It is sufficiently evident that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is a proof, or to express it more accurately, a continual exercise of ardent love of Jesus Christ. Besides the fact that it consists in the practice of the most holy exercise of our Religion, it has a something so strong and so tender about it that it obtains everything from God; and in truth, if Jesus Christ confers such great favors on those who have devotion to the instruments of His Passion, and to His Wounds, what favors will He not confer on those who have a tender devotion to His Sacred Heart?

In the preface to this book we have given reasons why prudent men should not refuse to give credence to the revelations of St. Mechtilde. This saint gives the following account of a revelation which she received about this devotion:

“One day I saw the Son of God, holding in His Hand His own Heart, which appeared more brilliant than the sun and which was casting rays of light on every side; then, this amiable Savior gave me to understand that all the graces which God unceasingly pours forth on men, according to the capacity of each, come from the plenitude of the Divine Heart.”

And this same Saint, a short time before her death, declared that having one day earnestly asked Our Lord for some great favor for a person who had asked her to do so, Jesus Christ said to her: “My child, tell that person for whom you are praying to Me, to seek in My Heart all that she desires; tell her to have a great devotion to My Sacred Heart, and to ask for everything in this same Heart, like a child asking its father for everything it wants, knowing no other artifice but what love suggests to it.” (Liber Specialis Gratiae, Part IV, Chapter 28).

God, having revealed to this person [St. Margaret Mary], mentioned in the second chapter, for whom Saint Claude de la Colombière had such veneration, the great graces which He had attached to the practice of this devotion, told her that it was by a last effort of His love for men that He had resolved to reveal to them the treasures of His Sacred Heart and to give them this devotion which would enkindle the fire of His love in the hearts of the most unfeeling, and inflame the hearts of the least fervent with ardent love.

“Publish this devotion everywhere,” said our loving Savior, “propagate it, recommend it to people of the world as a sure and easy means to obtain from Me a true love of God; to ecclesiastics and religious, as an efficacious means to arrive at the perfection of their state; to those who work for the salvation of their neighbor, as an assured means to touch the most hardened hearts; and finally to all the faithful, as a most solid devotion, and one most proper to obtain victory over the strongest passions, to establish union and peace in the most divided families; to get rid of the most long-standing imperfections; to obtain a most ardent and tender love for Me; in fine, to arrive in little time and in a very easy manner, at the most sublime perfection.”

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), full of these sentiments, always spoke of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as an inexhaustible source of all blessings:

“O most sweet Jesus;” he cries out, “what riches Thou hast contained in Thy Sacred Heart, and how easy it is for us to enrich ourselves, when we possess in the Blessed Eucharist this infinite treasure.”

“It is in this adorable Heart,” says Cardinal St. Peter Damien, “that we find all the weapons necessary for our defense; all the remedies proper for the cure of our evils, all the most powerful aids against the assaults of our enemies, all the sweetest consolations to solace our sufferings, all the purest delights to fill our souls with joy. Are you afflicted? Do your enemies persecute you? Does the remembrance of your past sins trouble you? Do you feel your heart agitated by uneasiness, fear or passion? Go and prostrate yourself at the foot of the altar; throw yourself, so to speak, into the arms of Jesus Christ. Enter into His Sacred Heart. It is a sanctuary, a retreat for holy souls, a place of refuge where our souls are in perfect safety.”

The devout Lanspergius says: “Not only is the Sacred Heart the seat of all the virtues, but it is also the source of the graces by aid of which we acquire and preserve these virtues. Have devotion to the Sacred Heart all full of love and mercy; through It, demand all that you wish to obtain, by It, offer all your actions because the Sacred Heart is the treasury of all supernatural gifts. It is, so to speak, the way by which we unite ourselves more closely with God and through which God communicates Himself most lovingly to us. Draw at will from this Sacred Heart, all the graces, all the virtues of which you have need, and do not fear that you will exhaust this infinite treasure; have recourse to It in all your necessities; be faithful in the exercise of so reasonable and so useful a devotion and you will soon feel its effects.” (Lanspergius, Pharetra divini amoris).

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 4 (continued)
How the Practice of this Devotion Conduces to Our Salvation and Aids in the Acquiring of Perfection

PART 2 of 2

We find still another illustrious example of all this in the life of St. Mechtilde. The Son of God, having appeared to her, commanded her to love Him ardently, and to honor His Sacred Heart in the Blessed Sacrament as much as possible. He gave her His Sacred Heart as a pledge of His love, as a place of refuge during her life and as her consolation at the hour of her death. From this time this saint was penetrated with an extraordinary devotion for the Sacred Heart, and she received such great graces from It that she was accustomed to say that if she had to write down all the favors and all the blessings which she had received by means of this devotion, a large book would not contain them. (Liber Specialis Gratiae). Those who practice devotion to the Sacred Heart in our own times receive also great graces and experience great consolation and thus confirm by their own experience the truth of the statements of those cherished servants of God.

The author of The Interior Christian writes: “I am resolved to depend henceforth on providence alone without seeking either consolation or support in creatures; I ought to be like a child that, without uneasiness or fear, reposes sweetly in the arms of its mother from whom it receives a thousand caresses, a thousand endearments. I confess that Our Lord treats me in this manner; for without seeking elsewhere nourishment and riches for my soul, I find in His Sacred Heart, all the helps and blessings of which I have need; and I find these blessings in such great abundance, and I am so liberally enriched by them that I am sometimes astonished, and fear that there may be negligence on my part because I receive such great graces while making so little effort.”

But even though we could not adduce either authority, or examples, or particular revelations in favor of this devotion; even if Jesus Christ Himself had not explained it so frequently, should a Christian have need of elaborate reasoning to see there is nothing more solid or more advantageous for our salvation and our perfection than a devotion that has as motive, the most pure love of Jesus Christ; which has an end, to make reparation as far as possible for all the indignities which Jesus Christ suffers in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist; and of which all the practices tend solely to honor Jesus Christ and to make Him ardently loved?

Can this admirable Savior who has done so much to gain the hearts of men, refuse anything to those who themselves ask of Him a place in His Heart? If Jesus Christ allows Himself to be given to those who do not love Him, if He allows Himself to be brought at the hour of death to people who have scarcely ever deigned to visit Him during their lives, people who have been insensible both to the striking proofs of love which He gives them and to the cruel outrages which He receives in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, people even who have perhaps themselves treated Him with indignity, what will He not do for those faithful servants who, sensibly touched at seeing their good Master so little loved, so rarely visited and so cruelly outraged, frequently make reparation to Him for all the contempt which he suffers and leave nothing undone to repair the outrages offered to Him by their frequent visits, by their adoration and homage, and especially by their ardent love? It is therefore clear that there is nothing more reasonable, nothing more useful than the practice of this devotion, and will it then be necessary to give lengthy reasons to Christians to persuade them to take up the practice of it?

[The precious advantages attached to the practice of devotion to the Sacred Heart which Father Croiset has just pointed out had been announced long before his time by the great contemplative, St. Gertrude of Saxony (1256-1302).]

What St. Gertrude has written on this subject has been frequently quoted; a few words will suffice to recall it. Her historian relates that the beloved Disciple, St. John, appeared to her on one occasion, and that she asked her Heavenly visitor how it was that he, whose head had reposed on the breast of the Savior at the Last Supper, kept complete silence about the throbbing of the adorable Heart of his Master; and she expressed regret to him that he had said nothing about it for our instruction. The saint replied to her: “My mission was to write for the Church, still in its infancy, something about the uncreated Word of God the Father, something which of itself alone would give exercise to every human intellect to the end of time, something that no one would ever succeed in fully understanding. As for the language of these blessed beats of the Heart of Jesus, it is reserved for the last ages when the world, grown old and become cold in the love of God, will need to be warmed again by the revelation of these mysteries.” [Lanspergius, Legatus Divinae Pietatis, Lib. IV, Cap. IV).

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 5
What True Sweetness and Consolation is to be Found in the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Although all exercises of devotion can fill those who practice them with interior consolation, and although there are no good works that are not accompanied by the inexpressible pleasure and joy which are inseparable from the testimony of a good conscience, and which surpass all other pleasures, it is however certain that Jesus Christ has never conferred so many favors, even sensible favors, as in the practice of the devotion which tends to honor Him in the Blessed Sacrament. The lives of the Saints are filled with examples which demonstrate this truth.

When was it that St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Teresa, St. Philip Neri, St. Aloysius Gonzaga and a hundred others, have felt their hearts more than usually inflamed with love but when they approached this august Sacrament? How many loving sighs, how many sweet tears in the celebration or in the participation of this adorable mystery? With what consolation and with what torrents of delights have they not been filled? And, in truth, as there is no place where Jesus Christ is more liberal, so there is no place where He makes the sweetness of His presence and His gifts more felt. In the other mysteries He gives us His graces, but in this, the first grace which He gives us, is to give us Himself really and truly.

Joy is inseparable from a feast; Jesus Christ has made a feast every day for Christians in the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist. Are we to be astonished that He treats His friends with so much sweetness and love at this Sacred Banquet?

Now as the devotion to the Sacred Heart makes us true and faithful adorers of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and as it consecrates us in a special way to this Mystery, it procures for us the greatest sweetness from it. One would say that Our Savior measures the special favors which He confers in this Sacrament by the number of insults which He has endured in it, and that, as there is no mystery in which He has received so many outrages, there is also no other mystery in which He fills with such sweet consolations those who do all in their power to make reparation for these outrages. As the motive of this holy practice is so pure and agreeable to Jesus Christ, we should not be surprised if the best and holiest of all masters shows such sweetness to His grateful and faithful servants, especially at a time when gratitude is rare, and when so little eagerness to serve Him and so little true love are found even in those who made profession of loving Him.

As it is impossible to have this devotion at heart without having great love for Jesus Christ, it would be difficult not to feel in its practice that sweetness and those interior consolations inseparable from the exercise of true love; and as the mere sight of the wounds of Jesus Christ inspires us with great confidence in His mercy, the mere sight of his Heart inspires us with sweetness and joy that can be distinctly felt, but which it is difficult to describe. In truth, it would be strange if one should approach Jesus Christ, be well received by Him, and not feel the same pleasure as is usually felt when one is well received by the great ones of this earth. If we do not experience this consolation ― and this is a greater misfortune than some people think, it is because of our want of love for Jesus Christ, because of our great imperfections, our little faith and a hundred other faults. But we can say that as those who have true devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus have none of these faults, all these caresses, all these singular favors ought to be inseparable from the exercise of this devotion.

This has been the happy experience so far of all persons who have been known to be devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and this is still the experience every day of those who imitate them; this is proof that Jesus Christ cannot refuse His sweetest caresses to the friends of His Sacred Heart. It has always been remarked that the Saints who have had most devotion to the Sacred Heart have been filled with most signal favors, and those saints hardly ever speak of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus without using language that lets us see the extraordinary graces and interior sweetness with which they have been filled.

“O how good and sweet it is,” says St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “to make one’s abode in this Sacred Heart. It is enough to bring to mind Thy Sacred Heart, O my amiable Jesus, to be filled with joy.” It is by means of this devotion that St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde received such great favors from Jesus Christ. St. Clare assures us that it was to the tender devotion which she had to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that she owed the extraordinary sweetness with which her soul was filled every time that she presented herself before the Blessed Sacrament; and St. Catherine of Siena felt herself all inflamed with the love of Jesus at the mere thought of this adorable Heart. Jesus Christ, having appeared to St. Mechtilde, addressed these beautiful words to her: “My daughter, if you wish to obtain pardon for all your negligence in My service, have a tender devotion to My Sacred Heart, for It is the treasury of all the graces which I confer on you unceasingly. It is Itself the source of all those interior consolations and of the ineffable sweetness which I lavish on My faithful friends.”

Father Claude de la Colombière expresses himself in a similar manner on this subject. Although for many years God had led him in the paths of the most sublime perfection, not by sensible consolations, but only by a lively faith and by rude trials, nevertheless, the Holy Spirit seems to have changed His method as soon as He had inspired him with the practice of this devotion. The following quotation with reference to this subject is taken from his Book of Retreats:

“My heart expands and feels sweetness which I can state, and which I receive from the mercy of God, without being able to explain it. How good Thou art, my God, to communicate Thyself with such liberality to the most ungrateful of creatures and to the most unworthy of Thy servants! Mayest Thou be praised and blessed eternally for it! I have recognized that God wishes that I should serve Him, by procuring the accomplishment of His desires concerning the devotion [to the Sacred Heart] which He has suggested to a person [St. Margaret Mary] to whom He communicates Himself very confidently. Would that I could be everywhere, O my God, and publish what Thou dost expect from Thy servants and friends!”

And in another place he says: “Cease, my Sovereign, to fill me with Thy favors, I recognize how unworthy I am of them; . . . can I merit these ineffable graces and consolations which Thou dost shower on me without any deserving on my part? No, no, my God, it is Thou alone who by Thy sufferings hast obtained for me all these favors from Thy Eternal Father; mayest Thou be eternally blessed, and mayest Thou fill me with evils and miseries to give me some share in Thine; I cannot believe that Thou dost love me unless Thou grant me many long sufferings.”

It is thus that this holy man expresses himself in the excess of the sweetness and interior consolations which he felt in the exercise of a tender devotion towards the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Part 1 : Motives for the Devotion

Chapter 6
The Devotion which the Saints had to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

As the example of the Saints is at the same time a powerful motive to urge us to the practice of a devotion which they themselves have practiced, and a reliable guide to show us how to practice it, we think it advisable to give here the views of those who had the tenderest love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and who were most penetrated with this devotion.

St. Clare, who was inflamed with the love of Jesus Christ and filled with eagerness to love Him in return, believed that she could find no practice more suitable to testify her gratitude than to salute and adore, several times each day, the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; and by means of this devotion, as is related in her Life, her soul was filled with the sweetest delights and the most signal favors.

The following prayer of St. Gertrude (1256-1302) to the Sacred Heart of Jesus shows the high esteem which this Saint had for this devotion:

“I salute Thee, O Sacred Heart of Jesus, living and vivifying source of eternal life, infinite treasury of the Divinity, ardent furnace of Divine love; Thou art the place of my repose and my refuge. Enkindle in my heart the fire of that ardent love with which Thine own is all inflamed; pour into my heart the great graces of which Thine is the source, and grant that my heart may be so closely united to Thine, that Thy will may be mine, and that my will may be eternally conformed to Thine, since I desire that henceforth Thy holy will may be the rule of all my desires and all my actions. Amen.”

The historian of her life, describing her precious death, said: “Her blessed soul took its flight towards Heaven and retired into the Sanctuary of the Divinity; I mean” he added, “into the adorable Heart of Jesus, which this Divine Spouse in an excess of love had opened to her.”

St. Mechtilde (1240-1298) was so penetrated with the devotion that all day long she could speak only of this adorable Heart of Jesus and of the singular favors which she received from this devotion. This amiable Savior gave her His Heart as a pledge of His love and to serve her as a place of refuge where she would unceasingly find sweet repose during life, and inexpressible peace and consolation at the hour of death.

St. Catherine of Siena loved this devotion to an extraordinary degree: she made an entire donation of her heart to her divine Spouse and she obtained the Heart of Jesus in exchange; from that time on, she endeavored to live and act only according to the movements and inclinations of the Heart of Jesus Christ.

St. Elzear writing to St. Delphine says: “You are troubled about my health; you wish to have news of me. Go often and pay court to our amiable Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, enter into His Sacred Heart and you will get news about me there, because you will find me always there, It is my usual dwelling place.”

The words of St. Bernard not only express his own beautiful sentiments about this adorable Heart, but show that the devotion to the Sacred Heart was known and practiced before the time of St. Margaret Mary. He writes in his book Vitis Mystica:

“O sweetest Jesus, what riches Thou hast stored up in Thy Sacred Heart! Can it be that men are indifferent to the loss which they suffer by the neglect and indifference which they show to this amiable heart? As for me, I will spare no pains to gain It and possess It. Henceforth I will consecrate to It all my thoughts; Its sentiments and desires shall be my sentiments and desires. I will give everything to possess this precious treasure. But what need have I to buy It since It is truly mine? Yes, I say with assurance, the Heart of Jesus is mine, since It belongs to my Head, and does not what belongs to our Head belong also to all His members? Henceforth this Sacred Heart will be both the temple where I shall never cease to adore Him, and the Victim which I shall unceasingly offer to Him; and the altar on which I shall offer my sacrifices, on which the same flames of divine love with which It burns, will consume mine; in the Sacred Heart I shall find a model to regulate all the movements of mine, a source of wealth with which to pay all my debts to divine justice, and an assured place of refuge where I shall be protected from shipwreck and storms. I will say with David: ‘I have found my heart to pray to my God’ (2 Kings 7:27).

“Yes, I have found this Heart in the adorable Eucharist when I have found there the Heart of my Sovereign, of my Friend, of my Brother, that is to say, the Heart of my amiable Redeemer. And after that, who will prevent me from praying with a confidence and obtaining all that I ask? Come, my brethren, let us enter into this amiable Heart never again to go out from It. My God, if we feel such consolation at the bare remembrance of the Sacred Heart, what will it be when we love It with tenderness, what will it be if we enter into It and make our dwelling there always? Draw me completely into Thy Heart, O my amiable Jesus. Open to me this Heart which has so many attractions for me! What! does not this pierced Side leave an entrance open for me, and does not the open wound of this Sacred Heart invite me to enter there?” (Vitis Mystica, Cap. III).

The famous Lanspergius (+ 1538), well-known for his works which are full of unction and solid piety, writes in the chapter on “The Exercise of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus” of his Epistolae Paroeneticae, as follows:

“Take great care to excite yourself by frequent acts of constant devotion to honor the amiable Heart of Jesus, all full of love and mercy for us. It is through It that you must ask for all you wish to obtain; it is by It and in It that you must offer to the Eternal Father all that you do, because the Sacred Heart is the treasury of all supernatural gifts and of all graces. It is, so to speak, the way by which we unite ourselves more closely to God, and by which God Himself communicates Himself more liberally to us. That is why I advise you to put in the places where you pass most often, some pious image on which the Sacred Heart is represented, the sight of which will constantly remind you of your holy practices of devotion towards this adorable Heart, and will urge you always to love It more . . . When you feel yourself touched with a more tender devotion, you can kiss this image with the same sentiments with which you would truly kiss the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

“You should endeavor to unite yourself constantly to the Sacred Heart, wishing to have no other desires, no other sentiments than those of Jesus Christ, persuading yourself that His Spirit and His Sacred Heart will, so to speak, pass into yours and that of the two hearts there will be no longer two but one. Draw at will from this amiable Heart all imaginable blessings, you will never exhaust It. Besides, it is proper, it is even necessary to honor with a special devotion the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It should be for you a sanctuary in which you can take refuge in all your necessities, and from which you can draw the consolation and all the helps of which you have need. For even if all men should abandon you and forget you, Jesus will be always your faithful Friend; He will keep you always in His Heart, put your trust in Him, rely on Him; others may deceive you and indeed do deceive you; the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the only heart that loves you sincerely; It is the only Heart which will never deceive you.”

The author of the book entitled The Interior Christian writes: “The Sacred Heart of Jesus is our rallying center. When your heart is distracted and dissipated, you must bring it gently to the Heart of Jesus Christ and offer to the Eternal Father the holy dispositions of this adorable Heart, and unite the little which you do to the infinite amount which Jesus Christ accomplishes. Thus, while doing nothing yourself, you shall do much through Jesus Christ. The Divine Heart of Jesus will henceforth, devout soul, be for you an oratory. In It and by It you will offer all your prayers to God the Father, if you wish them to be pleasing to Him. It will be your school in which you will learn the sublime science of God, which is so contrary to the opinions and wretched maxims of the world. It will be your treasure where you will go to get all that is necessary to enrich you: purity, pure love, fidelity. But what is most precious and most abundant in this treasure are humiliations, sufferings and an ardent love of the greatest poverty. And learn that the esteem and love of all these things is a gift so precious that it is found only in the Heart of a God made man, as in its first Source; other hearts, however holy, however noble they may be, have this gift more or less in the measure that they go and draw out of this treasury, I mean, out of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”

Finally, we may remark that not only all the Saints of the Church who appear to have been filled with the greatest graces, have had for Jesus Christ a most ardent and tender love, but there is scarcely one of those who have had for Jesus Christ this extremely tender love but have had also a singular devotion to His Sacred Heart.

Those who have read the life of St. Francis of Assisi, the works of St. Thomas, the works of St. Teresa, the lives of St. Bonaventure, of St. Ignatius, of St. Francis Xavier, of St. Philip Neri, of St. Francis de Sales, of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, will be able to remark the tender devotion which these saints had for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Indeed we find examples of great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus [prior to the time of St. Margaret Mary] not only in the lives of the great saints but of many of God’s chosen servants living in the world. Armelle Nicholas, a humble peasant girl, who died [1671] in the odor of sanctity is a case of this. In her life written under the title: The Triumph of Divine Love, we read the following:

“Whenever I met with any affliction from creatures, I always had recourse to my amiable Savior, who immediately filled me with sweet consolations. You would have thought that He feared that I should be in any way troubled, so careful was He to console me in all pains and afflictions. Very often He would show me His open Heart in order that I might hide myself in It, and at the same moment I would find myself enclosed in It with such great assurance of safety that all the efforts of Hell seemed to me to be but weakness. For a long space of time I could neither see nor hear except in the Sacred Heart, so that I used to say to my friends: ‘If you wish to find me, always seek me in the Heart of my Divine Love, for I do not stir from It either day or night; It is my sanctuary, my place of refuge against all my enemies.’” [1]

1. From the school of the pure love of God open to the learned and unlearned by a poor uneducated girl, a peasant by birth and a servant by condition commonly called “The Good Armelle” ― who died in Brittany, 1671 ― by a religious who knew her.

* * * * * * *

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS
BY DOM GUERANGER

Taken from The Liturgical Year, by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875)

Part 1
The Link Between the feasts of the Trinity, Corpus Christi & the Sacred Heart
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

A new ray of light shines today in the Heaven of holy Church, and its light brings warmth. The divine Master given to us by our Redeemer, that is, the Paraclete Spirit, who has come down into this world, continues His teachings to us, in the sacred Liturgy. The earliest of these His divine teachings was the mystery of the Trinity; and we have worshipped the Blessed Three: we have been taught who God is, we know Him in His own nature, we have been admitted, by Faith, into the sanctuary of the infinite Essence.

Then, this Spirit, the mighty wind of Pentecost, opened to our souls new aspects of the truth, which it is His mission to make the world remember; and His revelation left us prostrate before the Sacred Host, the Memorial which God Himself has left us of all His wonderful works. Today, it is the Sacred Heart of the Word made flesh that this Holy Spirit puts before us, that we may know and love and adore it.

There is a mysterious connection between these three Feasts, of Trinity, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart. The aim of the Holy Ghost, in all three, is this—to initiate us more and more into that knowledge of God by Faith, which is to fit us for the face-to-face vision in Heaven. We have already seen how God, being made known to us, by the first, in Himself, manifests Himself to us, by the second, in His outward works—for the Holy Eucharist is the memorial, here below, in which He has brought together, and with all possible perfection, all those His wondrous works.

But by what law can we pass, so rapidly, so almost abruptly, from one Feast, which is all directly regarding God, to another, which celebrates His works, done by Him to and for us? Then again: how came the divine thought, how came, that is, eternal Wisdom, from the infinite repose of the eternally Blessed Trinity, to the external activity of a love for us poor creatures, which has produced what we call the Mysteries of our Redemption? The Heart of the Man-God is the solution of these difficulties; it answers all such questions, and explains to us the whole divine plan.

We knew that the sovereign happiness which is in God, we knew that the life eternal communicated from the Father to the Son, and from these two to the Holy Ghost, in light and love—was to be given by the will of these Three Divine Persons, to created beings; not only to those which were purely spiritual, but, likewise, to that creature whose nature is the union of spirit and matter, that is, to Man. We are of this lower nature; and a pledge of this life eternal was given to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

It is by the Eucharist that Man, who has already been made a partaker of the divine nature by the grace of the sanctifying spirit, is united to the divine Word, and is made a true member of this Only Begotten Son of the Father. Yes: though it hath not yet appeared what we shall be, says St. John, still we are now the sons of God; we know, that when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him, for we are called to live, as the Word Himself does, in the society of that eternal Father of his, for ever and ever.

But the infinite love of the sacred Trinity, which thus called us frail creatures to a participation in its own blessed life, would accomplish this merciful design by the help and means of another love, a love more like what we ourselves can feel; that is, the created love of a human soul, evinced by the beatings of a Heart of flesh like our own.

The Angel of the great Counsel, who is sent to make known to the world the merciful designs of the Ancient of days, took to himself, in order to fulfill his divine mission, a created, a human form; and this would enable men to see with their eyes, yea, and even touch with their hands, the Word of life, that life eternal which was with the Father, but appeared even unto us.

This human nature, which the Son of God took into personal union with Himself, from the womb of the Virgin-Mother, was the docile instrument of infinite love, but it was not absorbed into, or lost in, the Godhead; it retained its own substance, its special faculties, its distinct Will, which Will ruled, under the influence of the divine Word, the acts and movements of His most holy Soul and adorable Body.

From the very first instant of its existence, the human Soul of Christ was inundated, more directly than was any other creature, with that true light of the Word, which enlighteneth every man who cometh into this world; it enjoyed the face-to-face vision of the divine essence; and, therefore, took in, at a single glance, the absolute beauty of the sovereign Being, and the wisdom of the divine decree, which called finite beings into a participation of infinite bliss.

It understood its sublime mission, and conceived an immense love for man and for God. This love began simultaneously with life, and filled not only his soul, but impressed, in its own way, the Body too—the Body which was formed from the substance of the Virgin-Mother, by the operation of the Holy Ghost. The effect of his love told, consequently, upon His Heart of true human flesh; it set in motion those beatings, which made the Blood of redemption circulate in His sacred veins.

For, it was not with him as with other men, the pulsations of whose hearts are, at first, the consequence of nothing but the vital power which is in the human frame; and, later on, when age has awakened reason into act, the ideas so produced will produce physical impressions on us, which will, now and then, quicken, or dull, the throbbings of these our hearts.

With the Man-God it was not so: His Heart, from the very first moment of its life, responded, that is, throbbed, to the law of His soul’s love, whose power to act upon His human Heart was as incessant, and as intense, as is the power of organic vitality—a love as burning at the first instant of the Incarnation as it is this very hour in Heaven.

For the human love which the Incarnate Word had, resulting as it did from His intellectual knowledge of God and His creatures, was as perfect as that knowledge, and, therefore, as incapable of all progress; though, being our Brother, and our model in all things, He, day by day, made more manifest to us the exquisite sensibility of His divine Heart.

Part 2
The Sacred Heart Comes to Remind Us How to Love
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

At the period of Jesus’ coming upon this Earth, man had forgotten how to love, for he had forgotten what true beauty was. His heart of flesh seemed to him as a sort of excuse for his false love of false goods: his heart was but an outlet, whereby his soul could stray from heavenly things to the husks of earth, there to waste his power and his substance.

To this material world, which the soul of man was intended to make subserve its Maker’s glory—to this world, which, by a sad perversion, kept man’s soul a slave to his senses and passions—the Holy Ghost sent a marvelous power, which, like a resistless lever, would replace the world in its right position—it was the sacred Heart of Jesus; a Heart of flesh, like that of other human beings, from whose created throbbings there would ascend to the eternal Father an expression of love, which would be an homage infinitely pleasing to the infinite Majesty, because there was in that love of that human Heart the dignity of its union with the Word.

It is a harp of sweetest melody, that is ever vibrating under the touch of the Spirit of Love; it gathers up into its own music the music of all creation, whose imperfections it corrects, and supplies its deficiencies, and tunes all discordant voices into unity, and so offers to the glorious Trinity a hymn of perfect praise. The Trinity finds its delight in this Heart. It is the one only organum, as St. Gertrude calls it (Legatus divinæ pietatis; lib. ii. c. 23; lib. iii. c. 25.), the one only instrument which finds acceptance with the Most High. Through it must pass all the inflamed praises of the burning Seraphim, just as must do the humble homage paid to its God by inanimate creation. By it alone are to come upon this world the favors of Heaven. It is the mystic ladder between man and God, the channel of all graces, the way whereby man ascends to God and God descends to man.

The Holy Ghost, whose masterpiece it is, has made it a living image of himself; for although, in the ineffable relations of the divine Persons, he is not the source of love, he is its substantial expression, or, in theological language, the term; it is he who inclines the holy Trinity to those works outside itself, which first produce creatures, and then, having given them being (and to some, life), he (the Holy Spirit) pours out upon them all the effusion of their Creator’s love for them. And so is it with the love which the Man-God has for God and Man—its direct and, so to say, material expression is the throbbing it produces upon his sacred Heart; and again, it is by that Heart that, like the Water and Blood which came from his wounded Side, he pours out upon the world a stream of redemption and grace, which is to be followed by the still richer one of glory.

One of the soldiers, as the Gospel tells us, opened Jesus’ Side with a spear, and, immediately, there came out blood and water. We must keep before us this text and the fact it relates, for they give us the true meaning of the Feast we are celebrating. The importance of the event here related is strongly intimated, by the earnest and solemn way in which St. John follows up his narration. After the words just quoted, he adds: And he that saw it, hath given testimony of it, and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe; for these things were done, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Here the Gospel refers us to the testimony of the Prophet Zacharias, who, after predicting the Spirit of grace being poured out upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, says: They shall look upon Him whom they pierced.

And, when they look upon his side thus pierced what will they see there, but that great truth which is the summary of all Scripture—of all history—God so loved the world, as to give it his Only Begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have eternal life. This grant truth was, during the ages of expectation, veiled under types and figures; it could be deciphered by but few, and, even then, only obscurely; but it was made known with all possible clearness on that eventful day when, on Jordan’s banks, the whole sacred Trinity manifested who was the Elect, the Chosen One, of the Father—the Son in whom he was so well pleased. Yes, it was Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary: but there was another revelation, of deepest interest to us, which had still to be made: it was—how, and in what way, would the eternal life brought by this Jesus into the world, pass from him into each one of us?

This second revelation was made to us, when the soldier’s spear opened the divine source, and there flowed from it that Water and Blood, which, as the Scripture tells us, completed the testimony of the Blessed Three. There are three, says St. John, who give testimony in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these Three are One. And there are three that give testimony on Earth: the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood: and these three are one, that is, they are one because they concur in giving the one same testimony. And this, continues St. John, is the testimony—that God hath given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son. These words contain a very profound mystery; but we have their explanation in today’s Feast, which shows us how it is through the Heart of the Man-God that the divine work is achieved, and how, through that same Heart, the plan, which was conceived, from all eternity, by the Wisdom of the Father, has been realized.

Part 3
Union Through Love and Death
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

To communicate His own happiness to creatures, by making them, through the Holy Ghost, partakers of His own divine nature, and members of His beloved Son—this was the merciful design of the Father; and all the works of the Trinity, outside itself, tend to the accomplishment of that same.

When the fullness of time had come, there appeared upon our Earth He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ—not by water only, but by water and blood. The Spirit, who, together with the Father and the Son has already, on the banks of Jordan, given his testimony, gives it here again, for St. John continues: “And it is the Spirit which testifieth, that Christ is the truth”; and that He spoke the truth when He said of Himself that He is Life.

Yes, the Spirit, as the Gospel teaches us, comes forth with the water from the fountains of the Savior, and makes us worthy of the precious Blood, which flows together with the water. Then does mankind, thus born again of water and the Holy Ghost, become entitled to enter into the Kingdom of God; and the Church, thus made ready for her Spouse in those same waters of Baptism, is united to the Incarnate Word in the Blood of the sacred Mysteries.

We, being members of that holy Church, have had the same union with Christ; we are bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh; we have received the power to be made adopted Sons of God, and sharers, for all eternity, of the divine life, which He, the Son by nature, has in the bosom of the Father.

On, then, thou Jew! Though ignorant of the nuptials of the Lamb, give the signal of their being accomplished. Lead the Spouse to the marital bed of the Cross; He will lay himself down on that most precious wood, which His mother, the Synagogue, has made to be His couch; she prepared it for Him, on the eve of the day of His alliance, when, from His Sacred Heart, there is to come forth His Bride, together with the Water, which cleanses her, and the Blood, which is to be her dower.

It was for the sake of this Bride, that He left His Father, and the bright home of His heavenly Jerusalem; He ran, as a giant, in the way of His intense love; He thirsted, and the thirst of the desire gave Him no rest. The scorching wind of suffering which dried up His bones, was less active than the fire which burned in His Heart, and made its beatings send forth, in the agony in the Garden, the Blood which, on the morrow, was to be spent for the redemption of His Bride.

He has reached Calvary, it is the end of His journey; He dies; He sleeps, with His burning thirst upon Him. But the Bride, who is formed for Him during this mysterious sleep, will soon rouse Him from it. That Heart, from which she was born, has broken, that she might come forth; broken, it ceased to beat, and the grand hymn which, through it, had been so long ascending from Earth to Heaven, was interrupted, and creation was dismayed at the interruption.

Now that the world has been redeemed, man should sing more than ever the canticle of his gratitude; and the strings of the harp are broken! Who will restore them? Who will rewaken in the Heart of our Jesus the music of its divine throbbings?

Part 4
The Piercing of the Sacred Heart
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

The new-born Church, His Bride, is standing near that opened side of her Jesus; in the intensity of her first joy, she thus sings to God the Father: “I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people, and I will sing unto Thee among the nations!” Then, to her Jesus: “Arise, Thou, my glory! My psaltery, my harp, arise!” And He arose in the early morning of the great Sunday His Sacred Heart resumed its melody, and, with it, sent up to Heaven the music of holy Church, for the Heart of the Spouse belongs to His Bride, and they are now two in one flesh.

Christ being now in possession of her who has wounded His Heart, He gives her, in return, full power over that Sacred Heart of his, from which she has issued. There lies the secret of all the Church’s power. In the relations existing between husband and wife, which were created by God, at the beginning of the world, and (as the Apostle assures us), in view of this great mystery of Christ and the Church—man is the head, and the woman may not domineer in the government of the family. Has the woman, then, no power? She has power, and a great power—she must address herself to her husband’s heart, and gain all by love. If Adam, our first father, sinned, it was because Eve used, and for evil, her influence over his heart, by misleading him, and us in him—Jesus saves us, because the Church has won His Heart; and that human Heart could not be won, without the divinity also being moved to mercy. And here we have the doctrine of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as far as regards the principle upon which it rests. In this its primary and essential notion, the devotion is as old as the Church herself, for it rests on this truth, which has been recognized in every age—that Christ is the Spouse, and the Church is His Bride.

The Fathers and holy Doctors of the early Ages had no other way, than the one we have been putting before our readers, when expounding the mystery of the Church’s having been formed from Jesus’ side; and the words they used—though always marked by that reserve which was called for by so many of their hearers being as yet uninitiated—were taken as the text for the sublime and fearless developments of later Ages. “The initiated,” says St. John Chrysostom, “know the mystery of the Savior’s fountains; from those, that is, from the Blood and the Water, the Church was formed; from those same, came our Mysteries; so that, when thou approachest the dread chalice, thou must come up to it, as though thou wert about to drink of that very Side of Christ.”

“The Evangelist,” says St. Augustine, “made use of a word which has a special import, when he said—the soldier opened Jesus’ Side with a spear. He did not say, struck the Side, or wounded the Side, or anything else like that―but he said, he opened Jesus’ Side. He opened it―for that side was like the door of life; and when it was opened, the Sacraments (the Mysteries) of the Church came through it … This was predicted by that door which Noe was commanded to make in the side of the Ark, through which were to go those living creatures which were not to be destroyed by the deluge; and all these things were a figure of the Church.”

“Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit”, says Isaias (2:10); and what means this, but “enter into the Side of thy Lord?” as the expression is interpreted, in the 13th Century, by Guerric, a disciple of St. Bernard, and Abbot of Igny (In Dom. Palm. Serm. iv.). St. Bernard himself thus comments the verses 13 and 14 of the second Chapter of the Canticle:

“Come, my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall! O Beautiful clefts of the rock, wherein the dove takes safe shelter, and fearlessly looks at the hawk that hovers about! … And what may I see through that opening? The iron hath pierced his soul, and His Heart hath come near; so that, through the cleft, the mystery of His Heart is made visible, that great mystery of love, those bowels of the mercy of our God … What else art Thou, O Lord, but treasures of love, but riches of goodness? … I will make my way to those full store-cellars. I will take the Prophet’s advice, and will leave the cities; I will dwell in the Rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the mouth of the hole in the highest place. Sheltered there, like as Moses was in the hole of the Rock, I will see my Lord, as He passes by.”

In the next century, we have the Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, telling us in his own beautiful style, how the new Eve was born from the Side of Christ, when in His sleep; and how the spear of Saul was thrown at David, and struck the wall, as though it would make its way into Him, of whom David was but a type, that is, into Christ, who is the Rock, the mountain cave where are salubrious springs, the shelter (lignum vitæ) where doves build their nests.

Part 5
The Sacred Heart and St. Gertrude
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

Our readers will not expect us to do more than give them this general view of the great mystery, and tell them how the holy Doctors of the Church spoke of it. As far as St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure are concerned, the devotion to the mystery of Christ’s Side opened on the Cross, is but a part of that which they would have us show to the other wounds of our Redeemer. The Sacred Heart, as the expression of Jesus’ love, is not treated of, in their writings, with the explicitness wherewith the Church would afterwards put it before us. For this end, Our Lord Himself selected certain privileged souls, through whose instrumentality, He would bring the Christian world to a fuller appreciation of the consequences which are involved in the principles admitted by the whole Church.

It was on the 27th of January, in the year 1281, in the Benedictine Monastery of Helfta, near Eisleben, in Saxony, that our Divine Lord first revealed these ineffable secrets to one of the Community of that House, whose name was Gertrude.
“She was then twenty years of age. The Spirit of God came upon her, and gave her her mission. She saw, she heard, she was permitted to touch, and what is more, she drank of, that chalice of the Sacred Heart, which inebriates the elect. She drank of it, even whilst in this vale of bitterness; and what she herself so richly received, she imparted to others, who showed themselves desirous to listen. St. Gertrude’s mission was to make known the share and action of the Sacred Heart in the economy of God’s glory and the sanctification of souls; and, in this respect, we cannot separate her from her companion, St. Mechtilde.

“On this special doctrine regarding the heart of the Man-God, St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde hold a very prominent position among all the Saints and mystical writers of the Church. In saying this, we do not except even the Saints of these later ages, by whom our Lord brought about the public, the official, worship, which is now given to his Sacred Heart; these Saints have spread the devotion, now shown to it, throughout the whole Church—but they have not spoken of the mysteries it contains within it, with that set purpose, that precision, that loveliness, which we find in the ‘Revelations’ of the two Saints, Gertrude and Mechtilde.

“It was the Beloved Disciple, who had rested his head upon Jesus’ breast, at the Supper, and perhaps heard the beatings of the Sacred Heart—the Disciple who, when standing at the foot of the Cross, had seen that Heart pierced with the soldier’s spear—yes, it was he who announced to Gertrude its future glorification. She asked him how it was that he had not spoken, in his writings in the New Testament, of what he had experienced when he reclined upon Jesus’ Sacred Heart: he thus replied: ‘My mission was to write, for the Church which was still young, a single word of the uncreated Word of God the Father—that uncreated Word, concerning which the intellect of the whole human race might be ever receiving abundant truth, from now till the end of the world, and yet it would never be fully comprehended. As to the sweet eloquence of those throbbings of his Heart, it is reserved for the time when the world has grown old, and has become cold in God’s love—that it may regain favor by the hearing such revelation.” (The Legate of Divine Love, Bk. iv. ch. 4.)

“Gertrude was chosen as the instrument of that revelation; and what she has told us, is exquisitely beautiful. At one time, the divine Heart is shown to her as a treasure, which holds all riches within it; at another, it is a harp played upon by the Holy Spirit, and the music which comes from it gladdens the Blessed Trinity, and all the heavenly court. It is a plenteous spring, whose stream bears refreshment to the souls in Purgatory, strength and every grace to them that are still struggling on this Earth, and delights which inebriate the blessed in the heavenly Jerusalem. It is a golden thurible, whence there ascend as many different sorts of fragrant incense, as there are different races of men, for all of whom our Redeemer died upon the Cross. It is an altar, upon which the Faithful lay their offerings, the elect their homage, the Angels their worship, and the eternal High Priest offers himself as a Sacrifice. It is a lamp suspended between Heaven and Earth. It is a chalice out of which the Saints, but not the Angels, drink, though these latter receive from it delights of varied kinds. It was in this Heart, that was formed and composed the Lord’s Prayer, the Pater noster; that Prayer was the fruit of Jesus’ Heart.

“By that same Sacred Heart, are supplied all the negligences and deficiencies which are found in the honor we pay to God, and his Blessed Mother and Saints. The Heart of Jesus makes itself as our servant, and our bond, in fulfillment of all the obligations incumbent on us; in it alone, do our actions derive that perfection, that worth, which makes them acceptable in the eyes of the divine Majesty; and every grace, which flows from Heaven to Earth, passes through that same Heart. When our life is at its close, that Heart is the peaceful abode, the holy sanctuary, ready to receive our souls as soon as they have departed from this world; and having received them, it keeps them in itself for all eternity, and beatifies them with every delight!” (From the Preface to the Revelations of St. Gertrude, translated into French from the new Latin Edition, published by the Benedictine Fathers of Solesmes.)

Part 6
The Sacred Heart and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

By thus revealing to Gertrude the admirable mysteries of divine love, included in the doctrine which attaches to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was, so to say, forestalling the workings of Hell, which, two centuries later on, were to find their prime mover in that same spot. Luther was born at Eisleben, in the year 1483. He was the apostle, after being the inventor, of theories the very opposite of what the Sacred Heart reveals. Instead of the merciful God, as known and loved in the previous ages, Luther would have the world believe Him to be the direct author of sin and damnation, who creates the sinner for crime and eternal torments, and for the mere purpose of showing that He could do anything, even injustice! Calvin followed; he took up the blasphemous doctrines of the German apostate, and riveted the Protestant principles by his own gloomy and merciless logic. By these two men, the tail of the dragon dragged the third part of the stars of Heaven.

In the 17th Century, the old enemy put on hypocrisy, in the shape of Jansenism; changing the names of things, but leaving the things unchanged, he tried to get into the very center of the Church, and there pass off his impious doctrines; and Jansenism, which, under the pretext of safeguarding the rights of God’s sovereign dominion, aimed at making men forget that he was a God of mercy—Jansenism was a favorable system, wherewith the enemy might propagate his so-called Reformation.

That God who so loved the world, beheld mankind discouraged or terrified, and behaving as though in Heaven there was no such thing as mercy, still less, love. This Earth of ours was to be made to see that its Creator had loved it with affectionate love; that He had taken a Heart of flesh in order to bring that infinite love within man’s reach and sight; that He made that human Heart, which He had assumed, do its work, that is, beat and throb from love, just as ours do, for He had become one of ourselves, and, as the Prophet words it, had taken the cords of Adam; that Heart felt the thrill of joy when duty-doing made us joyous; it felt a weight and pang when it saw our sorrows; it was gladsome when it found that, here and there, there would be souls to love Him in return. How were men to be told all this? Who would be chosen to fulfill the prophecy made by Gertrude the Great? Who would come forth, like another Paul or John, and teach to the world, now grown old, the language of the divine throbbings of Jesus’ Heart?

There were then living many men noted for their learning and eloquence; but they would not suit the purpose of God. God, who loves to choose the weak (and often it is, that he may confound the strong), had selected for the manifesting of the mystery of the Sacred Heart, a servant of His, of whose existence the world knew not—it was a Religious woman, who lived in a monastery which had nothing about it to attract notice.

As, in the 13th Century, He had passed by the learned men, and even the great Saints, who were then living, and selected the Blessed Juliana of Liége as the instrument which was to bring about the institution of the Corpus Christi Feast—so in this present case: He would have His own Sacred Heart be glorified in his Church by a solemn Festival; and He imparts and entrusts His wish to the humble Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial, now known and venerated, throughout the world, under the name of St. Margaret-Mary Alacoque. The mission thus divinely given to her, was to bring forward the treasure, which had been revealed to St. Gertrude, and which, all the long interval, had been known to only a few privileged souls. Sister Margaret-Mary was to publish the secret to the whole world, and make the privilege cease, by telling everyone how to possess it. Through this apparently inadequate instrument, the Sacred Heart of Jesus was a heavenly reaction offered to the world against the chillness which had settled on its old age: it became a touching appeal to all the faithful souls that they would make reparation for all the contempt, and slight, and coldness, and sins, wherewith our age treats the love of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.

“I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament on one of the days during the Octave” (of Corpus Christi, June, 1675), says the Blessed Margaret [in her Autobiography], “and I received from my God exceeding great graces of his love. And, feeling a desire to make some return, and give Him love for love, He said to me: ‘Thou canst not make Me a greater, than by doing that which I have so often asked of thee.’ He then showed me His divine Heart, and said: ‘Behold this Heart, which has so loved men, as that it has spared nothing, even to the exhausting and wearing itself out, in order to show them its love; and, instead of acknowledgment, I receive, from the greater number, nothing but ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt wherewith they treat Me, in this Sacrament of love. But what is still more deeply felt by Me is, that they are hearts which are consecrated to Me, which thus treat Me. It is on this account, that I make this demand of thee—that the first Friday after the Octave of the Blessed Sacrament be devoted to a special Feast in honor of My Heart; that thou wilt go to Communion on that day; and give it a reparation of honor by an act of amendment, to repair the insults it has received during the time of its being exposed on the Altar. I promise thee, also, that My Heart will dilate itself, that it may pour forth, with abundance, the influences of its divine love upon those who shall thus honor it, and shall do their best to have such honor paid to it.’”

By thus calling His servant to be the instrument of the glorification of his Sacred Heart, our Lord made her a sign of contradiction; just as He Himself had been. It took more than ten years for St. Margaret Mary to get the better, by dint of patience and humility, of the suspicions wherewith she was treated by the little world around her, and of the harsh conduct of the Sisters who lived with her in the same Monastery, and of trials of every sort.

At last, on the 21st of June, in the year 1686, the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi, she had the consolation of seeing the whole Community of Paray-le-Monial kneeling before a picture, which represented the Heart of Jesus as pierced with a spear; it was the Heart by itself; it was encircled with flames, and a crown of thorns, with the Cross above it, and the three nails. That same year, there was begun, in the Monastery, the building of a Chapel in honor of the Sacred Heart; and St. Margaret Mary had the happiness of seeing it finished and blessed. She died shortly afterwards, in the year 1690. But all this was a very humble beginning: where was the institution of a Feast, properly so called? And where its solemn celebration throughout the Church?

Part 7
The Sacred Heart and St. Charles Colombière
by Dom Prosper Guéranger

So far back as the year 1674, our Lord had, in His own mysterious way, brought Margaret-Mary to form the acquaintance of one of the most saintly Religious of the Society of Jesus then living—it was Father Claude de la Colombière. He recognized the workings of the Holy Spirit in this His servant, and became the devoted apostle of the Sacred Heart, first of all at Paray-le-Monial, and, then, later on, in England, where he was imprisoned by the heretics of those times, and merited the glorious title of Confessor of the Faith.

This fervent disciple of the Heart of Jesus died in the year 1682, worn out by his labors and sufferings; but the Society, in a body, inherited his zeal for the propagation of devotion to the Sacred Heart. At once, numerous confraternities began to be formed, and everywhere there began to be built Chapels, in honor of that same Heart. Hell was angry at this great preaching of God’s love.

The Jansenists were furious at this sudden proclamation, at this apparition, as St. Paul would say, of the goodness and kindness of God our Savior; and the men who were proclaiming it, were aiming at restoring hope to souls, in which they, the Jansenists, had sowed despondency. The big world must interfere; and it began by talking of innovations, of scandals, of even idolatry; at all events, this new devotion was, to put it mildly, a revolting dissecting of the sacred Body of Christ! Erudite pamphlets were published, some theological, some physiological, to prove that the Church should forbid the subject! Indecent engravings were circulated, and witticisms, such as indignation can make, were made, in order to bring ridicule upon those for whom the world had coined the name of Cordicolæ, or Heart-Worshippers.

In the year 1720, the City of Marseilles was visited by a plague. It had been brought by a vessel that had come from Syria. As many as a thousand a day fell victims to the scourge. The Parliament, which was mainly composed of Jansenists, had, of course, fled; and there was nothing being done to stay the contagion from spreading. The then Bishop, Monsigneur de Belzunce, assembled such of his priests as had been spared; and, standing in the avenue, which is now called by his name, he solemnly consecrated his Diocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

At once, the plague abated, and gradually disappeared. Two years later, however, it again showed itself, and threatened to repeat its fierce onslaught; but it was arrested in consequence of the City Magistrates binding themselves and their successors for all future ages, by a vow, to the solemn acts of public worship, which, up to this present day, have proved a protection and glory to the City of St. Lazarus.

These events were noised throughout the world, and were the occasion of the Feast of the Sacred Heart being kept, not only, as hitherto, in the Monasteries of the Visitation Order, but in several Dioceses of France.

That noble, but tried, kingdom, is now erecting a national monument in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; it is the splendid Church which is now being built on Montmartre, near Paris. May that loving Heart of our Lord bless his devoted France, the eldest daughter of the Church! Like the Church, she is under terrible trials; and as they are companions in affliction, may they, through the mercy of the Heart of Jesus, be soon united in prosperity, and work together for the happiness of the world!

But, human wisdom, or human prejudice, or even human ridicule, cannot withstand God’s purposes. He wished that human hearts should be led to love, and therefore worship, the Sacred Heart of their Redeemer; and he inspired his Church to receive the devotion, which would save so many souls, though the world might not take Heaven’s view. The Apostolic See had witnessed all this; and, at last, gave its formal sanction.

Rome had frequently granted Indulgences in favor of the devotions privately practiced towards the Sacred Heart; she had published innumerable Briefs for the establishment of local Confraternities, under that title; and, in the year 1765, in accordance with the request made by the Bishops of Poland and the Arch-Confraternity of the Sacred Heart at Rome, Pope Clement the Thirteenth issued the first pontifical decree in favor of the Feast of the Heart of Jesus, and approved of a Mass and Office, which had been drawn up for that Feast. The same favor was gradually accorded to other Churches, until, at length, on the 23rd of August, 1856, Pope Pius the Ninth, of glorious memory, at the instance of all the Bishops of France, issued the Decree for the inserting the Feast of the Sacred Heart on the Calendar, and making obligatory its celebration by the universal Church.

The glorification of the Heart of Jesus called for that of its humble handmaid. On the 18th of September, 1864, the Beatification of Margaret-Mary was solemnly proclaimed by the same Sovereign Pontiff, who had put the last finish to the work she had begun, and given it the definitive sanction of the Apostolic See.

From that time forward, the knowledge and love of the Sacred Heart have made greater progress, than they had done during the whole two previous centuries. In every quarter of the globe, we have heard of Communities, Religious Orders, and whole Dioceses, consecrating themselves to this source of every grace, this sole refuge of the Church in these sad times. There have been pilgrimages made of thousands, from every country, to the favored sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, where it pleased the Divine Heart to first manifest itself, in its visible form, to us mortals.