The Sacred Heart of Jesus

Greetings in Jesus and Mary....

This Friday is the First Friday of June and is also the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. This feast day is in the Octave of Corpus Christi because the Blessed Sacrament is the Sacrament of Love...the Love of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I will start with a little history of the Sacred Heart in the Church......St. John Eudes was born in France in 1601 and St. Margaret Mary Alocoque was born in France in the year 1647. Both of these saints from France played a significant role in giving the Church the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the 1600's. Almost 100 years later in 1793-1796 the French people in the Vendee region wore the Sacred Heart badge as they fought against the Freemasonic Revolutionaries. (link below on the Vendee)

Since on the feast of Corpus Christi, I wrote on St. Margaret Mary; I am now going to quote St. John Eudes from his writings on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.....

" O my Savior, on that first Holy Thursday evening, Thy thoughts were only of peace, charity, and good will for men, wheras the 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 was 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 he 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 Saviour, 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 Saviour! 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 Saviour 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 Saviour, grant us this favor, we implore Thee! O Mother of Jesus, obtain for us this grace from thy Well-beloved Son!"

Pope Pius XI associated the worship of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament with expiation for sin. St. Margaret Mary had been canonized in 1920, just two years before Achille Ratti was elected Pope. In 1928, he wrote a lengthy encyclical on Reparation to the Sacred Heart. Its whole theme is on he desperate need to plead for God's mercy, especially through the Holy Eucharist.  Among the ways to make reparation to the Heart of Jesus, they Pope urged the faithful to "make expiatory supplications and prayers, prolonged for a whole hour which is rightly call the "Holy Hour" (Miserentissimus Redemptor, May 8, 1928). It was during Adoration that Our Lord came to St. Margaret Mary with the requests. May we offer much reparation before the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Let us try to pray the Reparation Prayers of Fatima at the Consecration of each of the Masses we go to as well making Spiritual Communions with Jesus in prayer and reparation for the multitude of crimes we see.

Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us 
All you holy angels and saints, pray for us.

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Miserentissimus Redemptor encyclical

War of the Vendee

Spiritual Communion and Reparation Prayer