The
Heart of All Hearts
by
Thomas A. Droleskey
Et
verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis: et vidimus gloriaim ejus,
gloriam quasi Unigeniti a Patre, plenum gratiae et veritatis. And the
Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us. And we saw his glory--glory
as of the only-begotten of the Father--full of grace and of truth.
The Word was
made flesh and dwelt amongst us when He was conceived as a helpless
embryo in Our Lady's virginal and immaculate womb. The Co-Eternal Word,
the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, took upon Himself that which
He did not have from all eternity with the Father: a human nature, hypostatically
united to His Sacred Divinity. It was as Our Lord was developing in
the tabernacle of His Most Blessed Mother's womb that His Most Sacred
Heart was formed out of her own Immaculate Heart, thus creating a perpetual
and unsurpassed bond of love whose depth has been penetrated only by
a relative handful of mystics and doctors of the Church. The joy of
one heart was the joy of the other. The sorrows of one were the sorrows
of the other. Our Lady experienced the full depth of her Seven Dolors
as the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon pierced her Sorrowful and
Immaculate Heart as she watched our sins take their cruel toll on the
Body she enfleshed by the power of the Holy Ghost and brought to birth
in Bethlehem on Christmas Day. And Our Lady watched as Blood and water
poured forth from her Divine Son's wounded side after it was pierced
by the centurion's lance.
The Blood and water
that flowed out from the sac surrounding Our Lord's Most Sacred Heart
represent the sacramental elements of the Church. Just as the
Angel of Death passed over the lintels of the doorposts of the Israelites
in Egypt which had been signed by the blood of paschal lamb, so is it
the case that eternal death is spared those souls who are signed by
the Most Precious Blood of the true Paschal Lamb, Our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, by means of their re-generation in the baptismal font
and their having persevered in a state of sanctifying grace until their
had breathed they last. The Most Precious Blood with which we are signed
as a result of our incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ in
the Sacrament of Baptism was pumped through the arteries of the God-Man
by His Most Sacred Heart, which beat for us lowly and ungrateful sinners
with burning love as It underwent the events of our Redemption. The
laver of redemption that is poured out on us in the Sacrament of Penance
by an alter Christus was made possible by the ineffable mercy
that flowed out of the Sacred Heart to the point where It was emptied
of every last drop of the Blood it had pumped through the Body that
was so miserably tortured by our sins and our indifference and our ingratitude
and our selfishness.
Our human hearts,
so stained by the vestigial after-effects of Original Sin and our own
actual sins, cannot fathom the limitless mercy and forbearance of the
Heart of all Hearts, the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our hearts are
so cold, so self-centered, so slow to forgive others when they have
injured us, either in great or small things, so ready to nurture resentment
and bitterness, the very opposite of what we ourselves, who do not merit
Divine Mercy at all, receive so generously from the One Who wants to
bestow on us forgiveness and love despite our infidelities and our lack
of resolve to cooperate more readily with the graces He won for us on
the Holy Cross by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious
Blood. It was precisely because of fallen man's tendency to despair
of this Divine Mercy that Our Lord manifested His Most Sacred Heart
to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the Seventeenth Century.
Devotion to
the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus had begun in the Eleventh and Twelfth
Centuries. However, Our Lord appeared to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
so as to spread this devotion as a means of serving as an antidote to
the Calvinist severity of the Jansenists. Our Lord made it clear that
the sins and ingratitude of men grieved Him. However, He also invited
men to trust in His Most Sacred Heart, calling them to develop a fervor
that would cast out their lukewarmness and impel them to consecrate
themselves to the Heart that beats for us with such love in His Real
Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, being careful to keep the nine First
Fridays and to foster devotion among others and within society to It.
Pope Pius VI ratified this devotion against the claims of the Jansenists
in his Papal Bull, Auctorem fidei, issued in 1794.
We are thus
to see in all other human beings our fellow sinners who are in need
of mercy. We are never to give up hope in the salvation of the most
wretched sinner, including ourselves. We must so conform our earthbound
hearts to the purity and fervor of the Most Sacred Heart, seeking It
out through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that even the thought of sin
will become repugnant to us and that we will seek voluntarily to do
many acts of penance to help convert sinners and to bring about the
Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and thus the Social Reign of
Christ the King, in which the reign of Our Lord's Most Sacred Heart
will be honored both by private individuals and by entire nations.
We live in
a merciless world. Husbands do not forgive wives. Wives do not forgive
husbands. Parents are neglectful of the proper upbringing of their children
in the true Faith, exposing them to all manner of influences that are
harmful to the formation of their immortal souls unto eternity. Children
are thus disobedient and haughty, as Saint Paul noted in his day in
his Epistle to the Romans. Innocent children and the elderly
are put to death under cover of law. The four sins that cry out to Heaven
for vengeance are fostered in every quarter of our society. Employers
exploit employees. Employees surrender to sloth and do not work hard
for their employers. People are angered by the least provocation. This
is all the natural, inexorable result of a world where people do not
realize that there is a Heart that beats with a personal, merciful love
for them and that they are called to be lovers of all that that Most
Sacred Heart has wrought for them to make it possible for them to know
an unending Easter Sunday of glory in Paradise.
There are
many ways to foster devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. One
of the chief ways is to make a personal act of consecration to the Sacred
Heart and to make daily invocations to It during the course of one's
work. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me. Another
is to make reparation for outrages committed against the Sacred Heart.
The Angel of Fatima prayer, among others, comes to mind here:
My
God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I ask forgiveness of
all of those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope an do not
love Thee.
Most
Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I adore Thee profoundly.
I offer Thee the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus
Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for
the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended.
And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart--and the Immaculate
Heart of Mary--I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
Blessed Jacinta
and Francisco Marto and their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, said this prayer
over and over and over again as they were detained by the Masonic authorities
of Ourem, Portugal, on August 13, 1917. It is thus a prayer that we
should memorize and recite frequently during the course of the day,
especially when there are difficulties or when we encounter things in
the world that are out of our control but for which we can make an immediate
act of reparation.
Another way
to foster devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is to be totally
consecrated to His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary will lead us always to the Sacred Heart
of her Divine Son. Both of these Hearts have suffered for our redemption.
Both of these Hearts want nothing more than for our puny hearts, made
of such stone at times, to become, as Ezekiel prophesied, hearts of
flesh like unto their own, so that we can bask in the glow of these
two hearts for all eternity in Heaven.
Very importantly,
especially as the Octave of Corpus Christi draws to a close today (yes,
I know that there no octave in the 1962 Missal; that does not preclude
us from keeping this as a personal devotion), we must remember to set
aside some time on a regular basis to be physically present in personal,
private prayer before the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed
Sacrament. Our hearts will grown in love for the Most Sacred Heart if
we foster the discipline required to be people of profound Eucharistic
piety.
Indeed, second
only to the Mass, there is no gift we have as Catholics that equals
spending time with Our Beloved in His Real Presence. He is there beckoning
us to adore Him, to make reparation for our sins, to pray for our own
needs as well as for those of the whole world, and to offer Him profound
thanksgiving for all of the supernatural and temporal helps He gives
us each day. He gives us a fundamental foretaste of Heaven itself, where
we will gave upon the glory of the Beatific Vision face-to-face if we
persist in a state of sanctifying grace until the point of our dying
breaths, by permitting us to contemplate Him as He is veiled under the
appearance of the elements of this passing earth.
We are not alone when we spend time with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Even when no other human being is with us in a particular church or
chapel as we pray to Our King of Kings and Lord of lords we are never
alone there. Every soul in the Church Triumphant is there with us, starting
with the Queen of All Saints, our dear Blessed Mother. Every angel is
there with us. Yes, spending time with Our Lord in His Real Presence
is more than a figurative foretaste of Heaven. All of the souls in Heaven
are there with us as we pray, interceding for us that we will be faithful
in our daily adoration of the God-Man Who awaits our acts of sacrifice
to spend time with Him here as preparation for spending all eternity
with Him in Heaven.
As countless spiritual writers have noted, there are infused graces
which those who spend time before the Blessed Sacrament receive. Just
as the physical Sun warms the planet and radiates through the darkest
of clouds, so is it the case that the eternal Son of God made Man means
to warm each one of us and to radiate His bright, burning love directly
into our souls. In order to be Our Lord to all men we see and meet-and
in order to see Him in other men--it is necessary to be with Him on
a regular basis on our knees before the tabernacle or before His Real
Presence solemnly exposed in a monstrance. It is thus very inspiring
to see that even in the midst of the liturgical and theological revolutions
that have devastated the Faith in the past four decades countless numbers
of Catholics still have the sensus Catholicus to spend at least
a few moments before the Blessed Sacrament every day. Imagine how many
more people would be with Our Beloved if the revolutionaries had not
disparaged belief in and adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
It is also important
to mention the necessity of public profession of our love for the Most
Sacred Heart of Jesus by means of processions and pilgrimages in Its
honor. Such processions and pilgrimages bear a visible, tangible witness
to the world around us of a love that is utter madness to those who
hearts have been turned to stone by means of their unrepentant sins.
At least a few people might be so moved by the sight of pilgrims carrying
banners in honor of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate
Heart of Mary that they might find their way into the true Church--or
find their way back into the Church of their own baptism after years
of having strayed far from the Sheepfold of Christ that is the Catholic
Church.
A prayerful
recitation of the Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, especially
on the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart, June 18, and throughout this
month of June will help each of us meditate on the great mystery of
love and mercy that is contained within this Heart of all Hearts. It
is appended at the end of this reflection. Additionally, we should pray
the Act of Consecration of the World to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and
the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Doing so will help
us to realize it is Our Lord as He has revealed Himself through His
true Church Who can assist us overcome the effects of sins in our own
lives and thus in the life of the world--and that we have been given
a powerful intermediary, the Singular Vessel of Devotion in which He
became Incarnate by the power of the Holy Ghost, to help us to become
more and more devoted to His Most Sacred Heart.
As a man in his early
fifties who became a father nearly three years ago when our dear daughter
was conceived, I have come to appreciate in the past few years the joy
of a love between father and daughter that I had never experienced first-hand
nor even could appreciate fully despite the time I have spend among
friends with large numbers of children. How overwhelming it is to see
the pure love that our daughter has for her parents, that she has genuine
and spontaneous love to pour out when I return to her after running
some errand. Me? This miserable sinner and poor excuse of a Catholic?
Me? Yes, me. My daughter runs to me, her father, with a purity of love
that fills me with tears even as I write this. It is truly an amazing
thing to behold and to bask in.
Our Lord extends
to us through His Most Sacred Heart a purity of love that is unmatched,
yes, even by the purity of love of a small child for her parents. He
extends His loving arms to us every time we approach Him with contrition
and a firm purpose of amendment in the Sacrament of Penance. He awaits
our fervent and worthy reception of Him in Holy Communion. He awaits
our adoration of Him in His Real Presence. He beckons us to see His
Divine impress in the souls of all the people He places in our path
during each day of our lives in this vale of tears. How can we not extend
to Him, both privately and publicly, a love of true joy, knowing that
we are to be liberated from our hearts of stone by laying ourselves
tenderly upon His Most Sacred Heart and giving to Him all of our cares
and woes, trusting, never presuming, that He will lead us with His Blessed
Mother's help to the joys of Paradise through His true Church.
The Feast of the Sacred
Heart is a cause, therefore, of special joy and celebration. We, the
adopted children of the Blessed Trinity, are loved beyond all telling.
We thus have an obligation to renew our own consecrations to the Sacred
Heart--and to be grateful at all times for the unmerited gift of such
love and mercy.
Et
verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis: et vidimus gloriaim ejus,
gloriam quasi Unigeniti a Patre, plenum gratiae et veritatis. And the
Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us. And we saw his glory--glory
as of the only-begotten of the Father--full of grace and of truth.
These words,
contained the Prologue to Saint John's Gospel, are read almost every
day in the Traditional Latin Mass after the priest administers the final
blessing. The Traditional Latin Mass reminds those who assist at it
that the Incarnation changed everything about human existence. It was
at the Incarnation that the Co-Eternal Son received a Heart with which
to redeem us and to offer forgiveness to us. And it is in the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass, which is the unbloody re-presentation of the Sacrifice
of the Cross, that He is made Incarnate under the appearance of bread
and wine, complete with His Most Sacred Heart, Which we receive in Holy
Communion. How beautiful it is, therefore, that the organic development
of the Traditional Mass over the centuries included the Last Gospel
to remind us that the Word Who became Flesh and dwelt amongst us on
earth is meant to dwelt within each one of us so that we can
be welcomed by Him with mercy at the moment of our Particular Judgments.
Most Sacred
Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Most Sacred
Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Most Sacred
Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate
Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Lord, have
mercy.
Christ, have
mercy.
Lord, have
mercy. Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously
hear us.
God, the Father
of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son,
Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy
Ghostt, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity,
One God, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus,
Son of the Eternal Father, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus,
formed by the Holy Ghostt in the womb of the Virgin Mother, have
mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus,
substantially united to the Word of God, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus,
of Infinite Majesty, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus,
Sacred Temple of God, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
Tabernacle of the Most High, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
House of God and Gate of Heaven, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
burning furnace of charity, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
abode of justice and love, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
full of goodness and love, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
abyss of all virtues, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
most worthy of all praise, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
king and center of all hearts, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, have mercy
on us Heart of Jesus, in whom dwells the fullness of divinity,
have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
in whom the Father was well pleased, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
of whose fullness we have all received, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
desire of the everlasting hills, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
patient and most merciful, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
enriching all who invoke you, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus.
fountain of life and holiness, have mercy on us Heart of Jesus,
propitiation for our sins, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
loaded down with opprobrium, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
bruised for our offenses, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
obedient to death, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
pierced with a lance, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
source of all consolation, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
our life and resurrection, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
our peace and reconciliation, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
victim for our sins, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
salvation of those who trust in you, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
hope of those who die in you, have mercy on us
Heart of Jesus,
delight of all the Saints, have mercy on us
Lamb of God,
who take away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God,
who take away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God,
who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
V. Jesus,
meek and humble of heart.
R. Make our
hearts like to yours.
Let us pray.
Almighty and eternal God, look upon the Heart of your most beloved Son
and upon the praises and satisfaction which he offers you in the name
of sinners; and to those who implore your mercy, in your great goodness,
grant forgiveness in the name of the same Jesus Christ, your Son, who
lives and reigns with you forever and ever. R . Amen.
Act of
Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly
prostrate before Thine altar. We are Thine, and Thine we wish
to be; but to be more surely united with Thee, behold, each one of us
freely consecrates himself today to Thy most Sacred Heart.
Many indeed have never known Thee; many too, despising Thy precepts,
have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus,
and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart.
Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken
Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee;
grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house lest they
die of wretchedness and hunger.
Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinion, or whom
discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and the
unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd.
Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of
idolotry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them all into the light
and kingdom of God.
Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of that race, once Thy
chosen people. Of old, they called down upon themselves the Blood
of the Savior; may It now descend upon them as a laver of redemption
and of life.
Grant , O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity
from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth
resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise be to the Divine
Heart that wrought our salvation; to It be glory and honor forever.
Amen.
