Depth of Tenderness

O most amiable Heart of my Divine Saviour, Heart enamoured of mankind, since Thou lovest me with such a depth of tenderness; O Heart, in fine, worthy to rule over and possess all our hearts, would that I could make all men comprehend the love Thou bearest them, and the tender caresses Thou dost lavish on those who love Thee without reserve!  O Jesus, my Love, be pleased to accept the offering and the sacrifice which I this day make to Thee of my entire will!  Only make known what Thou wouldst have me to do; for I am determined to do all by the help of Thy grace.

~ St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, XLII.ii

THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS

Act of Consecration to the Most Precious Blood

   Blood of Jesus, inebriate me! O Jesus, my Beloved Savior, ever present in the Tabernacle, to be the strength, the joy and the food of souls, I come to consecrate myself to Thy Precious Blood, and to pledge Thee my sincere love and fidelity. Pierced with sorrow at the remembrance of Thy sufferings, the contemplation of the Cross, and the thought of the outrages and contempt lavished by ungrateful souls upon Thy dear Blood, I long, O my Jesus, to bring joy to Thy Heart, and to make Thee forget my sins, and those of the whole world, by consecrating my body and soul to Thy service. I desire, my Jesus, to live henceforth, only by Thy Blood and for Thy Blood. I now choose It as my greatest treasure and the dearest object of my love.  

   O merciful Redeemer, deign to regard me as a perpetual adorer of Thy Most Precious Blood, and be pleased to accept my prayers, my deeds and my sacrifices, as so many acts of reparation and love. 

Heavenly Wine, giver of purity and strength, pour down upon my soul. Make of my heart a living chalice from which grace shall constantly flow on those that love Thee, and especially on poor sinners that offend Thee. Teach me to honor Thee and to make Thee honored by others. Give me power to draw to Thee cold and hardened hearts, that they may feel how infinitely Thy consolations surpass those of the world.

   O Blood of my Crucified Savior, detach me from the world, and the spirit of the world. Make me love suffering and sacrifice, after the example of St. Catherine of Sienna, who loved Thee so much [and whom I choose again today as my special patroness]. 

   O Precious Blood, be my strength amid the trials and struggles of exile. Grant that at the hour of death I may be able to bless Thee for having been the comfort and the sanctification of my soul, before becoming, in Heaven, the everlasting object of my love and praise.

Saints of God, who owe thy happiness to the Blood of Jesus; Angelic spirits, who sing Its glory and power, august Virgin, who to It owest the privileges of thine Immaculate Conception and Divine Maternity, help me to pay to the Precious Blood of my Redeemer a perpetual homage of adoration, reparation and thanksgiving. Amen.  

THE SEVEN OFFERINGS OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy Beloved Son and my Divine Redeemer, for the propagation and exaltation of my dear Mother the Holy Church, for the safety and prosperity of her visible Head, the Holy Roman Pontiff, for the cardinals, bishops, and pastors of souls, and for all the ministers of the sanctuary.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!


Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy Beloved Son and my Divine Redeemer, for the peace and concord of nations, for the conversion of the enemies of our holy Faith, and for the happiness of all Christian people.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!


Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy Beloved Son and my Divine Redeemer, for the repentance of unbelievers, the extirpation of all heresies, and the conversion of sinners.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!


Eternal Father, we offer Thee the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy Beloved Son and my Divine Redeemer, for all my relations, friends and enemies, for the poor, the sick, and those in tribulation, and for all those for whom Thou willest I should pray, or knowest that I ought to pray.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!


Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy Beloved Son and my Redeemer, for all those who shall this day pass to another life, that Thou mayest preserve them from the pains of Hell and admit them the more readily to the possession of Thy glory.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!


Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy Beloved Son and my Divine Redeemer, for all those who are lovers of the Treasure of His Blood, and for all those who join with me in adoring and honoring It, and for all those who try to spread devotion to it.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, Thy Beloved Son and my Divine Redeemer, for all my wants, spiritual and temporal, for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and particularly for those most forgotten, the Souls of priests, and for those who in their lifetime were most devoted to this Price of our Redemption, and to the Sorrows and pains of our dear Mother, Most Holy Mary.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Blessed and praised forevermore be Jesus Who hath saved us by His Precious Blood!

The Great Secret

The great secret for leading [a] free, pure and already almost superhuman Christian life ... is not so much to consider the vanity of this world, the fragility and baseness of this present life, our own personal misery and passions, all those evils into which, without the help of grace, we should so easily fall, and our faults and sins, which we ought, however, to hate and deplore. All that is useful, all that is indispensable; everyone who is wise will remember and think of it at certain hours; but it is not always the hour for thinking of it, and it is not, at all events, what is the most efficacious for us.

What is most efficacious, here as everywhere, the most decisive, the most triumphant, is, as far as one can, and habitually, to look upwards; it is to consider God and Jesus; the perfections of God, His rights, His attributes, His appeals, His provocations, His patient waiting, His designs, His promises; the mysteries of Jesus and the divine graces flowing from what he said, did, ordained and suffered. It is ever to remember that He is personally the point of departure and the Chief of the Christian life; that the great virtue of baptism is to incorporate us in Him, to give us His life, to make us of His race, and to pour forth His Spirit within us, that is to say a light and a strength whereby we are enabled, and so remain, not only to avoid sin, as St John expressly says, but moreover to judge all things, to discern our way and to follow it, and ascending from light to light, from liberty to liberty, to reach the inward state of him who said: “I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me.”

~ Mgr Charles Gay in Elevations upon the Life and Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ [quoted in Blessed Dom Columba Marmion, O.S.B., Christ in His Mysteries]

THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS

JUNE 27TH 2014 IS THE FEAST OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Devotion to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus

"We the Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as from a rock." -- St. Justin Martyr (d. 165) "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." -- Matthew 11:29 "There is in the Sacred Heart the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return." -- Pope Leo XIII The heart has always been seen as the "center" or essence a person ("the heart of the matter," "you are my heart," "take it to heart," etc.) and the wellspring of our emotional lives and love ("you break my heart," "my heart sings," etc.) Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to Jesus Christ Himself, but in the particular ways of meditating on his interior life and on His threefold love -- His divine love, His burning love that fed His human will, and His sensible love that affects His interior life. Pope Pius XII of blessed memory writes on this topic in his 1956 encyclical, Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion To The Sacred Heart).Below are a few excerpts which help explain the devotion: 54. ...the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal Father and all mankind. 55. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since "in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily." 56. It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused. 57. And finally -- and this in a more natural and direct way -- it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body. 58. Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture and the official teaching of the Catholic faith instruct us that all things find their complete harmony and order in the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, and that He has manifestly directed His threefold love for the securing of our redemption, it unquestionably follows that we can contemplate and honor the Heart of the divine Redeemer as a symbolic image of His love and a witness of our redemption and, at the same time, as a sort of mystical ladder by which we mount to the embrace of "God our Savior." 59. Hence His words, actions, commands, miracles, and especially those works which manifest more clearly His love for us -- such as the divine institution of the Eucharist, His most bitter sufferings and death, the loving gift of His holy Mother to us, the founding of the Church for us, and finally, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and upon us -- all these, We say, ought to be looked upon as proofs of His threefold love. 60. Likewise we ought to meditate most lovingly on the beating of His Sacred Heart by which He seemed, as it were, to measure the time of His sojourn on earth until that final moment when, as the Evangelists testify, "crying out with a loud voice 'It is finished.', and bowing His Head, He yielded up the ghost."Then it was that His heart ceased to beat and His sensible love was interrupted until the time when, triumphing over death, He rose from the tomb. 61. But after His glorified body had been re-united to the soul of the divine Redeemer, conqueror of death, His most Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat with calm and imperturbable pulsations. Likewise, it will never cease to symbolize the threefold love with which He is bound to His heavenly Father and the entire human race, of which He has every claim to be the mystical Head. Devotion to the Sacred Heart has two elements: consecration and reparation: We consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart by acknowledging Him as Creator and Redeemer and as having full rights over us as King of Kings, by repenting, and by resolving to serve Him.  We make reparations for the indifference and ingratitude with which He is treated and for leaving Him abandoned by humanity. To carry out these general goals of consecration and reparation, there are quite specific devotions authorized by the Church.  MORE HERE FROM THE FISHEATERS WEBPAGE This is one of my favorite hymns dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

In Tyrol there is the tradition of the Herz Jesu feuer or the lighting of fires on the mountainsides in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

Once a year the mountains of South Tyrol are illuminated with high fires in form of hearts and crosses and the people is singing ancient songs to remember the past and glorious years of the united Tyrol.

Every year the first Sunday after Corpus Christi the South Tyrolean people light up high fires on the peaks of the mountains: the fires stand for an ancient tradition from 1796 when the united Tyrol was oppressed by the Bavarians and the French.

To fight them, they made an oath with the Sacred Heart, which helped them, to win against the oppressors. The South Tyrolean pledge eternal loyalty. With the fires South Tyrol remembers the oath and renews it every year. Join the night full of fires and take part of an ancient costume!

A Heart Like Unto Thine

O dearest Jesus, Whose Most Amiable Heart excludes not even the greatest sinners if they turn to Thee, grant, we beseech Thee, to me and all penitent sinners a heart like unto Thine;

That is -

• A humble heart that even in the midst of temporal honors loves a hidden life, a life little esteemed by men;

• A meek heart that bears with all and seeks to be revenged on no one;

• A patient heart that is resigned in adversity and happy even in the midst of most trying circumstances;

• A peaceful heart that is ever at peace with others and with itself;

• A disinterested heart that is always content with what it has;

• A heart that loves prayer and prays often and cheerfully;

• A heart that only desires that God be known, honored and loved by all His creatures;

• That grieves for nothing except when God is offended,

• Despises nothing but sin,

• Wishes for nothing but the Glory of God and its neighbor's salvation;

• A pure heart that in all things seeks God alone and desires to please Him;

• A grateful heart that does not forget but duly values the benefits of God;

• A strong heart that is daunted by no evil but bears all adversity for the love of God;

• A heart liberal to the poor and compassionate to the suffering souls in Purgatory;

• A well-ordered heart, whose joys and sorrows, desires and aversions, nay, whose every motion is regulated according to the Will of God.

~ Prayer of St Clement Mary Hofbauer, C.S.S.R

Love, Together with Unspeakable Sweetness

Whitsuntide

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL

(John 14.23-31) for Pentecost Sunday

by Pope Saint Gregory the Great

"This is the day on which the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles, and changing the hearts of those carnally minded men, led them to the love of Himself. While the tongues of fire appeared externally, the hearts of the disciples were enkindled within, and as they beheld God under the appearance of fire, they became aflame with love together with unspeakable sweetness of soul. For the Holy Ghost is love, and therefore St John says: ‘God is Charity.’ Now love is proved by action. St John says again: ‘Whosoever says: I love God, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar.’ 

Our love for God is genuine if we resist the attractions of pleasure in order to obey Him, and anyone who goes on devoting himself to pleasure does not truly love God, since he acts contrary to His will.

Do not think, then, that you love Him unless you prove it by good works. Let your speech, your mind, your whole life be consecrated to the quest for God's love, for in that love inertia has no place" (Homily at Matins).

[from the St Andrew’s Daily Missal (1937)]