The heart of Our Lord is willing to grant countless favors to the soul who entrusts itself to the Sacred Heart. Yet how few souls place their trust in the mercy of Our Lord’s most tender heart. The confidence of souls can be said to be a key that unlocks the heart of Jesus.
Aid Through The Sacred Heart Of Jesus
Oh, how great, how inexhaustible are the hidden treasures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! In this most loving Heart the Saints of every age reposed in peace. In the Sacred Heart they found consolation, nay, joy, in trials and sufferings; courage to fight the battles of the Church; and new motives every day to live, to labor, to suffer and to shed their blood for the glory of God, their own sanctification and the salvation of souls.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the boundless ocean of God’s love, of God’s mercy, of God’s tender compassion for poor sinners. The Sacred Heart of Jesus contains remedies for all our wants, and It can and will supply all our needs for time and eternity. In our troubles, in our sorrows, in our wants, let us not forget to go to that place where alone we can find peace, consolation and help—the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
Our Divine Saviour invites especially the suffering, those who are heavily afflicted, to take refuge in His Sacred Heart. No favor is so great but that it can be obtained from the Sacred Heart of Jesus; no human soul is so desolate and abandoned but that this Divine Heart can fully console and gladden it; no misfortune is so great and hopeless but that the Heart of Jesus can change and direct everything for the best. In whatever manner the human heart is oppressed and troubled, it will find aid in the Heart of Jesus. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28).
Countless are the favors that have been granted through novenas to the Sacred Heart! If you, dear reader, are in trouble or affliction, implore the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and It will come to your aid like-wise, in the way that is best for you and your salvation.
A most commendable practice is to receive Holy Communion devoutly during or at the end of the novena. The devotions may be held before a picture of the Sacred Heart if this can well be done, for Our Lord attached great blessings to the devout veneration of the image of the Sacred Heart. A suitable time for making a novena would be especially the days preceding the First Friday of the month; thereby they would become truly a novena of grace for all.
Confidence, The Key To The Heart Of Jesus
St. Margaret Mary calls confidence the key to the Heart of Jesus. When our Divine Saviour still walked on earth, healing the sick and performing other miracles for suffering humanity, He generally asked those who sought aid whether they had faith and confidence. Not until they answered, “Lord, I believe,” or gave a similar expression of faith did He speak the word of omnipotence. By this He meant to teach us that in prayer, faith and confidence are the paramount conditions.
The petitioner may measure the greatness of his favor by the degree of his confidence. If you go to the well to fetch water, how much do you draw? With a small vessel, a small quantity; with a large one you carry a great deal. Centuries ago the holy Doctor of the Church, St. Cyprian, declared: “The deeper our vessel of confidence, the greater will be the abundance of the heavenly waters of grace.”
St. Gertrude once asked Our Lord what she ought to do to obtain a certain favor. His answer was: “Confidence alone can easily obtain everything!” And again: “Although I regard with pleasure all that is done for My glory, as prayers, fasts, vigils and other like works of piety, yet the confidence with which the elect have recourse to Me in their weakness touches Me far more sensibly.” We must especially not lose confidence if our requests are not immediately granted. Often the Sacred Heart desires several novenas. A confiding soul’s perseverance in prayer will never be confounded.
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This article is taken from a chapter in Devotion to the Sacred Heart by The Benedictine Convent of Clyde which is available from TAN Books.
