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 likewise, 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.
This article is taken from a chapter in The Devotion to the Sacred Heart by the Benedictine Convent of Clyde, Missouri, which is available from TAN Books.
