Devotion to the Sacred Heart forms our own hearts to unite to God’s Will, but how do we adopt such a devotion? Read on for a holy guide to adoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Interior Practices
1. At the beginning of this month examine yourself, and see what is your predominant passion, or the fault which you most frequently commit, and the best means of overcoming it. Having discovered this fault, make a firm purpose to use the means to overcome it, commending your resolution with a childlike confidence to the Sacred Heart. Choose some short prayer which you will repeat often each day during the month, in order to remind you of your resolution, and to implore the grace of God to help you to fulfill it.
2. Each morning, offer all the actions of the day to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and renew the resolution you took at the beginning of the month, humbly praying for grace to keep it during the day.
3. Take for your subject of meditation the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for which end the consideration of Its many virtues and attributes is recommended.
4. Make the resolution made at the beginning of the month the subject of your particular examination of conscience morning and evening, thanking the Sacred Heart for the good you may have done, and begging pardon for the faults you have committed.
Exterior Practices
1. In a convenient situation, place a picture or statue, suitably adorned, of the Sacred Heart; for Our Lord has promised to bless the houses in which a representation of His Heart is set up for honor.
2. Recite every day a special prayer in honor of the Sacred Heart. Be particular to repeat often during the day some short prayer.
3. Endeavor to assist at holy Mass every day, and if you possibly can, make a visit every evening to your divine Savior in the Sacrament of His love.
4. Endeavor with prudence and discretion to lead and encourage others to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This may often be done by the distribution of books, pictures, prayers, medals, etc.
Feast of the Sacred Heart
The feast of the Sacred Heart is the feast of the love of Jesus towards men. The intention of Our Lord in instituting this feast was to move our cold hearts to love Him. In order to more easily obtain this end, He offers us for the object of our devotion His divine Heart—that Heart which gave the most evident proof of love for us.
This day should, therefore, be consecrated in a special manner to the adoration of this most Sacred Heart, bearing in mind the intention which is the object of this devotion, namely, to make some return for the love which Jesus bears to us, by giving Him all the affection of our heart, and by making every reparation and satisfaction in our power, for the ingratitude of mankind towards a God so infinitely worthy of all love, and who, not withstanding, is loved by so few of His creatures.
In the morning, therefore, offer your heart and your whole being as a holocaust to the Heart of Jesus, and renew this offering often during the day, which ought to be entirely consecrated, in silence and recollection, to the love of your Savior.
Strive to perform all your actions in the spirit which should animate this feast.
Let your visits to the Blessed Sacrament be frequent, and remain in conversation with Jesus as long as your health and the duties of your state of life permit you.
Prepare your heart with diligent care to receive Jesus worthily in Holy Communion, and offer your Communion to God the Father in satisfaction for the unworthy Communions of so many Christians, testifying at the same time your gratitude and love to Jesus.
First Friday of the Month
It was the special desire of our Lord Jesus Christ, revealed to Blessed Margaret Mary, that the first Friday of each month be consecrated to the devotion to and adoration of His most Sacred Heart.
In order to better prepare for it, it would be well to read, the evening before, some book treating of this devotion, or of the Passion of Our Lord, and to make a short visit to the Blessed Sacrament.
On the day itself we should, on awaking, offer and consecrate ourselves, with all our thoughts, words, and actions, to Jesus, that His Sacred Heart may be thereby honored and glorified. We should visit some church as early as possible; and as we kneel before Jesus, truly present in the tabernacle, let us endeavor to awaken in our soul a deep sorrow at the thought of the innumerable offenses continually heaped upon His most Sacred Heart in this Sacrament of His love; and surely we cannot find this difficult if we have the least degree of love for Jesus.
Should we, however, find our love to be cold or lukewarm, let us consider earnestly the many reasons we have for giving our hearts to Jesus. After this we must acknowledge with sorrow the faults of which we have been guilty through our want of respect in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, or through our negligence in visiting and receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion.
The Communion of this day should be offered by the adorers of the Sacred Heart with the intention of making some satisfaction for all the ingratitude which Jesus receives in the Most Holy Sacrament, and the same spirit should animate all our actions during the day.
As the object of this devotion is to inflame our hearts with an ardent love for Jesus, and to repair thereby, as far as lies in our power, all the outrages which are daily committed against the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, it is evident that these exercises are not confined to any particular day. Jesus is equally deserving of our love at all times; and as this most loving Savior is daily and hourly loaded with insults and cruelly treated by His creatures, it is but just that we should strive each day to make all the reparation in our power.
Those, therefore, who are prevented from practicing this devotion on the first Friday can do so on any other day during the month. In the same manner they may offer the first Communion of each month for this intention, consecrating the whole day to the honor and glory of the Sacred Heart, and performing in the same spirit all the pious exercises they were unable to accomplish on the first Friday.
Moreover, Our Lord suggested another feature in this consoling devotion of the first Friday, by the faithful practice of which he led Blessed Margaret Mary to expect the grace of final perseverance, and that of receiving the Sacraments of the Church before dying, in favor of those who should observe it. This was to make a novena of Communions in honor of the Sacred Heart on the first Friday of the month for nine successive months.
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This article is taken from a chapter in The Imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Rev. Peter J Arnoudt, SJ which is available from TAN Books.
