Cultivate love and adoration for the Sacred Heart of Jesus with these daily prayers from St. Alphonsus Liguori. Pray these before an image of the Sacred Heart, before the Blessed Sacrament, after Mass, or any time to deepen your love for Christ.
Affections to the Heart of Christ
O amiable Heart of my Saviour! thou art the seat of all virtues, the source of all graces, the burning furnace in which are inflamed all holy souls. Thou art the object of all God’s love; thou art the refuge of the afflicted, and the abode of the souls that love thee.
O heart worthy of reigning over all hearts, and of possessing the affection of all hearts!
O heart that was wounded for me on the Cross by the lance of my sins, and that remained afterwards continually wounded for me on the altar in the Blessed Sacrament, but not by any other lance than that of the love that thou entertainest for me!
O loving heart, that loves men with so much tenderness, and that is so little loved by men! do thou apply a remedy to so great an ingratitude, inflame thou our hearts with a true love for thee. Ah! why can I not go all over the world to make known the graces, the sweetness, the treasures that thou dispensest to those who truly love thee? Accept the desire that I have of seeing all hearts burning with love for thee.
O divine heart! be thou my consolation in trials, my repose in labors, my solace in anxieties, my haven in tempests. I consecrate to thee my body and my soul, my heart and my life, together with all that I am. I unite to thine all my thoughts, all my affections, all my desires.
O eternal Father! I offer Thee the pure affections of the heart of Jesus. If Thou dost reject mine, Thou canst not reject those of Thy Son, who is sanctity itself; may they supply what is wanting in me, and may they render me pleasing in Thy eyes!
Hymn of Love to the Sacred Heart
Fly, my soul, ah, fly away
To Jesus’ heart so kind;
There love’s captive thou shalt stay,
And truest freedom find.
See, thy foes are all around;
Thou art pursued, poor thing!
Safety in the ark is found,
Then thither, dove, take wing.
Why delay? The world is woe,
And care, and cold deceit;
God alone can joy bestow,
And happiness complete.
Give me, Lord, a place to dwell
Within Thy heart so meek;
This shall be my prison cell,
Where true repose I seek.
All on earth I now disdain,
And for Thy love resign;
This the fruit of every pain,
To bind my heart to Thine.
If within Thy heart divine
To die my lot should be,
Oh, what happy death were mine!
Such death were life to me.
ooo
This article is taken from a chapter in The Holy Eucharist by St. Alphonsus Liguori which is available from TAN Books.
