BY Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.
(Aloud)
All: May Thy Blood, O Jesus, be upon us and upon out children! (3 times)
Yes, Lord, may It be shed as manna upon our souls, like dew upon our hearts, as a heavenly blessing upon our families, and upon our country …
All: By It may Thy Kingdom cornel (3 times)
The Passion of our Savior did not end on Golgotha, it is perpetuated on the altar and in souls … But in the same manner as the divine mercy has caused a source of redemption to break forth from the Wounds made on Calvary, so a fresh and abundant source of grace will flow out anew from the Wounds reopened by ungrateful humanity … For truly, behold again Gethsemane and Calvary on our holy altar! …
An hour of darkness was that of the dungeon on Holy Thursday … may it be here an hour radiant with light! … An hour of hate, of crime, was that hour of Judas! … may it be here an hour of praise, love, and reparation!
Let us go forth to meet Jesus agonizing, Oh! let us watch one hour with Him. Our companionship will repair the great and numerous sins which reopen His Wounds …
(Let us pray with great faith.)
Souls: Lord Jesus, the Apostles, awakening at the approach of the traitor, saw the drops of Blood falling upon the earth from Thy adorable Body …
Thy Immaculate Mother, Saint John, and Magdalen saw also Thy opened Wounds, fountains from which flows our life …
Oh! show to us this evening Thy transpierced Side; show to Thy consolers the deep Wound of Thy Heart; … we wish to place in It the balm of our tenderness … Increase our faith, that it may be given to us to contemplate the heaven of flames and sorrows which in Paray wrapt in ecstacy Thy confidante Margaret Mary … Oh! hast Thou no secret for Thy friends who answer this evening Thine appeal? “Loquere, Domine”: Speak, Jesus, reveal Thy plaints, disclose Thy wishes, and above all, teach us the “science of love” and that of suffering while loving in union with Thine agonizing Heart … Speak, Jesus! …
(Profound recollection)
Jesus: Blessed are those who thirst to know Me, by penetrating the secrets of My intimate passion. I reveal them solely to My friends, those ardent lovers of My heart … Listen to Me: the drops of Blood which drench My altar are the tears of My Soul betrayed and wounded by ungrateful ones!
I have molded their souls by My wisdom … I have embellished them with My beauty … I have nourished them with My Flesh … I have sheltered them in the depths of My Heart …
I have surrounded them with My Angels … I have enriched them with My treasures … I have confided to them My secrets … I have entrusted them to My own Mother … I have promised them an eternal heaven …
And all this at the price of an infinite pain and infinite love! …
Where are they, all My spoiled children, where are they? …
Alas, cowardice has done its work; … frailty has carried them down the slippery path of evil; passion has increased the distance, and finally, neglect and ingratitude have consummated the work of darkness and of death!
Weep with Me, you, My faithful friends, My apostles. Ungrateful ones have forgotten Me; they have departed, bearing the sting of remorse. But, today, many of them sing and laugh in the revelry of a corrupt world. I, Jesus, do not count with them any longer …
Alas! there is still worse: some among them have become wretched apostates, who have for Me nothing but hate … They have betrayed Me for a creature, for they have preferred to Me wealth, pleasures, a position, … all things which tomorrow will be changed into a handful of ashes in a tomb … and then there will be the hour of terrible and eternal justice! … And these are My children, brought to life by My power and by My Blood, who behave thus! … Oh, what sorrow to see My children blush today at My Crib … at My Cross … at My Altars! …
After having loved them so tenderly, I now see them throwing at My Face the ignominy with which I would cover Myself that I might fill them with glory! …
Weep, O, weep with Me, My fervent friends, zealous apostles! … Is there not in your home, at your own hearth, one of those ungrateful ones? … Perhaps it is a son, a brother, a husband, a father who is far, very far from the altar of his First Communion. The Holy Hour is an act of reparation for their sins, and this reparation will be the beginning of their salvation. Courage! … let us save those dear ones in spite of themselves … And as they do not weep let us weep in their stead; let us pray for them …
(Brief silence)
Souls: More than tears from our eyes, we wish to offer Thee, Heart of Jesus, the prayer of our soul; we present it to Thee rich with love because it is offered in the chalice of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our great Reparatrix …
Heart of Jesus, bruised by our sins, turn upon us Thy glance marked with an infinite sadness, and when so many disloyal friends abandon Thee: come, let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
Heart of Jesus, when under pretext of human prudence Thy sovereign rights are forgotten: come to our homes, let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
Heart of Jesus, when through motives of worldly wisdom the voice of conscience is unheeded, Thy Cross is mocked, and Thy love spurned: come, let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
Heart of Jesus, when in order to obey social customs, the laws of Thy Holy Gospel are disregarded: come to our homes; let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
Heart of Jesus, when men seduced by worldly vanity, trample upon all Thy laws: come, let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
Heart of Jesus, when in order to satisfy the culpable demands of scandalous fashions Thy Flesh is torn to pieces: come, let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
Heart of Jesus, when by sacrilegious machinations Thou art placed on equal terms with Barabbas: come, let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
Finally, Heart of Jesus, when proud science would suppress Thy Name and Thy rights in society under the pretext of the welfare of liberty and progress: come, let us console Thee!
All: Come, let us console Thee!
(If we have an intimate request to ask, a conversion to pray for, let us profit by these precious moments. A few steps away, in the Sacred Host, the King of mercy listens to us…)
(Brief pause)
Let us follow our Savior step by step along the dolorous way of His passion … Behold Him a Prisoner in a dungeon; in a few hours He will be a Victim on Calvary … Why this drama? The world has placed Jesus on an equality with Barabbas … and the bandit has triumphed over Him … Alas! it is the crime of all times.
He is God … He has overthrown the idols.
He is the Victim … Dying, He has vanquished death …
He is Love … He has vindicated hate and passion. That is why the powers of darkness have plotted against Him, have assailed Him, and have condemned Him! …
He is supreme Beauty: He must condemn all license …
He is supreme Truth: He must condemn free-thinking …
He is supreme Justice: He must reprove false liberty of conscience …
He is the Word of uncreated Light, He is Love and Life, He must condemn the dissoluteness of the mind and the senses! … There is the vengeance of idols, broken into fragments! … There are the gates of hell trying in vain to prevail against Him, the Lord of lords! “We will not have Him nor His Reign of truth and love! Away with Him!” So cry the apostles of free thought, of a false liberty … But He is and will always be the Judge, the Liberator and the King of nations!
All: We want no other Master but Thee, Jesus! (3 times)
We entreat Thee to reign over us, Jesus! (3 times)
Convert Thy enemies, Jesus! (3 times)
(An appropriate hymn)
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| To Jesus Christ, our Sov’reign King, Who is the world’s salvation, All praise and homage do we bring, And thanks and adoration. |
Refrain: Christ Jesus Victor, Christ Jesus Ruler! Christ Jesus, Lord and Redeemer! |
| 2. Thy reign extend, O King benign, To ev’ry land and nation, For in Thy kingdom, Lord divine, Alone we find salvation. (Refrain) |
3. To Thee and to Thy Church, great King, We pledge our hearts’ oblation, Until before Thy throne we sing, In endless jubilation. (Refrain) |
Like many of our own time who pride themselves on the title of Christian, Herod did not know Jesus, except by name … Let us contemplate that striking scene: Jesus before Herod! … He is interrogated, harassed by questions, and the gentle Victim keeps a majestic silence …
He lent an ear and opened His Heart to the weak, to the most repulsive lepers; but for this proud and corrupt scoundrel, His Lips remain closed; Jesus is silent before those who profane His Crib and defile His Cross through pride …
It is then, O Jesus, that Thy judge avenges himself by clothing Thee with the robe of a fool … And at that painful and solemn moment Thou dost still keep silence as if Thou acceptest the gesture of Thy accuser …
Yes, Thy Incarnation, Thy Cross, and Thy Tabernacle speak to us of the “foolishness” of Thy infinite charity … And behold in the Host Thou art still robed in white, to preach to the world the sublime folly of Thy love … and this divine folly repairs the evil wrought by the false wisdom of men on the eternal happiness of souls …
Alas, but Thou knowest, O Lord, after twenty centuries, the world still throws in Thy Face as an insult, the foolishness of Thy Cross! Jesus, give vent to Thy bitter sorrow in the intimacy of this Holy Hour …
Speak to us ignorant, prone to error, and enveloped in darkness; speak Thou, uncreated and eternal Wisdom! …
(Listen with emotion of soul to Jesus’ reproach, and make it known to the great number of those who need it, to the many Christians whose judgment is perverted by the maxims of the world.)
Jesus: I am the Light that is come among you to scatter the darkness, but that darkness did not comprehend it … Judge, you who are My friends, between the folly of the world and the divine wisdom of My Gospel and My Cross.
I will smother My sobs so that you may hear My words.
(Very slowly, with unction.)
According to the world, it is lawful to sacrifice the health of the body for fleeting and dangerous pleasures … It is but just, they say, to sacrifice the repose of night for certain worldly reasons. It appears all very reasonable to worldlings to sacrifice for social motives and temporal affairs, the calmness of life, the peace of spirit, and the repose of the body … Alas! but if I ask a quarter, or even less, of those sacrifices offered to vanity and pleasure, if I dare to beg for one extra hour of the day or night for Myself, promising as reward peace here below and heaven up above … then, I will be rebuffed by a cruel refusal … To yield to My desire would be imprudent. To make this offering to Me would be a ridiculous exaggeration, and I, the King of kings, must often withdraw the Hand that I have extended as a beggar … I, alone, am always the Fool!
(Aloud)
All: O Jesus, we adore the divine folly of Thy Cross. (3 times)
Jesus: My little children, the world deems it just and reasonable that you spend long hours in social duties, in the exchange of visits, in maintaining friendly relations … It is done often unwillingly, nevertheless it is done … But if I ask more frequent Communions more fervent visits to My Prison of love, some moments of prayer in the sanctuary of the home, My most fervent pleadings are considered absurd requests … a God has not this right … I, alone, am always the Fool! …
All: O Jesus, we adore the divine folly of Thy Cross. (3 times)
Jesus: You see daily, dearly beloved friends, with what eagerness even those who are called Christians in our day, change their ways and follow the course imposed upon them … accepting with docility the dictates of the world, dictates very often tyrannical, and nearly always dangerous to purity of conscience … full of perils to peace and to the sanctity of the home … But it is the fashion … the world has spoken, and it is always right; there is not the least temptation to resist … But if I dare to ask greater effort in the practice of virtue … more sacrifice in the love which is My due … if, through the voice of My Church I require some acts of prudent and simple mortification, they cry out immediately at the impossibility, the imprudence, and they go their way, continuing to tread on the poisoned thorns of the world, turning their back on Me: I, alone, am always the Fool!
All: O Jesus, we adore the divine folly of Thy Cross. (3 times)
Jesus: The children of the family have always the full liberty of choosing their career, on condition, however, that they decide to remain among the dangers of the world … The parents respecting the wishes of their children as a sacred thing … prepare them for a brilliant position, an alluring future … But if I venture to knock at the door of a Christian home … if My Divine Voice calls one of their daughters or one of their sons, in order to make of them a celestial spouse or an apostle of My glory … Oh! then, the family protests … this vocation, they say, is but the fantasy of a moment, a dream that will disappear … And these parents who know by bitter experience the agonies and deceptions of the world, cry out as against a thief when I call their child, whom I have but temporarily confided to their care … Ah! how they forget that I am the Master of the destiny of these souls! … The family is Christian, but, O grief, I alone am always the Fool.
All: O Jesus, we adore the divine folly of Thy Cross. (3 times)
(What immense sorrow for the Heart of Jesus to be thus ignored even among good, Christian people: for them piety is folly; mortification is folly; folly the contempt of the world and the pious Christian life of the home; folly, the priestly or religious vocation of the children … and in the meantime the world has every right when it encroaches upon the laws of the King of kings … Ah! let us console the Adorable Master by a fervent prayer of reparation.)
Souls: Lord, because Thou art good, but also because Thou art King, arise, control the tempest, restore Thy Sovereignty practically ignored … arise by the almighty power of Thy Heart, and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
Come, be the King of all homes where consciences are anaemic and souls dangerously pine away, and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
Come, be the King of many homes where Thou hast been so cruelly banished, and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
Come, be the King of many homes where in the place of honor which Thou dost claim, worldly idols are enthroned … Come and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
Come, be the King of many Christian homes who serve Thee with a mean and lukewarm love, and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
Come, be the King of many homes where they fear Thy yoke and the demand of Thy love, and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross:
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
Come, be the King of many devout families, wherein there is fear of a priestly or religious vocation, and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
Come, be the King of many families who consider as absurd exaggeration, expressions of fervor, generosity in love, and reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
All: Reign by the divine wisdom of Thy Cross!
(Brief pause)
Good Jesus, hast Thou no reply to make to the cries of love of Thy friends? … Say but a word and our souls, healed, will become strong and capable of sustaining the struggle for Thy cause!
(The Divine Response has never kept us waiting. Listen then with love in your souls:)
Jesus: My Soul was desolate and sorrowful; but you, My intimate friends, you have consoled Me … O! how I bless you! … But I see that you wish still more … witnesses of My agony, you would want to be also the partakers and witnesses of the promised victory of My adorable Heart! … In order to hasten this hour of triumph wherein we shall become partakers of its glory, what do you wish, faithful friends? …
Knock, knock with complete confidence on the door of Thy Tabernacle … what grace do you ask of Me today?
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
Jesus: Your petition is touching, My children, but what do you want of My Sacred Heart as a heavenly remedy for the evils which affect you?
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
Jesus: You need it and you shall have it … But, what would you wish as a divine force in order to invigorate your enfeebled souls and your weakened hearts?
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
Jesus: I am all powerful … stretch out then your hand in the interest of your own sanctification … what do you wish in the way of grace … what wings for your desires? … Answer Me!
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
Jesus: And your troubles … perhaps you forget them because of Mine! … This touches Me, inclines Me toward you … But ask for a heavenly balm for your wounds … What do you desire?
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
Jesus: Is there not some special interest of your family for which to entreat Me? What treasure would you like to see Me bestow upon your homes? …
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
Jesus: Oh, you have stolen My Heart! … Take this opportunity to beg for that which you desire for your prodigals, those poor lost sheep whom you love … What secret of Paradise do you beg of Me for them? …
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
Jesus: But before ending this Holy Hour, think of the last hour of your agony … When you will be on the threshold of eternity, … what saving assurance of salvation do you ask for at that supreme moment?
All: The flame of Thy divine love!
(Let us ask the Heart of Jesus by a fervent and confident prayer for the immense grace to love Him, if possible, as He has loved us.)
(Brief pause)
The world today was not the first to inflict upon its God this treatment of a slave … It did but sadly imitate the conduct of Pilate … He found Christ innocent and just, but … to appease the enemies’ thirst for the blood of the Master, he sentenced Him to be scourged.
Thus in its turn has the world done through the centuries … It does not always dare to deny boldly that Jesus is what He is … but, condescending to the voice of flesh and blood, to the furious cries of pride, of ambition, and of all the follies of modern society, it delivers Jesus to them and orders Him scourged as a slave! … And this cruelty of the Roman soldiers was certainly not greater than that of these elegant and refined executioners of our own time …
Name these executioners for us, Lord Jesus, in order that we may avoid the dangers which surround us, and may render more intense reparation during this Holy Hour.
(Slowly and with pauses)
Jesus: Miseremini mei! [Job XIX, 21.] … Have pity on Me and also on your own souls, you who are intoxicated by dangerous pleasures and enfevered by deadly sensuality! … Why do you scourge Me by trampling upon My Divine Law? . .. .
Miseremini mei! … Have pity on Me and also on your own souls, you who spend your time going to dangerous movies, in clubs, in fashionable circles, and along scandalous beaches … Why do you scourge Me by trampling upon My Divine Law? …
Miseremini mei! … Have pity on Me and also on your own souls, you who bend before all the dangerous and immodest demands of fashion, who provoke evil by your sinful daring! Why do you scourge Me by trampling upon My Divine Law? …
Miseremini mei! … Have pity on Me and also on your own souls, you who foolishly waste your money, your youth, and your health … Why do you scourge Me by trampling upon My Divine Law? …
Miseremini mei! … Have pity on Me and also on your own souls, you who pursue the joys of a fleeting hour, who indulge in the madness of unbridled passion … Why do you scourge Me by trampling upon My Divine Law? . , .
Miseremini mei! … Have pity on Me, Christian mothers, wives, and maidens, who, misled by the mirage of worldly vanity, tarnish your moral beauty … Why do you scourge Me by trampling upon My Divine Law? …
Miseremini mei! … Have pity on Me, you, the infatuated lovers of shows uncensored, where the sixth commandment is a jest … Stop, My children … Oh! in the light of the Tabernacle and that of eternity which is approaching, look at the surge of vileness, of frivolities, of hideous immodesty, of degrading sensuality, which insultingly arises at My Feet, which menaces the faith and morals of the home, and the innocence of your children … Why do you scourge Me trampling upon My Divine Law? … Mercy, have pity for Your King, do not hold Him enslaved, He Who is your God! …
(Here recite “Spare O Lord, Spare Thy people, be not angry with us forever!” 5 times in honor of the Five Wounds of Jesus crucified.)
(Pause)
Consideration: Saint Francis of Sales has eloquently said that if, in order to discover the cause of the death of Jesus the King, an autopsy of His Divine Body would have been made, as for kings of the earth, it would have been found that His Heart had been deeply wounded ever since His Incarnation, long before the thrust of the lance of Longinus … The chief cause of His Passion and of His death was that profound Wound of love in His Heart … He was born wounded by love!
O Lord, because Thou hast loved the little ones, the poor, the unhappy, the crowd, and even Thy enemies, Thy executioners, because Thou hast loved them to the end, Thy judges and Thy people cry out: “Reus est mortis, He is worthy of death.” And that same cry and that same thrust of the lance still pierce Thy Heart today. We chastise It in Its excess of love by our ingratitude! … Are we not right, O Jesus? Answer us by the bleeding Wound of Thy adorable Heart! …
(Pause)
Jesus: You say the truth, My little ones, I have delivered Myself up out of love; the great guilty One is My Heart! … But there is another guilty one, and you must know it; it is your own heart. You often weep over your maladies and misfortunes; weep above all over your lack of generous love; weep over Me, so little loved!
In peace and in war you demand your rights. And what do you do about My sovereign right of being loved! …
But I never repent of My gifts … I renew today the gift of My Sacred Heart … Dearly loved friends, do not leave this sanctuary, do not let this Holy Hour end without offering to Me in exchange for My Heart your hearts burning with the same flame which consumes Mine … Oh! give Me your hearts!
Souls: Jesus, let this cenacle of Thy friends acclaim Thee as its King of love …
In the name of all those who bless Thee and love Thee, and in solemn reparation for the sins of the unfortunate ones who ignore Thee, who forget Thee and who curse Thee, we wish to declare that we love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus.
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In the name of Thy friends, all the little ones and the children, we love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In the name of Thy friends, the helpless and the poor, we love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In the name of Thy friends, the neglected, the outcasts, and orphans, we love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In the name of Thy friends, the just and the fervent, we love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In the name of Thy friends, the converted, the repentant, and the pardoned, we love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In the name of Thy friends, the ill-treated, the sad and the afflicted, we love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In the name of Thy friends, apostles, priests, and consecrated souls, we lave Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
All: We love Thee, Jesus, because Thou art Jesus!
In reparation for the treason of Judas, the traitor: Thy Kingdom come!
All: Thy Kingdom come!
In reparation for the derision of Herod, the infamous: Thy Kingdom come !
All: Thy Kingdom come!
In reparation for the sentence of Pilate, the coward : Thy Kingdom come !
All: Thy Kingdom come!
In reparation for the outrages on the Via Dolorosa—the Sorrowful Way: Thy Kingdom come!
All: Thy Kingdom come!
In reparation for the ignominy of Thy redemptive Cross: Thy Kingdom come!
All: Thy Kingdom come!
In reparation for all that Passion of sorrow, of crime, of apostasy, and of shame, which sin has made Thee endure for twenty centuries in the Holy Tabernacle:
All: Thy Kingdom come!
Final Prayer
(All standing)
In the presence, O Jesus, of Mary the Immaculate Queen and of the Angels who adore Thee in this Host, in the face of Heaven and also of this ungrateful and thankless earth … we acknowledge Thee, Jesus, as the only Sovereign and Master, the only source of authority, of all virtue, and of all beauty …
Therefore on bended knees and in the spirit of social reparation, we say to Thee: (all kneel) “We do not acknowledge a social order without God or against God. Thou art the foundation of social order, Jesus!”
All: Thou art the foundation of social order, Jesus!
We do not recognize the laws of any progress without God or against God. The law of true progress is Thy Law, Jesus!
All: The law of true progress is Thy Law, Jesus!
We do not recognize the Utopias of a civilization without God or against God. The source of civilization is Thy Gospel, Jesus!
All: The source of civilization is Thy Gospel, Jesus!
We do not recognize justice without God or against God. Thou art eternal Justice, Jesus!
All: Thou art eternal Justice, Jesus!
We do not recognize any brotherhood without God or against God. The only brotherhood is Thine, Jesus!
All: The only brotherhood is Thine, Jesus!
We do not recognize any truth without God or against God. Thou art essential Truth, Jesus!
All: Thou art essential Truth, Jesus!
We do not recognize love without God or against God. Thou art uncreated love, Jesus!
All: Thou art uncreated love, Jesus! (3 times)
A Pater and an Ave for the agonizing and for sinners.
A Pater and an Ave for the universal triumph of the Sacred Heart, especially by daily Communion, the Holy Hour, and the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in families.
A Pater and an Ave for the particular intentions of all present.
A Pater and an Ave for our country.
(Chanting of the Credo)
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom Come! (5 times)
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! (3 times)
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saint Margaret Mary, pray for us.
Return to Table of Contents (21 Holy Hours by Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.)