BY Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.
Additional Devotions for Fridays Subsequent to the First
February.— For The 2nd Friday
For The 3rd Friday
For The 4th Friday
O! What happy solitude one enjoys near the Holy Tabernacle! … How well the soul rests in the shadow of the Beloved Whom she adores … flooded in the light of Him Who is the Light …
Putting aside the world with its vanities, illusions and deceptions, let us rest close, very close to the divine Reality, Jesus … in the very intimacy of His Sacred Heart, that Paradise of delights … The sweet Master is there … barely a step away … He is calling us … With boundless confidence pray Him to turn His Eyes from our faults and during this Holy Hour, to open wide to us the Divine Wound in His Side …
… Let us enter there without fear, for it is the source whose virtue ransoms poor sinners, sanctifies the just … sweetens the great sorrows of life and drives away the fear of death.
(Pause)
(Ask Him to accept this Holy Hour as a prayer of reparation for all our families.)
Heaven in amazement interrupts its canticle of glory, and the Angels are filled with emotion when they see Jesus Christ, their King, weep through love, over guilty man! Those tears were not lost … Mary collected them and this evening she presents them set as a crown of pearls around this divine Host which claims the grateful adoration of the faithful friends of her Divine Son …
O, if each tear of Jesus had been repaid by a soul! … and if each groan had had as a living echo the conquest of one family forever! … However, there is still time for Him to enter into possession of this ungrateful world which He came to save … O, the principal grace, obtained through this Holy Hour, must be to hasten the triumph of His adorable Heart!
(Let us then do a holy violence to our Master’s Heart in order that He hasten the promised advent of His Kingdom by the pressing and decisive victory of His Love … Let us speak to Him without delay and with all the fervor of our souls!)
Beloved Jesus, drawn to Thee by the piercing cry of Thy Heart, moved to pity by Thy loneliness, and above all, thirsting for the coming of Thy Kingdom behold us, beloved Master agonizing in Gethsemane, saddened by Thy sadness unto death, and forgetting the world in retaliation for its forgetfulness of its most lovable Savior …
Yes, behold us here, Lord, such as Thou knowest us in our great moral wretchedness: weak in faith, infirm and faltering in mind … prone to the inevitable anxieties of existence disillusioned with life and with ourselves … behold us, weighed down with profound grief. Stretch forth to us, O Jesus, a helping hand!
Notwithstanding these failings, and wishing to be worthy of the title of faithful friends, we ask of Thee this evening for our share of anguish and of suffering in the grief and anguish of Thy Heart. In order to taste it, Jesus, in all its bitterness, and also in order to place the balm of sweet consolation in Thy divine Side during this Holy Hour, open to us, Lord, this precious, inebriating Wound … Open it, and fortified by its power we promise Thee that in the battle for Thy cause we will give Thee immense glory in the social triumph of Thy Sacred Heart … O, hasten, Jesus! … and by the cruel agony in the Garden of Olives, delay no longer the coming of Thy Reign of Love! …
(Let us make some reflections on the loneliness and the suffering of Gethsemane and the Tabernacle …)
Pious souls, enter in spirit this garden filled with traitorous shadows for our Lord. Ah! Let an act of living faith encourage and enlighten us … The same Jesus of Nazareth Whom we see falling to the ground under the weight of indescribable agony in the Garden of Olives is there in the Host, mute, still, a Victim, but always Redeemer by love …
Let us surprise Him, if you will, in His Eucharistic agony, for we have more right there than the Angels …
Contemplate our Lord in mystical agony! He suffers, sad unto death, and O grief! He suffers always alone!
His enemies conspire against Him; the indifferent, all taken up with their common interests, have neither love nor time for Jesus … His friends, His favorite apostles, with rare exceptions, are weary of the battle … many are asleep while the Master waits saddened and outcast for betrayal and death! …
Not so with you, pious souls, who come during this hour to share the bitterness of His solitude … Soothe it by a canticle the sweetness of which will make Him forget the ingratitude of men …
(Make an act of solemn thanksgiving to the Lord, and while kneeling, bless Him with fervor for the inexhaustible bounty of His rejected love.)
For the gratuitous and inestimable gift of faith:
(Aloud)
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the treasure of grace and the virtue of hope which shows us Heaven, the end of this life’s tribulations …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the saving Ark of Thy Church, persecuted, but always victorious …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the incomprehensible mercy with which Thou dost pardon all sin through the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the tenderness that Thou dost lavish on suffering souls who praise Thee in their trials and crosses …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the marvelous devices of Thy love in the conversion of the most hardened sinners …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the blessings of peace or trials, of sickness or health, of riches or poverty, often misunderstood, by which Thou dost ransom innumerable souls …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the signal benefits Thou dost accord so many ingrates who misuse their position, their fortune, their talents, which they owe to Thee alone …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For the wonderful privilege granted us on Calvary, when Thou, Jesus gavest us Thine own Mother as our Mother and she adopted us as her beloved children …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
For Thy Holy Eucharist, for Thy captivity and Thy companionship imbued with all delights, promised us until the consummation of the world …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
Finally, Jesus, for this unhoped-for Paradise which Thou hast revealed to us through Thy servant, Margaret Mary … for the wondrous, incomprehensible gift of Thy Sacred Heart …
All: Infinite gratitude to Thy most lovable Heart! …
(Meditate a few moments on the captivity of our Lord on Holy Thursday and on that which continues through the centuries in the divine Eucharist …)
Consideration: You have often read this phrase: “Jesus a Captive, Jesus the Prisoner of Love in the holy Tabernacle!” These simple words contain one of the greatest mysteries of the Catholic belief. Do you ever meditate on them? … Let us do so this evening! …
With eyes illumined by the light of a strong faith, look through the grating … pierce the walls of this Tabernacle: Jesus is the gentle Prisoner, vanquished, chained there by His own Heart …
It was Holy Thursday, twenty centuries ago, that towards the middle of the night, He allowed Himself to be led, bound, from the Garden of the Agony to the dungeon to which He was condemned by a wicked judge … And that night of ignominy and horror, of deadly loneliness caused by the abandonment of all those who loved His Heart … yes, that night is prolonged in all the Tabernacles of the world …
Blasphemy, denials, indifference, impurity, pride, sacrilege … all the outcries of deicides, and all the torrent of vileness and ignominy have the awful privilege of reaching Jesus’ feet, of rising to His face and profaning it as it was profaned by Judas’ kiss.
And Jesus Christ does not go away! … He is love’s captive, betrayed by His own Heart … He is there, crushed by the outrages of men … He is there, seated on the criminal’s bench … He has committed a great crime, the sublime crime of loving man with divine passion.
And see how man repays Him — by neglect and loneliness! …
Souls: O most lovable Captive, shackle also these souls who wish to share Thy prison’s solitude! … They ask that their captivity, like Thine, be eternal … They beg Thee to give them as a prison during their life and at death the fathomless abyss of Thy wounded Side …
Yes, immerse us all in Thy Heart, as hostages for the great sinners, for those who deny Thy Eucharist, for those who blaspheme Thy Cross. We would have them saved for the glory of Thy Name … Redeem them, Jesus in the Eucharist, especially the torturers of this Golgotha where Thou livest to pardon their sins! …
Divine Savior of souls, completely covered with confusion, I prostrate myself in Thy presence, and as I fix my glance on the lonely Tabernacle and see the neglect in which Thou art left by so many ransomed souls, I feel my heart oppressed.
But since with so much goodness Thou dost permit me during this Holy Hour to unite my tears to those Thou didst shed, I pray Thee, Jesus, for those who do not pray … I bless Thee for those who curse Thee … and with all the ardor of my soul I praise and adore Thee in union with the universal prayer which rises from all the sanctuaries of the world.
Accept, Lord, the cry of expiation which sincere sorrow draws from our grieved and repentant souls: we ask pardon of Thee …
For our sins, for those of our relatives and friends …
(Aloud)
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For infidelities and sacrileges,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For blasphemies and the profanation of Sunday,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For licentiousness and public scandals,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For those who corrupt childhood and youth,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For deliberate disobedience to Thy holy Church,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For the crimes of families, for the faults of parents and children,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For criminal attempts against the Sovereign Pontiff,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For disturbers of peace in Christian society,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For abuse of the Sacraments and outrages to Thy Holy Eucharist,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
For vile attacks by the press and for the machinations of secret societies,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
Finally, Jesus, for the good who falter and for the sinners who resist grace,
All: Pardon, Divine Heart!
(Pause or hymn)
Click the ▶ Button to sing the prayer, or play the song in a New Window ⧉
| Fr. Jeremiah Williams Cummings (1814-1866) Songs for Catholic Schools and Aids to Memory for the Catechism (1860), p. 108 |
Arnold G.H. Bode (1866-1952) Laramie |
|---|---|
|
With all my heart, and soul, and strength, |
|
(Meditate on the condemnation of Jesus and on the ignominy that He endured when He was treated as a madman, a mystery of love and suffering which is perpetuated in the Sacrament of the Altar.)
We have kept silence a moment and there is silence in the depths of this poor Tabernacle … Alas! The world, by the hateful cries of its own sins, has gone on and will go on proclaiming the condemnation of the Prisoner of Love …
If it consents to free Him, it is only to exhibit Him as a fool and then to drag Him to the desert of human forgetfulness … and from there to the atrocious death of the Cross! … Draw near your sweet Jesus; see Him as at the moment when Pilate presented Him to the infuriated people …
The God-Man in the Eucharist wishes to complain to you His friends. Listen to Him with faith, with fervor, as did John the Beloved when he heard the anguished throbbing of this Heart, torn by suffering, transpierced by love … Speak to us, Master!
(Slowly and impressively)
Voice of Jesus: Well-beloved soul, look at My countenance. Judgment pronounced by one of My creatures has marked it for death …
My love is infinite … yours is very lukewarm … Have you not also passed that sentence against Me? …
Look at My hands bound by those who love unrestrained liberty … Have you not also had now and then your hours of license and sin? … Have you not also forged these chains for Me? …
Look at Me clothed in the white garment of fools. I have loved the world so much that it has accused Me of madness … In very deed I suffered from the folly of love on Calvary … I am still possessed by that love in the Host on the Altar … Have you never blushed at the redeeming madness of Jesus? Have you, too, not wounded Me by human respect? …
See how grossly insulted I am because I wished to give peace to the world … See how forsaken I am! … I am the shame of the wise, the scandal of the powerful, the laughing-stock of the crowd, the scapegoat of rulers … but if they weep over their offenses I pardon them all, I am Jesus! … Tell Me, have not you, too, been unfaithful? … Have you not wounded Me? Have you not forsaken Me? … Have you always followed Me during My passion? … Answer Me … I wish to give you in this Holy Hour the kiss of peace and pardon … Answer Me …
(Reflectingly, with great impressiveness)
What have I, Lord Jesus, that Thou hast not given me?
What do I know, that Thou hast not taught me?
What can I do, if Thou dost not help me?
And what am I, if not united to Thee?
Pardon … O! pardon my faults that have so wounded Thee.
Thou hast created me without any merit of mine,
Thou hast redeemed me without my cooperation …
Thou hast done much in creating me,
And still more in redeeming me,
Wilt Thou be less powerful
Or less generous in forgiving me?
For all the Blood Thou hast shed
And the cruel death Thou hast suffered
Were not for the profit of the Angels who adore Thee,
But to my benefit and that of the sinners who implore Thee.
If I have then denied Thee, let me praise Thee.
If I have outraged Thee, let me love Thee.
If I have offended Thee, let me serve Thee.
For, to live without loving Thee,
And to love without suffering for Thee,
O Jesus … that would be death without Thee.
(Pause)
(Consider the loneliness of Good Friday continued in the Tabernacle.)
How gloomy must have been the twilight of Good Friday on Calvary and in the Holy Sepulchre — there on Golgotha’s mount the stains of divine Blood trampled underfoot with hatred; farther down in the cave of the tomb dreary silence, the icy cold of the unfeeling rock and of death …
Christians … contemplate Golgotha; behold it — the Altar! … Look once more; see this Tabernacle. Is it not the Holy Sepulchre? …
How good it is to find this sublime argument, proving for us that Jesus remains our Victim of love! … The tempest of denial and blasphemy howls outside … By a moment of prayer we try to make reparation for those outrages … But in a few seconds this Holy Hour will be ended … and the doors of this temple closed, and Jesus will remain alone with the Angels, for love of whom this mysterious tomb was not dug. And in the silence of this mystic sepulchre the good Master will wait, hoping that the dawn will bring Him the echo of a loving word from men, His brothers! …
Ah! If we could penetrate the secrets of the Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! … His is a life of incessant prayer, a life of perpetual immolation for His ungrateful children! The thought of us besets His mind and makes His Heart beat … Let Him tell us Himself …
(Reflectingly)
The Voice of Jesus: My little ones, bitter anguish crushes My Heart … I come to you, wounded and weeping, inconsolable over the irreparable misfortune of a cherished soul … I come from afar, the Wound in My Side reopened, bleeding … I have just been scornfully driven away from the deathbed of an unhappy man in his agony … He spurned Me, saying he was an upright man and pretending he had no need of his Savior! … He said with presumption that he died easy in mind, but far from Me …
The wretched being … O the ingrate! He did not allow Me to clasp him in My arms to tell him that I, his offended God, pardoned him … He died without a glance at My Cross, without blessing My Wounds … With his last breath he repulsed Me! … O piercing grief! … and yet I had loved him so much … I had shed all my Blood for him … and he gave Me neither his last glance nor the last throb of his heart …
You who love Me, bind up this cruel Wound. Make amends to Me, console Me by praying for the agonizing! …
Pray for the agonizing.
Come nearer Me; let Me feel the burning love of your faithful souls … My Soul is bathed in the cold dew of night from waiting for so many of your brothers …
Another pang: I waited in vain for some one to offer Me hospitality … at least the hospitality one never refuses the poorest pilgrim … I rapped on the door … I offered divine peace. Ah! I knew how much they needed it … And here I am, returning with My treasures …
All I met with was a bitter refusal … and yet, that soul, that beloved family, which is suffering so horribly, would have relished My peace … Peace! It exists … and so does happiness, consolation, and love wherever My Heart sheds its light and radiates its mercy …
(Pause)
My children, offer Me your love and your fervent prayers … give Me the holocaust of your generous sacrifices in order to conquer so many souls who struggle against the outpouring tenderness of My Heart which pleads without truce or rest … Count, if you can, the bloody thorns of My Crown …
Perhaps you will find there the well-beloved name of some one from your own family circle. How many consolations and thoughtful kindnesses have been rejected by these, dear to your heart and Mine! … Perhaps they are not wicked … but they live forgetful of Me, carried away by the cares and the pleasures of the world.
Pray, faithful souls, pray all together that the patience and infinite mercy of My Heart triumph over their resistance, and that one day I may win a great victory here in My Eucharist, where My love awaits them …
I thirst with a burning thirst to see Myself surrounded in this Host by a happy and numerous phalanx of returned prodigals, of lost sheep who have been found, of sons converted by the sweetness of My reproaches, by My tears, and by the choice graces promised and granted through the Holy Hour and through the fervent celebration of First Fridays …
Why are you waiting? … Ask, dear apostles, ask with faith, for the God of Love Who is here, has willed His captivity on the Altar only to give happiness to the world … Knock with perfect confidence, knock again on the Wound in My Side, and the doors of My Heart will open wide to you …
Demand, insist, My children, for I wish to be Jesus in carrying out My promises to you …
(Pause)
Souls: O good Jesus, plunged in the consideration of Thy sorrows, and confounded at the sight of Thy loneliness and Thy great sadness, I have forgotten while absorbed in Thee my own petitions and the urgent needs of my poor soul …
Thou knowest already, Lord, the great weakness and the most secret wounds of Thy servant. My afflicted family hopes also during this Holy Hour for a special blessing from Thy agonizing Heart … I do not ask Thee, Jesus, to take suffering away from me if it is Thy Will that it should benefit me … do not dry the source of my tears … All that I ask is that Thou wouldst draw near my dear ones to teach them the science of suffering while loving Thee, with their eyes fixed on Thy divine face, and their sorrowing souls immersed in the cruel anguish of Thy Soul.
Above all, Lord Jesus, make my home truly a Nazareth … and the faithful Bethany of Thy Sacred Heart!
And now, beloved Master, let me remind Thee of my dear ones who are gone. Remember in this Host the treasures of our hearth which death has taken from us … our King and our Friend, bless the departed of our family and give them now Thy Heaven’s eternal rest …
You know, Jesus, how much we have suffered from these heart-rending separations, but seeing Thee in agony out of love for us, we have in spite of our tears and with holy resignation said from the depths of our heart, “Thy Will be done!” … O Jesus, faithful Friend of Bethany, do not forget our cherished dead!
Remember also, adorable Nazarene, those who are orphans in their hearts, I mean those who have always lived deprived of affection and tenderness and who, alas, are so numerous! …
Remember, Lord, those whom creatures always forget in the hour of rejoicing … Thou greatest of kings, Who never forgettest anyone, remember those whom the proud world disdainfully forgets.
Remember the forsaken, the despised who thirst after justice, Thy justice … who thirst ardently for love, Thy love, Jesus … Ah! Thou knowest by bitter experience, Lord, how piercing and painful is the wound received from an ungrateful brother … Take pity on them all, Jesus, in Thy infinite mercy! …
(Pause)
There is much more I would ask of Thee, Jesus, because my poverty is great! … But I am certain that Thou wilt see to all my needs, Thou Who watchest lovingly over the little flowers of the field and the birds of heaven! … I wish to close this Holy Hour forgetting myself, so that my last prayer will bring Thee the consuming desire, the passionate ambition of my soul for the triumph and the Reign of Thy Sacred Heart …
Thy mercy, Lord, is not enough for us … Thy interests are ours; we want Thy Kingdom to come! … So we demand of Thee, Jesus, that Thou wouldst carry out for us the promises Thou hast made to Thy confidante, Margaret Mary, in favor of those souls who adore Thee in the indescribable beauty, the ineffable tenderness, the incomprehensible love of Thy Sacred Heart.
Accordingly we ask Thee with Holy Church, we beg Thee by Thy Virgin Mother, we demand for the inviolable honor of Thy Name that Thou wouldst establish, that Thou wouldst hasten the Reign of Thy Divine Heart! …
(Aloud)
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
Hasten, Jesus, to reign soon, before Satan and the world wrest consciences from Thee and in Thy absence profane all states of life! …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
Come forth, Jesus, and triumph in homes, reigning there by the unalterable peace promised those who have received Thee singing, “Hosanna!”
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
Do not delay, beloved Master, for a great many homes suffer from bitterness and evils that Thou hast promised to cure …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
Come, because Thou art omnipotent, because Thou art the God of life’s battles … Come, showing us Thy lacerated Side as a pledge of heavenly hope in the agony of death! …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
May Thou Thyself be the end promised to our labors, Thou alone the inspiration and reward of all our undertakings …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
And do not forget that it was especially for sinners, Thy favored ones, that Thou hast revealed the inexhaustible tenderness of Thy love …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
Good Master, there are so many lukewarm, so many indifferent whom Thou shouldst set on fire with love by this admirable devotion… .
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
“Here is the source of life,” Thou sayest, in showing us Thy transpierced Side … therefore, Jesus, let us draw from It the fervor, the holiness to which we aspire …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
According to Thy request, Thy image has been enthroned in many homes … In the name of those families, I beg Thee to continue to reign there as most beloved Sovereign! …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
Give words of fire, and persuasion, irresistible, victorious, to those priests who love Thee and who extol Thee as did John, the Beloved Apostle …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
And for those who teach this sublime devotion, for those who proclaim its ineffable wonders, keep a place in Thy Heart, O Jesus, very near to where Thy Mother’s name is written! …
All: Triumph by the reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
And finally, Lord Jesus, give to us the Heaven of Thy Heart, to us who have shared Thy agony during the Holy Hour; and by this hour of consolation … by First Friday Celebrations, fulfill in us Thy unfailing promise … We ask this of Thee at the decisive hour of death …
All: That Thou mayest triumph by the Reign of Thy Sacred Heart!
(Pause or hymn)
Click the ▶ Button to sing the prayer (key for Women, or play the song in a New Window ⧉
Click the ▶ Button to sing the prayer (key for Men), or play the song in a New Window ⧉
| 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) |
We must leave Thee, Jesus. This hour, a thousand times sweet and holy, during which we have enjoyed Thy ineffable companionship, is ending … O come with us into the intimacy of our home, where Thou wilt be the Spouse, the Father, the Brother, the Friend, the King of our family … Come … but before leaving Thy sanctuary, let us make Thee a last entreaty: hearken to it, good Jesus!
(Slowly and reflectingly)
When the Angels of the Sanctuary are blessing Thee in the most holy Host and I am in my agony, may their praises be mine … Lord, remember then this poor servant of Thy Divine Heart.
When loving souls on earth acclaim Thee … and I am in my agony … may their compassion and their tears be mine … Remember then this prodigal conquered by Thy Divine Heart!
When priests, virgins of the temple, and Thine apostles, proclaim Thee their Sovereign, preach Thee to souls and enthrone Thee in the world and I am in my agony … let their zeal and their ardor be mine … Remember then the apostle of Thy Divine Heart! …
When Thy Church, praying and lamenting before the altar is with Thee redeeming the guilty world … and I am in my agony … her sacrifice and prayer will be mine …
Remember then the faithful friend of Thy Divine Heart! …
When during the Holy Hour Thy chosen souls, by loving, suffering and atoning make Thee forget perfidy and betrayals … and I am in my agony … their intimacy with Thee and their consolations will be mine … Remember then this altar and this victim of Thy Divine Heart! …
When Thy heavenly Mother adores Thee in the Holy Eucharist, thus making reparation for the innumerable crimes of earth … and I am in my agony … her adoration will be mine … Remember then the child of Thy Divine Heart! …
Or rather, Lord, forget me if Thou dost wish, provided that at the hour of my death, Thou wilt forget me forever in the Wound of Thy most lovable Heart! …
(Pause)
What have I, Lord Jesus, that Thou hast not given me? … Strip me of all, even of Thine own gifts, but set me afire with the ardent love of Thy Divine Heart! …
What do I know that Thou hast not taught me? … May I forget all human and earthly science if I but know Thee better, O Divine Heart! …
What can I do without Thy help? … and what am I unless united to Thee … Unite me to Thee then, by an everlasting bond … I renounce even the delights of Thy love, that I may completely possess that other Paradise, Thy sweetest Heart!
And there, bury, O yes, bury the faults which I have committed against Thee … and avenge Thyself, while wounding with a dart of burning charity that one who has so offended Thee …
And if I have denied Thee, let me acknowledge Thee in the Eucharist where Thou art hidden …
If I have offended Thee, let me serve Thee in an everlasting slavery of eternal love … for it is rather death than life not to spend oneself in loving and making loved Thy sweet, compassionate Heart, so forsaken! …
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come! …
A Pater and an Ave for the agonizing and for sinners.
A Pater and an Ave for the world-wide 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.
Act of Consecration of the Human Race to
the Sacred Heart of Jesus
(Leo XIII)
Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us, humbly prostrate before Thy altar. We are Thine and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united with Thee, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Thy most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known Thee; many, too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart. Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee: grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd. Be Thou King also of all those who sit in the ancient superstition of the Gentiles, and refuse not Thou to deliver them out of darkness into the light and kingdom of God. Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church, assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to It be glory and honor forever. Amen.
Five times, in honor of the Five Wounds of our Savior: Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come!
Three times: Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
Once: 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.)