See also The Apostolate of Suffering
BY Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.
Additional Devotions for Fridays Subsequent to the First
June.— For The 2nd Friday
For The 3rd Friday
For The 4th Friday
We adore Thee, Eucharistic God and we bless Thee, Redeemer of the world … We love Thee, Jesus, in the sublime beauty of Thy agonizing Heart … Thou alone art great! … Thou alone art holy, O God, in the humiliation of the divine Host! … Thou only art most high, O God, hidden in the unbloody sacrifice of this altar! …
Glory to Thee, God, King of Heaven, but willing to live in the Gethsemane of a humble Tabernacle … Glory to Thee, Eucharistic Jesus, in the celestial heights, the abode of Angels … Praise to Thee on earth, the abode of men!
O Lord, in the name of these exiles, Thy brothers, and especially in the name of all those who suffer with love and faith, kneeling before Thee, we adore the tears, the solitude, the anguish, the weariness, all the bitterness, all the agony of Thy Sacred Heart … We believe, Jesus, that Thou art the Christ, the God-Man of redeeming sorrows.
In your own name and in the name of those who suffer, offer this Holy Hour to the agonizing Heart of Jesus, and in union with Him, as a homage of resignation and love.
(Pause)
(Slowly and with brief intervals of silence)
Souls: O Jesus, we have been irresistibly drawn by the conquering power of Thy love and Thy tears toward the abyss of Thy Heart! … Oh, the celestial beauty of Thy sadness! … A Heaven of consolation and glory for all of us! … What an impenetrable mystery and what ineffable solace to be able to say to ourselves that Thou, too, Jesus, hast wept! What divine eloquence in Thine all-loving words, which came from Thy trembling Lips and stifled Thy sobs, words of peace which soared from the depths of Thy Soul, sorrowful unto death …
And now, Lord, we are here, calm and serene, laying at Thy Feet the loving offering not only of our own afflictions, but also the sorrows of so many unfortunate and suffering souls who adore Thee … O Jesus, how well Thou knowest this ocean of sorrows whose bitter floods submerged Thy most holy Soul …
First, adorable Master, we will mention those who suffer from poverty or from the cruel sting of illness …
Even here, during this Holy Hour, Lord, among those who have come to watch with Thee, or among their dear ones, there are perhaps some sick … there are certainly some poor … Oh, with what great pity Thou hast always looked on the infirm! … With what delicate tenderness Thy kind Eyes searched out the leper, the paralyzed, … the wounded, and the blind, to cure them all with a smile and a loving blessing! … And if these invalids or suffering ones could not come to Thee, … Thou didst go to them. Thou didst make a path for Thyself through the crowd … Thou didst arrange for a blessed meeting by passing near the roadside where they lay … Oh, then, … Thou didst look at them as only Thou canst look; … Thou didst give them Thy Hand … and Thy Heart completed the miracle. They arose with their bodies cured and their souls healed! …
But today, there are more poor than sick … There are many who work hard and endure painful privations; many without bread, without shelter, without solace, without remedies to give relief … But what can we tell Thee that Thou dost not already know about the sufferings of the poor, Thou the poor Nazarene, so winning in Thy destitution! … Yes, Thou hast suffered hunger; … but above all, Thou hast had to bear the haughty scorn and contempt that the world shows those who have neither house nor land nor money … Did not Thy accusers ask, “What can He know? … What can He claim in Israel? … What can one from Nazareth pretend to be? … one signalized as the son of a humble carpenter” …
Recall, Jesus, this evening that humiliation, and cast Thine Eyes on so many poor who sigh, on so many sick who suffer … During this Holy Hour we dare to ask that Thou bestowest on those poor and sick the gift of Thy peace and the sweet consolation of Thy blessing, which scatters in profusion miracles of tenderness … Jesus, reward their resignation which honors Thee … And if it be for Thy greater glory, deign to grant relief to the sick, the infirm, the poor, and the needy … Thou, Who with loving care watchest over the flowers of the field and the birds of the mountain-side … bless with special tenderness, from this divine Host, all the afflicted for whom we beg the living waters and the treasures of Thine adorable Heart …
(Pause — Slowly and brokenly)
Remember also, beloved Master, those who suffer from disheartening opposition and humiliating reverses …
Lord, with what loving and wise Providence, dost Thou often permit that our plans vanish like smoke … and to our great surprise, that after much care and work, we reap only piercing, cruel thorns … How many vexations and disappointments dost Thou permit for each of our human hopes … Thou alone knowest the reason for the innumerable mishaps that steadily try the family … Thou dost not prevent them because they are really for our good … Thou dost not stop the torrent which will carry away the sacred walls of the home … Doing violence to Thy compassionate Heart, as Thou didst with the woman of Canaan, Thou keepest silence in Thy Tabernacle when we are threatened by a misfortune, which will, however, in a mysterious way, bring about the salvation of those whom we love … Thou dost see us weep; Oh! yes, Thou takest part in all our chagrin; and, although invisible, Thou art very close to us in those black and agonizing hours, hours of Gethsemane, through which all men must go … Remembering Thine own agony, Thou drawest near us; and even if we do not always feel Thy sweet divine embrace, yet, we know that Thou art clasping us in Thine adorable Arms …
Yes, Jesus, by happy experience, we know the tenderness of Thy Heart; that is why we hold without hesitation that, in the midst of the bitterest mortifications of our lives, that Heart beats with love of us … Accept, Lord, these sufferings in loving reparation for Thy mortal vision in the Garden of Olives, and sustain on Thy Heart the hearts of those who suffer.
(Aloud)
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
Beloved Master, many on beds of suffering await the visit of the Heavenly Physician.
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
Many sick children, Lord, have lost their mothers … Many homeless old people will die without any care other than that of Thine infinite mercy.
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
Many of Thy poor have already suffered for long years, having neither human help nor hope!
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
Enter, Master, the huts and garrets where misery reigns, … under the roofs where poor mothers agonize, with no witnesses other than their little children who suffer from hunger …
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
With the sweet light that shines from Thy wounded Heart, enlighten and console those homes which in the past knew abundance but now bear want in silence …
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
Be especially merciful, Jesus, to those who suffer from the injustice of man … and to numerous others who have seen their plans for riches and comfort vanish in a day …
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
Lord, Thou art not unaware of the innumerable persons and families who suffer from continual insecurity …
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
In the perpetual conflict of opposing interests, in the inevitable vexations caused by business and the natural aspirations of life, which are never satisfied …
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
Thou hast suffered, Jesus, from the absence of all human solace; have pity, then, on so many poor, sick, and disillusioned hearts, who ask for a moment at least of truce and rest …
All: Sustain on Thy Heart, O Jesus, the hearts of those who suffer!
(Brief pause)
Voice of Jesus: You spoke truly: When suffering detaches you from earth I am very near you … The cross will always be the bloodstained bridge which united your afflicted, deluded hearts to my Agonizing Heart! …
Behold Me, My loved ones … I have hearkened to your prayer for the sick, the poor, and for those attacked by human opposition … At this very moment how many graces have fallen on them all from My throne of mercy where I guard their lives of labor and weariness …
Continue to speak to Me of all that pains you and makes you sad … My Heart claims these confidences … Your sufferings touch It to the quick … Draw near, then, My children, and while bound together in the same anguish and enduring the same suffering, let us weep together.
Come nearer to Me and pour forth your souls into My divine Heart.
(Pause or hymn)
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| 1. Jesus, ever loving Saviour, Thou didst live and die for me, Living, I will live to love Thee, Dying, I will die for Thee, Jesus! Jesus! By Thy life and death and sorrow, Help me in my agony. |
2. When the last dread hour approaching Fills my guilty soul with fear; All my sins rise up before me, All my virtues disappear. Jesus! Jesus! Turn not Thou in anger from me, Mary, Joseph, then be near. |
| 3. Mary, thou canst not forsake me, Virgin mother undefiled; Thou didst not abandon Jesus Dying, tortured and reviled. Jesus! Jesus! Send Thy Mother to console me: Mary, help Thy guilty child! |
4. Jesus, when the cruel anguish Dying on the shameful tree, All abandoned by Thy Father, Thou didst writhe in agony. Jesus! Jesus! By these three long hours of sorrow Thou didst purchase hope for me. |
| 5. Then, by all that Thou didst suffer, Grant me mercy in that day; Help me, Mary, my sweet Mother, Holy Joseph, near me stay. Jesus! Jesus! Let me die, my lips repeating, Jesus, mercy! Mary, pray! |
Amen. |
Souls: Thine isolation, the icy silence and the solitude which surround Thy forlorn Tabernacle accuse the world of the sin most keenly felt by Thy Heart — the sin of ingratitude.
(Reflectingly)
To love, O Jesus, as only Thou lovest and not to be loved in return! … to bless and be cursed in return … to scatter favors freely and be repaid by forgetfulness or insults! … Behold, sweet Savior, the very bitter bread of Thy voluntary exile in the midst of us; … behold the price of Thy sublime captivity in the Tabernacle! In this way Thy Gethsemane is prolonged through the centuries … Ah, in reparation, we insist on having our share in it.
O Jesus, Thou didst say: “The disciple is not greater than his Master, nor the servant than his Lord.” That is why we, too, are sometimes invited to taste of the chalice of ingratitude … We accept it, O Lord, for love of Thee and only for Thee, because this drink is more bitter than death …
Have pity, good Master, on those who succumb at this moment under the weight of such suffering …
Have pity on those homes where once dwelt the hopes and joys of the family but which today are desolate because children have become the cross, yes, even the crown of thorns to their parents.
Have pity on unhappy wives, wearied from grieving over faults which wound their hearts …
Have pity on so many loyal, devoted, and humble souls who have been betrayed in their friendships, jeered at and deceived in their own homes, and wounded by those who have begged their charity and their favors … The world pays at first with words and smiles, … and then with disloyalty and treachery.
Because we love Thee, Jesus in the Eucharist, only because we love Thee, we thank Thee for this chalice of bitterness, and we ask Thee to pardon those who open the wound in Thy loving Heart — that same deep wound which we ourselves have opened by our own ingratitude …
(Brief pause — slowly and reflectingly)
O good Jesus, have pity on those who suffer from solitude and abandonment! …
How many times, beloved Master, after having preached the marvels of Thy love, after having multiplied Thy miracles in the presence of enraptured crowds, hast Thou seen those multitudes go away from Thee with distrust and with indifference in their souls. And Thou didst remain alone, solitary, and forsaken as Thou dost here in the holy Tabernacle where Thy children forsake Thee … Only Thy Father can measure the intensity of Thy suffering in that sorrowful desertion.
Thou knowest, Jesus, that there are many, very many, who have never tasted a tender love — orphans of life. They wander about in the desert of the world; … always homesick for the warmth of a fireside, … they live without affection and with bitterness in their hearts! …
Gethsemane and Calvary recall to Thee, most lovable Jesus, the anguish of solitude … Oh, how terrible it is to call and to cry out and feel that our voice is lost in silence! … To weep, to suffer, … to implore, … to love, … and to feel that one remains alone, always alone! … No one has known awful desolation but Thou, O Jesus …
Then, … from the depths of the soul which suffers thus, rises something of the appalling anguish which Thou, beloved Savior, hast felt in Thine agony on Holy Thursday: weariness unto death, repugnance, and the disappointments of life! … Then, alas, the poor human heart feels itself overcame …
These outcasts need Thee, Lord, in this moment of supreme distress; … they need Thee, agonizing Heart of Jesus; … If Thou dost not come to their rescue, their despairing souls will cry out for death! … But Thou wilt come to us, as we ourselves have come to Thee this evening to share with Thee this hour of solitary agony! …
And to all who must one day suffer from loneliness and the abandonment of brethren, …
(Aloud)
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
If Thou sometimes dost try us by permitting that our own dear ones forget us, …
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
When age and infirmities isolate us by breaking the ties which we believed would always last, …
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
Perhaps some day poverty may visit our home, — a home which is also Thine; and our friends may leave us then; … O Jesus, do not abandon us in such an hour of trial, … for that hour we now place our trust in Thee alone! …
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
Misfortune follows our every step: if one day it overtakes us and we are forsaken by those we love, …
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
Human injustice is so great! … If Thou dost permit that one day it scourge us, forsake us not then, Lord Jesus! …
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
If even those we greatly love abandon us, … in that hour of cruel ingratitude, oh! come then, Jesus, for Thou art our only hope.
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
If those who demanded our affection and sacrifices should one day hate us, as Thou, good Jesus, hast been hated, …
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
The calumny of Thine enemies covered Thy divine Countenance with opprobrium … When it brands our brow and humiliates us, do not forsake us; come to us, gentle Master, always calumniated.
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
And in the hours of deathlike silence when we find ourselves alone, all alone, submerged by the forgetfulness and cruel indifference of creatures, …
All: Give us the companionship and the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart.
(Brief pause)
Voice of the Master: In your hours of solitude and torture, never will you be far from My Heart which loves you, … yes, which loves you infinitely because you love It … and because you suffer … If, when I was alone and forgotten, you came to Me, if you consoled Me when I was saddened by those who called themselves Mine, if you have often broken the ice of indifference which surrounds My solitary prison, … how could I prefer even the song of the angels to the appeal of your souls in sorrow? … Your souls need to rest on My Heart for solace! … Here is this Heart, infinitely compassionate toward your wounds; take It; It is all yours! … I, alone, have power to repay with divine generosity, so be not afraid! I know how to heal the deepest wounds. Come; … do not hesitate … oh, yes, come! Only I know to what extent solitude and ingratitude crush the soul. Come! … Come weep with Me and you will be consoled! …
(Pause)
Voice of the Souls: Jesus, on our altars Thou dost bear a name which lifts up our hearts when we are overcome. Thou art there the Host, the Victim …
(Very slowly and reflectingly)
Here, in the Host, Thou art ignored and forgotten even by Thine own … Thou hast dwelt among us for so many centuries, wishing to permeate our lives, … and still we misunderstand Thee! … Thou art always the One Who is loved but at a distance only … Thou art almost a stranger in the midst of Thy children … That is why Thou didst tell Thy servant Margaret Mary, that the greatest of Thy sorrows is not to be known in Thine own house by those who are Thine …
(Brief pause)
We thank Thee, beloved Master, when Thou dost make us taste the bitterness of Thy chalice; we thank Thee … Our hearts are cruelly hurt, O Jesus, when the good and even those dearest to us wound us … Sometimes they condemn us in Thy Name, from motives which they believe to be sincere and zealous … Ah it is so human to misjudge others! … But Thou, Who knowest all, Thou dost permit this, that we may place our trust in Thee alone … Thou dost permit it, also that we may repair, by this keen suffering, for the lack of tenderness by which even we who are consecrated to Thy glory have saddened Thy Heart … We thank Thee, then, we thank Thee for those wounds opened in our souls by Thy gentle and loving Hand …
We thank Thee, too, for that other inevitable ordeal — death; … it rends without pity all mortals, … cold and inexorable it tears from us all those Thou Thyself hast confided to our love … Recall Thy sadness, Jesus, as Thou didst draw near the house in Bethany where Thy friend, Lazarus, no longer awaited Thee; … Happily, Jesus, the source of those tears Thou didst shed over the death of the friend of Thy Heart is not yet dried up … Yes, Thy divinely beautiful Eyes still seem wet with the tears of the Man-God Who wished to love with all the emotions and tenderness as well as with all the weakness of our heart of flesh … And this, Jesus, is Thou, Thou Thyself present in the Host, Whom we adore here, on our knees … Look at us from the depths of the Tabernacle, and look at those who no longer walk with us along the way; they were like the very fibers of our heart … Now they are gone from us; … they have left us … What separation is as cruel as the separation of death! …
Thou didst weep at the tomb of Lazarus though Thou didst know Thou wert about to raise him from the dead … Likewise, in spite of the lively faith with which we accept the crosses Thou didst send us, Thou dost allow our souls to be lacerated when we see our dear ones leave, never to return … When we have loved deeply, these wounds can be soothed, but as Thou well knowest, Jesus, they can never be healed completely! … Jesus, come to fill the empty place which pitiless death has made, with Thy permission, in our hearts and homes. Come to give calm and resignation to us who survive that we may pray at their grave … Come, Master, let us pray together for our dead so dearly loved … May the brightness of Thy eternal light shine forever on them … May they rest in peace … in the Heaven of Thy Heart! …
(Very slowly and with pauses)
Before ending this Holy Hour, we ask Thee, Jesus, to visit the most intimate recesses of our souls, the depths of the abyss of our sorrows and miseries … Thou alone knowest us, Jesus, Thou alone … Penetrate our souls like a ray of light with Thy sweet and profound glance … It will never shock or break the frail crystal of our poor hearts … Enter still further, even into the heart’s last depths; … descend to the abysses where the secret sorrows kept for Thee alone lie hidden … Touch with Thy healing Hands these wounds, so long bleeding yet unknown to others … No one has seen them; and it is better they should be hidden, for no one but Thou wouldst understand them …
That is why, O adorable Savior, in the midst of certain keen sufferings, we do not weep for we do not want the world to see our tears — that the world would not always understand.
What a relief then it is to talk to Thee like this … to talk freely to Thee, Who in Thy Sacramental Life art made to drink infinite bitternesses that no one can or ever will be able to understand … Only Thou, Master, canst know all, all … Cast a look into the very depths of our souls, … but a look of pity … It was at Gethsemane, under the violent oppression of Thy Heart, that sprang forth the fountain of Tears, which flowed not from Thine Eyes, but coursed through Thy Veins as a torrent, bursting forth in a Sweat of Blood.
(Pause)
(Slowly and with short pauses)
To be silent when one feels himself dying in a hidden, interior agony, to be silent then is to die twice … That sorrow Thou hast also known, O Divine Sufferer of Olivet … The forebodings of mothers, … the well-founded unexpected separation of souls, … the dark fears, … the apprehension of fathers … the anguish, disappointments, anxieties of priests, the many overwhelming pains of good souls who keep intact for Thee alone, O Jesus-Hostia, the virginal beauty of their sufferings, … all form part of those, mysterious sorrows!
The Holy Hour is the hour of confidences … and of consolations … If we have opened our sorrowful souls to Thee, Jesus, it is less to complain than to offer Thee as the richest of our treasures those of our most secret griefs and all those bitternesses which have no name in earthly language … Accept them, Lord, from the hand of the Queen of Sorrows for the triumph of Thy love.
(Aloud)
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Yes, Jesus, sanctify the opposition which we endure from the good, … and the suffering caused us by the frequent injustice of men.
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Accept the mortifications that come to us from those from whom we least expect it, … and which cause such sharp disappointments.
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Accept, Lord, as a bouquet of myrrh, the remembrance of our beloved dead … Bless them, for they left us only in answer to Thy divine call.
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Accept the tears of resignation we have shed on the tombs of those dear to us … Remember particularly little orphans and families in mourning …
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Come, dearest Savior, to make up for the loss of the prodigals who have gone from their homes … They have left an empty place that only Thou canst fill …
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
See, Lord, the hidden thorns in our souls, — accept these thousand unknown sufferings which no human pity would know how to console …
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
Accept the anxiety of mothers, … the devotedness of fathers, … the apparently thankless and often sterile efforts of so many priests … Jesus, take without reserve our sorrowful souls, for they are Thine alone.
All: Sacred Heart, sanctify all our sorrows!
(Pause)
Voice of the Master: Children of My love, how sweet and consoling this hour has been, this hour during which you have shown Me the deep hurts which torture your soul, … while I have let you penetrate the ever-bleeding Wound of My Sacred Heart … Ah! what a happy similarity of suffering! … How we resemble each other when we mourn on earth the bitter afflictions of earth! … That is how Gethsemane becomes for you, as well as for Me, a sanctuary of prayer and of perpetual redemption … Oh! let us love each other as brothers in suffering … Let us love each other, O My friends, that our hearts may meet on the sorrowful way … Let us love each other, O My little children, in the Cross! …
(Slowly and with short pauses)
Come to Me … all you who suffer from poverty and from illness … Hasten! … Lay down at My Feet the burden of all your afflictions, and I will comfort you in the depths of My Heart which loves you.
Come to Me … all you who suffer opposition from creatures, … you who have felt the injustice of men, … you who have undergone reverses of fortune, sorrowful family trials … come to Me, and I will give you solace in the sanctuary of My Heart which loves you!
Come to Me … you who weep over the ingratitude of your friends, and, yes, sometimes even over the ingratitude of members of your own family … Do not tarry, … for this pain overwhelms and freezes the soul; … come, and I will warm you in the flames of love of My divine Heart!
Come unto Me, you who drag on a dull intolerable existence, … you who live in boredom and isolation, … you, the forgotten ones, come to Me … You who still in the dawn of life feel the weariness of exile, … throw yourselves into My Arms, and I will give you solace in the garden of My Heart which loves you!
Come to Me, you who are despised, scorned and misunderstood even by good men, … you whose efforts to further My glory are blamed; come, My friends, and I will console you by refreshing you in the chalice of My Heart which loves you.
Come unto Me, you who are in mourning, who weep the loss of a son, a mother, a spouse, a brother; … come, without delay, to My Tabernacle, all you whose dwelling has been marked by the cross of death and tears … Come, and I will give you solace in the ineffable peace of My Heart which loves you.
Come, lift up your hearts, for time is only a passing shadow, … and Heaven is eternal; come, you who thirst for love and justice; … I am your God, and for you I have suffered the horrors of the most cruel Agony …
Arise then with courage and take the living Bread, My Eucharist to fortify you in the struggle; come and I will reward you in the Paradise of My Heart which loves you! …
(Pause)
Soul: What have I, Lord Jesus, that Thou hast not given me, … including the treasure of my tears? …
What do I know, that Thou hast not taught me, … above all the science of suffering with love? …
What can I do if Thou dost not help me … when I weep … and Thou art in agony?
What am I if I am not united to Thee in Thy Calvary and in my sufferings?
Jesus, because of Thy Cross and my crosses, forgive my faults which have wounded Thee so much …
For Thou hast created me when I had not merited it,
And in spite of my indifference to Thy Passion, Thou hast redeemed me without my co-operation …
Thou hast done much in creating me,
Still more in redeeming me,
Thou wilt not be less powerful or less generous in forgiving me …
For all the Blood Thou didst shed
And the cruel death that Thou didst endure
Are not for the Angels who adore Thee in joy,
But for me and other sinners who expiate, lamenting …
If I have denied Thee, let me acknowledge Thee, … in all the beauty of Thine Agony;
If I have offended Thee, let me serve Thee, suffering for the exaltation and triumph of Thy Sacred Heart … Thy Kingdom Come!
Act of Consecration
Divine Lord agonizing in Gethsemane, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, deign to unite Thy Precious Blood and Thy Sufferings to the afflictions of the children of Thy Heart … Accept, bless, and lighten our crosses … Draw from them immense glory for Thyself, and also cause them to be a means of salvation for many souls perverted by the pleasures of the world …
Call near to Thee, and love with special tenderness those who have no one to love them. Heal those wounds which ungrateful children and disloyal friends cause by their indifference. Thou Who livest so near to the source of our tears, make them less bitter and sanctify them by the miraculous virtue of Thy Cross … Divine Prisoner of the Tabernacle, … visit the disconsolate by a ray of Thy Light, visit those maltreated by life, … those beguiled by delusive and sinful pleasures … Gather up those outcasts, whose beauty of soul is often unknown or scorned …
Teach us the science of suffering in peace and faith, and accord us the precious and very rare gift of knowing how to console.
Give to our sufferings a divine, irresistible strength which will draw our poor wounded hearts to the abyss of Thy pierced Heart. In that Heaven we wish to live, suffering for Thy cause and Thy love. There we would draw out Thy thorns to make them the diadem of our own glory …
Be King of the world, Thou God-Man of Sorrows! … Dominate this world and be victorious over it, healing the wounds opened by the lack of pity and the injustice of men.
O ineffably kind Master, Jesus, the Divine Consoler of all tears, come, when suffering envelops us! Come without delay for our sorrows are great … They would become insupportable because our courage is so feeble when we weep far from Thee! …
Adorable Nazarene, do not refuse us the thorns of the Via Dolorosa nor the desolation of the desert, but we also cry out imploringly for Thine adorable Presence, a Glance from Thy Divine Eyes, a blessing from Thy Hand stained with blood … We do not pray Thee to send us an angel to sustain us in our hours of agony; it is Thee we call for, Lord, only Thee, … for Thou, Jesus our Brother, hast given us the sacred right to ask Thee to mingle Thy Tears with our tears …
Give us peace in our tribulations, give us strength, and, if Thou wilt, give us consolation in the chalice of Thine agonizing Heart … By Thy Cross and our crosses, may Thy Kingdom come!
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.
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.)