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Day 31: Loving Others with the Heart of Jesus
READING 1
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus declared: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
READING 2
From the eyclical Dilexit Nos x 179-180 by Pope Francis
Saint Charles de Foucauld sought to imitate Jesus by living and acting as he did, in a constant effort to do what Jesus would have done in his place. Only by being conformed to the sentiments of the heart of Christ could he fully achieve this goal. Here too we find the idea of “love for love.” In his words, “I desire sufferings in order to return love for love, to imitate him… to enter into his work, to offer myself with him, the nothingness that I am, as a sacrifice, as a victim, for the sanctification of men.”1 The desire to bring the love of Jesus to others, his missionary outreach to the poorest and most forgotten of our world, led him to take as his emblem the words, “Iesus-Caritas”, with the symbol of the heart of Christ surmounted by a cross. Nor was this a light decision: “With all my strength I try to show and prove to these poor lost brethren that our religion is all charity, all fraternity, and that its emblem is a heart.”2 He wanted to settle with other brothers “in Morocco, in the name of the heart of Jesus.”3 In this way, their evangelizing work could radiate outwards: “Charity has to radiate from our fraternities, as it radiates from the heart of Jesus.”4 This desire gradually made him a “universal brother.” Allowing himself to be shaped by the heart of Christ, he sought to shelter the whole of suffering humanity in his fraternal heart: “Our heart, like that of Jesus, must embrace all men and women.”5 “The love of the heart of Jesus for men and women, the love that he demonstrated in his passion, this is what we need to have for all human beings.”6
Father Henri Huvelin, the spiritual director of Saint Charles de Foucauld, observed that, “when our Lord dwells in a heart, he gives it such sentiments, and this heart reaches out to the least of our brothers and sisters. Such was the heart of Saint Vincent de Paul… When our Lord lives in the soul of a priest, he makes him reach out to the poor.”7 It is important to realize that the apostolic zeal of Saint Vincent, as Father Huvelin describes it, was also nurtured by devotion to the heart of Christ. Saint Vincent urged his confreres to “find in the heart of our Lord a word of consolation for the poor sick person.”8 If that word is to be convincing, our own heart must first have been changed by the love and tenderness of the heart of Christ. Saint Vincent often reiterated this conviction in his homilies and counsels, and it became a notable feature of the Constitutions of his Congregation: “We should make a great effort to learn the following lesson, also taught by Christ: ‘Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart’. We should remember that he himself said that by gentleness we inherit the earth. If we act on this, we will win people over so that they will turn to the Lord. That will not happen if we treat people harshly or sharply.”9
REFLECTION
As we console the Heart of Jesus by receiving His Love, we are transformed by that love and empowered to share that love as He commanded us: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” By loving as Jesus loves, we spread the very love of Jesus and we extend the work of His redemption, repairing the damage caused by sin. Although Jesus accomplished everything needed to redeem the world by His death on the Cross, He left work for us to do to apply and mediate that redemptive love, such that St. Paul could say: “in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24). It is a privilege to administer the love of Jesus to others. It is also a burden on us who have come to know the love of Jesus: “The love of Christ urges us on…” (2 Cor 5:14) and “necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor 9:16)! And our preaching is not merely a matter of words, but the incarnation of those words by embodying and sharing the love we proclaim.
How engaged are you in sharing Christ’s love? Is there someone on your heart right now who needs Christ’s love and could receive it through you? Do you feel the burden of urgency to share the love of Christ with others? If not, is there some area in your life where you have more love to receive from Him?
Newman’s Prayer to the Sacred Heart (longer or shorter form)
One of the prayers from the Roman Missal
The Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Écrits spirituels, Paris 1947, 67. ↩︎
- Letter to l’Abbé Huvelin, 15 July 1904 ↩︎
- Letter to Dom Martin, 25 January 1903. ↩︎
- Cited in René Voillaume, Les fraternités du Père de Foucauld, Paris, 1946, 173. ↩︎
- Méditations des saints Évangiles sur les passages relatifs à quinze vertus, Nazareth,
1897-1898, Charité (Mt 13:3), 60. ↩︎ - Ibid, Charité (Mt 22:1), 90. ↩︎
- H. Huvelin, Quelques directeurs d’âmes au XVII siècle, Paris, 1911, 97. ↩︎
- Conference, “Service of the Sick and Care of One’s own Health”, 11 November 1657. ↩︎
- Common Rules of the Congregation of the Mission, 17 May 1658, c. 2, 6. ↩︎
Copyright © 2026 by St. Vincent Archabbey
Faith and Reason . June 21
Day 30: Intimacy with the Sacred Heart as Wellspring of Sacramental Life
READING 1
John 19:28-37
After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the Scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth—that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of him shall be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on him whom they have pierced.”
READING 2
From The Tree of Life by St. Bonaventure
Take thought now, redeemed man, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you. His death brings the dead to life, but at his passing heaven and earth are plunged into mourning and hard rocks are split asunder.
Sacred Heart, Pierced by a Lance. It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers to open his sacred side with a lance [Jn. 19:34]. This was done so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the cross, and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: They shall look on him whom they pierced [Zech. 12:10].
Blood & Water from His Side, a Saving Stream. The blood and water which poured out at that moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Spring of Living Water. Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove that nests in a hole in the cliff [Cant. 2:14], keeping watch at the entrance like the sparrow that finds a home. There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, draw water from the wells of your Savior [Is. 12:3]; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers, [Gen. 2:10] inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile.
Source of Light & Life. Run with eager desire to this source of life and light, all you who are vowed to God’s service. Come, whoever you may be, and cry out to him with all the strength of your heart. O indescribable beauty of the most high God and purest radiance of eternal light! Life that gives all life, light that is the source of every other light, preserving in everlasting splendor the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your divinity from the dawn of time!
Eternal Fountain Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity. From you flows the river which gladdens the city of God [Ps. 46:4] and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light [Ps. 36:9].
Opusculum 3, Lignum vitae, 29-30. 47: Opera omnia 8, 79 — from the Office of Readings for the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
REFLECTION
St. Bonaventure entices us to focus all our attention on the Heart of Jesus. He describes the beauty of that Heart as a superabundant source of love. There is no stinginess, no rationing, no reservation in the amount and quality of love poured forth from that Heart. It comes out in Baptism. Do you realize the incredible, free gift of Baptism that you have received without payment, without cost? That love comes out as the Eucharist. Christ gives us nothing less than His own flesh and blood as our daily food. This incredible miracle is so easy to take for granted because it is so readily available, but when we look again at the source, the pierced Heart of Christ, we can remember the cost for Him. Behold the Heart that loved the world so much!
As we draw close to the Heart of Christ, we draw close to the Sacramental life of the Church. As we draw close to the Sacramental life of the Church, let us renew the fleshy, intimate, personal, tender quality of the Sacraments. These are not merely social rituals, but personal expressions of the most vulnerable and generous love from the Heart of God Himself.
Can you take a few moments to think of the last time you received the Eucharist and picture yourself drawing life sweetly from the Heart of Jesus? Can you think back on your baptism, imagining water pouring from the Heart of Jesus over you to make you a new creation?
Newman’s Prayer to the Sacred Heart (longer or shorter form)
One of the prayers from the Roman Missal
The Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Copyright © 2026 by St. Vincent Archabbey
one Bread one Body
Treatise on the Our Father
We ask “Give us this day our daily bread“
We ask that this bread should be given to us daily, that we who are in Christ and daily receive the Eucharist as the food of salvation may not be prevented, by the interposition of some heinous sin, from partaking of the heavenly bread and be separated from Christ’s body, for as he says: I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of my bread, he will live for ever; and the bread I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.
So when he says that whoever eats of his bread will live for ever; and as it is clear that those are indeed living who partake of his body and, having the right of communion, receive the Eucharist, so, on the other hand, we must fear and pray lest anyone should be kept at a distance from salvation who, being withheld from communion, remains separate from Christ’s body.
For he has given us this warning: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you. And therefore we ask that our bread – that is, Christ – may be given to us daily, so that we who live in Christ may not depart from his sanctification and his body.
After this we entreat for our sins, saying Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
After the supply of food, pardon of sin is also asked for.
How necessary, how provident, how salutary are we reminded that we are sinners, since we have to beg for forgiveness, and while we ask for God’s pardon, we are reminded of our own consciousness of guilt! Just in case anyone should think himself innocent and, by thus exalting himself, should more utterly perish, he is taught and instructed that he sins every day, since he is commanded to pray daily for forgiveness.
St Cyprian . Bishop and Martyr
Day 29: Consoling the Heart of Jesus
READING 1
John 15: 8-15
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
READING 2
From the encyclical Dilexit Nos x 158-161 by Pope Francis
The natural desire to console Christ, which begins with our sorrow in contemplating what he endured for us, grows with the honest acknowledgment of our bad habits, compulsions, attachments, weak faith, vain goals and, together with our actual sins, the failure of our hearts to respond to the Lord’s love and his plan for our lives. This experience proves purifying, for love needs the purification of tears that, in the end, leave us more desirous of God and less obsessed with ourselves.
In this way, we see that the deeper our desire to console the Lord, the deeper will be our sincere sense of “compunction.” Compunction is “not a feeling of guilt that makes us discouraged or obsessed with our unworthiness, but a beneficial ‘piercing’ that purifies and heals the heart. Once we acknowledge our sin, our hearts can be opened to the working of the Holy Spirit, the source of living water that wells up within us and brings tears to our eyes… This does not mean weeping in self-pity, as we are so often tempted to do… To shed tears of compunction means seriously to repent of grieving God by our sins; recognizing that we always remain in God’s debt… Just as drops of water can wear down a stone, so tears can slowly soften hardened hearts. Here we see the miracle of sorrow, that ‘salutary sorrow’ which brings great peace… Compunction, then, is not our work but a grace and, as such, it must be sought in prayer.”1 It means, “asking for sorrow in company with Christ in his sorrow, for anguish with Christ in his anguish, for tears and a deep sense of pain at the great pains that Christ endured for my sake.”2
I ask, then, that no one make light of the fervent devotion of the holy faithful people of God, which in its popular piety seeks to console Christ. I also encourage everyone to consider whether there might be greater reasonableness, truth and wisdom in certain demonstrations of love that seek to console the Lord than in the cold, distant, calculated and nominal acts of love that are at times practised by those who claim to possess a more reflective, sophisticated and mature faith.
Consoled ourselves in order to console others. In contemplating the heart of Christ and his self-surrender even to death, we ourselves find great consolation. The grief that we feel in our hearts gives way to complete trust and, in the end, what endures is gratitude, tenderness, peace; what endures is Christ’s love reigning in our lives. Compunction, then, “is not a source of anxiety but of healing for the soul, since it acts as a balm on the wounds of sin, preparing us to receive the caress of the Lord.”3 Our sufferings are joined to the suffering of Christ on the cross. If we believe that grace can bridge every distance, this means that Christ by his sufferings united himself to the sufferings of his disciples in every time and place. In this way, whenever we endure suffering, we can also experience the interior consolation of knowing that Christ suffers with us. In seeking to console him, we will find ourselves consoled.
REFLECTION
Running contrary to human logic, the great consolation for the Heart of Jesus is that we receive His love. Let yourself be loved! When we are hurting, due to our sin or the sin of others, there is tender mercy that wells up in the Heart of Jesus. If we do not let Him love us, that pent up mercy causes Him a certain kind of agony. When we let Him love us, especially in those places in our hearts where there is a deep need for love, we console His Heart. To recognize our need for love is a kind of repentance or compunction, it is a turning of our hearts to Him, an opening of our hearts to Him. In our pain, we tend to understandably limit our trust and rely on our own defenses. The act of trust that lets down those defenses and opens up tender and painful places to Him is a great gift. Is there an area of your life where you are relying on self-protection? Is there an area of your heart that you could open up to the Lord today?
Newman’s Prayer to the Sacred Heart (longer or shorter form)
One of the prayers from the Roman Missal
The Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Pope Francis, Homily at the Chrism Mass, 28 March 2024. ↩︎
- Saint Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises 203. ↩︎
- Pope Francis, Homily at the Chrism Mass, 28 March 2024. ↩︎
Copyright © 2026 by St. Vincent Archabbey
Solemnity of Corpus Christi
Adoration from Noon to 5 pm on Sunday
St Vincent Archabbey Basilica
The culmination of the Mass is not the consecration, but Communion
God dwells in our midst, in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
– St. Maximilian Kolbe
When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.
– St. Francis de Sales
O Lord, we cannot go to the pool of Siloe to which you sent the blind man. But we have the chalice of Your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive.
– St. Ephraem
If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.
– St. Maximilian Kolbe
Day 28: Loving the Heart That Has So Greatly Loved Us
READING 1
Psalm 116:7-17
Turn back, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has been good to you; he has kept my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living. I trusted, even when I said, “I am sorely afflicted,” and when I said in my alarm, “These people are all liars.” How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the name of the Lord. My vows to the Lord I will fulfill before all his people. How precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful. Your servant, Lord, your servant am I, the son of your handmaid; you have loosened my bonds. I will offer you a thanksgiving sacrifice; I will call on the name of the Lord.
READING 2
From a meditation entitled “The Sacred Heart of Jesus as a Furnace of Love for Us”’ by St. John Eudes
Our divine Saviour has done more for us. Not only has He delivered us from eternal death and all the tortures accompanying it, but He has also heaped upon us a superabundance of unspeakable blessings. Indeed, He has given us all His blessings without reserve.
What shall we give Him in return? “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me” (Ps. 116:12)? If we had the hearts of as many Seraphim as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, blades of grass on the earth, grains of sand and drops of water in the sea, and if we devoted them solely to love and glorify Him, it would be as nothing compared with the love He has for us and the obligations we have of consecrating our hearts to Him. …
[L]et us love Him who so loves us. If a man of no account, the weakest and lowest of all men, should manifest some kindliness towards us, we could not help loving him. Nay, if even a dumb animal, a mongrel, for instance, attaches itself to us and does us some slight service, we love it. Why then should we not love God who is our creator, our preserver, our ruler, our king, our most faithful friend, our most loving father, our treasure, our glory, our supreme good, our life, our heart, our all? He is all heart and soul and love for us. …
“O my Saviour, I know not if I have yet begun to love Thee as I ought. Now I will begin.” I now mean to love Thee with all my heart with all my soul, and with all my strength. I renounce forever all that is contrary to Thy holy love. Let me die a thousand deaths rather than ever offend Thee. I give Thee my heart; take full and absolute possession of it; destroy in it everything not pleasing to Thee, and rather destroy it itself than to allow it not to love Thee. But am I giving Thee anything in giving Thee my empty heart? O my Lord, if I had the hearts of as many Seraphim as Thy omnipotence could create, with what joy would I consecrate them all to Thee! I offer Thee the precious heart of Thy most worthy Mother, who has more love for Thee than all hearts that have been, are, or shall be. O Mother of Jesus, love Thy Adorable Son for me. O good Jesus, love Thy sweet Mother for me. O all ye citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, love Jesus and Mary for me, and unite me with your great love, now and eternally.”
REFLECTION
When we reflect on the the way the Heart of Jesus throbs for each one of us, our response always feels inadequate. St. John Eudes uses poetic hyperbole to speak of a worthy offering in the love of countless Seraphim, and yet it is not actually hyperbole. Even that would still be inadequate. Our expressions of love and devotion ultimately always fall short. The closest we come is in the love of the Heart of Mary, because her response is the most perfect mirror of God’s love, a mirror without blemish. And it is also in the Holy Mass that we are given a worthy response, a response which steadily transforms our lives to be a more constant loving response to His love: “Look, O Lord, upon the Sacrifice which you yourself have provided for your Church, and grant in your loving kindness to all who partake of this one Bread and one Chalice that, gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, they may truly become a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your glory” (Eucharistic Prayer IV). In light of this we can ask ourselves: how adequately do I respond to the love of the Heart of Jesus for me? What expressions of love would characterize an adequate response? Do I offer the Mass as a response to His Love with all my heart, mind, soul and strength by my full, conscious and active participation?
Newman’s Prayer to the Sacred Heart (longer or shorter form)
One of the prayers from the Roman Missal
The Litany of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Copyright © 2026 by St. Vincent Archabbey
Saint Boniface
Prayers for Part 5: The Heart of Jesus
LONGER PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
St. John Henry Newman
O Most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, You are concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and You beat for us still. Now, as then, You say, Desiderio desideravi—“ With desire I have desired.” I worship You, then, with even my best devotion and love, with my true and free will, with my high intention and my most resolved effort. Adorable Heart of Jesus, You are the instrument of the Divine Love. You are the seat of all the affections of the Holy Trinity. You are the center of all the attributes of the Godhead. O my Jesus, leave me not to myself, for I am very weak. If You leave me, I must fall. I know not myself; I know not what is in me; but You know me, and You are my Strength. Be my life, be my light, be my hope, and be my joy.
SHORTER PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
St. John Henry Newman
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I adore You in the person of the Incarnate Word, who for the sake of His creatures was made vulnerable and broken. Grant that my heart may be like Thine.
PRAYERS FOR THE FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART
Roman Missal
Collect 1 for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart
Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who glory in the Heart of your beloved Son and recall the wonders of his love for us, may be made worthy to receive an overflowing measure of grace from that fount of heavenly gifts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever
Collect 2 for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart
O God, who in the Heart of your Son, wounded by our sins, bestow on us in mercy the boundless treasures of your love, grant, we pray, that, in paying him the homage of our devotion, we may also offer worthy reparation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Collect for the Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart
Clothe us, Lord God, with the virtues of the Heart of your Son and set us aflame with his love, that, conformed to his image, we may merit a share in eternal redemption. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Preface for the Sacred Heart
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord. For raised up high on the Cross, he gave himself up for us with a wonderful love and poured out blood and water from his pierced side, the wellspring of the Church’s Sacraments, so that, won over to the open heart of the Savior, all might draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.
LITANY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, united substantially with the Word of God, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, sacred temple of God, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, burning furnace of charity, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, in Whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, in Whom dwells all the fullness of Divinity, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, in Whom the Father is well pleased, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, of Whose fullness we have all received, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, enriching all who invoke You, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, fount of life and holiness, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, loaded down with opprobrium, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, bruised for our offenses, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, made obedient unto death, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in You, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in You, have mercy on us.
Heart of Jesus, delight of all Saints, have mercy on us
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Jesus, meek and humble of Heart.
Make our hearts like unto Yours.
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Your most-beloved Son and upon the praises and satisfaction which which He offers You in the name of sinners; and to those who implore Your mercy, in Your great goodness, grant forgiveness in the Name of the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and
reigns with You forever and ever. Amen.
ACT OF OBLATION TO MERCIFUL LOVE
St. Thérèse of Lisieux
J.M.J.T
Offering of myself as a Victim of Holocaust to God’s Merciful Love
O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make You Loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Sanctity!
Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with Love.
I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints (in heaven and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! the Love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of His mortal life: “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you!” I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! that the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-powerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.
I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.
I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the sceptre of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.
After earth’s Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.
In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!
Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You. In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!
May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.
I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!
Marie, Francoise, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, unworthy Carmelite religious.
This 9th day of June, Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, In the year of grace, 1895.
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