The Heart of Jesus, formed out of the blood of an Immaculate Virgin, was itself immaculate, always free from any hint of sin. Our Lord even offered a proof to his calumniators. “... from the heart come forth” all kinds of sins, and demanded: “Which of you will convict me of sin?” (Jn 8:46)
They did attempt to do so on the day of his Passion, but failed and Pilate was compelled to publicly proclaim, “I find no cause in him” (Lk 23:22).
He was incapable of sin by virtue of the hypostatic union of the humanity with the divinity. It was impossible that the breath of sin should even for an instant smear the perfect purity of his most adorable Heart.
How different are our hearts from the pure and immaculate Heart of Jesus! Ours, stained with the guilt of original sin; more deeply stained afterwards by so many personal sins daily. Seemingly little in our eyes, but in the just judgment of God, these stains can only be effaced by penance in purgatory.
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, p320
The First Friday Mass and Communion
The Church’s devotion to the Sacred Heart includes the First Friday Mass and Communion of reparation, the Thursday night Holy Hour in memory of Our Lord’s bitter agony in Gethsemane, the liturgical feast for the Sacred Heart, and the Consecration and Reparation.
The Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial became the first center of this devotion which later spread to other houses of the Visitation Sisters. St Claude de la Colombiere, the Jesuit spiritual director of St Margaret Mary, was instrumental in spreading the devotion especially to young people.
In the 1840’s, Fr Gautrelet, also a Jesuit, started the Apostleship of Prayer. Fr Ramiere, another Jesuit formally organized it. Pope Pius IX approved it in 1849. The leadership and direction of the Apostleship remain under the Superior General of the Society of Jesus.
During the twentieth century, almost all popes greatly promoted and wrote decisive decrees about this meritorious devotion. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the whole human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and referred to it as the ‘greatest act of my pontificate’.
He also encouraged the faithful to have a personal consecration to the Sacred Heart, ‘the symbol and sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love one another’. On the feastday of the Sacred Heart, Pope Leo XIII stated that everyone should pray the ‘Act of Consecration’ published with his encyclical, ‘Annum Sacrum’.
Popes Pius X and Benedict XV continued to enthusiastically foster and encourage the growth of this devotion. Pope Benedict XV officially proclaimed Margaret Mary a saint.
In a letter to Fr Mateo Crowley-Boevey, who initiated the movement of enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in homes of Christian families, Pius X said he was not only asking him, but was ordering him, to give his life for this valuable devotion to invigorate Christian morality in the family.
In his encyclical “Miserentissimus Redemptor”, Pius XI stressed the importance of reparation to the Sacred Heart as a duty of all Christians. For all the indifference, ingratitude and outrages of people, including consecrated ones, Jesus requested the faithful to 1) make a communion of reparation, and 2) do the Holy Hour where they should offer acts and prayers of reparation.
Ref: A F Makalinao, “Apostle of the Sacred Heart”, pp30-31
The Church Appeals to the Mercy of God
The Church proclaims the truth of God’s mercy revealed in the crucified and Risen Christ. She seeks to practise mercy towards people through people, an indispensable condition for solicitude for a ‘more human’ world, today and tomorrow.
However, in no historical period, especially at the moment as critical as our own, can the Church forget ‘the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God’ amid the many forms of evil which threaten humanity ...
The more the human conscience loses its sense of the very meaning of the word ‘mercy’, moves away from God and distances itself from the mystery of mercy, the more ‘the Church has the right and the duty’ to appeal to the God of Mercy ‘with loud cries’ (cf Heb 5:7).
These ‘loud cries’ should be the mark of the Church of our times; cries uttered to God to implore his mercy, the certain manifestation of which she professes and proclaims as having already come in Jesus crucified and risen.
This Paschal Mystery bears within itself the most complete revelation of mercy, of that love which is more powerful than death, more powerful than sin and every evil, the love which lifts man when he falls into the abyss and frees him from greatest threats.
Modern man feels these threats ... anxiously wonders about the solution to the terrible tensions which have built up in the world and which entangles humanity. If at times he “lacks the courage to utter the word ‘mercy’”, or if in his conscience he does not find the equivalent, ‘so much greater is the need for the Church to utter this word’, not only in her own name but also in the name of all the men and women of our time. ...
Let us have recourse to that fatherly love revealed to us by Christ, a love which reached its culmination in his Cross, in his death and Resurrection. Let us have recourse to God through Christ, mindful of the words of Mary’s ‘Magnificat’, which proclaims mercy ‘from generation to generation’.
Let us implore God’s mercy for our generation. May the Church which also seeks, following the example of Mary, to be the spiritual mother of mankind, express in this prayer her maternal solicitude and confident love, from which is born the most burning need for prayer.
Ref: “Dives in Misericordia, Encyclical Letter by Pope John Paul II”, 1980, pp78-9
Examining our motives
To be people who act for the right intention, we must examine the motives of our actions. Let us consider in the presence of God what impels our behavior. Why for example do we omit to carry out apostolate? Because we are afraid of what people will say?
Our Lord gives a clear rule: “When you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you” (Mt 6:2); ie, never advertise our good deeds nor ponder at length what we have done well. “Your left hand must not know what your right hand is doing.” (Mt 6:3-4)Nothing we do goes unnoticed by our Father God.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:397
Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner
God gave us the passion of anger as part of our human nature. Like other human passions, anger has lawful purposes. It is an instrument of charity, moving us to defend the weak and the helpless; a weapon against sin and against all institutions which propagate sin. Misuse makes anger sinful.
Fr Leo Trese advises us to ask ourselves these questions as a test for righteous anger: Am I angry because God’s rights have been violated and the good of others have been threatened? Or am I angry simply because I have been personally offended?The former is righteous anger, the latter is not.
Parents, especially, should appreciate times when anger is a virtue. A parent who would view his or her child’s misbehavior without any show of anger would be unjust to the child as well as unjust to God. For often, children will not realize the seriousness of their misconduct unless the parent shows anger. Parental anger at such a time is righteous.
The angry parent must hate the sin and love the sinner. The parent who is angry because of the child’s disobedience should be really angry about the disobedience. The anger here is a sign of love for the child, concern for the child’s good. This reasonable anger should disappear as soon as the child’s behavior changes.
Ref: cf Fr M Guzman, “Encounters With Christ”, 1990, p30
Our Lady -- “Get accustomed to entrusting your poor heart to the Sweet and Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that she may purify it from so much dross, and lead it to the Most Sacred and Most Merciful Heart of Jesus.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “Furrow”, 830)
Our Lady of Cranganor, in the East Indies. It is asserted that this church was built by one of the three Magi. — Osorius, t. i„ de Gestis Emman. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Our Lady of Cranganor (In East Indies). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of Cranganor, India. (http://www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (MaryLinks Calendar.htm) In the Church built by one of the three Magi (52). (http://www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (MaryLinks Calendar.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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