June Devotion: The Sacred Heart
Since the 16th century Catholic piety has assigned entire months to special devotions. The month of June is set apart for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. "From among all the proofs of the infinite goodness of our Savior none stands out more prominently than the fact that, as the love of the faithful grew cold, He, Divine Love Itself, gave Himself to us to be honored by a very special devotion and that the rich treasury of the Church was thrown wide open in the interests of that devotion." These words of Pope Pius XI refer to the Sacred Heart Devotion, which in its present form dates from the revelations given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673-75. The devotion consists in the divine worship of the human heart of Christ, which is united to His divinity and which is a symbol of His love for us. The aim of the devotion is to make our Lord king over our hearts by prompting them to return love to Him (especially through an act of consecration by which we offer to the Heart of Jesus both ourselves and all that belongs to us) and to make reparation for our ingratitude to God.
INVOCATION
O Heart of love, I put all my trust in Thee; for I fear all things from my own weakness, but I hope for all things from Thy goodness.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Devotion to the Sacred Heart was the characteristic note of the piety of Saint Gertrude the Great (1256-1302), Benedictine nun and renowned mystic. She was, in fact, the first great exponent of devotion to the Sacred Heart. In our efforts to honor the Heart of Jesus we have this prayer as a model for our own:
Hail! O Sacred Heart of Jesus, living and quickening source of eternal life, infinite treasure of the Divinity, and burning furnace of divine love. Thou art my refuge and my sanctuary, 0 my amiable Savior. Consume my heart with that burning fire with which Thine is ever inflamed. Pour down on my soul those graces which flow from Thy love, and let my heart be so united with Thine, that our wills may be one, and mine in all things be conformed to Thine. May Thy divine will be equally the standard and rule of all my desires and of all my actions. Amen.
Saint Gertrude
FOR THE CHURCH
O most holy Heart of Jesus, shower Thy blessings in abundant measure upon Thy holy Church, upon the Supreme Pontiff and upon all the clergy; to the just grant perseverance; convert sinners; enlighten unbelievers; bless our relations, friends and benefactors; assist the dying; deliver the holy souls in purgatory; and extend over all hearts the sweet empire of Thy love. Amen.
A PRAYER OF TRUST
O God, who didst in wondrous manner reveal to the virgin, Margaret Mary, the unsearchable riches of Thy Heart, grant that loving Thee, after her example, in all things and above all things, we may in Thy Heart find our abiding home.
Roman Missal
ACT OF LOVE
Reveal Thy Sacred Heart to me, O Jesus, and show me Its attractions. Unite me to It for ever. Grant that all my aspirations and all the beats of my heart, which cease not even while I sleep, may be a testimonial to Thee of my love for Thee and may say to Thee: Yes, Lord, I am all Thine;
pledge of my allegiance to Thee rests ever in my heart will never cease to be there. Do Thou accept the slight amount of good that I do and be graciously pleased to repair all m] wrong-doing; so that I may be able to bless Thee in time and in eternity. Amen.
Cardinal Merry del Val
MEMORARE TO THE SACRED HEART
Remember, O most sweet Jesus, that no one who has had recourse to Thy Sacred Heart, implored its help, or sought it mercy was ever abandoned. Encouraged with confidence, O tenderest of hearts, we present ourselves before Thee, crushes beneath the weight of our sins. In our misery, O Sacred Hear. of Jesus, despise not our simple prayers, but mercifully grant our requests.
Prayer Source: Prayer Book, The by Reverend John P. O'Connell, M.A., S.T.D. and Jex Martin, M.A., The Catholic Press, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, 1954
June Devotion: The Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart Of Jesus
Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Heart of the World (On the Sacred Heart of Jesus) (Catholic Caucus)
From: Proverbs 8:22-31
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[22] The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old.
[23] Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
[24] When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
[25] Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth;
[26] before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
[27]When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
[28] when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
[29]when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
[30]then I was beside him, like a master workman;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
[31]rejoicing in his inhabited world
an delighting in the sons of men.
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Commentary:
1-36 The first part of the book ends with this third, splendid poem in praise of
personified Wisdom. As in the first poem (1:20-33) Wisdom speaks in public, for
all to hear (vv. 1-3); her message is not meant for a privileged few; it is addressed
to everyone (vv. 32-36).
Wisdom has every reason to call for attention, for the tuition she offers is about
noble things, and highly useful; there is nothing twisted or false about it (vv. 4-
14). Interpersonal relations work well if wisdom is allowed to do her work; if kings
and magistrates seek her sincerely, she guides them to rule evenhandedly (vv.
15-21). But she also operates outside the sphere of human relationships; we see
her present when order was imposed on chaos, to form the universe as we know
it; from the very start she was there with God (vv. 22-31).
This poem, with its solemn language, and imagery taken from traditional Israelite
cosmogony, shows the relationship between wisdom and the creation of the
world and of man. Wisdom is present with God at the creation and what delights
her most is her relationship with mankind. Here she is depicted as having the
features of a person: this prepares the way for us to grasp, later on, as Revela-
tion progresses, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
The prologue of the Gospel of St John will use language similar to that used here
to describe the relationship between God and the Word (vv. 22-30, cf. Jn 1:1; v.
35, cf. Jn 1:4). There status held by Wisdom in this poem will be attributed to
Christ in New Testament texts: in the Letter to the Colossians he is described as
“the first-born of all creation (Col 1:15) and in the book of Revelation as “the
beginning of God’s creation” (Rev. 3:14). It is with this meaning that the Church’s
liturgy uses Proverbs 8:22-31 on the solemnity of Trinity Sunday (cycle C).
>From the sixth century onwards, this passage appears in the Mass of the Birth
of Mary (8 September) – showing that the Church recognizes that, just as the
Word is God for all eternity, and is active in the creation of the world, the Mother
of the Saviour must have been in some way present in the mind of God “at the
beginning” (vv. 22-23). “Mary, the all-holy ever-virgin Mother of God, is the
masterwork of the mission of the Son and the Spirit in the fullness of time. For
the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the
Father found the dwelling-place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among
men. In this sense the Church’s Tradition has often read the most beautiful
texts on wisdom in relation to Mary (cf. Prov 8:1-9:6; Sir 24). Mary is acclaimed
and represented in the liturgy as the “Seat of Wisdom” (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 721).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.