I forgot I had a graphic and needed to add html to my last post:
Here it is, reparagraphed:
This is my favorite Sacred Heart image I have seen. Jesus wears the crown of thorns, the crown the world gave him in mockery of his kingship, sign of how the world rejected him, yet also the most recognizable badge of his suffering.
There are tears on his cheeks, aching grief not for his pain, but a lover's tears because he is rejected by those he gave so much for, who he loves so deeply, who he wants to bring joy and life to, but who spurn him. His heart burns with that light which is the life of man, glowing with that light which is there to drive out all the darkness that hurts us, kills us. It is a wounded heart, cut once by the lance, but continually cut by man's rejection.
This is similar to pictures of Jesus as the Bridegroom in eastern tradition...mocked, scourged and crowned, this is the festal dress our Lord wore, dressed in his wounds and his blood and the mocking garments of those who would make him seem small and insignificant, instead of the silks and gold that he deserved to wear, because these wounds were of infinite more worth than any fabric of man's making, because they were the price he was willing to bear to purchase his bride the Church. By his blood and his death, the blood of God, he who was there at the creation, come down to earth to fetch her, he obtained the dazzling white array to dress his bride in, but this rarest of gifts is so often spurned.
The inscription reads, Sic Deus Dilexit Mundum, For God So Loved the World. O look upon him you have pierced, this loving heart, this burning light who would heal you, purify you, make you into something you never knew you could be, keep you safe forever in his heart.
Weep for the griefs and tears you have caused him, and know this: if you were the only sinner in the world, he would still have done this all for you, to save you.
O my Jesus,
I contemplate your poor battered face this evening,
Your hair sticky and wet from the blood beneath your crown,
your cheeks bruised and bloodstreaked,
your nose swollen.
I behold the King on his way to his betrothal,
in just those garments that show
the depth of your love,
how far you are willing to go
in pursuit of you bride,
what a bride price you are willing to pay
to dress her in the dazzling white you promised.
Let me contemplate this gift,
and not forget the pain throbbing through your body
because of me, and all like me,
brother and sister in our lack of holiness,
pain you bear willingly,
pain rooted in our lack of perfection,
and our turning away from your light,
pain rooted in our hunger for good twisted into things we should not want,
all braided together like the thorns you wear around your head.
How heavy this burden you carry
on that abused but precious head, O Lord,
and I, with all of mankind, heaped that burden on you,
hammered the thorns into your flesh,
mocked you for who you are,
King and Bridegroom for an unfaithful world.
What reparations could I make
that would make this reality go away?
Nothing.
But, pricked to the heart,
I offer you my tears,
and grief at the necessity,
and bowing before you,
offer you the little love I have,
my heart,
my abject sorrow,
and eternal gratefulness at your willingness to love.
Amen.
(now it's easier to read!)
Prayer for Pardon and Grace
O DIVINE REDEEMER!
humbly prostrate at the foot of Thy Cross,
I call upon Thee to incline Thy Sacred Heart to pardon me.
Jesus, misjudged and despised-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, calumniated and persecuted-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, abandoned by men and tempted in the desert-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, betrayed and sold-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, insulted, accused, and unjustly condemned-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, clothed in a robe of ignominy and contempt-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, mocked and scoffed at-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bound with cords and led through the streets-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, treated as a fool and classed with malefactors-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, cruelly scourged-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, held inferior to Barabbas-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, despoiled of Thy garments-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, crowned with thorns and reviled-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bearing the Cross amid the maledictions of the people-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, bowed down by ignominies, pain, and humiliations-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, crucified between thieves-----have mercy on me!
Jesus, dying for my sins amid all kinds of suffering-----have mercy on me!
LET US PRAY
SACRED HEART of Jesus, my Redeemer! Exercise, I beseech Thee, Thy office of mediator with me, and permit not that Thy sufferings and cruel death be in vain for my salvation, but let them bring forth, for Thy glory, fruits of salvation in me, that my heart may love, praise, and glorify Thee for ever and ever. Amen.