Recent Posts

Friday, June 15, 2012

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, Part II

We go back 99 years for a slight "Dominican slant" on today's Feast of the Most Sacred Heart.  Here is commentary and an atonement prayer to the Sacred Heart from "The Dominican Manual, a Selection of Prayers and Devotions" published 1913 by Browne and Nolan in Dublin .


The Heart of our adorable Redeemer is the seat of love—the source of perfect charity! In it we shall find arms against temptation. Consolation in trouble.  Strength in weakness.  The particular object of this devotion is to make reparation for the outrages committed against the Heart of Jesus during his mortal life; outrages which continue to be committed against him in the adorable Eucharist, which is the Sacrament of His love.

An Act of Atonement
To the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, which may be made In common or in private.

O Adorable Heart of my Savior and my God, penetrated with a lively sorrow at the sight of the outrages which thou hast received, and which thou daily dost receive in the Sacrament of thy love, behold me prostrate at the foot of thy altar, to make an acceptable atonement. Oh, that I were able, by my homage and veneration, to make satisfaction to thine injured honor, and efface, with my tears and with my blood, so many irreverences, profanations, and sacrileges, which outrage thine infinite greatness. How well should my life be disposed of, could it be sacrificed for so worthy an object! Pardon, divine Savior, my ingratitude, and all the infidelities and indignities which I myself have committed against thy Sovereign Majesty. Remember that thy adorable Heart, bearing the weight of my sins in the days of its mortal life, was sorrowful even unto death;  do not suffer thy agony and thy blood to be unprofitable tome. Annihilate within me my criminal heart, and give me one according to thine—a heart contrite and humble, a heart pure and spotless, a heart which may be henceforth a victim consecrated to thy glory, and inflamed with the sacred fire of thy love: O Lord, I deplore in the bitterness of my heart my former irreverences and sacrileges, which I wish in future to repair, by my pious deportment in the churches, my assiduity in visiting, and my devotion and fervor in receiving, the most holy Sacrament of the Altar.
But in order to render my respect and my adoration more grateful to thee, I unite them with those which are rendered to thee in our temples, by those blessed spirits who are at the foot of thy sacred tabernacles. Hear their vows, O my God, and accept the homage of a heart which returns to thee with the solo view of loving only thee, that I may merit loving thee eternally. Amen.




0 comments:

Post a Comment