Sacred Heart

I know that this a day late, but better late than never. This is THE HEART which has loved much. St. Gertrude calls it the one and only organum, the one only instrument which finds acceptance with the Most High. Through it must pass all the inflamed praises of the burning Seraphim, just as must the humble homage paid to its God by inanimate creation. By It alone are to come upon this world the favors of heaven. It is the mystic ladder between man and God, the channel of all graces, the way whereby man ascends to God, and God descends to man.

The fathers and holy doctors of the early ages had no other way, than this, of expounding the mystery of the Church's formation from Jesus's side; and the words they used--though always marked by that reserve which was called for by so many of their hearers being as yet uninitiated--were taken as the text for the sublime and fearless developments of later ages. "The initiated," says St. John Chrysostom, "know the mystery of the Saviour's fountains; from those, that is, from the Blood and the Water, the Church was formed; from those same, came our Mysteries; so that, when thou approachest the dread chalice, thou must come up to it, as though thou were about to drink of that very Side of Christ." St. Augustine says: "The Evangelist made use of a word which has a special import, when he said: the soldier opened Jesus's Side with a spear. He did not say struck the Side, or wounded the Side, or anything else like that; but he said he opened Jesus's Side. He opened it; for that Side was like the door of life; and when it was opened, the Sacraments (the Mysteries) of the Church came through it...This was predicted by that door which Noah was commanded to make in the side of the Ark, through which were to go those living creatures which were not to be destroyed by the deluge; and all these things were a figure of the Church."

On January 27 , 1281, in the Benedictine monastery of Helfta, near Eisleben, in Saxony, that our divine Lord first revealed these ineffable secrets to one of the community of that house, whose name was Gertrude. "She was then in the her 25th year when the Spirit of God came upon her, and gave her her mission. She saw, she heard, she drank of, that chalice of the sacred Heart, which inebriates the elect. She drank of it, even whilst in this vale of bitterness; and what she herself so richly received, she imparted to others, who showed themselves desirous to listen. St. Gertrude's mission was to make known the share and action of the sacred Heart in the economy of God's glory and the sanctification of souls; and, in this respect, we cannot separate her from her companion, St. Mechtilde.These saints have spread this devotion throughout the whole world, along with St. Margaret-Mary Alocoque. This saint says, "I was praying before the blessed Sacrament on one of the days during the octave of Corpus Christi in June of 1675 and I received from my God exceeding great graces of His love. And feeling a desire to make some return, and give Him love for love, I heard Him say, "Thou canst not make me a greater, than by doing that which I have so often asked of thee." He the showed me His divine Heart, and said: "Behold this Heart, which has so loved men, as that it has spared nothing, even to the exhausting and wearing itself out, in order to show them its love; and instead of acknowledgment I receive, from their irreverences and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt wherewith they treat Me, in this Sacrament of love. But what I feel most deeply is, that they are hearts consecrated to Me, which thus treat Me. It is on this account, that I make this demand of thee: that the first Friday after the octave of the blessed Sacrament be devoted to a special feast in honour of My Heart; that thou wilt go to Communion on that day; and give it a reparation of honour by an act of amendment, to repair the insults it has received during the time of its being exposed on the altar. I promise thee, also, that My Heart will dilate itself, that it may pour forth, with abundance, the influences of its divine love upon those who shall thus honour it, and shall do their best to have such honour paid to it."

I shall end with the hymn for Matins from yesterday:

Oh! see how the haughty and savage host of our sins has wounded the innocent Heart of our God, who deserved far other treatment!
It is our sins that direct the spear of the soldier who brandishes it; and deadly sin it is, that sharpens the steel of the cruel lance.
From this wounded Heart is born the Church, the bride of Christ: this opened Side is the door set in the side of the Ark for the salvation of his people.
From this there flows a perennial grace, like a sevenfold stream; that there, in the Blood of the Lamb, we may wash our sullied robes.
It is a crying shame if we repeat our sins, which wound that blessed Heart; yea, rather let us strive to kindle within our hearts the flames which burn round his, and are symbols of its love.
Give us this grace, O Jesus! give it is, thou, O Father! and thou, O Holy Spirit! To whom are power, glory, and the kingdom, for all ages!

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!