An Important Reminder for Friday

A reminder to all, that tomorrow, Friday the third of June, is the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  I once thought this devotion was a sappy and effeminate celebration of wuvvy-duvvy Geezus (and, as an Orthodox Christian at the time, a kind of “crypto-Nestorianism”).  But the devotion to the Sacred Heart is rooted in sublime and Patristic doctrine, devotional writings of the Fathers (especially Ss. Justin Martyr, Augustine and Paulinus of Nola), and is actually quite immersed in the highly developed Patristic doctrines of perichoresis between the divine and human natures of Christ, and the communicatio idiomatum.  Far from being effeminate, is actually of a supremely masculine quality, focusing on the self-sacrificial love of the Bridegroom of the Church and the soul, and the soon wrath that shall come upon the world for having treated our Lord, essentially, as Feminism has treated men!

In response to the Revolution of Modernity, our Lord gave us three special devotions, each of which answered to a specific phase thereof.  The English Catholics and others rallied under the banner of the Five Wounds to oppose Protestantism, which wounded and mangled the Lord’s Body so grievously; devotion to the Sacred Heart grew in large part out of devotion to the Wound in the side, through which the lance opened the Lord’s Heart.  The Sacred Heart devotion was then proffered for special significance in the French Revolution.  After Europe failed to repent even then, our Lady made it clear that God wished for devotion to her Unstained Heart in the world.  This heart’s “fiat” welcomed the Incarnation; this heart was pierced by the sword of compassion with her Son; Mary “pondered all these things in her heart.”  Thus, through this Unstained Heart, through which alone devotion to God is purified and perfected, God wished to restore the apostatizing world, and especially the apostatizing West, to Himself.  The Virgin made clear to St. Lucia that this was the last remedy for our repentance.  After it, no other remedy will be given; rather, severest judgment is all that remains.

By an happy co-incidence, tomorrow is both the Feast of the Sacred Heart (always the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi), and the first Friday of June; all first Fridays are hallowed to the Sacred Heart, as is the whole month of June.  So, Catholics: get ye to Church on the morrow!  Pope Pius XI commanded that the Act of Reparation (presented in Latin and English at the end of this post) be prayed in all Churches on the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  Remind your priests; if they don’t intend to do it, pop in to Church and do it yourself.  If you can’t get to Church, read it at home before an image of our Lord, preferably one of His Sacred Heart.  And remember the Sacred Heart in this month especially, recalling that He wishes both to save us from the Revolution, and to avenge Himself on the pitiful revolutionaries.  God grant them repentance, and us perseverance.

The past year has involved many interesting co-incidences of astronomical events with important Feasts on the Calendar.  Next year is the centenary of Fatima, where our Lady asked for the consecration of Russia to her Unstained Heart; it was on the centenary of the request that France be consecrated to the Sacred Heart that, this having been omitted, the Revolution came.  Perhaps this year of coincidences and portents has been given to us as a last reminder of what shall soon come.  Let us increase our observance of these sacred things, put ourselves in the state of grace and remain there, for the world is rushing headlong to its doom without reckoning of its Reckoning.  But let us keep company with our Lord and Lady.

 

Iesu dulcissime, cuius effusa in homines caritas, tanta oblivione, negligentia, contemptione, ingratissime rependitur, en nos, ante altaria tua provoluti, tam nefariam hominum socordiam iniuriasque, quibus undique amantissimum Cor tuum afficitur, peculiari honore resarcire contendimus.

Attamen, memores tantae nos quoque indignitatis non expertes aliquando fuisse, indeque vehementissimo dolore commoti, tuam in primis misericordiam nobis imploramus, paratis, voluntaria expiatione compensare flagitia non modo quae ipsi patravimus, sed etiam illorum, qui, longe a salutis via aberrantes, vel te pastorem ducemque sectari detrectant, in sua infidelitate obstinati, vel baptismatis promissa conculcantes, suavissimum tuae legis iugum excusserunt.

Quae deploranda crimina, cum universa expiare contendimus, tum nobis singula resarcienda proponimus: vitae cultusque immodestiam atque turpitudines, tot corruptelae pedicas innocentium animis instructas, dies festos violatos, exsecranda in te tuosque Sanctos iactata maledicta atque in tuum Vicarium ordinemque sacerdotalem convicia irrogata, ipsum denique amoris divini Sacramentum, vel neglectum vel horrendis sacrilegiis profanatum, publica postremo nationum delicta, quae Ecclesiae a te institutae iuribus magisterioque reluctantur.

Quae utinam crimina sanguine ipsi nostro eluere possemus! Interea ad violatum divinum honorem resarciendum, quam Tu olim Patri in Cruce satisfactionem obtulisti quamque quotidie in altaribus renovare pergis, hanc eandem nos tibi praestamus, cum Virginis Matris, omnium Sanctorum, piorum quoque fidelium expiationibus coniunctam, ex animo spondentes, cum praeterita nostra aliorumque peccata ac tanti amoris incuriam firma fide, candidis vitae moribus, perfecta legis evangelicae, caritatis potissimum, observantia, quantum in nobis erit, gratia tua favente, nos esse compensaturos, tum iniurias tibi inferendas pro viribus prohibituros, et quam plurimos potuerimus ad tui sequelam convocaturos.

Excipias, quaesumus, benignissime Iesu, beata Virgine Maria Reparatrice intercedente, voluntarium huius expiationis obsequium nosque in officio tuique servito fidissimos ad mortem usque velis, magno illo perseverantiae munere, continere, ut ad illam tandem patriam perveniamus omnes, ubi Tu cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

 

Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before you, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which your loving Heart is everywhere subject.

Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow you, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of your law.

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against you; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holy-days, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against you and your Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which your Vicar on earth and your priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of your divine love, and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which you have founded.

Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of your divine honor, the satisfaction you once made to your Eternal Father on the cross and which you continue to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of your Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of your grace, for all neglect of your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending you and to bring as many as possible to follow you.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to you, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, God, forever and ever. Amen.