Close to the Heart of Jesus

Blessed Marie de Jésus Deluil Martiny was the “First Zelatrice”, or promoter, of the Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart. The Work was founded at the Visitation Monastery of Bourg-en-Bresse in 1863. The above photo shows Daughters of the Heart of Jesus at adoration in their chapel in Rome.

The Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart
or Association of Presence to the Heart of Jesus
The Aim of the Guard of Honour

“I look round for one that would console Me, and I found none” (Psalm 68:21)

The Guard of Honour was established to respond to this sorrowful complaint of Our Lord. Its members seek, by the conscious dedication of their activities, to offer love and reparation to the Heart of Jesus, outraged by the ingratitude and the sins of men. The wounded Heart of Jesus is, therefore, the Object of the Guard of Honour. Love and reparation are its aim. The practices of the Work are the means. Anyone may belong to the Association of Presence to the Heart of Jesus (the Guard of Honour) because it imposes no obligation incompatible with one’s own state in life. It helps one to live one’s own vocation with greater fidelity.

Conditions for Membership:
1) Be enrolled at one of the Association’s approved Centres. (See the Enrollment Form given below.)
2) Choose an hour out of each day or night, and offer it to the Heart of Jesus, without changing one’s ordinary activities. Unite the offering of one’s daily life with the offering of the Blood and Water that flowed from the Wound in the Heart of Jesus.

Offering of the Hour of Presence
O Lord Jesus, present in the Tabernacle,
I offer Thee this Hour
to glorify Thy Heart with my love and reparation.
Accept to this end my thoughts, my words, my actions,
my joys and my sorrows.
Receive, above all, my heart.
I give it to Thee without reserve,
and beg Thee to consume it in the fire of Thy pure love.

Most Precious Offering of the Blood and of the Water
Eternal Father, receive as a sacrifice of propitiation
for the needs of the Church
and in reparation for the sins of the world,
the precious Blood and Water that flowed from the Heart of Jesus,
and have mercy upon us.

Enrollment Form
Name: _____________________________________________
Address: ___________________________________________
City: ______________________________________________
State:__________________________Zip Code_____________
Country: ____________________________________________
I choose as my daily Hour of Presence to the Heart of Jesus
from __________ to _____________.
(Optional) I choose an additional Hour of Presence, the Hour of Mercy
from __________ to _____________,
which I offer for the conversion of ______________. (Initials are sufficient)
Send this form to:
Soeur Marie–Chantal
Monastère de la Visitation
71600 Paray-le–Monial, FRANCE