An Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
In honour of Saint Margaret Mary whose liturgical memorial occurs on October 16th, I want to offer this Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. So few understand that reparation begins when we allow ourselves, shattered and deformed as we are by sin, to be “repaired,” that is, restored to wholeness and beauty by the love of the Heart of Christ and by the virtue of His Precious Blood.
Lord Jesus, I desire today to open myself to the Love of Your Sacred Heart,
to the Love that others refuse or ignore.
By my attention to Your Heart,
I desire to make up for indifference to Your Love.
By my gratitude to Your Heart,
I desire to make up for ingratitude toward You
and toward the gifts of Your Heart,
especially that of the Most Holy Eucharist.
By my trust in Your Heart,
I desire to make up for those who do not trust You,
are afraid to trust You, or whose trust in Your Love
has been weakened by personal sin or by the sins of others.
By my hope in Your Heart, I desire to help, in some way,
those tempted to despair of Your Mercy.
Finally, in spite of my weakness and inconstancy,
I desire, by my love for Your Sacred Heart, to obtain for myself
and for all who yearn for the sweetness of divine friendship
something of what Your beloved disciple Saint John experienced
when he rested upon Your Heart at the Last Supper on the night before You suffered.
Let my desire to be open to the Love of Your Sacred Heart today
serve in some way to repair the brokenness
of the vulnerable, wounded, and fragile members of Your Mystical Body,
and, by the mysterious workings of Your Holy Spirit,
bring healing to those most in need of your mercy,
and especially to priests. Amen.
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I was wondering if the words from the first paragraph were your own or taken from another source? They are so apt and appropriate for those of us who think we first need to get our house in order before we approach the Good Lord….relying on a wholeness that we do not produce or look to assign to ourselves!
Thank you very much for that…wherever it came from.
Dear Matteo, The prayer is my own: the fruit of experience.
Thank you for commenting.
But it seems that the “trick” of this transformation is, somehow, not to panic and run away or be discouraged?
On the one hand it seems that some can see their human frailty and look “up” to the cross, while some of us look down and wonder “what’s happened?”
I guess every transformation involves pain, and sometimes pain in darkness.
Yes, Matteo. That’s it. Do you know the text of Saint Claude La Colombière on confidence? If not I will post it on the blog for you.
I am not sure that I know the specific text, although I know he was sent to help St. Margaret Mary in spreading the message.
Again…the words we (I) use are somewhat misleading because I have an idea of what confidence means in other areas of my life, i.e. “I am confident that I can do this, or that this will happen”. Likely Blessed Claude’s writing would indicate to me that acutally God is confident, as it were, and that I can trust/hope in that. Because my confidence in God, as such, is not a based in me, just trusting in His promise. In God I can confide, but it it’s a much different, confusing or unknown experience of my daily “confidence” or confiding in my life.
That’s not very coherent, but it is, a bit, to me. Probably not the forum for all this.
But thank you nonetheless
Ah! In this context “to confide” or “to have confidence” means to trust another with one’s self, with one’s life. In Italian: affidarsi, affidamento. Entrustment is the closest thing in English, I think.
Si….Mi affido al Buon Signor…..
There was a Dominican, Bernard Bro, who wrote a book years ago on Therese of Lisieux and he crystallized, at least for me, her notion of “confiance”….which ties with the confidence you express…
This confidence is like faith…it’s a great thing when one doesn’t need to live on it (when we think things are “peachy” and couldn’t be better…that we are really “connecting” with God)…but then when trust and faith are all that we have…well, it takes some gettin’ used to…
Saint Claude La Colombière:
An Act of Hope and Confidence in God
My God, I believe most firmly that Thou watchest over all who hope in Thee, and that we can want for nothing when we rely upon Thee in all things; therefore I am resolved for the future to have no anxieties, and to cast all my cares upon Thee.
People may deprive me of worldly goods and of honors; sickness may take from me my strength and the means of serving Thee; I may even lose Thy grace by sin; but my trust shall never leave me. I will preserve it to the last moment of my life, and the powers of hell shall seek in vain to wrestle it from me.
Let others seek happiness in their wealth, in their talents; let them trust to the purity of their lives, the severity of their mortifications, to the number of their good works, the fervor of their prayers; as for me, O my God, in my very confidence lies all my hope. “For Thou, O Lord, singularly has settled me in hope.” This confidence can never be in vain. “No one has hoped in the Lord and has been confounded.”
I am assured, therefore, of my eternal happiness, for I firmly hope for it, and all my hope is in Thee. “In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be confounded.”
I know, alas! I know but too well that I am frail and changeable; I know the power of temptation against the strongest virtue. I have seen stars fall from heaven, and pillars of firmament totter; but these things alarm me not. While I hope in Thee I am sheltered from all misfortune, and I am sure that my trust shall endure, for I rely upon Thee to sustain this unfailing hope.
Finally, I know that my confidence cannot exceed Thy bounty, and that I shall never receive less than I have hoped for from Thee. Therefore I hope that Thou wilt sustain me against my evil inclinations; that Thou wilt protect me against the most furious assaults of the evil one, and that Thou wilt cause my weakness to triumph over my most powerful enemies. I hope that Thou wilt never cease to love me, and that I shall love Thee unceasingly. “In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never be confounded.”
Thank you very much…I cut and pasted it. It’s very good…esp. the part “I may even lose Thy grace by sin; but my trust shall never leave me.”
Thanks Father….
Matthew