Devotion to The Sacred Heart

Jesus made twelve promises to those who would honour His Sacred Heart:

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of their death.
5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless the homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honoured.
10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.
12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.

The first of the virtues to be honoured in the Sacred Heart is his most ardent love for God the Father, joined with the greatest humility that any human heart ever possessed; the second is the infinite patience in adversity, and the extreme sorrow for the sins with which it was laden; the third is the most tender compassion for our miseries and immense love for us in spite of the miseries. The adorable heart still has, as far as it is possible, these same sentiments, and especially, it is always burning with love for men, always open to pour out on them all kinds of graces and blessings, always urged by the desire to make us share in its treasures, always disposed to receive us and to serve as a place of refuge, as a paradise for us during our exile on earth.

There are four dispositions necessary for true devotion to the heart of Jesus:

1. A great horror of sin;
2. A lively faith;
3. A great desire to love Jesus Christ;
4. Interior recollection.

Horror of sin

One can only have the horror of sin by living in the state of grace and with this there has to be extreme horror of every kind of sin because all sin is totally incompatible with this love. Since the Sacred Heart is the source of all purity, nothing sullied can ever enter it; only what is extremely pure and capable of pleasing him can enter into it.

Lively faith

Lively faith is essential to acquire this ardent love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, but such faith can be had only by living a very pure life. Just as when Jesus was among his own people when he lived in Nazareth, they didn’t recognize him as a prophet, they showed him no honour, and he worked no miracles among them. The same is true today – because of lack of faith in him and our bad dispositions towards him we are prevented from experiencing the wonderful effects which he operates in the souls of those whom he finds well disposed.

A great desire to love Jesus

One cannot have a lively faith and live in innocence without at the same time being inflamed by a burning love of Jesus, or at least having the desire to do so. Jesus never gives his love except to those who earnestly desire it. The capacity of our heart is measured by the greatness of its desires.

Interior Recollection

God does not make his presence felt where there is turmoil – a heart completely unguarded, and a soul in continual exterior distraction and occupied with a thousand superfluous cares and useless thoughts, is hardly in a state to listen to the voice of him who silently communicates himself to a soul and who speaks only to a heart in solitude. “I will lead her out into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart” (Hos.2,14). True devotion to the sacred heart cannot exist without recollection because only such a soul is guarded by Christ’s peace and this is the condition for communication with his Sacred Heart.

1^st means – True mortification
2^nd means – Sacred humility

1. Prayer
2. Frequent Holy Communion – but the soul has to be in the state of grace
3. Frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament – friendship is preserved and increased among men by frequent visits and conversations. He became man, he converses with us, he wants our friendship.
4. A solid devotion to Blessed Virgin Mary.
5. Devotion to the Saints; St. Margaret Mary was chosen by Our Lord Himself to be the apostle of the devotion to his Sacred Heart. While she was still alive on earth, she had a vision of Blessed Claude in heaven; in that vision she saw that he had acquired more glory in heaven by his work in spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus than by all the rest that he had done and that he had been given charge of the propagation of this devotion on earth.