Consecrated Hearts

"Jesus wants to use you to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it. These souls will be dear to God, like flowers put by me to adorn His throne." -Our Lady of Fátima to Sister Lúcia, on June 13, 1917

----------------------------------------- An Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, by Venerable Pope Pius XII

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, in this tragic hour of the world's history, we entrust and consecrate ourselves to thy Immaculate Heart, our only refuge, our hope, our salvation. Have pity on this world, torn by the most terrible conflicts, burning with the fires of hate, victim of its own sins. May thy Heart be moved at the sight of so much ruin, pain, and sorrow.

We consecrate to thy maternal Heart our persons, our families, our country—the whole of humanity. Protect and save us!

O Heart of Mary, source of true love, fill our selfish hearts with divine charity and with that true brotherly love without which there can never be peace. Grant that men and nations may understand and fulfill the precept of thy Divine Son, "Love one another" (John 15:12), in order that true peace may be firmly established in the Justice and Truth of Christ.

An Act of Consecration to the Adorable Heart of Jesus

I give and consecrate to the adorable Heart of Jesus my being, my life, my thoughts, my words, my actions, my pains, and my sufferings. I wish only for life, that my days may be employed in loving, honoring, and glorifying the Most Sacred Heart.

I take Thee then, O Divine Heart, for the object of my love, the protector of my life, the assurance of my salvation, the remedy of my inconstancy, the repairer of all my defects, and my certain asylum at the hour of my death.

O Heart, abounding in mercy, turn from me the arrows of the just wrath of the Celestial Father. I place all my confidence in Thee; for I fear every thing from my weakness, as I hope for every thing from Thy goodness.

Destroy in me every thing which may displease and resist Thee; implant so deeply Thy love in my heart, that I may never forget Thee, nor be separated from Thee.

I call upon Thee, by Thy infinite goodness, to transform me into a victim entirely consecrated to Thy glory, which may be from this moment inflamed, and one day consumed in the fire of Thy love.

This is the only object of my desires, having no other ambition than that of living and dying in Thee and for Thee. Amen.

An excerpt from "Inside the Light: Understanding the Message of Fátima" by Sister Ângela de Fátima Coelho:

Our Lady came to Fátima to teach us to have this openness of heart. She wants to create the perfect conditions for our personal encounter with Jesus, an encounter which will transform our lives and allow us to live the virtues of faith, hope, and love.

Our Lady asks us, as she asked [the three children], "Are you willing to offer yourself to God?" The children answered yes. How will you respond? Will you offer yourself?

If we say yes to this fundamental question, the shepherd children's experience will become our experience. We will see ourselves in the light of God; we will see ourselves as God sees us, and that vision and God's love will transfigure us. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the aim of our spiritual lives.

Perhaps an analogy may shed some light on the spiritual potential that God is waiting to unlock in all of us. In La Clairvoyance, a painting by René Magritte, a painter sits before his canvas looking at an egg on a nearby table. But on his canvas, he has not painted the egg but a graceful bird about to take flight. In other words, the painting depicts the potential of the egg.

This offers an extraordinary metaphor for our discussion on sanctity and seeing ourselves as God sees us. When we look in the mirror, we do not see a bird in glorious flight but an egg. Yet God, the True Painter, sees the bird about to take flight. He sees our potential, if we would only say yes to Him and allow His grace to hatch us.

(text source: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HJGK1VN)

From the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska #1747:

God, You could have saved thousands of worlds with one word; a single sigh from Jesus would have satisfied Your justice. But You Yourself, Jesus, purely out of love for us, underwent such a terrible Passion. Your Father’s justice would have been propitiated with a single sigh from You, and all Your self-abasement is solely the work of Your mercy and Your inconceivable love.

On leaving the earth, O Lord, You wanted to stay with us, and so You left us Yourself in the Sacrament of the Altar, and You opened wide Your mercy to us. There is no misery that could exhaust You; You have called us all to this fountain of love, to this spring of God’s compassion. Here is the tabernacle of Your mercy, here is the remedy for all our ills.

To You, O living spring of mercy, all souls are drawn; some like deer, thirsting for Your love, others to wash the wound of their sins, and still others, exhausted by life, to draw strength.

From "Mystical Opuscula" by Saint Bonaventure:

O Lord, Father all-holy, look down, then, from heaven, Your holy abode; look upon the face of Your Anointed; behold, Father, this most holy Sacrifice that our High Priest offers You for our sins; let Your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing Your people.

And you, redeemed man—see Who is hanging for you on the cross; how great He is Whose death revives the dead. Here heaven and earth lament and the hardest rocks split apart as if by natural compassion. O human heart, if you are not stricken with terror, moved with pity, riven with sorrow, softened with love, at the sight of such atonement, you are harder than the hardest rock.

“The Mystery of Love” by Archbishop Alban Goodier

You loved me from all eternity, therefore You created me. You loved me after You had made me, therefore You became man for me. You loved me after You became man for me, therefore You lived and died for me. You loved me after You had died for me, therefore You rose again for me. You loved me after You had risen for me, therefore You went to prepare a place for me. You loved me after You had gone to prepare a place for me, therefore You came back to me. You loved me after You came back to me, therefore You desired to enter into me and be united to me. This is the meaning of the Blessed Sacrament. The mystery of love.

A Prayer for Christian Unity (author unknown)

Lord Jesus Christ, at Your Last Supper You prayed to the Father that all should be one (cf. John 17:21). Send Your Holy Spirit upon all who bear Your Name and seek to serve You. Strengthen our faith in You, and lead us to love one another in humility. May we who have been reborn in one baptism be united in one faith under one Shepherd. Amen.

"To have divine love as its inner form, a woman's life must be a Eucharistic life. Only in daily, confidential relationship with the Lord in the tabernacle can one forget self, become free of all one's own wishes and pretensions, and have a heart open to all the needs and wants of others. Whoever seeks to consult with the Eucharistic God in all her concerns, whoever lets herself be purified by the sanctifying power coming from the sacrifice at the altar, offering herself to the Lord in this sacrifice, whoever receives the Lord in her soul's most innermost depth in Holy Communion cannot but be drawn ever more deeply and powerfully into the flow of divine life, incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ, her heart converted to the likeness of the Divine Heart." -Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

(quote source: https://catholicexchange.com/the-annunciation-proclaims-our-call-to-be-a-eucharistic-people-again)

A Prayer to Saint Joseph, Who Suffered with Love (by Father Michael Gaitley)

Dear St. Joseph,

As the day draws closer when I will fully consecrate myself to you, as I draw closer to you, I can’t help but notice the scars on your heart, how you suffered with love.

You suffered darkness and confusion when Mary was found with child. You suffered the sacrifice of your flesh as you lovingly offered up the absence of bodily intimacy in marriage. You suffered a sword in your heart, with Mary, when Simeon foretold the Passion of your Son. You suffered stress and uncertainty when you had to escape with your family to Egypt and live as an immigrant. You suffered crushing anxiety when your 12-year-old Son was lost for three days. You daily suffered fatigue and bodily aches from your manual labor. Worst of all, your fatherly heart grieved at knowing that you could not be there for Jesus and Mary when their darkest hour would one day come.

St. Joseph, thank you for what you suffered in God’s service, in union with your Son, for my salvation. I love you, St. Joseph. Thank you for your yes. Now, please help me to suffer with love as you did.

When I suffer, help me not to complain. Help me not to forget love. Help me not to forget others. Dear St. Joseph, through my suffering, watch over my poor heart: May it not harden but rather become more merciful. Help me to remember all God’s children who are suffering in the world, and help me to offer my suffering for them and for the good of the Church. I am counting on you, St. Joseph. I know you will be with me, helping me to suffer with love.

St. Joseph, who suffered with love, please help me also to suffer with a love like yours.

(prayer source: https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/nine-days-joseph-day-six)

“In her, there is no opposition between God and her being: there is full communion, full understanding. There is a reciprocal ‘yes’: God to her and her to God. Mary is free from sin because she belongs entirely to God, she empties herself totally for Him. She is full of His Grace and of His Love.” -Pope Benedict XVI

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

“We must have recourse to Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We have gone astray and we must return to the right path: darkness has overshadowed our minds, and the gloom must be dispelled by the light of truth; death has seized upon us, and we must lay hold of life.

“It will at length be possible that our many wounds be healed and all justice spring forth again with the hope of restored authority; that the splendors of peace be renewed, and swords and arms drop from the hand when all men shall acknowledge the empire of Christ and willingly obey His word, and ‘Every tongue shall confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:11).” -Pope Leo XIII

From "What Is Your Offering for the Dead?" by Father Hugh Barbour:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by St. John Paul II teaches clearly that the best means of assisting the departed is to have the Holy Mass offered for the hastening of their entry into heaven (see CCC #1032). The Catholic heart understands this instinctively, for surely the offering of the Body and Blood of the Son of God and Son of Mary is the most powerful and effective sacrifice.

Consider that the first thing our Lord did upon completing the work of redemption on the wood of the Cross was to descend among the dead to liberate them and give them the vision of the Holy Trinity (cf. Ephesians 4:9). Imagine how zealously our Lord looked forward to this supreme work of charity. All of the ancestors of the human race from Adam and Abel to St. Joseph entered into their rest by the coming of the glorious Savior, robed in the splendor of His victory in His war against the world, the flesh, and the Evil One.

We, too, should descend among the dead, and in this way share in the thoughts of the heart of the Savior. And just as the widow who gave her last penny (cf. Luke 21:1-4), we should not hesitate to give of our resources for Mass intentions for the departed in general as well as our own families' dead.

This is not money-grubbing on the part of the clergy.... Imagine if the poor old woman in the Gospel had had today’s cynical, critical spirit. Instead, she did what Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did: they did not look to the holiness of the ministers of the temple in the first place but rather to the holiness and power of the offerings established by the God of Israel in the law.

Let us do the same and have a great confidence in the power of the Holy Mass to relieve and refresh and to set free the holy souls detained in Purgatory. In this way, we will gain for ourselves also a title to a special mercy from the Lord of hosts when we ourselves will most certainly be found among the dead. Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them!

A Prayer for Humility by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

O loving and gracious Infant Jesus, how full of love for us poor mortals is Thy divine heart! The fire of Thy love is burning day and night, emitting sparks of grace in the shape of countless benefits, showered on all men, even the greatest sinners. In order to comprehend the greatness of Thy little heart, one would have to possess the love and wisdom of Thy dear Mother, of St. Joseph, or of Thy most devoted worshiper Father Cyril.

How cold is my heart toward Thee; filled as it is with temporal and earthly concerns and the greatest self-love, there is no room left for a heroic love of God and my neighbor. What a miserable and wretched being I am! Thou, infinite majesty itself, most holy and most perfect, art most humble of heart; I, all wretchedness and sin, am proud and conceited, and therefore also without peace of heart. Thou shouldst verily turn away Thy beautiful countenance from me, because I possess so little virtue.

And yet I consider myself better than others, and even venture to criticize and belittle them! I know my own misery, and still I expect to be esteemed and praised, and even preferred to others! The least humiliation and neglect on the part of others pains me, and Thou art so humble, so forbearing, and so patient with the children of men!

Divine Heart of my most loving Jesus infuse into me true humility and a right knowledge of myself, so that I may deserve to find one day favor in Thy sight. Give me grace to be humble and simple like a child, if I wish to go to the Father. Amen.

(prayer source: https://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/prayer-for-humility-by-st-therese-of-lisieux.html)

From a letter by Monsignor Josefino S. Ramirez, on August 21, 1993:

[Sister Agnes Sasagawa of Akita, Japan] went into the convent chapel to pray and saw a glorious light coming from the Blessed Sacrament. Filled with divine love, she went right down on the floor. For hours, no one could even move her. Twenty years after this experience, the very memory of it will move Sister Agnes to ecstasy.

I spoke for hours with Bishop Ito of Akita. He told me that he was there to witness this glorious light from the Blessed Sacrament. It was on the feast of the Sacred Heart in 1973, and it lasted for three days. This apparition has now been approved by the Church. The first one since Fátima in 1916.

At Fátima, 70,000 people witnessed the miracle of the dancing sun. The sun in the sky is a sign of the Son of God in the Blessed Sacrament. One is the natural source of all power and life, the other is the supernatural source. That is why every monstrance is in the form of a sunburst.

The miracle at Fátima foretells the great Eucharistic Miracle that is coming. What happened at Akita tells us the nature of this miracle. In every place where Jesus is adored in the Blessed Sacrament, the light of His love will burst forth like the dawn for everyone to see. As soon as there are enough chapels of perpetual adoration to satisfy God's divine justice, He will show the whole world His Divine Mercy by revealing what is concealed, making visible what is hidden, the light of His love in the Blessed Sacrament.

What Sister Agnes saw, the whole world will one day see. It will be the glorious light of His love.

From a letter by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, on November 3, 1689:

Our Lord made me rest for several hours on His sacred breast, and from this lovable Heart I received graces whose very memory carries me out of myself. I do not think it necessary to say what they are, although the remembrance of them and the impression they made will remain all my life.

After that I saw this divine Heart as on a throne of flames, more brilliant than the sun and transparent as crystal. It had Its adorable wound and was encircled with a crown of thorns, which signified the pricks our sins caused Him. It was surmounted by a cross which signified that, from the first moment of His Incarnation, that is, from the time this Sacred Heart was formed, the cross was planted in It; that It was filled, from the very first moment, with all the bitterness, humiliations, poverty, sorrow, and contempt His sacred humanity would have to suffer during the whole course of His life and during His holy Passion.

He made me understand that the ardent desire He had of being loved by men and of drawing them from the path of perdition into which Satan was hurrying them in great numbers, had caused Him to fix upon this plan of manifesting His Heart to men, together with all Its treasures of love, mercy, grace, sanctification, and salvation. This He did in order that those who were willing to do all in their power to render and procure for Him honor, love, and glory might be enriched abundantly, even profusely, with these divine treasures of the Heart of God, which is their source. It must be honored under the symbol of this Heart of flesh, Whose image He wished to be publicly exposed.

He wanted me to carry it on my person, over my heart, that He might imprint His love there, fill my heart with all the gifts with which His own is filled, and destroy all inordinate affection. Wherever this sacred image would be exposed for veneration, He would pour forth His graces and blessings. This devotion was as a last effort of His love which wished to favor men in these last centuries with this loving redemption, in order to withdraw them from the empire of Satan, which He intended to destroy, and in order to put us under the sweet liberty of the empire of His love. This He would establish in the hearts of all those who would embrace this devotion.

"When you say your Rosary, the angels rejoice, the Blessed Trinity delights in it, my Son finds joy in it too, and I myself am happier than you can possibly guess. After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, there is nothing in the Church that I love as much as the Rosary.” -Our Lady to Blessed Alan de la Roche

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A Poem by Blessed Alan de la Roche

Whenever I say Hail Mary The court of Heaven rejoices And the earth Is lost in wonderment. And I despise the world And my heart is brim-full Of the love of God When I say Hail Mary;

All my fears Wilt and die And my passions are quelled If I say Hail Mary;

Devotion grows Within me And sorrow for sin Awakens When I say Hail Mary.

Hope is made strong In my breast And the dew of consolation Falls on my soul More and more— Because I say Hail Mary.

And my spirit Rejoices And sorrow fades away When I say Hail Mary