Prayers and Devotions to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before Your altar. We are Yours, and Yours we wish to be; but, to be more surely united with You, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Your Most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known You; many too, despising Your precepts, have rejected You. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Your Sacred Heart.

You are King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken You, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned You; grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

You are King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof; call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd.

You are King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism; refuse not to draw them all into the light and kingdom of God. Turn your eyes of mercy toward the children of that race, once Your chosen people. Of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior, may it now descend upon them a layer of redemption and of life.

Grant, O Lord, to Your Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations; and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to It be glory and honor forever. Amen.

Consecration of the Family to the Divine Heart of Jesus (1)
Divine Heart of Jesus, you promised that where two or three persons assemble in Your Name, you would be there in their midst. Behold us here on our knees before Your sacred image. With hearts filled with sentiments of fervent love, we thank You for Your infinite goodness in having bestowed upon us numberless benefits for soul and body.

O divine King, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and under the powerful protection of St. Joseph, we consecrate to you our entire family. Be the director of all our interests, and may our home, like that of Nazareth be the abode of faith and charity, of labor and prayer, of order and domestic peace.

We consecrate to You, divine Heart of Jesus, all the adversities and occurrences of our family life, and beseech You to pour out upon us in abundant measure all your richest blessings. We commend ourselves forever to the protection of Your divine Heart. Heart of Jesus, ocean of mercy and love, assist us at the hour of our death. Amen.

O Sacred Heart, Bless our Family
Prostrate before You, Lord Jesus Christ, we consecrate to You Sacred Heart ourselves and everything dear to us: our thoughts, words and actions; our sorrows, our hopes, our relatives and friends. We desire to belong entirely to You, to know all things, and to despise the pleasures, riches and honors of this world and everything which could be an obstacle in Your service.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, teach us, by Your example in the stable of Bethlehem and by Your whole life, meekness and humility. Teach us, by Your agony and sufferings on the Cross, patience and resignation to the holy will of God. Teach us in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, to admire Your power, wisdom and love. Three hundred years ago you revealed to St. Margaret Mary your desire to receive the special homage of Your creatures. In obedience to that divine entreaty, behold us at Your feet to consecrate to Your service and love our hearts, our family and our home in a special manner.

Heart of Jesus, in the name of Mary and under the patronage of St. Joseph we consecrate to You our whole household. Like Nazareth, may it always be a center of faith, hope, charity and peace; a hive of prayer and true zeal for Your glory. Guide our lives, direct our steps, and sustain us in all our ways. We earnestly consecrate to You all the trials, afflictions, joys and events of our domestic life.

We beseech You to pour Your blessings upon every member of this family: those who are gathered here and those who are absent; those who are living and those who are dead. With confidence we entrust them all to You. If, among them, there be any who have lost Your grace and grieved You loving Heart by sin, with deepest sorrow, we now desire to offer reparation and implore forgiveness for them.

We beg Your mercy and grace, also, for every family in the whole world. O Sacred Heart, shelter the cradle of the newborn babe; bless the child at school; guide the vocation of young men and women; sweeten the lot of the sufferer; support the aged; console the widow; be a Father to the orphan. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, we entrust to You our own dear country and all those who govern us.

O Jesus, source and infinite ocean of mercy, we beseech You assist us in the sufferings and agony of death. Unite us, then, still more closely to Your Heart and the Heart of Your Immaculate Mother. Be our refuge and our place of rest; and when our souls have taken their flight to dwell forever in Your Sacred Heart, may we see again in heaven every member of this family which we now so earnestly and unitedly desire to consecrate without reserve to You. Amen.

Consecration of the Christian Family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (2)
Sacred Heart of Jesus, who manifested to St. Margaret Mary the desire of reigning in Christian families, we today wish to proclaim Your most complete regal dominion over our own. We would live henceforth with Your life, we would cause to flourish in our midst those virtues to which You have promised peace here below, we would banish far from us the spirit of the world which You have cursed; and You shall reign, over our minds in the simplicity of our faith, and over our hearts by the wholehearted love with which they shall burn for You, the flame of which we shall keep alive by the frequent reception of Your divine Eucharist.

Be pleased, O divine Heart, to preside over our assemblies, to bless our enterprises, both spiritual and temporal, to dispel our cares, to sanctify our joys, to alleviate our sufferings. If ever one or other of us should have the misfortune to afflict You, remind Him, O Heart of Jesus, that you are good and merciful to the penitent sinner. And when the hour of separation strikes, when death shall come to cast mourning into our midst, we will all, both those who go and those who stay, be submissive to Your eternal decree. We will console ourselves with the thought that a day will come when the entire family, reunited in Heaven, can sing forever Your glories and Your mercies.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the glorious Patriarch St. Joseph present this consecration to You, and keep it in our minds all the days of our life. All glory to the Heart of Jesus, our King and our Father.

Private Act of Consecration
By St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
I consecrate and surrender to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person, my life, my difficulties and my sufferings that I may henceforth live only for His love and glory. It is my firm and unwavering purpose to be His entirely, to do everything for His love and renounce wholeheartedly everything that could displease His divine Heart.

O Sacred Heart, I choose You as the sole object of my love, the protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the support of my weakness and the atoner for all the sins of my whole life. O mild and bountiful Heart, be likewise my refuge at the hour death, my justification before God, and ward off from me the penalty of His just wrath. O loving Heart, I place my trust entirely in You. While I fear everything from my own malice I hope everything from Your goodness. Destroy in me whatever may displease You or be opposed to You, and let Your pure love imprint You so deeply upon my heart that it will be impossible for me ever to forget You or be separated from you.

O Sacred Heart, by Your goodness, I implore You, let my name be deeply engraved in You, for in Your service and in Your love I will live and die. Amen.

Litany of the Sacred Heart
Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy
Christ, hear us
Christ, graciously hear us
God, the Father in heaven Response: Have mercy on us
God the Son, redeemer of the world
God, the Holy Spirit
Holy Trinity, one God
Heart of Jesus, Son of the eternal Father
Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mother
Heart of Jesus, substantially united to the Word of God
Heart of Jesus, infinite in majesty
Heart of Jesus, sacred temple of God
Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High
Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven
Heart of Jesus, aflame with love for men
Heart of Jesus, abode of justice and love
Heart of Jesus, full of confidence and love
Heart of Jesus, endless source of all virtues
Heart of Jesus, worthy of all praise
Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts
Heart of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
Heart of Jesus, in whom dwells the fullness of divinity
Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father was well-pleased
Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received
Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills
Heart of Jesus, patient and merciful
Heart of Jesus, enriching all who invoke You
Heart of Jesus, fountain of life and holiness
Heart of Jesus, atonement for our sins
Heart of Jesus, loaded down with opprobrium
Heart of Jesus, bruised for our offenses
Heart of Jesus, obedient unto death
Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation
Heart of Jesus, victim for sin
Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in You
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in you
Heart of Jesus, delight of all the saints
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world
Spare us, O Lord
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world
Graciously hear us, O Lord
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world
Have mercy on us
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, have mercy on us
Make our hearts like yours

Let us pray
Almighty and eternal God, look upon the Heart of Your most beloved Son and upon the praise and satisfaction which He offers You in the name of sinners; and to those who implore Your mercy, in Your great goodness grant forgiveness in the Name of the same Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns in union with You and the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Act of Consecration for Religious – Suitable also for other persons
By Sister Mary of the Divine Heart
My most loving Jesus, I consecrate myself today anew and without reserve to Your divine Heart. I consecrate to You my body with all its sense, my soul with all its faculties: my whole being. I consecrate to You all my thoughts, words and actions; all my sufferings and labors; all my hopes, consolations and joys; and, above all, I consecrate to You my poor heart, that it may love only You and be consumed as victim in the fire of Your love. Accept, O Jesus, my most loving spouse, the desire that I have to console Your divine Heart and to yours forever. Possess me in such a manner that henceforward I may have no other liberty than that of loving You, no other life than that of suffering and dying for You.

I place in You unlimited trust and I hope, from Your infinite mercy, for the pardon of my sins. I place in Your hands all my cares, especially that of my eternal salvation. I promise to love and honor You to the last moment of my life, and to propagate, with the help of Your divine grace and as far as I am able, devotion to Your Sacred Heart. Dispose of me, O divine Heart of Jesus, according to Your pleasure; I desire no other recompense than Your greater glory and Your holy love.

Grant me the grace to find my dwelling place in Your Sacred Heart where I desire to pass everyday of my life and where I wish to breathe my last breath. Make my heart Your abode, the place of Your repose, so that we may remain intimately united until, finally, I may praise, love and possess You for all eternity, singing forever the infinite mercy of Your Sacred Heart. Amen.

Three Offerings of Thanksgiving
We offer to the most holy Trinity the merits of Jesus Christ, in thanksgiving for the precious Blood which he shed in the Garden for us, and through these merits we beseech His divine majesty to grant us pardon of all our sins. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory…

We offer to the most holy Trinity the merits of Jesus Christ, in thanksgiving for His most precious death endured on the Cross for us, and through these merits we beseech the divine majesty pardon of our sins. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory…

We offer to the most holy Trinity the merits of Jesus Christ, in thanksgiving for his unimaginable charity, by which He descended from heaven to earth to take human flesh, and to suffer and die for us on the Cross, and by these merits we beseech His divine majesty to bring our souls to the glory of heaven after our death. Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory…

Greeting the Sacred Heart
Once when St. Mechtilde was grieving over the thought that her whole life had been spent in a useless manner, Our Lord said to her: “In order to make amends for what you have neglected, greet my Heart!” Our divine Savior made a similar revelation to St. Gertrude: ‘As often as a person greets me, I will greet him, and this will redound to his honor in heaven.’ St. Clare greeted the Sacred Heart of Jesus daily and received special graces each day.

When we have committed a fault, let us make an act of contrition and greet the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This divine Heart is ever ready to repair our offenses. We should especially greet the Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. St. Mechtilde ardently venerated the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, and in return received from our Lord so many graces that in referring to them, she said: ‘Were I to write down all the graces I received from the loving Heart of Jesus, I would need a book thicker than a breviary.’

Heart of my Jesus, save me!
Heart of my Creator, perfect me!
Heart of my Savior, deliver me!
Heart of my Spouse, love me!
Heart of my Master, teach me!
Heart of my King, crown me!
Heart of my Benefactor, enrich me!
Heart of my Pastor, keep me!
Heart of my Friend, caress me!
Heart of the Infant Jesus, attract me!
Heart of Jesus dying on the Cross, atone for me!
Heart of Jesus in all Your conditions, give yourself to me!
Heart of my Brother, remain with me!
Heart of incomparable goodness, forgive me!
Heart most amiable, inflame me!
Heart most glorious, shine forth in me!
Heart most charitable, work in me!
Heart most merciful, answer for me!
Heart most humble, repose in me!
Heart most patient, bear with me!
Heart most faithful, make satisfaction for me!
Heart most adorable and most worthy, bless me!
Heart most peaceful, calm me!
Heart most desirable and most beautiful, delight me!
Heart most illustrious and most perfect, ennoble me!
Heart most holy and balm most precious, preserve and sanctify me!
Heart most holy and most salutary, reform me!
Heart most blessed, true Physician and remedy for all ills, heal me!
Heart of Jesus, consolation of the afflicted, comfort me!
Heart of Jesus, ardent furnace burning with love, consume me!
Heart of Jesus, model of perfection, enlighten me!
Heart of Jesus, source of all happiness, strengthen me!
Heart of eternal benediction, call me to You!

Offering of the Blood and Water that Flowed from the Side of Christ
O Jesus, my dearest Savior, through You I offer to Your eternal Father the precious blood and water which flowed from Your wounded Heart on the tree of the Cross. Grant that this blood and water may be efficaciously applied to us and to all sinners. Cleanse, purify and sanctify all men in virtue of Your merits. Grant, O Jesus, that we may enter into Your most loving Heart and remain there forever. Amen.

Eternal Father, accept the precious blood and water that flowed from the wound of the divine Heart of Jesus as a sacrifice of reparation for the necessities of holy Church and in atonement for the sins of men. Have mercy us. Amen.

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist
Behold, my most loving Jesus, to what an excess Your boundless love has carried You. Of Your own flesh and precious blood You have made ready for me a divine banquet so as to give me Yourself completely. What was it the impelled You to do this transport of love? Nothing else surely save Your most loving Heart. O adorable Heart of my Jesus! O burning furnace of divine love! Within Your most sacred wound receive my soul, that in that school of charity I may learn to requite the love of that God who has given me such wondrous proofs of His love. Amen.

Prayer to the Divine Heart of Jesus
O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of all good, I adore You, I love You. Deeply sorry for my sins, I offer You my poor heart. Make it humble, patient, pure and in all things conformed to Your desires. Grant, O good Jesus, that I may live in You and for You. Protect me in dangers, console me in affliction, give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, blessing in all my undertakings and the grace of a holy death.

Daily Prayer of St. Gertrude
Hail to You, most Sacred Heart of Jesus, living and life-giving source of eternal life, infinite treasure of the divinity, consuming furnace of divine love! You are my resting place and my city of refuge. My sweetest Savior, inflame my heart with that burning love with which Your Heart is consumed! Pour into my heart those precious graces which spring forth from Your Heart as from their source. Unite my heart so intimately with Yours that Your will may be mine, and that mine may be ever in perfect accord with Yours; for my only desire is that, in future, Your most adorable will may be the rule of all my desires and actions. Amen.

Offering to the Sacred Heart
O Lord Jesus Christ, in union with that divine intention with which, on earth, You offered praise to God through Your Sacred Heart and continue to offer now in all places in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and will do so to the end of the world, I most willingly offer You throughout this entire day, without the smallest exception, all my intentions and thoughts, all my affections and desires, all my words and actions, in imitation of the most pure heart of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Prayer to Obtain Conformity to the Sacred Heart
O dearest Jesus, whose most amiable Heart excludes not even the greatest sinners when they turn to You, I beseech You to grant me and all penitent sinners a heart like Yours; that is, a humble heart, which even in the midst of temporal honors loves a hidden life, a life little esteemed by men; a meek heart, which bears with everyone and seeks revenge upon no one; a patient heart, which if resigned in adversity, and happy even in the most trying circumstances; a peaceful heart, which is ever at peace with others and with itself; a disinterested heart, which is always contented with what it has; a heart which loves prayer and performs it often and cheerfully; a heart whose only desire is that God may be known, honored and loved by all creatures; a heart which grieves for nothing except that God is offended; despises nothing but sin; wishes for nothing but the glory of God and its neighbor’s salvation; a pure heart, which in all things seeks God alone and desires only to please Him; a grateful heart, which acknowledges and esteems the benefits of God; a strong heart, which is daunted by no evil, but bears all adversity for the love of God; an open heart, liberal to the poor and compassionate towards the suffering souls in purgatory; a well-ordered heart, whose joys and sorrows, desires and aversions, nay, whose every motion is regulated according to the divine will. Amen.

Efficacious Little Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart
By Venerable Maria Lataste
O amiable Heart of my Savior, I adore You! O gracious Heart of my Jesus, I love You! O compassionate Heart, I give You my heart, and I am deeply moved by all You have done and suffered for me. I give You my heart completely; affix it to Your Heart eternally; inflame it with Your love; inspire it with Your sentiments; make it know Your will and practice Your virtues.

Novena in Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
O Sacred and adorable Heart of Jesus! Furnace of eternal charity! Ocean of infinite mercy! Consolation of the afflicted! Refuge of sinners and Hope of the whole world! I most fervently adore You. Most amiable Heart, that has loved us with an eternal love, supply Yourself for my insensibility, and receive my desire at least of loving You with all the ardor and sincerity You so justly merit. But remember, O adorable Heart, that You have not disclosed Yourself to us only as an object of our adorations; You desire much more to engage our love, and to become the ground and motive of our tender confidence. For this end, You were pierced through with a lance on the Cross; and for the same purpose You remain a daily victim of Your own love on our altars.

O infinitely compassionate Heart of Jesus, which was overwhelmed with sorrow in the Garden of Olives, at the view of our spiritual and corporal miseries, I recur to You now with all the confidence You desire I should repose in the extent of Your power and the riches of Your mercy. Convinced that those things which are impossible to human means are infinitely easy to You, and relying with a humble, steadfast faith on the sacred words of truth itself, that whatever we ask the Father in the Name of Jesus should be granted, I now most humbly implore in that adorable Name, in virtue of that promise, and through the abundant mercies of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the particular favor I petition for in this Novena.

O Blessed St. Gertrude, and all you glorious servants of Christ; who while on earth were particularly devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, join your prayers with mine, and implore from the divine object of all your devotion the grant of the petition which I now make, and especially offer up through your intercession. Beg likewise, from this adorable Heart, which has dominion over all hearts, and could in a moment change the most obdurate, to have compassion on those who are in the dreadful state of mortal sin, and to open to us all the treasures of its mercy at the hour of death. Amen.

Act of Resignation for the Sick and Afflicted
Most benign Jesus, I accept willingly this sickness (or this trial) which it has pleased you to lay upon me as a token of the love of Your Fatherly Heart, and with the same love with which You sent it, I offer it up to You in gratitude. Moreover, I confide all my pains to Your Sacred Heart, beseeching You to unite them to Your bitter sufferings, and thus perfect them by making them Your own.

Since I cannot render You the praise due to You because of the multitude of my sorrows and afflictions, I beseech You to praise God the Father for all I suffer, with the same tribute of praise You offered Him when Your agony on the Cross was at its height. As You thanked Him with all the powers of Your Soul for all the sufferings and injustice which He willed You should endure. I pray You, give Him thanks for all my trials also.

Animated by the same love wherewith You accepted all the wounds and indignities inflicted on You, offering them to Your heavenly Father with profound gratitude, I pray You to offer my physical and spiritual sufferings to Him also, in union with Your most holy pains, to His eternal honor and glory. Amen.

Holy Hour Biblical Service in Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ’ are the words of St. Jerome. To know Christ better it is necessary to return to Scripture and, in particular, to that part of Scripture known as the New Testament. It is here that the sacred writers paint for us, in stark reality, the life, ministry and teaching of Christ. Devotion to the Sacred Heart finds its source in the understanding of God’s love for us as we unfold the pages of Scripture.

The Bible service which follows is a sample of how we can deepen our knowledge of Christ, understand our role as Christians in the world, be disposed to open our hearts beyond our own little world and draw closer to the Heart of Jesus.

This holy Hour can be made individually or in a group. It is a way of prayer most useful in preparation for the feast of the Sacred Heart or, in commemorating on Thursdays, the agony of our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane. The prayer service is divided into three parts which can be of twenty-minute intervals if there is time to make the full hour. Each reading is followed by a period of reflection, for Scripture – God’s Word – must waken a response in us. To this end we go back to the Scripture passage asking God to open our hearts to its message. Each section concludes with a prayer which, in itself, is a source of reflection.

The readings from Scripture are by way of example. Familiarity with the New Testament will suggest other texts according to one’s particular spiritual needs and inclinations.

The holy Hour may be made at home privately but it would be an act of love for the Sacred Heart on our part if we could go to one of the city churches where it is more likely that we can find our Lord exposed in the Blessed Sacrament.

First Reading: 1 John 4:7-16
7 My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
8 Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.
9 God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world His only Son so that we could have life through Him;
10 This is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when He sent His Son to be the sacrifice that takes away our sins.
11 My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and His love will be complete in us.
13 We can know that we are living in Him and He is living in us because He lets us share His Spirit.
14 We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent His Son as savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and He is in God.
16 We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.

Reflection
• What do the words of verse 8 mean to me in my daily life? In my duties? In my state of life?
• Have I reflected on and do I appreciate fully the meaning of verse 10?
• In my life as a Christian do I fulfill the underlying commandment of verse 11?

Prayer
St. Paul sums up the greatness and universality of this love of Christ for us. As we read His Words in the form of prayer let us meditate on how we can draw closer to the Heart of Jesus in order to understand His love for us. The following is taken from Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:6-11):

His state was divine
Yet He did not cling
To His equality with God
But emptied Himself
To assume the condition of a slave
And became as human beings are
And being as a human being
He was humbler yet
Even to accepting death
Death on a Cross
But God raised Him high
And gave Him the Name
Which is above all other names
So that all beings in the heavens
On earth and in the underworld
Should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
And that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord
To the glory of God the Father

Second Reading
Excerpts from chapter IV of the second Vatican Council’s document On the Church in reference to some aspects of the role of the laity in the Church.

… The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity. Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continually increase according to Christ and to the praise of the Creator and Redeemer.

… Besides intimately linking them to His life and His mission, (Christ) also gives them a sharing in His priestly function of offering spiritual worship for the glory of God and the salvation of men. For this reason, the laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit are marvelously-called and wonderfully prepared so that ever more abundant fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne – all these become ‘spiritual sacrifices’ acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5)

Reflection
• Do I understand my vocation as a lay person in the Church? Is my life a testimony to my Christian beliefs?
• Do I regard my everyday tasks, my toil, my hardships, as spiritual sacrifices?
• The Sacred Heart told St. Margaret Mary that tepid souls shall become more fervent, and fervent souls shall rise to greater perfection: do I regard these promises as referring to me personally?

Prayer
Our examen of conscience is not an end in itself by a means whereby we strive to come to know ourselves better. The words of the Psalm show the inner struggle of the man who places himself in all humility before His God. Praying the words of the psalmist let us be mindful of the promise of the Sacred Heart that ‘Sinners shall find in my Heart a fountain and boundless ocean of mercy.’ The following is taken from Psalm 32:1-7:

Happy are those whose fault is forgiven
Whose sin is blotted out
Happy are those whom the Lord
Accuses of no guilt
Whose spirit is incapable of deceit!
All the time I kept silent
My bones were wasting away
With groans, day in, day out
Day and night Your hand
Lay heavy on me
My heart grew parched as stubble
In summer drought

At last I admitted to You I had sinned
No longer concealing my guilt
I said ‘I will go to the Lord
And confess my fault’.
And You, You have forgotten the wrong
I did, have pardoned my sin

That is why each of Your servants prays
To You in time of trouble
Even if floods come rushing down
They will never reach him
You are a hiding place for me
You guard me when in trouble

Third Reading: John 19:31-37
It was Preparation Day, and to prevent the bodies remaining on the cross during the Sabbath – since that Sabbath was as special day of solemnity – the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Him and then the other. When they came to Jesus, they found that He was already dead, and so instead of breaking His legs one of the soldiers pierced His side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water. This is the evidence of one who saw it – trustworthy evidence, and he knows he speaks the truth – and he gives it so that you may believe as well. Because all this happened to fulfill the Words of Scripture: Not one bone of his will be broken and again, in another place Scripture says: They will look on the one whom they have pierced.

Reflection
• The Heart of Jesus was pierced with a lance to make sure that He was dead; yet how little is required to make our hearts close and die to our fellowmen?
• Do I close my heart to my fellowmen through selfishness, prejudice, suspicion, distrust, envy?
• Do I observe the laws of the Sabbath and overlook the other laws of God regarding justice, charity, the right to life, etc?

Prayer of Petition
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, look down on our Holy Father, Pope N…, and help him guide us where You would have us go. Lord, hear my prayer.
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, strengthen our bishop and his priests in the vocation to which you have called them. Lord, hear my prayer.
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, enlighten the minds of those who govern us so that the laws they promulgate may be in harmony with your law. Lord, hear my prayer.
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, make me more aware of the sins of injustice committed in this world which result in hunger, discrimination, prejudice and war. Lord, hear my prayer.
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, make my heart like yours: a heart which is open and not closed in on my own sorrows; a heart which is generous and not selfish by denying to other the rights I claim for myself. Lord, hear my prayer.

Concluding Prayer
Almighty God and Father, we glory in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, You beloved Son, as we call to mind the great things His love has done for us. Fill us with grace that flows in abundance from the Heart of Jesus, the source of heaven’s gifts. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.