Contemplative Haven

NATIONAL CONSECRATION OF CANADA
TO THE SACRED HEART

The prayer I am posting here is taken from a little yellow booklet entitled, “Prayers and Hymns in Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Crusade of Prayer for Victory and Peace”, published in 1943 by an Ottawa newspaper, Le Droit.  On the inside of the front page we see: 

Nihil obstat:
R. Limoges, ptre., censor liborum, Ottavae, die 24 Aprilis 1943.

Imprimatur:
J.H. Chartrand, Vic. Gen., Ottavae, die 26 Aprilis 1943.

The booklet itself is actually dated July 4, 1943 (which I did not verify, but am presuming was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that year).  This is all the information I have.  I googled the title, as well as the specific prayer I’m using in this post, but to no avail. The booklet came into my possession through either my mother or father, both of whom are deceased; I have many of their old Catholic missals, prayer books, holy cards, booklets, pamphlets, etc. 

It is entirely possible that I am the only person in Canada who still has a copy of this booklet.  For all I know, I may also be the only person in Canada who has even seen this prayer since World War II.  But since the Morgentaler debacle which I outlined in my previous post, I want to ensure I will not be lying on my deathbed still being the only one who knows of its existence and its importance.

So any Canadians reading here, please take this prayer.  Pray it.  Blog it.  Distribute it.  Get it into your parishes; give it to your priests; mail it to your bishops and archbishops.  Do you see that word “crusade” in the booklet’s title?  Let’s begin one, together.

National Consecration of Canada to the Sacred Heart:

“O Divine Saviour, Who, to console the sorrows of Thy Church and to heal the ills of society, hast deigned to reveal with radiant clearness the immense goodness of Thy Sacred Heart; O glorious Leader of the army of Thine elect, Thou Who hast made of Thy Heart the symbol and channel of Thy Love, the banner and pledge of our victory; O Christ, Who lovest Canada and Who hast chosen it to be the centre from which this devotion has spread throughout the New World, deign to accept the prayers of Thy servants who desire to respond to Thy invitation and to merit for our country the fulfilment of Thy merciful promises.

We consecrate ourselves entirely to Thy divine Heart; we offer Thee the homage of our souls and bodies, all that we are and all that we possess. We know that we are already Thine, O Jesus, because we have nothing for which we are not indebted to Thy Love. But we wish henceforth to belong to Thee in a special manner, to submit ourselves unreservedly to Thy reign, to keep our eyes constantly fixed on Thy Heart that we may imitate Its virtues, make Its wishes the rule of our private and public life, and use all our influence for the triumph of Its divine interests. May the blame be not ours, O Jesus, if in the future Thou shalt not reign by Thy love in our families, our cities, and throughout the whole nation.

O Mary, sweet Mother of Jesus, O Queen of Canada, thou who alone dost perfectly and worthily know and honour the Heart of thy Son, help us to put into practise with a boundless and unshakeable constancy this consecration which we now make. Do thou offer us to Him; dedicate to Him this country which has been thine since its discovery, and make of it, under the influence of the Heart of Jesus, the right arm of the Church and the instrument of His great works of love. Amen.”

In the recent Sacred Heart Reflection No. 2, we saw that the Heart of Jesus is a place of solitude, a place wherein we may enter and share in His prayer to the Father.

But prayer to the Father is only a portion of the divine activities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

One day, when St. Gertrude was too ill to attend Mass and regretted missing the pleasure of hearing the sermon, Our Lord asked her if she would like Him to teach her Himself.  “Then Our Lord made her rest on His Heart, so that her soul touched it; and as she remained there some time, she felt two most sweet and admirable movements therein.”

Jesus explained that the two movements of His Sacred Heart operate the salvation of humanity, and that each of the two movements operate in three different manners:

The first movement of His Sacred Heart operates the salvation of sinners, in the following three manners:

1. Jesus converses continually with His Eternal Father, appeasing the Father’s anger against sinners and inclining the Father to show them mercy;
2. Jesus speaks to His Saints, excusing sinners to them and urging them to intercede with God for them, with the zeal and fidelity of a brother;
3. Jesus speaks to sinners themselves, calling them mercifully to penance and awaiting their conversion with ineffable desire.

The second movement of His Sacred Heart operates the salvation of the just, in the following three manners:

1. Jesus invites His Father to rejoice with Him, that He has poured forth His Precious Blood so efficaciously for the just, in whose merits He finds delight;
2. Jesus invites all the heavenly host to praise His providences, give Him thanks for all the benefits He has given them, so that He may grant them more in the future;
3. Jesus speaks directly to the just, giving them many salutary caresses and warning them to profit faithfully by them, from day to day and hour to hour.

Jesus then told St. Gertrude:

“As the pulsations of the human heart are not interrupted by seeing, hearing, or any manual occupation, but always continue without relaxation, so the care of the government of Heaven and earth, and the whole universe, cannot diminish or interrupt for a moment these two movements of My Divine Heart, which will continue to the end of ages.”

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, help us love You more, to the end of ages.

[From:  The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude the Great] pgs. 227-228

To Jesus’ Heart All Burning/O Lord, I Am Not Worthy on IMEEM, by the Daughters of St. Paul, on their CD “Adoration”.

To Jesus’ Heart All Burning
(From: Prayers and Hymns in Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1943)

To Jesus’ Heart all burning,
With fervent love for men,
My heart with fondest yearning
Shall raise the joyful strain.

Chorus

While ages course along,
Blest be with loudest song
The Sacred Heart of Jesus,
By every heart and tongue.

O Heart for me on fire,
With love no man can speak.
My yet untold desire
God gives me for Thy sake.

Too true I have forsaken
Thy flock by wilful sin;
Yet now let me be taken
Back to Thy fold again.

 Prayer of Trust in the Sacred Heart

In all my temptations, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In all my weaknesses, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In all my difficulties, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In all my trials, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In all my sorrows, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In all my work, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In every failure, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In every discouragement, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In life and in death, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In time and in eternity, I place my trust in You,
O Sacred Heart of Jesus.

[From: Catholic Book of Prayers]

“St. Gertrude was the herald of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus - that sacred cult which has become so dear and which has proved a fountain of consolation and graces to millions of Christians.  Our Divine Savior repeatedly disclosed to her His Divine Heart, the furnace of love, as though for her sake He could not await the time decreed by His eternal wisdom for the revelations of His Heart.  Devotion to the Sacred Heart was the special characteristic of St. Gertrude’s piety.  The mystery of mercy and love contained in that Divine Heart had been revealed to her by the Son of God Himself four centuries before it became an object of special devotion to the Church at large.  St. Mechtilde, a contemporary of St. Gertrude, and also a Benedictine, shared with St. Gertrude this glorious privilege.  Thus the Heart of Jesus had long been an object of adoration and love to the sons and daughters of St. Benedict when, in the 17th century, it pleased God to procure for It, through St. Margaret Mary, that more solemn worship with which It is now surrounded.” 

[Saint Gertrude the Great.  The Herald of Divine Love] pgs. 3-4 

After browsing through several of Merton’s journals and other writings, I was beginning to think I would never find anything concerning the Sacred Heart of Jesus, until I came upon this entry for the Feast of the Sacred Heart in 1947 in ”The Sign of Jonas”:

“I ought to know, by now, that God uses everything that happens as a means to lead me into solitude.  Every creature that enters my life, every instant of my days, will be designed to wound me with the realization of the world’s insufficiency, until I become so detached that I will be able to find God alone in everything.  Only then will all things bring me joy….Today I seemed to be very much assured that solitude is indeed His will for me and that it is truly God Who is calling me into the desert.” [pgs. 51-52] 

Upon first and even second reading I was disappointed; I said to myself, “Thomas, tell me about the Sacred Heart.  I want to know what you think about the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Why are you talking about yourself - it is the Feastday; why don’t you write about the Sacred Heart on the Feastday, instead of your own call to solitude?”  And then I realized he was writing about the Sacred Heart - about what It evoked for him and in him; about his experience of It. 

So I did a little more browsing - googling, to be exact, on the Sacred Heart and solitude.  There were some interesting things to be found; for example, The Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Theology of Benedict XVI, by Father Mark D. Kirby, O.Cist.  Father Kirby writes:

“At the core of devotion to the Sacred Heart is a passing-over into the prayer of Christ to the Father, a long apprenticeship to silence by which we begin to let the Heart of Christ speak in us and for us to the Father.” [emphasis mine]  Among other references, Father Kirby uses quotes from [then] Cardinal Ratzinger’s “Behold the Pierced One”, in which he helps us see the links between Jesus’ solitude, our own solitude, the Sacred Heart, prayer, and communication with the Father.

And so Thomas Merton truly is speaking of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as he describes his assurance of an even stronger calling to solitude, for it is not a call to solitude for the sake of solitude - it is a call to enter into the Sacred Heart, into the solitude of Jesus, and in Jesus’ solitude we share in prayer to the Father.    

From now until the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I would like to have a quiet, prayerful time here at the Haven.  I will be posting a few reflections on the Sacred Heart, which I hope will help in preparing our own hearts for that very special day.  Please consider it a little bit of retreat time; silence in the combox is just fine.

For anyone who is making the novena, Ann, of Poetry, Prayer and Praise posted a lovely, short novena prayer yesterday, and Aeternus has posted the full nine-days. If you are undecided, had not even thought about it, or have never made a novena, why not consider this a little nudge?  Go ahead.  Choose one.  Print it.  Pray it.  Spend some time in reflection, and visit the Blessed Sacrament if possible.

“Consider that the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ was no sooner formed in the womb of the Blessed Virgin than It was inflamed with an immense love for all men; but, as it is the property of love to wish to be always with those loved, a life of thirty-three years appeared to Him too short to satisfy the ardent desire which He had to be always with us…

Why does He return every day to this earth invisibly, if it is not because He cannot separate Himself from men and because His delights are to be with them?  Could we have ever imagined that Jesus Christ would love us to this excess?…

This desire must be very violent when it can continue to exist in Heaven, where all desires are satisfied.”

[The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by Fr. John Croiset, S.J.] pgs. 258-259 

“God our Father,
let the Spirit you sent on your Church to begin the teaching of the Gospel
continue to work in the world
through the hearts of all who believe.
We ask this…for ever and ever. Amen.”

This is the opening prayer at Mass on this Pentecost Sunday.  The Holy Spirit works through the heart.  This may come as no surprise, but what did come as a surprise to me, when reading St. Gertrude the Great’s entries for the Vigil and Feast of Pentecost, was how much the Sacred Heart of Jesus figured in her Pentecost experience.  There is much, much more than what I am able to put in one post, but just to give you an idea: 

On the vigil of Pentecost, as she was feeling “utter unworthiness” in the face of receiving the Holy Spirit, she felt a cave being created in her heart. “Then she saw a stream of honey coming forth from the Heart of Jesus, and distilling itself into hers, until it was entirely filled. By this she understood that it was the unction and grace of the Holy Ghost which flowed thus sweetly from the Heart of the Son of God into the hearts of the faithful.”

Shortly thereafter there is an experience of breath in which, “His Divine breath entered into her soul”. The Lord told St. Gertrude that, “the respirations of her soul indicated her goodwill, and the breath of Our Lord His acceptance of her good intentions and desires.” The Lord then showed her the different gifts of the Holy Spirit, using images of trees which differed in their fruits. As she approached to receive Holy Communion, the Lord “refreshed her heart by a Divine exhalation, which came forth from His sacred Limbs”. After Holy Communion, she saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove, “descending from Heaven upon the adorable Sacrament, with an impetuous flight like that of an eagle; and seeking the sweet Heart of Jesus, He appeared to enter therein, and find there a most agreeable abode.”

There was more to come.  At Terce, as the sisters began to chant Veni Creator, “Our Lord appeared to her and opened His Heart, full of sweetness and tenderness…”  St. Gertrude rested her head in the centre of His Heart, and the Lord pressed her head into Himself and united her will to His and sanctified it.  Then, during the second verse, Qui, Paraclitus diciris, St. Gertrude placed “the hands of her soul [her actions] in the Heart of Jesus.  At the third verse, Tu septiformis gratia (sic) [Thou Who art sevenfold in Thy Grace] St. Gertrude placed, “the feet of her soul [her desires] in the Sacred Heart…”

From The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude the Great (For the Vigil and Feast of Pentecost) pgs. 396-400) 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dear Lord, please send your Holy Spirit to us in the weeks ahead to enlighten our minds, hearts, and souls.  Help us to enter as fully as possible into the true meaning of Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  They come so quickly one upon the other that we can scarcely catch our breath. Breathe your Divine Breath into us.  Help us enter the Mystery.     

In case anyone was scandalized or confused by the choice of love songs in the previous post, let’s take a brief look at the mystical language of love, a language I’m sure was very familiar to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque’s soul.

In, “Fire Within”, Father Thomas Dubay tells us that, “the divine invasion leading to the consummation of the summit is indeed a fusion of unimaginable light and unspeakable love.  Hence, John [St. John of the Cross] speaks of the frequent experience of an intimate spiritual embrace.  This divine clasp or hug…can be so wonderfully overwhelming, notes John along with other mystics, that the soul needs an infusion of special strength to endure it….He remarks, for example, that the praises and endearing expressions of love which frequently pass between the two are indescribable….It is in this spiritual marriage of the summit that ‘the soul kisses God’…”  

Even if the summit of love has not yet been reached, the soul’s longing and desiring for a complete love-union with God has always been expressed with the language of passion.  Fr. Dubay writes, “The saints know what it is like to be in love, a love immeasurably beyond what worldlings label as love.  The delight is intense because the love is intense.  Teresa [of Avila] is a woman so keenly in love with her Lord that she must proclaim:  My King, I beseech You, that all to whom I speak become mad from Your love….This soul would now want to see itself free - eating kills it; sleeping distresses it…nothing other than You can give it pleasure any longer…and I would desire to see no other persons than those who are sick with this sickness I now have.” 

Sufi poet, Rumi, knew this love language well.  We will hear much in this video that is also at the heart of our own Catholic mystical tradition - Divine Love expressed in passionate poetry - the love that St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila and so many other saints have described:  the love that annihilates the ego, and brings the soul to Divine Union. 

Dedicated to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

[Click twice to hear Tracy Chapman's, "The Promise". Or go Here directly at YouTube.]