Sacred Heart of Jesus

Saint John Eudes

Saint John Eudes is a saint’s name really unknown to many. But when you read what he did, you realize his importance for the life of the Church and for our personal devotion to the sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the priesthood and preaching on the them of mercy.

“How culpable are we, if, instead of honoring the sacerdotal dignity, we degrade it; if instead of behaving worthily in the holy surroundings and becomingly handling holy things, we sully them with sacrileges; and if, instead of seeking only the glory of our master and the salvation of souls, we run after the glory of the world and our own particular interests.” (St. John Eudes)

Influenced by the teaching of the French school and the teaching of Saint Francis de Sales, as we see in his Treatise on the Love of God, with distinct revelations of the Benedictines Saint Gertrude and Saint Mechtilde, John Eudes was completely dedicated to the Divine Heart because it is keenly an acceptance of the Incarnation.

The French devotion to the SacredHeart of Jesus through Bérulle’s devotion to the Incarnate Word, Eudes saw the value of being a witness to the gentleness and warmth of Saint Francis de Sales. Eudes’ intuition was correct because an emphasis on the humanity of Lord’s heart is a fact taught through the centuries but overlooked as unimportant by some. How did he manage this? Eudes was able to move the individual and private character of the devotion into a devotion for the whole Church by locating the Sacred Heart’s devotion into the sacred Liturgy. In the Liturgy of the Church you realize that Catholics dovetail the community in prayer (Holy Mass and the Divine Office) and the personal prayer of an adherent. Writing the prayer texts first for his own religious communities which were approved by several local bishops before spreading throughout the Church. Pope Leo XIII spoke of John Eudes’ heroic virtues in 1903, gave him the title of “Author of the Liturgical Worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Holy Heart of Mary“.

John Eudes taught the mystical unity of the hearts of Jesus and Mary and wrote: “You must never separate what God has so perfectly united. So closely are Jesus and Mary bound up with each other that whoever beholds Jesus sees Mary; whoever loves Jesus, loves Mary; whoever has devotion to Jesus, has devotion to Mary.”

The most striking characteristic of the teaching of St. John Eudes on Devotion to the Sacred Heart-as indeed of his whole teaching on the spiritual life—is that Christ is always its centre.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Two of my friends, one from France and another from the Swiss Cantons, hadn’t heard of the reasons for the devotion to Sacred Heart or of the persons of Saint Margaret Mary and Saint Claude. Even the image of the Sacred Heart was puzzling to them. Both of these people are young, and one is a convert. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that today’s feast is one of the most theologically profound of the year. The Preface for the Mass (Novus Ordo) reads:

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give You thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lifted high on the cross, Christ gave His life for us, so much did He love us. From His wounded side flowed blood and water, the fountain of sacramental life in the Church. To His open heart the Saviour invites all men to draw water in joy from the springs of salvation.

The Preface for the 1962 Missal reads:

It is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation, that we should in all times and in all places give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, and everlasting God; who didst will that Thine only begotten Son should be pierced by the soldier’s lance as He hung upon the Cross: that from His opened heart, as from a sanctuary of divine bounty, might be poured out upon us streams of mercy and grace; and that in His heart always burning with love for us, the devout may find a haven of rest, and the penitent a refuge of salvation.

Our theology of the Heart of Jesus revealed in this one phrase: “Unus militum lancea latus eius aperuit, et continuo exivit sanguis at aqua.” And we know from St. Justin Martyr (d. 165) that “We the Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as from a rock.”

Ultimately, what the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart teaches us that we have been given the grace that we should not let the enemies of true religion set the agenda of life. So often the image of the divine secularists point to is an abstract god who has no relation to humanity in any way. The Christian’s response is that we believe in a God who is love, revealed in the Incarnate Son, Jesus. For the French there is the reminder of the Vendée and for the Mexicans there are the Cristeros…indeed, we have the Lord.

What follows is a anthology for the feast:

The Sacred Heart is shown wounded, encircled by a crown of thorns, surmounted by a Cross, and aflame with love for mankind. This symbol springs from the vision of the Sacred Heart had by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

“There is in the Sacred Heart the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love in return.” — Pope Leo XIII

The heart has always been seen as the “center” or essence a person (“the heart of the matter,” “you are my heart,” “take it to heart,” etc.) and the wellspring of our emotional lives and love (“you break my heart,” “my heart sings,” etc.) Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to Jesus Christ Himself, but in the particular ways of meditating on his interior life and on His threefold love — His divine love, His burning love that fed His human will, and His sensible love that affects His interior life. Pope Pius XII of blessed memory writes on this topic in his 1956 encyclical, Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion To The Sacred Heart).Below are a few excerpts which help explain the devotion:

54. …the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His eternal Father and all mankind.

55. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since “in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

56. It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused.

57. And finally — and this in a more natural and direct way — it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body.

58. Since, therefore, Sacred Scripture and the official teaching of the Catholic faith instruct us that all things find their complete harmony and order in the most holy soul of Jesus Christ, and that He has manifestly directed His threefold love for the securing of our redemption, it unquestionably follows that we can contemplate and honor the Heart of the divine Redeemer as a symbolic image of His love and a witness of our redemption and, at the same time, as a sort of mystical ladder by which we mount to the embrace of “God our Savior.”

59. Hence His words, actions, commands, miracles, and especially those works which manifest more clearly His love for us — such as the divine institution of the Eucharist, His most bitter sufferings and death, the loving gift of His holy Mother to us, the founding of the Church for us, and finally, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and upon us — all these, We say, ought to be looked upon as proofs of His threefold love.

60. Likewise we ought to meditate most lovingly on the beating of His Sacred Heart by which He seemed, as it were, to measure the time of His sojourn on earth until that final moment when, as the Evangelists testify, “crying out with a loud voice ‘It is finished.’, and bowing His Head, He yielded up the ghost.”Then it was that His heart ceased to beat and His sensible love was interrupted until the time when, triumphing over death, He rose from the tomb.

61. But after His glorified body had been re-united to the soul of the divine Redeemer, conqueror of death, His most Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat with calm and imperturbable pulsations. Likewise, it will never cease to symbolize the threefold love with which He is bound to His heavenly Father and the entire human race, of which He has every claim to be the mystical Head.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart has two elements: consecration and reparation:

We consecrate ourselves to the Sacred Heart by acknowledging Him as Creator and Redeemer and as having full rights over us as King of Kings, by repenting, and by resolving to serve Him.

We make reparations for the indifference and ingratitude with which He is treated and for leaving Him abandoned by humanity.

To carry out these general goals of consecration and reparation, there are quite specific devotions authorized by the Church.

Specific Devotions

From the earliest days of the Church, “Christ’s open side and the mystery of blood and water were meditated upon, and the Church was beheld issuing from the side of Jesus, as Eve came forth from the side of Adam. It is in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that we find the first unmistakable indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Through the wound in the side, the wounded Heart was gradually reached, and the wound in the Heart symbolized the wound of love.” (Catholic Encyclopedia)

St. John Chrysostom (b. ca. 347) in his 85th Homily on the Gospel of St. John wrote:

For “there came forth water and blood.” Not without a purpose, or by chance, did those founts come forth, but because by means of these two together the Church consisteth. And the initiated know it, being by water indeed regenerate, and nourished by the Blood and the Flesh. Hence the Mysteries take their beginning; that when thou approachest to that awful cup, thou mayest so approach, as drinking from the very side.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s vision of the Sacred HeartThe waters of Baptism, and the Blood of the Eucharist, pouring forth from Christ’s side, brought the Church into existence just as Eve was formed from Adam’s side. And just as God took man and “breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul,” so at the Pentecost did the Holy Ghost come down over the Church and bring Her to life.

General devotion to the Sacred Heart, the birthplace of the Church and the font of Love, were popular in Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries, especially in response to the devotion of the Benedictine St. Gertrude the Great (b. 1256), but specific devotions became even more popularized when St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), a Visitation nun, had a personal revelation involving a series of visions of Christ as she prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. She wrote, “He disclosed to me the marvels of his Love and the inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart.” Christ emphasized to her His love — and His woundedness caused by Man’s indifference to this love.

He promised that, in response to those who consecrate themselves and make reparations to His Sacred Heart:

He will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.

He will establish peace in their homes.

He will comfort them in all their afflictions.

He will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death.

He will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.

Sinners will find in His Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
Lukewarm souls shall become fervent.

Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.

He will bless every place in which an image of His Heart is exposed and honored.

He will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.

Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in His Heart.

In the excessive mercy of His Heart that His all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in His disgrace, nor without receiving their sacraments. His divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” — Matthew 11:29

God’s heart, as the expression of his will, is spoken of twenty-six times in the Old Testament. Before God’s heart men and women stand judged. […]

Yet another passage of the Old Testament speaks of God’s heart with absolute clarity: it is in the eleventh chapter of the book of the Prophet Hosea, whose opening lines portray the Lord’s love for Israel at the dawn of its history: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos 11:1). Israel, however, responds to God’s constant offer of love with indifference and even outright ingratitude. “The more I called them”, the Lord is forced to admit, “the more they went from me” (v. 2). Even so, he never abandons Israel to the power of its enemies, because “my heart”—the the Creator of the universe observes—“recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender” (v. 8).

The heart of God burns with compassion! On today’s solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus the Church presents us this mystery for our contemplation: the mystery of the heart of a God who feels compassion and who bestows all his love upon humanity. A mysterious love, which in the texts of the New Testament is revealed to us as God’s boundless and passionate love for mankind. God does not lose heart in the face of ingratitude or rejection by the people he has chosen; rather, with infinite mercy he sends his only-begotten Son into the world to take upon himself the fate of a shattered love, so that by defeating the power of evil and death he could restore to human beings enslaved by sin their dignity as sons and daughters. But this took place at great cost—the only-begotten Son of the Father was sacrificed on the Cross: “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (cf. Jn 13:1). The symbol of this love which transcends death is his side, pierced by a spear. The Apostle John, an eyewitness, tells us: “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (cf. Jn 19:34). […]

To be “in” Jesus Christ is already to be seated in heaven. The very core of Christianity is expressed in the heart of Jesus; in Christ the revolutionary “newness” of the Gospel is completely revealed and given to us: the Love that saves us and even now makes us live in the eternity of God.

Benedict XVI
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
19 June 2009

Sacred Heart of Jesus as personal encounter

There are a number of things which distinguish Catholic piety and the is celebrated each year by the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of those marks. Let me be quite clear: one’s devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not one devotion among many. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the center, the source and summit, of our Catholic faith. It is what distinguishes us from non-believers but most importantly it proclaims from the rooftops what it means to be a person fully alive in God and seeking life with God in heaven.

What does our devotion to the Sacred Heart teach us? This devotion is about the intimacy between Jesus and us as an intimate union of the heart.

What hear revealed in sacred Scripture is that the work of the Lord is effect a change in our heart opening in us the capacity to love Him as He loves, by loving world with the Eucharistic heart of Jesus.

In 2014, the Church honor the Lord’s Love for Humanity 19 days after Pentecost Sunday on June 27.

As you know, each month of the calendar year is dedicated to some aspect of the Paschal Mystery: June is dedicated to the Heart of Jesus. Over the two millennia of the Church’s existence some aspect of the Sacred Heart’s devotion is made known, often through private revelations: we can thing of Saint Gertrude, Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque, Saint John Vianney, Saint Faustina, Blessed Francisco de los Hoyos, among others. One ought not forget that Father Karl Rahner and the Servant of God Father Pedro Arrupe had keen devotions to the Heart of Jesus. All these people call out for us to reconcile out life with that of the Lord’s promises.

Probably the most known devotee to the Heart of Jesus is Saint Margaret Mary –with her spiritual father the Jesuit Saint Claude la Colombiere– in Paray-le-Monial, France, 1673.

Prayer to Jesus the Christ has a particular character because He is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity: the Good Shepherd, brother, friend, the God-man totally in love with each one of us, our Lord and Savior, our King, etc. So, Jesus is not as good as Buddha. The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is about the person of Jesus Himself.

Our meeting the Sacred Heart of Jesus in prayer is an encounter with the divine-man who heals, teaches, and conquers evil in his essential being as the person who, first and foremost, loves. Jesus does all these things because of His love. In art we see this portrayed in the image of the heart pierced with Love pouring out all kinds of grace from His Heart we call Sacred.

The object of devotion of the Sacred Heart is the real, physical heart of Jesus, which is sacramentally present, really and truly, in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is Christ’s body and blood given for us on the cross, the body that contained His Sacred Heart.

The Heart of Jesus is about the Lord’s Presence, and not a project, a particular work, no matter how good it is. This is something the head of Communion and Liberation, Father Julián Carrón has been teaching us with great force. The Presence of Jesus is in our total life– our joys and sufferings, our work and leisure, our heart and mind, with our friends, family and enemies: absolutely nothing is left out.

How can we remind ourselves of this Presence? A few good options: daily prayer (uniquely in the Litany of the Sacred Heart), a weekly hour hour in front of the Eucharistic Lord (in the Sacrament); making the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home, observing the Nine Consecutive First Friday Masses, making a personal Consecration to the Sacred Heart, and reception of Holy Communion in with the intention of making reparation for those who do not love Him, especially priests. But you can adopt very simply the Little Flower’s approach: do all things with love.

In these blog pages I speak of the sacrament of the Church as the Lord’s way of being present to the world today. This idea follows, among many reasons, from the thought of Saint Leo the Great who reminded us that what was seen in the Savior is now seen His Church. The sacramentality offered to us in the 7 sacraments is about a certainty in the Lord’s desire for intimacy with us. But his intimacy requires us to cooperate with the sacramental graces to remain united to His Sacred Heart. My dear friend French Jesuit Father Bertrand de Margerie (+2003) always emphasized that the intimacy we ought to have with the Lord is brought about through one’s frequent confession and reverent reception of Holy Communion which he bases his teaching on Pauline theology.

In the end, one’s devotion is about answering who Jesus is. Other questions: do you expect to meet Christ? Do you believe that Jesus is the Sole Mediator? Do you personally embody of the virtue (holiness) of the Sacred Heart? Do you attend to the words of consecration prayed by the priest at Mass? Do you really, substantially believe that Jesus saves souls with his love, having mercy on each and every sinner? Do you believe that we are meant to be with God the Father in heaven?

Pledge to the Sacred Heart, assisting the break with addiction to alcohol

If you are one who experiences difficulty with alcohol, the month of June might be the perfect month in which to make the Pledge to the Sacred Heart, and Join the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association, after the example of Venerable Servant of God Matt Talbot.

The Venerable Matt Talbot (1856 – 1925) was in his early teens until age 28 had been a life devoted to liquor. Because of a priest, when Matt went to confession, he “took the Pledge” against drinking for three months. Tempted to drink many times, but with God’s grace and the support of others, he renewed the pledge for life, never touching alcohol again. He was sober for 41 more years.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Today is the liturgical memorial of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. The Church proposes yet another fine example of love for our spiritual life. With the help of her confessor Saint Claude, Saint Margaret Mary sparked a renewal of dedicating Fridays to the Lord’s Crucifixion and a devotion to the Sacred Heart.

As we know, Jesus revealed to St Margaret Mary how deep and intense his love for the human race is. How shall we respond to his love?

A prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart is found here.

This poetic text by J. Michael Thompson gives perspective to the relationship Saint Margaret Mary points to:

Both blood and water came flowing in streams

from the opened side of the Redeemer:

blood, which bought back all creation;

water, gushing forth to endless life!

Let the righteous hasten, let not the sinner be fearful;

the fountain of the Savior’s heart stands open endlessly:

blood, which bought back all creation;

water, gushing forth to endless life!

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit:

blood, which bought back all creation;

water, gushing forth to endless life!

The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

With the Church we pray…

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who glory in the Heart of your beloved Son and recall the wonders of his love for us, may be made worthy to receive an overflowing measure of grace from that fount of heavenly gifts.

At the period of Jesus’ coming upon this earth, man had forgotten how to love, for he had forgotten what true beauty was. His heart of flesh seemed to him as a sort of excuse for his false love of false goods: his heart was but an outlet, whereby his soul could stray from heavenly things to the husks of earth, there to waste his power and his substance. To this material world, which the soul of man was to render subservient to its Maker’s glory–to this world, which, by a sad perversion, kept man’s soul a slave to his senses and passions–the Holy Ghost sent a marvelous power, which, like a resistless lever, would replace the world in its right position: it was the sacred Heart of Jesus; a Heart of flesh, like that of other human beings, from whose created throbbings there would ascend to the eternal Father an expression of love, which would be a homage infinitely pleasing to the infinite Majesty, because of the union of the Word with that human Heart. It is a harp of sweetest melody, that is ever vibrating under the touch of the Spirit of love; it gathers up into its own music the music of all creation, whose imperfections it corrects, whose deficiencies it supplies, tuning all discordant voices into unity, and so offering to the glorious Trinity a hymn of perfect praise. The Trinity finds its delight in this Heart. It is the one only organum, as St. Gertrude calls it, the one only instrument which finds acceptance with the Most High. Through it must pass all the inflamed praises of the burning Seraphim, just as must the humble homage paid to its God by inanimate creation. By it alone are to come upon this world the favors of heaven. It is the mystic ladder between man and God, the channel of all graces, the way whereby man ascends to God, and God descends to man.

Dom Prosper Guéranger, OSB

The Liturgical Year

Prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Fridays are a great time to recommit oneself to the loving Heart of Jesus. It is our Catholic faith, and enduring tradition, to carry in our heart and mind that the reason for the Incarnation is the outpouring of Love by the Blessed Trinity for all humanity is real and beautiful. Several things to do: make an act of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus once a month and pray the Daily Offering. The Apostleship of Prayer is a good Catholic work to follow in this regard. Moreover, praying for the needs of the Church and the Holy Father is part-and-parcel of being united to the Heart of Christ (the intentions are posted here on the first day of the month) and consecrating the home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by enthroning the image of Christ in the home are fitting observances to build the Kingdom. You may also want to join the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I might add that reading Pope Benedict XVIs commemorative letter on the 50th anniversary of Haurietis Aquas is a good thing to do. The Servant of God Pope Pius XII wrote Haurietis Aquas, on the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Prayer of Consecration the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

I, ….., give myself to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I consecrate to him my person and my life, my actions, pains, and sufferings, so that henceforth I shall be unwilling to make use of any part of my being except for the honor, love, and glory of the Sacred Heart.

My unchanging purpose is to be all his and to do all things for the love of him while renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to him.

I take you, O Sacred Heart, as the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, the assurance of my salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all my faults, and the sure refuge at my death. O Heart of goodness, be my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger.

O Heart of love, I place all my trust In you, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from your goodness and bounty.

Consume in me all that can displease you or resist your holy Will. Let your pure love imprint you so deeply upon my heart that I shall nevermore be able to forget you or be separated from you. May I obtain from all your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in you, for I desire to place in you all my happiness and all my glory, living and dying in virtual bondage to you.

Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” Behold I knock, I seek and ask for the grace of…… (here name your request)

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Behold, in your name, I ask the Father for the grace of…….(here name your request)

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

O my Jesus, you have said: “Truly I say to you, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.” Encouraged by your infallible words I now ask for the grace of…..(here name your request)

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us miserable sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of you, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, your tender Mother and ours.

Pray the Hail, Holy Queen and add: St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us.

Memorare to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Remember, O Jesus meek and humble of Heart, that, in what need soever, no one, who had recourse to Thy most loving Heart, was ever rejected or sent away empty. Animated with such a confidence, O Jesus, I come to Thee: burdened with miseries, I fly to Thee, and, with my miseries, I throw myself on Thy Heart. Do not, O my God, my Father, cast off me, Thy all-unworthy child, but give me admittance, I beseech Thee, into Thy Heart; nor suffer me ever to be separated therefrom. Aid me, I entreat Thee, in all my wants, now and forever, but, above all, at the hour of my death, O most benign! O most compassionate! O most sweet Jesus!

Prayer to the Wounded Heart of Jesus Lanspergius, a Carthusian monk

O my Most Loving and Gentle Jesus, I desire with all the affections of my heart, that all beings should praise Thee, honor Thee and glorify Thee eternally for that sacred wound wherewith Thy divine side was rent. I deposit, enclose, conceal in that wound and in that opening in Thy Heart, my heart and all my feelings, thoughts, desires, intentions and all the faculties of my soul. I entreat Thee, by the precious Blood and Water that flowed from Thy Most Loving Heart, to take entire possession of me, that Thou may guide me in all things. Consume me in the burning fire of thy holy Love, so that I may be so absorbed and transformed into Thee that I may no longer be but one with Thee. Amen.

Saint Claude la Colombière

A pivotal saint for our time is the Jesuit Father Saint Claude la Colombière (1641-82) known mostly for being spiritual director of Saint Margaret Mary. He died on the First Sunday of Lent.

Saint Claude was a great believer in Divine Providence, Love and Mercy as revealed by Christ Himself and pledged himself to this mission. Both of these saints were instrumental in the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Father Claude was devoted to working with the poor.

It is said that the day after his death, Saint Margaret Mary received supernatural assurance that Father Claude needed no prayers, as he was in already heaven.

Pope John Paul II, during the canonization of Saint Claude said,

The past three centuries allow us to evaluate the importance of the message which was entrusted to Claude. In a period of contrasts between the fervor of some and the indifference or impiety of many, here is a devotion centered on the humility of Christ, on his presence, on his love of mercy and on forgiveness. Devotion to the Heart of Christ would be a source of balance and spiritual strengthening for Christian communities so often faced with increasing unbelief over the coming centuries.

Saint Mechtilde of Hackeborn

The Church celebrates two Benedictine friends in several days: Saints Mechtilde and Gertrude. By today’s standards of canonizations, neither were formally canonized by the Church; until recently Hildegard enjoyed a canonization status only observed in Benedictine communities. Her liturgical observance is recognized more universally today. Pope Benedict XVI spoke eloquently of Saint Mechtilde of Hackeborn at a 2010 Wednesday Office. The Pope gives a superb insight into the person of Saint Mechtilde that is extraordinarily helpful.

Saint Mechtilde (1240-1298), the sister of Gertrude of Hackeborn (not Gertrude the Great [celebrated on Nov. 16], thought there is great confusion about this relation) attended the monastery school where her sister was a nun and after graduation she entered monastic life. Like Gertrude the Great Saint Mechtilde was known as a serious and gifted student and teacher. Someone described her having a “voice of a songbird.” Her wonderful personality was an asset for her Benedictine community and it likely led to her being a 40 year abbess. As it turns out, Gertrude the Great was a student of Mechtilde’s. Both of whom had a profound love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Privacy issues today weren’t known in the 13th century. Mechtilde’s spiritual experiences were recorded by Gertrude. Though unnerved by the perceived violation of boundaries, the Lord assured her that it was OK. In time Gertrude’s work was the basis of Mechtilde’s “Book of Special Grace” or later known as “Revelations of Saint Mechtilde,” a book that is oriented to the liturgical year and focussed on Christology and Trinitarian theology. The Pope tells us that Mechtilde’s starting point is the sacred Liturgy and her mystical experiences relate us back to the liturgical experience through the lens of the biblical narrative. Saint Mechtilde ought to be one of the heavenly patrons of liturgical studies.

In several places you’ll read that Dante used Saint Mechtilde for his Donna Matelda of his volume of the Purgatorio, Canto XXVII. Whether is true is not yet known. That Dante’s Donna Matelda and Saint Mechtilde are mystics, one wonders if the saint is fictionalized.