Thomas M. Santa - Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Sacred Heart
of Jesus

Imprimi Potest:
Richard Thibodeau, C.SS.R.
Provincial, Denver Province
The Redemptorists

Imprimatur:
+ Paul A. Zipfel, V.G.
Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of St. Louis

Copyright 1997, Liguori Publications
ISBN 978-0-7648-0343-7
Printed in the United States of America
10 11 12 13 11 10 9 8

All rights reserved. No part of this pamphlet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted without the written permission of Liguori Publications.

The meditations that follow appear in the ascetical works of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, collected and translated from the Italian by Eugene Grimm, C.SS.R. The meditations can be found in volume six, The Holy Eucharist, under the title, Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This new edition has been edited and excerpted for private prayer and devotion.

Scripture quotations are taken from The Christian Community Bible, Catholic Pastoral Edition, copyright 1995 by Liguori Publications. All rights reserved.

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Cover design by Grady Gunter

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a devotion that focuses attention on the physical heart of Jesus as the symbol of his redemptive love. Although tradition often situates the beginning of the practice of the devotion to the year 1000, it might be more accurate to place its birth during the time of the great mystics (Saint Anselm and Saint Bernard) between 1050 and 1150. By the middle ages, because of a strong emphasis on the passion of our Lord, and because of the efforts of Saint Bonaventure and Saint Gertrude the Great, the devotion became popularized as a means of worshiping the mystery of Christ, living in the Church.

This devotion was promoted by great saints, including Saint Albert the Great, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Francis de Sales, as well as great religious orders, such as the Benedictines, the Dominicans, and the Carthusians. However, it must be recorded that the saint who is most often associated with this devotion is Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690). Her private revelations promoted the establishment of a liturgical feast day and the practice of offering reparation for the outrages committed against the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Alphonsus was heavily influenced by Saint Margaret Mary in his own devotion to the Sacred Heart.

In modern times it was Pope Pius IX who, in 1856, established the feast of the Sacred Heart and encouraged the efforts of the Apostleship of Prayera confraternity of believers who encouraged groups, families, and communities to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart. In 1928 Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor on reparation to the Sacred Heart. In 1956 Pope Pius XII published his encyclical Haurietis aquas on the nature of devotion to the Sacred Heart.

The devotion is usually practiced in preparation for the feast of the Sacred Heart which is celebrated on the Friday following the second Sunday after Pentecost. It is also practiced in conjunction with the monthly First Friday observance that is traditional in many families and parishes.

the editor

The devotion of all devotions is love for Jesus Christ.

A devout author laments the sight of so many persons who pay attention to various devotions, but neglect devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There are many preachers and confessors who say great things, but speak little of love for Jesus Christ.

The love of Jesus Christ ought to be the principal, indeed the only devotion of a Christian. The love of Jesus Christ should be the only object and care of preachers and confessorsall should constantly inflame their listeners hearts with the love of Jesus Christ. To not do so is the reason why people make so little progress in virtue and remain groveling in the same defects. Lack of devotion to the Sacred Heart is the reason for frequent relapses into serious sin, because people pay scant attention, and are not sufficiently encouraged to acquire the love of Jesus Christ, which is the golden cord which unites and binds the soul to God.

For this reason the Eternal Word came into this world, to make himself loved: I have come to bring fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). For this reason the Eternal Father sent his son into the world, in order that he might make known to us his love, and thus obtain our love in return. The Father will love us in the same proportion as we love Jesus Christ: For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and you believe that I came from the Father (John 16:27). In addition, he gives us graces when we ask in the name of his son: Whatever you ask the Father in my Name, he will give to you (John 16:23). However, we will never be formed in the image of the Lord, nor even desire to be formed in his image, if we do not meditate upon the love which Jesus Christ has shown us.

For this purpose it is related in the life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation, that our Savior revealed to this servant his wish that the devotion and the feast of his Sacred Heart should be established and propagated in the Church. In this way, devout believers would, by their adoration and prayer, make reparation for the injuries his heart constantly receives from ungrateful humanity when he is exposed in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. It is also related that while this devout sister was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus Christ showed her his heart surrounded by thorns, with a cross on the top, and in a throne of flames. Behold the heart, she reports that Jesus spoke to her, that has loved humanity, and has spared nothing for them, even to consuming itself to give them pledges of its love, but which receives from the majority of people, no other return but ingratitude, and insults toward the sacrament of love.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is nothing more than an exercise of love toward our loving Savior. Therefore the principal object of this devotion, the spiritual object of this devotion, is the love with which the heart of Jesus is inflamed toward all.

Let us now attempt to satisfy the devotion of those who are enamored of Jesus Christ, and who desire to honor him in the most Holy Sacrament, by a novena of holy meditations and affections to his Sacred Heart.

The persons who show themselves amiable in all things must be truly loved. If only we dedicated ourselves to discovering all the good qualities by which Jesus Christ makes himself worthy of our love, we would all be required to love him. What heart can be found more worthy of love than the heart of Jesus? A heart all pure, all holy, all full of love toward God and toward us; because all his desires are only for the divine glory and our good. This is the heart in which God finds all his delight. Every perfection and every virtue reign in this heart.