Devotion to the Sacred Heart in June: day 2
Our Father, who art in heaven, may your name be sanctified, your kingdom come, your will be done, as in heaven as on earth. Give us our daily bread today, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Invocation. - Heart of Jesus, victim of sinners, have mercy on us!
Intention. - Thank Jesus who died on the Cross for us.
OTHER REVELATIONS
Saint Margaret Alacoque did not see Jesus once. We therefore consider other revelations, to fall in love more with the sublime devotion to the Sacred Heart.
In a second vision, while the Holy Sister prayed, Jesus appeared luminous and showed her his Divine Heart above a throne of fire and flames, emanating rays from all sides, brighter than the sun and more transparent than a crystal. There was visible the wound he had received on the cross from the centurion's spear. The heart was surrounded by a crown of thorns and topped with a cross.
Jesus said: «Honor the Heart of a God under the figure of this Heart of flesh. I want this image to be exposed, so that the insensitive hearts of men are touched. Everywhere she will be exposed to be honored, all sorts of blessings will come down from heaven ... I have a burning thirst to be honored by men in the Holy Sacrament and I find almost no one who tries to satisfy my desire and to alleviate this thirst of mine, giving me some exchange of love ".
Hearing these complaints, Margherita became sad and promised to repair the ingratitude of men with her love.
The third great vision took place on the first Friday of the month.
The SS. Sacramento and the Alacoque stood in adoration. The sweet Master, Jesus, shining with glory, appeared to her, with the five wounds that shone like five suns. From every part of his Holy Body, flames came out, and especially from his adorable Chest, which resembled a furnace. Open the Chest and his Divine Heart appeared, the living source of these flames. Then he said:
«Behold that Heart which has loved men so much and from whom it receives only ingratitude and contempt in return! This makes me suffer more than I had to suffer in my Passion ... The only reciprocation that they make me for all my desire to do them good is to reject me and treat me coldly. At least console me as much as possible. " -
At that moment such an intense flame rose from the Divine Heart, that Margaret, thinking that it would be consumed, begged Jesus to have mercy on her weakness. But He said, "Don't be afraid of anything; just pay attention to my voice. Receive Holy Communion as often as possible, especially on the first Friday of each month. Every night, between Thursday and Friday, I will make you take part in the overwhelming sadness that I felt in the Garden of Olives; and this sadness will reduce you to a harder agony to bear the same death. To keep me company, you will get up between eleven and midnight and remain prostrate in front of me for an hour, not only to appease divine anger, asking for forgiveness for sinners, but also to somehow mitigate the bitterness that I I tried in Gethsemane, seeing myself abandoned by my Apostles, who forced me to scold them because they had not been able to watch over an hour alone with me ».
When the apparition ceased, Margherita passed out. Found that she was, crying, supported by two sisters, she left the choir.
The good Sister had much to suffer from the incomprehension of the Community and particularly of the Superior.
A conversion
Jesus always grants graces, giving the health of the body and especially of the soul. The newspaper "The new people" - Turin - January 7, 1952, carried an article by a famous communist, Pasquale Bertiglia, converted by the Sacred Heart. As soon as he returned to God, he closed the communist party's card in an envelope and sent it to the Asti section, with the motivation: "I want to spend the rest of my life in Religion". It was decided at this step after the healing of his nephew Walter. The boy lay ill in his home in Corso Tassoni, 50, in Turin; he was threatened with infantile paralysis and his mother was desperate. Bertiglia writes in his article:
«I felt myself dying from pain and one night I could not sleep at the thought of my sick nephew. I was away from him, in my home. A thought flashed that morning: I got out of bed and entered the closet, once occupied by my dead mother. Above the back of the bed was an image of the Sacred Heart, the only religious sign that remained in my home. After forty-eight years I did not do it, I knelt and said: "If my child heals, I swear I will not curse anymore and change my life!"
"My little Walter healed and I went back to God."
How many of these conversions does the Sacred Heart work!
Foil. As soon as you get out of bed, get on your knees towards the nearest Church and worship the Heart of Jesus living in the Tabernacle.
Ejaculation. Jesus, Prisoner in the Tabernacles, I adore you!