Devotion to the Sacred Heart in June: day 7
7nd June
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. - To honor the Blood that Jesus scattered in the Passion.
BLOODY SORES
Let's take a look at the Sacred Heart. We see the Blood in the wounded Heart and the Wounds on the hands and feet.
The devotion to the five wounds and the Precious Blood is intimately united with that of the Sacred Heart. Since Jesus showed his sacrosanct wounds to St. Margaret, it means that he wishes to be honored as a bleeding crucifix.
In 1850 Jesus chose a soul to become an apostle of his Passion; it was with the Servant of God Maria Marta Chambon. The secrets and preciousness of the Divine Wounds were revealed to her. Here is the thought of Jesus succinctly:
«It pains me that certain souls consider devotion to the Wounds as strange. With my Holy Wounds you can share all the riches of Heaven on earth. You must make these treasures bear fruit. You don't have to be poor while your Heavenly Father is so rich. Your wealth is my Passion ...
«I have chosen you to awaken devotion to my holy Passion in these unhappy times in which you live! Here are my Holy Wounds!
Do not take your eyes off this book and you will surpass the greatest scholars in doctrine.
«Prayer to my wounds includes everything. Offer them continuously for the salvation of the world! Whenever you offer my Heavenly Father the merits of my Divine Wounds, you gain immense wealth. Offering him my wounds is like offering him his glory; is to offer Heaven to Heaven. Heavenly Father, before my wounds, puts justice aside and uses mercy.
«One of my creatures, Judas, betrayed me and sold my Blood; but you can buy it so easily. A single drop of my Blood is enough to purify the whole world ... and you don't think about it ... you don't know its value!
«Whoever is poor, come with faith and confidence and take from the treasure of my Passion! «The way of my wounds is so simple and easy to go to Heaven!
«The Divine Wounds convert sinners; they lift the sick into soul and body; ensure good death. There will be no eternal death for the soul that will breathe in my wounds, because they give true life ».
Since Jesus made known the preciousness of his wounds and his divine blood, if we want to be in the number of true lovers of the Sacred Heart, we cultivate devotion to the Holy Wounds and the Precious Blood.
In the ancient Liturgy there was the feast of the Divine Blood and precisely the first day of July. We offer this Blood of the Son of God to the Divine Father every day, and several times a day, especially when the Priest raises the Chalice to the Consecration, saying: Eternal Father, I offer you the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ in consideration of my sins, in suffrage of the holy souls of Purgatory and for the needs of the Holy Church!
Santa Maria Maddalena De 'Pazzi used to offer the Divine Blood fifty times a day. Appearing to her, Jesus said to her: Since you make this offer, you cannot imagine how many sinners have converted and how many souls have been freed from Purgatory!
Prayer is now circulating and so widespread, which is recited in the form of a Rosary, that is, fifty times: Eternal Father, I offer you the Blood of Jesus Christ for the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the sanctification of the Priests and the conversion of the sinners, for the dying and the souls of Purgatory!
It is so easy to kiss the Holy Plagues, using the small Crucifix, which one usually wears, or the one that is attached to the crown of the Rosary. Giving the kiss, with love and pain of sins, it is good to say: O Jesus, for your Holy Wounds, have mercy on me and the whole world!
There are souls who do not let the day go by without paying any respects to the Sacrosanct Plagues, with the recitation of five Pater and with the offering of five small sacrifices. Oh, how the Sacred Heart likes these delicacies of love and how it reciprocates with particular blessings!
While the subject of the Crucifix is presented, the devotees of the Sacred Heart are reminded to have a particular thought of Jesus every Friday, at three in the afternoon, the time when the Redeemer died on the bleeding Cross. At that moment, pray a few prayers, inviting family members to do the same.
Extraordinary gift
An elegant young man refused alms to a poor man, or rather he left in disdain. But immediately afterwards, reflecting on the wrong he did, he called him back and gave him a good offer. He promised God never to deny charity to anyone in need.
Jesus accepted this goodwill and transformed that worldly heart into a seraphic heart. He infused the contempt for the world and his glory, gave him love for poverty. At the school of the Crucifix the young man made great strides in the way of virtue.
Jesus also rewarded him on this earth and one day, taking his hand away from the Cross, he gave him a hug.
That generous soul received one of the greatest gifts that God can do as a creature: the impression of the wounds of Jesus in his own body.
Two years before he died he had gone to a mountain to begin his forty-day fast. One morning, while praying, he saw a Seraphim come down from heaven, who had six bright and fiery wings and his hands and feet pierced by nails, like the Crucifix.
Seraphim told him that he had been sent by God to signify that he should have had the martyrdom of love, in the form of the Crucified Jesus.
The holy man, who was Francis of Assisi, noticed that five wounds had appeared in his body: his hands and feet were bleeding, so also his side.
Lucky the stigmatized, who carry the wounds of the Crucified Jesus in the body!
Lucky are also those who honor the Divine Wounds and carry their memory in their hearts!
Foil. Keep a Crucifix on you and often kiss its wounds.
Ejaculation. O Jesus, for your holy wounds, have mercy on me and the whole world!