Devotion to the Sacred Heart in June: day 8
8nd 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. - Repair for those who rebel against the will of God in suffering.
THE CROSS
Jesus presents us with his Divine Heart surmounted by a small Cross. The sign of the Cross, distinctive of every Christian, is particularly the badge of the devotees of the Sacred Heart.
Croce means suffering, renunciation, dedication. Jesus for our redemption, to show us his infinite love, underwent all kinds of pain, to the point of giving his life, humiliated like an evildoer with the death sentence.
Jesus embraced the Cross, carried it on his shoulders and died nailed to it. The Divine Master repeats to us the words he said during his earthly life: Whoever wants to come after me, deny himself, take up his cross and follow me! (S. Matteo, XVI-24).
Worldly do not understand the language of Jesus; for them life is only pleasure and their concern is to keep away everything that requires sacrifice.
The souls who aspire to Heaven must consider life as a fighting time, as a trial period to demonstrate their love to God, as a preparation for eternal happiness. To follow the teachings of the gospel, they must hold back their passions, go against the spirit of the world and resist the pitfalls of Satan. All this requires sacrifice and constitutes the daily cross.
Other crosses presents life, more or less heavy: poverty, contrasts, humiliations, misunderstandings, diseases, bereavements, disillusions ...
The little souls in the spiritual life, when they enjoy and everything goes according to their tastes, full of love of God, (as they believe!), Exclaim: Lord, how good you are! I love you and bless you! How much love you bring me! - When instead they are under the weight of the tribulation, not having the true love of God, they come to say: Lord, why do you treat me badly? … Have you forgotten me? ... Is this the reward of the prayers I do? ...
Poor souls! They do not understand that where there is the Cross, there is Jesus; and where Jesus is, there is also the Cross! They do not think that the Lord shows his love for us by sending us more crosses than consolations.
Some Saints, some days when they had nothing to suffer, complained to Jesus: Today, O Lord, it seems that you have forgotten me! No suffering you have given me!
Suffering, although repugnant to human nature, is precious and must be appreciated: it detaches itself from the things of the world and makes it aspire to Heaven, it purifies the soul, making the sins committed repair; increases the degree of glory in Paradise; it is money to save other souls and to free those of Purgatory; it is a source of spiritual joy; it is a great consolation for the Heart of Jesus, which awaits the offering of sufferings as reparation for the offended divine love.
How to behave in suffering? First of all pray, by resorting to the Sacred Heart. No one can understand us better than Jesus, who says: O all of you, who labor and are under the weight of tribulation, come to me and I will refresh you! (Matthew 11-28).
When we prayed, we let Jesus do it; He knows when to free us from tribulation; if he frees us immediately, thank him; if he delays in fulfilling us, let us thank him equally, fully conforming to his will, which always acts for our greater spiritual good. When one prays in faith, the soul is strengthened and raised again.
One of the promises made by the Sacred Heart to its devotees is precisely this: I will console them in their afflictions. - Jesus does not lie; therefore trust in Him.
An appeal is made to the devotees of the Divine Heart: Do not waste suffering, not even the smallest ones, and offer them all, always with love to Jesus, so that He may use them for souls and to console his Heart.
I am your son!
A solemn celebration had taken place in a very noble Roman family. His son Alessio had married.
In the prime of the years, with a noble bride, master of immense wealth ... life presented itself to him as a flower garden.
The same day of the wedding Jesus appeared to him: Leave, my son, the delights of the world! Follow the way of the Cross and you will have a treasure in Heaven! -
Burning with love for Jesus, without saying anything to anyone, on the first night of the wedding the young man left the bride and the house and went on a journey, with the intention of visiting the main churches in the world. Seventeen years the pilgrimage lasted, sowing devotion to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary as it passed. But how many sacrifices, privations and humiliations! After this time, Alessio returned to Rome and went to the paternal house without being recognized, asking his father for alms and begging him to accept him as the last servant. He was admitted to the service.
Stay in your home and live as a stranger; have the right to command and be subject; being able to be honored and receive humiliations; to be rich and to be considered poor and to live as such; and all this for seventeen years; how heroic in a true lover of Jesus! Alessio understood the preciousness of the Cross and was happy to offer God the treasure of suffering every day. Jesus supported and comforted him.
Before dying he left a writing: «I am Alessio, your son, the one who on the first day of the wedding abandoned the bride».
At the moment of death, Jesus glorified the one who had loved him so much. As soon as the soul died, in many churches in Rome, while the faithful had gathered, a mysterious voice was heard: Alessio died as a saint! ...
Pope Innocent Primo, having known the fact, ordered that Alessio's body be brought with the highest honor to the Church of San Bonifacio.
Countless miracles God worked at his sepulcher.
How generous Jesus is with souls who are generous in suffering!
Foil. Do not waste suffering, especially the small ones, which are the most frequent and easiest to bear; offer them with love to the Heart of Jesus for sinners.
Ejaculation. God be blessed!