Jesus with this devotion promises abundant graces, peace and blessings

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is always current. It is founded on love and is an expression of love. "The most holy Heart of Jesus is a burning furnace of charity, a symbol and an expressed image of that eternal love with which" God so loved the world that he gave him his only-begotten son "(Jn 3,16:XNUMX)

The Supreme Pontiff, Paul VI, on various occasions and in various documents reminds us to return and draw often from this divine source of the Heart of Christ. «The Heart of Our Lord is the fullness of all grace and all wisdom, where we can become good and Christians, and where we can draw something to dispense to others. In the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus you will find consolation if you need comfort, you will find good thoughts if you need this inner light, you will find the energy to be consistent and faithful when you are tempted or of human respect or of fear or inconstancy. You will find above all the joy of being Christians, when there is our heart that touches the Heart of Christ ». «Above all, we desire that the cult of the Sacred Heart be realized in the Eucharist which is the most precious gift. In fact, in the sacrifice of the Eucharist our Savior himself immolates himself and is assumed, "always alive to intercede for us" (Heb 7,25:XNUMX): his heart is opened by the lance of the soldier, his blood precious mixed with water pours out on mankind. In this sublime summit and center of all the sacraments, spiritual sweetness is tasted at its very source, the memory of that immense love which in the Passion of Christ is celebrated is celebrated. Therefore it is necessary - using the words of s. Giovanni Damasceno - that "we draw near to him with ardent desire, so that the fire of our love drawn from this burning coal, burns our sins and enlightens the heart".

These seem to us to be very opportune reasons why the cult of the Sacred Heart which - we say saddened - has faded in some, flourishes more and more, and is esteemed by all as an excellent form of piety necessary which in our times is required by the Vatican Council there, so that Jesus Christ, firstborn of the risen, may realize his primacy over everything and everyone "(Col 1,18:XNUMX).

(Apostolic letter "Investigabiles divitias Christi").

Jesus, therefore, opened his Heart to us, like a spring of water gushing for eternal life. Let us hurry to draw on it, as the thirsty deer runs to the source.

THE PROMISES OF THE HEART
1 I will give them all the graces necessary for their state.

2 I will put peace in their families.

3 I will console them in all their afflictions.

4 I will be their safe haven in life and especially on the point of death.

5 I will spread the most abundant blessings over all their endeavors.

6 Sinners will find in my heart the source and ocean of mercy.

7 Lukewarm souls will become fervent.

8 Fervent souls will rise rapidly to great perfection.

9 I will bless the houses where the image of my Sacred Heart will be exposed and venerated

10 I will give priests the gift of moving the hardest hearts.

11 The people who propagate this devotion of mine will have their name written in my Heart and it will never be canceled.

12 To all those who will communicate for nine consecutive months on the first Friday of each month I promise the grace of the final penance; they will not die in my misfortune, but they will receive the sacred minds and my Heart will be their safe haven in that extreme moment.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is already in itself a source of grace and holiness, but Jesus wanted more to attract and bind us with a series of PROMISES, one more beautiful and more useful than the other.

They constitute as "a small Code of love and mercy, a splendid synthesis of the Gospel of the Sacred Heart".

12 ° "THE GREAT PROMISE"

An excess of His love and His omnipotence defines Jesus as his last promise that the faithful in chorus have defined as "great".

The great promise, in the terms set by the last textual criticism, sounds like this: «I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that my almighty love will grant to all those who will be communicated for nine first Fridays of the month, consecutive, the grace of penance; THEY WILL NOT DIE IN MY DISGRACE, but they will receive the holy Sacraments and my Heart will be them sure asylum in that extreme moment ».

From this twelfth promise of the Sacred Heart was born the pious practice of the "First Fridays". This practice has been scrupulously examined, ascertained and studied in Rome. In fact, the pious practice together with the "Month at the Sacred Heart" receives solemn approval and valid encouragement from a letter that the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites wrote at the behest of Leo XIII on 21 July 1899. From that day on he wrote encouragement from the Roman pontiffs for pious practice are no longer counted; suffice it to recall that Benedict XV had such an esteem for the "great promise" that he included it in the bull of ca-nonization of the fortunate Seer

Spirit of First Fridays
One day Jesus, showing His Heart and complaining about the ingratitudes of men, said to St. Margaret Mary (Alacoque): "At least give me this consolation, make up for their ingratitude as much as you can ... You will receive me in Holy Communion with the greatest frequency. that obedience will allow you… You will make Communion every first Friday of the month… You will pray with Me to mitigate the divine anger and to ask for mercy towards sinners ».

In these words Jesus makes us understand what the soul should be, the spirit of the monthly Communion of the first Fridays: a spirit of love and reparation.

Of love: to reciprocate with our fervor the immense love of the divine Heart towards us.

Of reparation: to console him for the coldness and indifference with which men repay so much love.

This request, therefore, of the practice of the First Fridays of the month, must not be accepted only to comply with the nine Communions and thus receive the promise of final perseverance, made by Jesus; but it must be a response from an ardent and faithful heart that wishes to meet with the One who has given him his whole life.

This Communion, understood in this way, leads with certainty to a vital and perfect union with Christ, to that union which He promised us as a reward for Communion well done: "He who eats of Me will live for Me" (Jn 6,57, XNUMX).

For Me, that is, he will have a life that is similar to His, he will live that holiness that He desires.