Feast Days

Friday and Saturday were Feast Days of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary respectively. I was hoping there would be some pomp in the church but we just had a quiet renewal of our promises at home. It's like on March 25th. How I wish it were like Christmas, full of great music and great ceremony. Anyway. My poor little heart bursts with inexpressible sorrow for my sins and sings with gladness for dear Heart Jesus. I am ever grateful for all the lovely writers throughout the ages who have composed the most magnificent prayers, from the royal psalmist David to Jesus Himself to St. Ambrose and St. Thomas Aquinas to the Pope Pius XI who composed this prayer of reparation.
 

Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before you, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which your loving Heart is everywhere subject.
 

Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow you, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of your law.
 

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against you; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holy-days, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against you and your Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which your Vicar on earth and your priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of your divine love, and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which you have founded.
 

Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of your divine honor, the satisfaction you once made to your Eternal Father on the cross and which you continue to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of your Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of your grace, for all neglect of your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending you and to bring as many as possible to follow you. O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to you, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, God, forever and ever. Amen.
 

Note: Devotion to the Sacred Heart is very old and there is a wonderful book Sacred Fire that I reviewed earlier. 

ETA: Just returned from Mass and I was delighted that we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart as an external Solemnity. A feast celebrating Love Himself. The priest reminded us that our human hearts are compelled to return that love as best as we can.