First Prelude: Behold Jesus in the tabernacle revealing to us His love-inflamed Heart, and pleading: “My child, give Me thy heart!”
Second Prelude: Teach me, O my Jesus, to realize the essence of perfect abandonment, and give me grace to practice it.
First Point
The Sacred Heart of Jesus Teaches Us Perfect Abandonment
“He hath loved me and delivered Himself for me,” says the apostle (Gal. 2, 20).
Oh, that we would realize what sacrifices of love the total surrender of the Saviour comprised! Full of compassion He took upon Himself the fatiguing labors, sufferings and humiliations of His earthly career. His Heart was ready for any sacrifice. Beholding our Divine Exemplar, let us learn the effects that devotion to the Sacred Heart should produce in us. To give our all to God, to accept all things at His hands, to suffer for love of Him, to discharge for His honor whatever obedience enjoins upon us, is, in very deed, conforming our heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Let us, therefore, say with the Psalmist: “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready” (Ps. 107, 2).
Oh, how God is glorified by such a complete surrender! How the confidence it implies honors Him, and how He is constrained to be, as it were, at the beck of souls so completely His own. He observes their every thought, desire and inclination. He counts the steps they take on the path of perfection, that He may bestow His graces in the measure of their fidelity. Total surrender to God is the securest way to sanctity, and, therefore, to true happiness. Blessed, indeed, are souls who surrender themselves wholly to Jesus and His love, desiring nothing, seeking nothing, save God alone. Weighed down with crosses they still remain calm, placid and resigned, in the conviction that nothing can befall them, no temptation assail them unless God permits it for their good, and at the same time, imparts the energy necessary to achieve the victory over difficulties.
Let us strive more and more to forget self and all creatures to think solely of God and the accomplishment of His Divine Will, that Jesus may lead us, too, on the way of perfect abandonment to sanctity and true happiness.
Is it my daily endeavor to see God in everything and to please Him alone?
Second Point
The Sacred Heart of Jesus Teaches Us Constant and Generous Abandonment
“Few men,” says St. Francis de Sales, “attain to perfect abandonment to God.” Few realize the entire worth of it, and still smaller is the number of those who strive for it perseveringly. Perfect surrender of the soul consists in loving nothing save the Will of God, in being indifferent to sickness or health, joys or sorrows, temptations, aridity, desolation, repugnance and resistance. Our Divine Saviour sets us the most beautiful example of perfect abandonment. His whole life was an uninterrupted act of abandonment to the Will of His heavenly Father, as He Himself testified when He said: “My food is to do the will of Him Who hath sent me” (John 4, 34).
Let us, then, learn from the Heart of Jesus the art of generous, self-immolating love, which, not content with merely saying, “I will what Thou wilt, O Lord,” cheerfully surrenders self, should God demand the sacrifice of our will, our judgment and inclinations.
Let us imitate our Divine Saviour, Whose love for us is unchangeable, Who immolated Himself for us, from the first moment of His earthly life, until the moment of His death on the cross; and Whose last word was an act of total surrender: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” How painful should it be to the Heart of the Saviour if souls chosen to be His spouses would hesitate to yield themselves up unconditionally to His loving guidance. Oh, let us consider that our happiness lies in the hands of the best of Fathers, Who loves us, Who knows what is salutary for us, Who can do all things because He is omnipotent. Am I of the number of those who ever so often immolate their heart to Jesus, but who reclaim it just as often, if He asks of them self-denial and renunciation?
Affections:
O Divine Heart of my Saviour, how could I refuse to follow Thy loving invitation! I come to Thee to draw from this inexhaustible source, the graces, the means of salvation and the consolations, which Thy love offers me in all my sufferings and needs. Take my heart, O Jesus, and possess it without reserve. How could I seek my happiness in anything except wholehearted immolation of myself to Thee, that I may live henceforth only under Thy beneficent reign. Replenish my heart, O Jesus, with a fiery and generous love, that by fervor and perfect abandonment my heart may resemble Thine. O Mary, Queen of hearts, reign in my heart, and imbue it with thy sentiments of complete surrender to the holy Will of God, under all circumstances.
Resolution:
I will frequently renew the unreserved oblation of my heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Spiritual Bouquet:
“My child, give Me thy heart!”
Prayer:
Soul of Christ, be my sanctification.
Body of Christ, be my salvation.
Blood of Christ, fill all my veins.
Water of Christ’s side, wash out my stains.
Passion of Christ, my comfort be.
O good Jesus, listen to me.
In Thy wounds I fain would hide,
Ne’er to be parted from Thy side.
Guard me should the foe assail me.
Call me when my life shall fail me.
Bid me come to Thee above,
With Thy saints to sing Thy love,
World without end. Amen.
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