Third Sunday after Pentecost

Reparation

Presence of God - Heart of Jesus, wounded for love of us, make me worthy to make reparation for all the wounds our sins have inflicted upon You.

Meditation

1. We find in the hymn for First Vespers of the Feast of the Sacred Heart the following words: "Lo, the proud, insolent procession of our offenses has wounded the innocent Heart of God." And even more realistically it continues: "The lance which the soldier wielded was directed by our sins" (Roman Breviary). These lines recall to our minds the words addressed by Jesus to St Margaret Mary: "Behold this Heart which so loved man...but which, in return for its love, finds only ingratitude; it meets only with forgetfulness, indifference, and outrages, and all this at times even from souls bound closely to it by the bonds of a very special love." A soul that loves God cannot remain indifferent to these complaints, it wants to expiate, repair and console, having "the most powerful motives", as Pius XI teaches, "of justice and love; of justice, in order to expiate the injury done to God by our sins....and of love, in order to compassionate the suffering Christ, patient and covered with opprobrium, and to bring Him insofar as our human weakness permits, some comfort in His sufferings" (Miserentissimus Redemptor). It is easy to understand that we must make reparation for our own sins, but sometimes we do not see as clearly that reparation should also aim at consoling the Heart of Jesus. "But indeed, can acts of expiation console Christ who now reigns happily in heaven?" asks Pius XI " 'Give me a lover and he will understand what I say' " (ibid.), replies the great Pope in the words of St. Augustine. In fact, a soul who lovingly penetrates the mystery of Jesus will realize that when, in Gethsemane, He saw all our sins, He also saw the good works we would do in order to comfort Him. What we do today with this intention consoled Him then in reality. This thought spurs us on to further acts of reparation, so that Jesus finds no reason to complain sorrowfully to us: "My Heart hath expected reproach and misery....I looked for one that would comfort Me, and I found none" (Mass of the Sacred Heart).

Colloquy
"O God why can I not bathe with my tears and blood all the places where your Heart has been insulted? Why am I not permitted to make reparation for so many sacrileges and profanations? ...Behold me, O Lord, my heart broken with grief, humbled and prostrate, ready to accept from Your hand all that it pleases You to ask me in reparation for so many outrages " (St Margaret Mary)

Fragments from "Divine Intimacy" by Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen, OCD.
Today's beautiful picture of Our Lord wounded Heart is posted here with permission of Micki from Holy Cards for Your Insipration