Virgo Potens

(continued from above) ACT OF CONSECRATION To the Sacred Heart of our Saviour Jesus Christ I, N. N., give and consecrate myself to the Sacred Heart of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, troubles and sufferings, desiring no longer to make use of any part of my being except to honour, love, and glorify it. My irrevocable wish is to be His alone, and to do all for love of Him, renouncing with all my heart everything which can displease Him. I take thee, O Sacred Heart, for the sole object of my love, the protector of my life, the assurance of my salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconsistency, the repairer of all the faults of my life, and my sure asylum and refuge at the hour of my death. O Heart of goodness, be my justification towards God the Father, and turn aside the glances of His just displeasure. O Heart of Love, I place all my confidence in thee, for I fear everything from my malice and weakness, but hope everything from thy goodness. Consume in me all that may displease or resist thee. Imprint thy pure love so deeply in my heart that I may never forget or be separated from thee. I conjure thee by all thy goodness that my name may be written in thee, for I desire that all my happiness and glory in living or dying may consist in being thy slave. Amen. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

[T]oday, you will apply yourselves to recall to your minds all you have already studied of the revelations of the Heart of Jesus. Examine if you begin to understand. What does this picture say to you, with the Cross, the Crown, and the Wound of this Sacred Heart? What do the Flames say to you? Have you listened to the mysterious language of the looks, the tears, the sighs of Jesus, manifested to you in His Sacred Heart? Have you understood the sacred words by which He has declared His love, His tenderness, and above all His desires and sorrows? Have you faith in His promises? If Heaven has granted you this grace, hasten to respond to your loving Redeemer by the gift of yourself, and all that you have in the words of the Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of our Saviour composed by the saint for one of her sisters. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869) (continued below)

O you who are, or who fear you are, in this sad state of tepidity and indifference, hasten to have recourse to the Heart of Jesus! Pray to Him with confidence, and believe in His word; yes, you shall yet live for His glory and love; a spark of that flame which consumes His Heart shall fall upon yours, and will kindle in you that sacred fire which He came to cast on the earth, and wishes to see everywhere. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

June 29th ~ FEAST of Ss. PETER and PAUL, Apostles “Thou shalt make them princes over all the earth.” O GOD, Who hast consecrated this day to the martyrdom of Thy Apostles, Peter and Paul, grant that Thy Church may in all things follow the precepts of those through whom she first received the Faith. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. ~ (Collect, June 29, Ss. Peter and Paul, Apostles) (St. Joseph Daily Missal, 1956)

It is promised to tepid souls that they shall become fervent, if they have recourse to the Heart of Jesus; if at least they strive to make others honour and love Him, even by keeping or distributing the holy pictures of this devotion. Instead of continuing to disgust the Heart of their God, who was about to reject and cast them from Him, these languid souls would begin to touch Him with compassion, He would heal them, and love them once more. What a hope and consolation is this! ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

. . . all these graces will be given on condition only of being devout to the Sacred Heart; that is to say, to love and honour Him, to labour to the utmost to glorify Him, even if only by giving the sacred pictures representing the Sacred Heart to persons, that they may be gained to His love by this touching symbol of His love. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

June 27th: Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us! Mother dearest, Mother fairest, Help of all who call on thee, Virgin purest, brightest, rarest, Help us, help, we cry to thee. chorus Mary, help us, help, we pray. Mary, help us, help, we pray. Help us in all care and sorrow, Mary, help us, help, we pray. Lady, help in pain and sorrow, Soothe those racked on bed of pain. May the golden light of morrow Bring them health and joy again. chorus Mary, help us, help, we pray. Mary, help us, help, we pray. Help us in all care and sorrow, Mary, help us, help, we pray. Traditional Hymn

‘ He promised me specially to bless those places in which a picture of His Divine Heart is honoured and loved. He gave me to know that His Heart is the Holy of Holies, the Holy Love; and that He would turn aside those chastisements from us which our sins have deserved, and obtain mercy for us.’ ~ St. Margaret Mary Alacoque ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

In a spirit of humility this saint [St. Margaret Mary Alacoque] relates the words addressed to her by Jesus Christ as if she were speaking of another. ‘He often promised her,’ she says, ‘that those who were devout to the Sacred Heart should never perish; and that as He is the source of all blessings, He would bestow them abundantly in all places having a representation of the Sacred Heart, placed there to be loved and honoured; that by this means He would reunite divided families, would protect those in necessity, would shed abroad the sweet unction of ardent charity in all communities who honoured this sacred picture; that He would turn aside the strokes of God’s wrath from those who through sin had fallen away, and restore them to His grace; and would give a special grace of sanctification and salvation to the person who should first please Him by causing this holy image to be made.’ ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

‘I ardently thirst to be loved by men; but scarcely do I find any who endeavour to quench My thirst by showing Me any return of love.’ [Words of Our Saviour to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque] ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

June 24th ~ Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist The Church, throughout her entire Liturgy, commemorates three births: that of Jesus, that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that of St. John the Baptist. St. John has this singular honor because he was sanctified in his mother’s womb by the presence of Jesus, and leapt with joy at the coming of the Savior. Grant we beseech Thee, almighty God, that Thy household may advance in the way of salvation, and by following the exhortation of Blessed John, the precursor, may safely come to Him whom he foretold, even our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son. Who with Thee liveth and reignith in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. (Collect, June 23, Vigil of St. John the Baptist) (St. Joseph Daily Missal, 1956)

The loving Heart of Jesus, she [St. Margaret Mary Alacoque] says, is filled with an infinite longing to be known and loved by His creatures, in whom He wishes to establish His kingdom, the source of all blessings, and to provide for all their wants. . . . Jesus thirsts to be loved; all is condensed into this celebrated expression of St. Augustine. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

June 22nd ~ Feast of St. John Fisher “God can no more withhold his grace from a soul prepared to receive it than the sun can fail to shine through an open window.” St. John Fisher, pray for us.

‘O Jesus, Jesus,’ exclaims St. Bernard . . . ‘Thou hast said to Thine Apostles, and through them to us: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” I conjure Thee, good Jesus, my beloved and most dear Jesus, to tell me the reason, the cause, of so much love, and why Thou commandest us to love Thee and to dwell in Thy love? Tell me, so that those who love Thee not may hear it and may begin to love Thee; that those who have begun to love Thee may be consumed by a greater love of Thee!’ ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

“He who wishes to love God does not truly love Him, if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for His sake.” ~ St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591) Feast Day: June 21st

The love of Jesus, he [St. Bernard] says, is full of sweetness and charms. The heart is not tormented by it, but filled with delights; it is not weakened, but fortified; this love makes it despise all earthly things, and long only for heaven. He delights only in the law of His God, and is always faithful in performing His sacred precept . . . ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

Act of Charity My God, I love Thee, not because I hope for heaven thereby, Nor because they who love Thee not Must burn eternally. Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me Upon the Cross embrace ; For me didst bear the nails and spear, And manifold disgrace, And griefs and torments numberless, And sweat of agony, E’en death itself — and all for one Who was Thine enemy. Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ, Should I not love Thee well? Not for the sake of winning heaven Or of escaping hell ; Not with the hope of gaining aught, Not seeking a reward, But as Thyself hast loved me, O ever-loving Lord. E’en so I love Thee, and will love, And in Thy praise will sing, Solely because Thou art my God And my eternal King. ~ attributed to St. Francis Xavier ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

[L]ove is the source of all the sufferings of Jesus Christ. He suffered and died because He loved us; and in His mystic life His Heart suffers because of His love, and because He is not loved. [Our Saviour’s words to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque] He said to me, ‘Thou canst make Me no greater return than by doing that which I have so often asked of thee;’ and showing me His Divine Heart, said, ‘Behold this Heart, which has so loved mankind that it has spared nothing, even to exhaust and consume itself, to manifest its love to them. In return I receive from the greater number only ingratitudes, contempt, irreverence, sacrileges, and coldness in this Sacrament of My love.’ ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

[T]he most cruel sufferings of the Heart of Jesus are not caused by the contempt of strangers, who know Him not, nor by the irreverences of the impious who outrage Him, nor by the sacrileges of sinners who deliver Him to death in an impure heart, but by the coldness of those souls whom He has loaded with proofs of His tenderness, and whom He called to His love; the coldness and tepidity of His friends, His disciples, His priests, and His spouses. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)

In this revelation of the love of Jesus we see the extreme desire He had that men should love Him, and how greatly their want of love pained Him. And what was He about to do, that He might overcome their hearts and gain their love? He tells His spouse that He will give His Heart. ~ Father Alexis LeFebvre, Month of the Sacred Heart (1869)