A reflection for each day of the month of June, month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
A reflection for each day of the month of June.
Loving Heart of Jesus worthy of all love and all my adoration; Moved by the desire to repair and wash away the serious and numerous offenses committed against you, and to prevent myself from staining myself with the guilt of ingratitude, I offer you and consecrate my heart, my affections, my work and all my be.
Because my merits are poor, oh Jesus! I offer you my prayers, my acts of penance, humility, obedience and the other virtues that I will practice today and during my entire life until my last breath.
I propose to do everything for your glory, for your love and to comfort your Heart. I beg you to accept my humble offering through the most pure hands of your Mother and my Mother Mary.
Dispose of me and my things, Lord, according to the good pleasure of your Heart. Amen.
Father Leon Dehon
Day 1.- THE DIVINE HEART OF JESUS
The Heart of Jesus! A wound, a crown of thorns, a cross, a flame, “Here is the Heart that has loved men so much.” Who has given us that Heart? Jesus himself. He had given us everything: his doctrine, his miracles, his gifts of the Eucharist, his divine Mother. But man still remains insensitive to so many gifts. His arrogance makes them forget Heaven, his passions make them descend into the mud. It was then that Jesus himself turned a pious gaze on humanity; he appeared to his favorite daughter, Margarita María de Alacoque, to show her the treasures of her heart.
Day 2.- SOURCE OF SALVATION
On each page of the gospel, the Heart of Jesus speaks of faith. By faith Jesus heals souls, heals bodies and raises the dead. Each of the miracles is the fruit of faith; every word of his is an incitement to faith
Faith is necessary like the bread you eat, like the air you breathe. With faith you are everything; Without faith you are nothing. Often our faith is languid like a flame about to go out. When they make fun of your faith in the fields, in the houses, in the offices, in the stores, do you feel the courage to defend it without blushing, without human respect? When passions ferociously assault you, do you remember that with an act of faith you are invincible because God fights for you and with you?
Day 3. -THE CROWN OF THORNS
If you look at the Heart of Jesus, you experience a feeling of sorrow. He is crowned with thorns, blood flows, his Heart is pierced. It is the symbol of the life of Jesus. Born in the midst of suffering, he embraces pain, embraces a cross, carries it to Calvary, dies crucified.
Jesus values pain and creates a school: “Whoever wants to come after me, take up his cross” (Mt.16,24). It is a somewhat bitter phrase, a bit sad, but it is so. Christian pain is there to purify, to sanctify souls.
The cross that He gives you is the one that is good for you. He tries to have devotion to your cross; love her, as the Saints loved her, as Jesus loved her.
4.-THE LOVE OF GOD
Jesus loves you… and gives you his Heart, a symbol of love. On this heart a flame is lit that wants to spread and inflame all hearts. Jesus loves you!. I have come -says Jesus- to bring the fire of love on earth and what can I wish for but that this fire be lit?
Take a look at yourself. How do you respond to the love of Jesus? Do you love him with all your heart, with all your might?
In the morning, when you wake up, do you have a thought for Jesus? Do you pray any ejaculatory prayers to him during the day?
5.-THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD
Jesus spoke clearly: “If you love me, keep my commandments” Do you want to save yourself? Observe my commandments. There is no escape here: to love Jesus well and to save yourself, you need to do what He commands you: observe his holy commandments.
You have no choice but to obey. Yes, it is necessary to obey. But the obedience must be complete; observe them all and always.
God has not given five or seven commandments, but ten; and to hell goes the same for transgressing one as the ten. You don’t go to jail for committing many crimes; a single crime is enough.
6. -THE AGONY OF THE HEART OF JESUS
Jesus also cries. Do you remember the Garden of Olives? There, the Heart of Jesus was exposed to pain, to fear, to sadness. Here Jesus renews that sad scene for you. He asks for worshippers, he thirsts for souls, and he is alone, abandoned, forgotten. Only at night. Only on long days. Forever Alone. Will someone perhaps come to keep him company?
Jesus lives in the tabernacle and is abandoned by man. He wants to be his food and suffers rejection. She sheds his blood for him and sheds it uselessly.
In vain the Lord calls worshipers to his altar. In vain he calls souls to communion; but men are obstinate in living far from Him. That is why He is sad.
7.-THE MORTAL SIN
Jesus cries at the death of his friend Lazarus. Do you know why Jesus before the corpse of his friend cries, vibrates, prays?
Because it was a corpse. Here is your image when you fall asleep in sin. The invitations of the guardian angel, the prayers of the mother, the advice of friends, the corrections of the confessor are not enough. We want a miracle from Jesus. It is Jesus himself who must cry, shout, pray for you, raise his voice. And you so easily abandon yourself to sin?
With a mortal sin you lose everything, everything is lost. You are sensitive to all the most tender and delicate affections. don’t you feel anything by offending God, by putting him back on the cross? On your forehead is carved the image of God and you stain it to throw it in the mud.
8.-THE SCANDAL
The sweetest and humblest heart on earth is the Heart of Jesus. But this divine heart cannot remain indifferent in the face of the ruin of so many souls and it is then that it is moved and shouts: Woe to the world for scandals!
Jesus works for the salvation of souls; scandal steals souls from Jesus to give them to the devil. Jesus dies on the cross to redeem sinners; scandal ravages innocence, destroys and ruins the work of redemption.
Saint Augustine says that the scandalous will suffer as many hells as the souls that he has murdered. Examine yourself well. The Magdalena was scandalous, but she fixed it and became a saint. You do the same.
9. -THE VENIAL SIN
In the tribunal of Annas, Jesus receives a slap from a servant and in the humility of his Heart exclaims: Deliberate venial sin is a slap to Jesus; he does not put it on the cross as mortal sin, but it is always a grievance, an injustice, an offense.
What would we say of a servant who obeyed the commands of the master, but despised his wishes and his advice? What would we say of a son who slapped his mother? We do something worse with Jesus when we commit venial sin.
10.- THE MURMURATION
Take the life of Jesus and read it thoroughly: you will not see in Him a word of murmuring. The Sacred Heart is always Himself: He has a sweet word for the just and the sinners, a word of tenderness for his traitors, a word of forgiveness for those who crucify him. Over all he spreads the benign mantle of charity. That is why he hates gossip so much and makes a special rule: “Judge not and you shall not be judged,” he says.
To the extent that you judge others, you will be judged. Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye and not the log in yours?
11.-HUMAN RESPECT
Jesus is not worth half measures, insipid souls. He wants Christians only in one piece; he has an open heart for everyone, even for the most stubborn hearts, but he wants nothing to do with human respect. He many times he has told us that we cannot serve God and the world. He has made it clear that if we want to please the world, we are not with Him, we will be against Him.
You know that certain friendships are a continuous danger to the soul and you understand that they do not leave your conscience in peace and you do not feel strong enough to break that sad chain. How many times have you not observed the precepts of the Church so as not to flee from the criticism of some evil tongue?
Day 12.-THE CONFESSION
The Heart of Jesus is a father’s heart and as the father is always ready to forgive the faults of the son; the Heart of Jesus wants to find the means by which you can always find forgiveness for your sins.
They brought 10 lepers to Jesus and he told them, “Go and present yourselves to the priests.” They obeyed and were healed. Jesus thus wants to prepare us with the sacrament of Penance that he instituted when he said to his disciples: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained.”
The Council of Trent itself calls for confession, the second plank of salvation after shipwreck. And you don’t love her?
13.-DANGEROUS OCCASIONS
Until now we have taken from the Heart of Jesus those words that condemn sin. Now Jesus also wants to suggest to us the means by which we can avoid fleeing from dangerous occasions. There is no escape. Do you want to flee from sin? You must necessarily avoid occasions. Pray, confess, but if you don’t run away from dangerous occasions, everything will be wasted time. What are the companies you frequent? Perhaps there are people with whom you allow confidences that make your guardian angel cry? Is there perhaps a person who insinuates doubts about the faith, who whispers words that are repugnant to hear, who keeps you away from your practices of piety?
What are your amusements? Are they perhaps certain places where everyone loses their shame, where passions rise up impetuous?
14.-THE TEMPTATIONS
The apostles approached Jesus one day and said: “Master, you always invite us to pray; we are ignorant, teach us. And Jesus, always good, replied”: When you pray, do it like this: Our Father who art in heaven; and he taught them the stupendous Our Father prayer. Do you know why Jesus wants us to pray to the Father so as not to let ourselves fall into temptation? Because He knew that the devil would always tempt us and He wanted us to ask for heavenly help so as not to succumb to temptation. He himself allowed the devil to tempt him to give us an example.
15. -THE VALUE OF PRAYER
Jesus invites, recommends, imposes prayer, unites to it all grace, all blessing until eternal salvation. He himself prays everywhere and always: in the temple, in the Garden of Olives, on the mountain, on the waters, in the squares and in the synagogues.
San Pedro runs the risk of sinking in the waters and prays; prayer strengthens it. Martha and Mary ask crying before Jesus in the hour of pain and prayer comforts them.
The Apostles pray in the cenacle and the prayer makes the Holy Spirit descend with his heavenly gifts. And you, when do you pray? Only when you’re sick or when you want something to go right?
Pray always because you always need to stay close to your God.
16.- RESPECT FOR THE CHURCH
The holiest zeal has its most sublime manifestations; No…