A Meditation by St Thérèse of Lisieux
I need a heart burning with tenderness,
Who will be my support for ever,
Who loves everything in me, even my weakness…
And who never leaves me day or night.
I could find no creature
Who could always love me day or night.
I could find no creature
Who could always love me and never die.
I must have a God who takes on my nature
And becomes my brother and is able to suffer!
You heard me, only Friend whom I love.
To ravish my heart, you became man.
You shed Your blood, what a supreme mystery!
O Heart of Jesus, treasure of tenderness,
You Yourself are my happiness, my only hope.
You who knew how to charm my tender youth,
Stay near me till the last night…
Ah! I know well, all our righteousness is worthless in your sight.
To give value to my sacrifices,
I want to cast them into Your Divine Heart.
You did not find Your angels without blemish.
In the midst of lightning You gave Your law!
I hide myself in Your Sacred Heart, Jesus.
I do not fear, my virtue is You!
A Meditation by St John Henry Newman
O most sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still. Now as then Thou sayest, “With desire I have desired.” I worship Thee, then, with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will. O make my heart beat with Thy heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it; but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.
A Meditation by St John Eudes
The most loving heart of our benign Saviour is a burning furnace of most pure love for us; a furnace of purifying love, of illuminating love, of sanctifying love, of transforming love and of deifying love. His love is a purifying love, in which the hearts of holy souls are purified more perfectly than gold in the furnace; an illuminating love, which scatters the darkness of hell with which the earth is covered and lets us into the wonderful brilliance of heaven: “who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 P 2:9); a sanctifying love, which destroys sin in our souls in order to establish there the kingdom of grace; a transforming love, which transforms serpents into doves, wolves into lambs, beasts into angels, children of the devil into children of God, children of wrath and malediction into children of grace and blessing; a deifying love, which makes gods of men: “I have said: you are gods” (Ps 82:6), letting them share in the holiness of God, his mercy, his patience, his goodness, his love, his charity and his other divine perfections: “Partakers of the divine nature” (2 P 1:4). O divine love of my Jesus, I give myself wholly to you; purify me, enlighten me, sanctify me, transform me into you, that I may be naught but love for my God.
St Bernadine of Siena:
O Jesus, a soldier opened your side with his lance, so that, through the gaping wound, we might know the charity of your Heart, which loved us unto death, and that we might enter into your unutterable love through the same channel by which it came to us. Approach, then, O my soul, the Heart of Christ, that magnanimous Heart, that hidden Heart, that Heart which thinks of all things and knows all things; that loving Heart, all on fire with love. Make me understand, O Lord, that the door of your Heart was forced open by the vehemence of your love. Allow me to enter into the secret of that love which was hidden from all eternity, but is now revealed by the wound in your Heart.
St Bonaventure:
We too, pilgrims in the flesh, love as much as we can, and embrace the One who was wounded for us, whose hands, feet, side and Heart were pierced. Let us love and pray: ‘O Jesus, deign to bind our hearts, still so hard and unrepentant, with the chain of your love and wound them with its dart.’
These meditations and quotes are extracted from our booklet Sacred Heart: Prayers and Devotions. Explaining the effects of devotion to the Sacred Heart over the centuries, the booklet is a practical and simple way for people to foster a devotional spirit and can be used individually or in parish groups.
Order Sacred Heart: Prayers and Devotions today to learn more about the devotion and to pray to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.