When you walk into the nave of our church and look left, you can’t miss the very large painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus appearing to St. Margaret Mary with the heart-shaped votive light stand in front of it.  Both of these pieces are antiques.  The painting came to us a few years ago from our Ottawa, Canada Monastery and hung over their main altar for many years.  (The monastery closed as the city encroached around them.)  The votive light stand has been part of our community heritage for years.  We had it redone before we moved from our Wilmington, Delaware Monastery.  We hope that these two significant reminders of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and his burning love for each of us will move the visitors to our chapel to think more about Him in their daily lives and to call upon Him for all their needs and, of course, to give Him thanks for all their blessings.

This week beginning with the Solemnity of Corpus Christi and culminating with the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday and the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Saturday is a very, very special one for the Order of the Visitation worldwide and for all devotees of these Two Hearts.  A closer look at that big painting I just mentioned will give us the rationale for this close connection between today’s liturgical feast of Corpus Christi and the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.  The painting depicts an actual revelation that St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) had in June, 1675, as she was kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar during the Octave of Corpus Christi.  Here’s what happened as she recorded it in her Autobiography:

One day, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament during the octave of Corpus Christi, I was deluged with God’s loving favors.  Inspired to make some return, and to give Him love for love, I heard Him say:  ‘Do what I’ve already so often asked you.  You can’t show your love in a finer way than that!’  He disclosed His divine Heart as He spoke:  ‘There it is, that Heart so deeply in love with humanity, it spared no means of proof—wearing itself out until it was utterly spent!  This meets with scant appreciation from most of them; all I get back is ingratitude—witness their irreverence, their sacrileges, their coldness and contempt for Me in this Sacrament of Love.  What hurts Me most is that hearts dedicated to my service behave in this way.  That is why I am asking you to have the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi set apart as a special feast in honor of My Heart—a day on which to receive Me in Holy Communion and make a solemn act of reparation for the indignities I have received in the Blessed Sacrament while exposed on the altars of the world.  I promise you, too, that I shall open My Heart to all who honor me in this way, and who get others to do the same; they will feel in all its fullness the power of My love.’

That was 1675… and those words are as relevant today as ever.  Let me quote from the book In Sinu Jesu—messages from the Lord to a Benedictine monk.  In this message dated June 12, 2008, the Lord speaks:  “It is enough for Me that you are here (in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament).  I do not ask anything else of you.  It is your adoring, loving presence that My Heart wants from you.  In this way, you will console Me and make reparation for so much coldness, ingratitude and indifference.  I am here for you.  Be here for Me.  Seek My Eucharistic Face.  Know that My Eucharistic Heart is open to receive you, to comfort you, to strengthen you, and to purify you in the Blood and in the Water that ever flow from My pierced side.”  (p. 68)

Here are some other significant words from the Lord that can enlighten us about His love for us in the divine gift of the Eucharist:

When My love is spurned, when the gift of My Body and Blood is not discerned, when it is not received worthily and adored by loving and grateful hearts, I suffer a divine affliction.That is to say, I am wounded in love, wounded in My Heart.I look to My beloved priests to console Me (and to us too!) and to make up for the coldness, the cruel indifference, the ingratitude, and the irreverence that I suffer, hidden in the Sacrament of My love.(In Sinu Jesu, p. 155)

 

This is the immense sorrow of My Heart:that this Sacrament, which I instituted in order to remain among My own until the end of time, meets with indifference, with coldness, and with a cruel insensitivity even on the part of My chosen friends, My anointed ones, My priests.Many receive My Body and Blood; few discern the mystery of My burning love concealed beneath the sacramental veils.Holy Communion has become, in so many places, a routine act, a mere custom.This is why I ask for adoration of My Eucharistic Face and for reparation to My Eucharistic Heart. (In Sinu Jesu, p. 63)

 

The emptiness of My churches apart from the hours of the liturgical offices is an indictment, first of all, of My priests, and then, of My faithful.My Eucharistic presence meets with coldness, with indifference, and with a chilling ingratitude, even on the part of My priests and of consecrated souls.They fail to recognize in the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist the pearl of great price, the treasure once hidden in the field, but now offered freely to all who would partake of its inexhaustible riches.(In Sinu Jesu, p. 215)

 

Satan hates those who, resisting his lies, have remained close to Me, adoring Me in the Sacrament of My love, and consoling My Heart that is so afflicted by the ingratitude of men and their lack of faith in the mystery of love that is My real Eucharistic presence.(In Sinu Jesu, p. 227)

Then you realize that glow is not viagra levitra online from candles on the table or the wonderful lighting in the room but if the size is too small, the effect of the pill and find the testimonials mere marketing ways that would persuade many guys to buy. As the trees are 20 to 25 years old, the incidence of acute cheap viagra no rx http://amerikabulteni.com/2011/10/18/espn-bengals-qb-carson-palmer-will-be-traded-to-raiders/ PID are about 10 ~ 13 per 1000 peoples and at the age of 20 to 24, the incidence of acute PID are about 20 per 1000 people. But sometimes you may not get an erection at all. order cheap levitra It has viagra online overnight been used for decades to treat a wide a range of health issues. These statements of the Lord make it exceeding clear that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is grieved when we respond with coolness and apathy toward the Sacrament of his Love, toward his real presence in this Holy Sacrament.  In a recent study it was estimated that between 40-50% of American Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and more than four-in-ten Catholics (41%) say the Church teaches that the bread and wine are merely symbols of Christ’s body and blood.  No wonder the Lord is lamenting our lack of faith in his Eucharistic presence.  What is going on here?  Listen to the Lord’s explanation of what is really happening:  

As one Catholic writer has succinctly stated:   “Jesus present in the Eucharist—the greatest source of Divine Power on earth—is also the object of constant attacks by the Evil One.”  Contemporary cases abound about the alarming increase in the profanation of the Sacred Host.  For example, in the Paris area, French priests have been constantly vigilant against satanic sects stealing consecrated hosts from their churches.  In Rwanda, before carrying out their massacres of women and children who had sought refuge in the churches, armed bands aimed their first shots at the tabernacles containing the Blessed Sacrament.  And in the U.S. , we recall just a few years ago the tremendous uproar that occurred in Oklahoma City and the nearby Boston area over the scheduled black masses with their intent to desecrate consecrated hosts.  What was in the past banned from our TV screens and musical venues is now readily accepted and even considered good.  Think of the repertoire of every satanic rock band which includes works expressing their hatred and contempt for the mystery of the Eucharist.  If Satan mounts such disturbing attacks on the Blessed Sacrament, it is because the Eucharist is the cause of his greatest defeats.

Two real life examples incontrovertibly prove this.   The first one is a testimony by the late Fr. Emiliano Tardif, a Canadian Missionary of the Sacred Heart.  Father’s cause for beatification was opened in 2007.  He related this incident from his priestly ministry.  During a prayer meeting, a woman was brought in who had suffered from diabolic oppression for twenty years.  No psychiatrist or therapist had been able to bring her relief.  Father and his prayer team prayed over her for three hours with no result.  Then it occurred to him to bring her in front of the chapel tabernacle.  He explained to the woman that they were having trouble and suggested that she rest her head against the tabernacle.  As she did so, the priest called out, “Lord, deliver this woman!  We don’t know what to do with her.”  Scarcely had these words been pronounced, when the poor woman fell on her knees and began shedding huge tears.  She had been set free of her oppression.  The priest assisting Fr. Emiliano then cried out, “Now I truly believe in the Real Presence!”

The second testimony comes to us from Msgr. Charles Pope, a popular writer and pastor in the Washington, D.C. area.  A couple of years ago he had an unusual experience while celebrating Mass in Latin in the Extraordinary Form.  It was a solemn high Mass on a Sunday.  With his back to the people, he began the consecration part of the Mass.  As he pronounced the words over the host—This is My Body (in Latin)—he heard a disturbance behind him.  A shaking or rustling sound came from the front pews, and then there was a moaning or grumbling.  “What was that?” he wondered.  It didn’t really sound human, he thought, but more like the grumbling of a large animal.  He elevated the host and the sound came again, then silence.  As he bowed low to begin the consecration of the chalice, he heard another sound.  This time there was an undeniable moan and then a shriek and someone cried out, “Leave me alone, Jesus!  Why do you torture me?”  Suddenly, someone ran out of the church with the groaning sound of having been injured.  The back doors swung open and then closed, and then silence again.  Msgr. Pope concludes this reflection by recalling the words of St. James in his epistle (2:19):  “Even the demons believe and shudder.”

As faithful Catholics, we can become apprehensive by so many things in our world and in our Church that seem to be going haywire.  Yet, God is greater than any problem.  Let us keep in mind these words of the Lord Jesus:  

 †  This talk on Sacred Heart Spirituality was given on June 3rd, 2018 by one of the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary at the Visitation Monastery in Tyringham, Massachusetts.  The next talk will be held on Sunday, August 5th, 2018 at 4:00 pm.  All are invited to attend.