Novena in preparation for the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

SEVENTH DAY
Private worship to the Sacred Heart

The worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is first and foremost personal, for He has come to “reign over every heart.” Private worship consists in adoration, consecration and imitation.

The worship of Adoration takes place especially in the Holy Mass, in Holy Communion, in frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament and in prayer.

          1.The Worship of Adoration
Of all the ways in which we may participate in the Holy Mass, the way in which the devotion to the Sacred Heart suggests bears much fruit. It principally consists in realizing interior acts. Immediately after the Consecration, sustained by living faith, we will worship Jesus Christ and atone for all offenses, contempt and sin.

We must approach Communion, with humility and recognition of our insignificance, with spiritual hunger. This is a sign that we need His heavenly food; with purity of heart; and with love to Jesus Christ or, at least, with the desire to love him and to fulfil his will.

The most useful method for communicating well is to practice the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, because all preparation must be accompanied by a deep reflection on the admirable qualities of the divine food that we are going to receive. The intention to lead a righteous life and the generous forgetfulness of oneself – gifts of the Holy Spirit that are the reward of an active mortification – as well as the imitation of the virtues that we love in Jesus Christ, assure great fruits.

Jesus Christ has remained in the Eucharist to be with us continuously, and there is nothing that earns His heart more than frequent visits and adoration. That is when he usually distributes his graces with more abundance, and the most usual grace is to give us his love, especially when we make visits at those times of the day when hardly anyone is with Him.

During our visits to the Sacred Heart we have to meditate a lot and talk little. A silence filled with love and adoration is much more pleasing to Jesus Christ than a large number of prayers said in a hurry and with little attention. The boundless love of Jesus Christ has led him to give us this extraordinary proof of his love, but it seems that it has only served to bring from us extreme ingratitude.

Prayer is a very powerful weapon that God has left in the hands of Christians. There is no more effective means, nor any easier, than prayer to obtain love for Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, we forget. We could almost say that this powerful means to obtain love for Our Lord distances us more from Him, makes us afraid. We should not be afraid to make big requests or in a pressing way, believing that we are going to bother Jesus with our indiscretion or our inopportunity. The reason we get so little from God is because we ask very little or because we do not trust our prayers. Let us ask him at all times for his pure, ardent, generous and perfect love. We can be sure that he will listen to us, because Jesus Christ has promised not to reject anything we ask of him and will not fail in his promise: “Ask and you shall receive” (Mt 7, 7).

          2.Consecration
The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus leads us to offer our heart with all its sentiments to the Lord, so that he will conform it to His. We surrender to His Heart completely and with undivided love: it is His only, there is no place for any other creature.

In order to realize a true self-surrender, we must ask for the grace to reach perfect forgetfulness of ourselves.

          3.Imitation
True love leads to identification with the loved one. That is why one of the main effects of this devotion is the conversion of our inner and outer life into a living expression of the life of Jesus Christ. And for the imitation to be perfect, it is necessary a deep humility, a control of our passions, a complete dependence on Him and a great love of the Cross. The measure of these virtues in us will depend on our degree of love for Jesus Christ.

Let’s place ourselves in the presence of God in order to meditate upon these truths.

•Ask Our Lady the grace: to be able to console the Heart of Jesus for all the contempt and ingratitude received, especially by those closest to Him.
•Today’s resolution: Let us offer some gesture of charity towards someone (sick, poor, companions, relatives) to console the Heart of Christ.
•Jaculatory prayer of the day: (to be repeated throughout the day) For you, Jesus, I live; Jesus, for you, I die; I am yours, Jesus, in life and in death!

Novena in preparation for the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Lord Jesus Christ, the only redeemer of man,
look with love to those of us who are preparing to consecrate ourselves to Your Most Sacred Heart.
Open for us the eternal fount of your mercy,
that flows from your Heart opened on the Cross.
Through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
we want to be always and only yours: in life, in death, and eternity.
Let nothing separate us from your love!
Grant us a heart similar to yours, meek and humble, that listens to you and keeps your commands;
that is nourished of the Word and the Eucharist so that, rooted, edified and transformed in you, we can grow every day in desires of love and reparation to your Heart, pierced by the sins of men and that we can work tirelessly so you can reign in every heart and every society.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you.
Sweet Immaculate Heart of Mary, be my salvation.
All the angels and saints of God, pray for us.