THE FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Prayers for the Sacred Heart of Jesus from the Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion

 Twentieth Hour

O my Jesus, I kiss your Most Sacred Heart, and I thank You for all You have Suffered, Desired
and Yearned for, for Love of all and for each one in particular. I ask Your Forgiveness for the many evil desires, and for the affections and tendencies which are not good – Forgiveness, O Jesus, for many who place Your Love after the love of creatures. And to give You all the Glory that these have denied You, I offer You everything that Your Most Adorable Heart has done and continues to do.

Twenty Second Hour

O Jesus, I kiss your Most Sacred Heart, and I intend to enclose in It, with my soul, all the souls
redeemed by You, so that all may be saved – no one excluded. O Jesus, lock me in Your Heart, and close the doors, that I may see nothing but You. I promise You that every time the thought comes to me of wanting to go out of this Heart, immediately I will cry out: “Jesus and Mary, to You I give my heart and my soul.”

Twenty Fourth Hour

One last word: as I leave You (Celestial Mama), I pray You to enclose me in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus; and You, my sorrowful Mama, be my sentry, so that Jesus may not put me out of It; and I, even if I wanted, may not be able to leave. So I kiss your Maternal hand; and You, Bless me.

FROM THE LETTERS OF THE SERVANT OF GOD, LUISA PICCARRETA

Letter #20

“…Don’t you know that Redemption is preparation for the Kingdom of the Divine Will?  And the Sacred Heart of Jesus is nothing other than the immense Reign of His Will.  It is not the Heart that dominates; it is the Divine Will that dominates His Divine Heart.  Poor Heart, if it did not have a Will to dominate it, it would be good at nothing.  If the will is good, the heart is good; if the will is holy, the heart is holy.  If our will gives place to the Divine, letting It raise Its throne in our will, the heart acquires the divine qualities by grace.  Therefore, both in the Divine and in the human order, it is always the will that has the first place, the prime act, its rule.  The heart and all the rest are in the secondary order… Therefore, to say that the Heart reigns, if the Divine Will does not reign, is absurd.  They can be called devotions, pious practices…; if the Divine Will does not reign, the Kingdom does not exist.  It exists in Heaven, but has no place on earth.  However, the Holy Church, organ and messenger of the Supreme Fiat, through the Sacred Heart, through the Celestial Mama, beseeches the Kingdom of the Divine Will.  She does not say it with words, but says it with facts.  The Divine Volition is the King – His Heart, His wounds, His precious Blood, the sweet Queen, form the ministers that surround the King, and through them beseech the Kingdom of the Divine Will in souls.

Now, how can one know It?  All the necessary things, the different circumstances in which we may find ourselves, are Will of God for us.  If we are really determined to live in It, God is so pleased that, if miracles are needed, He will make them in order not to let us use our will.  It is up to us to truly decide, and be willing to give even our life in order to live in It; and dear Jesus and the Sovereign Queen will take on the commitment, will be our sentries, and will surround us with such graces as to not let us be betrayed by our own wills.  More so, since our Lord does not teach difficult things, nor does He impose them or want them, but He facilitates all that He wants from us in an admirable way; even more, He puts Himself in our place to make it easy for us, and does together with us all that He wants us to do.

FROM THE BOOK OF HEAVEN

V4 – ‘My most sweet Jesus, when will it be that You take this heart of mine to conform it completely to Yours, in such a way that I may live from the Life of Your Heart?’ While I was saying this, my highest and only Good took a lance and opened me at the place corresponding to my heart; then He pulled it out with His hands, and He looked at it thoroughly to see whether it was stripped and possessed those qualities to be able to be inside His Most Holy Heart. I too looked at it, and to my surprise I saw, impressed on one side of it, the cross, the sponge and the crown of thorns. But as I wanted to see the other side and the inside, for it seemed swollen as if it could be opened, my beloved Jesus prevented me, saying to me: “I want to mortify you (Luisa) by not letting you see all that I have poured into this heart. Ah, yes! Here inside this heart there are all the treasures of my graces that human nature can arrive at containing.” At that moment He enclosed it inside His Most Holy Heart, adding: “Your heart has taken possession within My Heart, and I will give You My Love as Heart,which will give you Life.” And drawing near that part, He sent three breaths containing light which took the place of my heart. Then He closed the wound, telling me: “Now more than ever is it appropriate for you to fix yourself in the center of My Will, having My Love alone as Heart. You must not go out of It even for one instant, for My love will find its true nourishment in you only if it finds My Will in you, entirely and completely. In It will My love find its contentment and true and faithful correspondence.”

V4 – While I am outside of myself, my adorable Jesus continues to show me my heart inside of His – but so transformed, that I can no longer recognize which one is mine and which one is Jesus’s. He has conformed it perfectly to His own; He has impressed on it all the insignia of the Passion, making me understand that, from the moment of His conception His Heartwas conceived with these insignia of the Passion; so much so, that what He suffered at the end of His life was an outpouring of that which His Hearthad suffered continuously. I seemed to see one just like the other. I seemed to see my beloved Jesus occupied with preparing the place in which He was to put the heart, perfuming it and bejeweling it with many different flowers. And while He was doing this, He told me: “My beloved, since you (Luisa) must live from My Heart, it is appropriate for you to undertake a more perfect way of living. Therefore, from you I want:

1. Perfect conformity to My Will, because you will only be able to love Me perfectly if you love Me with my own Will. Even more, I tell you that by loving Me with my own Will, you will arrive at loving Me, and your neighbor, with my same way of loving.
2. Profound humility, placing yourself, in front of Me and of creatures, as the last among all.
3. Purity in everything, because any slightest fault against purity, both in loving and in operating, is reflected all in the heart, and it remains stained. Therefore I want purity to be like dew upon the flowers at the rising of the sun, which, its rays reflecting upon them, transmutes those little drops into as many precious pearls, such as to enchant the people. In the same way, if all your works, thoughts and words, heartbeats and affections, desires and inclinations, are adorned with the celestial dew of purity, you will weave a sweet enchantment, not only for the human eye, but for the whole of Heaven.
4. Obedience, which must be connected with my Will, because if this virtue regards the superiors I have given you on earth, my Will is obedience which regards Me directly; so much so, that it can be said that both one and the other are virtues of obedience – with this difference alone: one regards God, and the other regards men. However, both of them have the same value, and one cannot be without the other; therefore you must love both one and the other in the same way.”

Then He added: “Know that from now on you will live with My Heart, and you must see things the way My Heart does,that I may find my satisfactions in you. Therefore be careful, for this is no longer your heart, but Mine.”

V12 – The three mortal wounds of the Heart of Jesus.

As I was in my usual state, my always lovable Jesus, in coming, showed me His adorable Heart, all full of wounds, from which rivers of blood gushed. All sorrowful, He told me: “My daughter, among the many wounds that my Heart contains, there are three wounds which give Me mortal pains and such bitterness of sorrow as to surpass all the other wounds together. These are the pains of my loving souls. When I see a soul, all Mine, suffering because of Me, tortured, crushed, ready to suffer for Me even the most painful death, I feel her pains as if they were Mine – and maybe even more. Ah! love can open the deepest gashes, to the extent of making one feel no other pains.

My dear Mama enters first into this first wound. Oh, how Her Heart, pierced because of My pains, overflowed into Mine, and felt vividly all of Its piercings! In seeing her dying, without dying, because of My death, I felt the torment, the cruelness of her martyrdom in My Heart, and I felt the pains of My death which the Heart of My dear Mama felt, and My Heart died together with Hers. Therefore, all My pains, united with the pains of My Mama, surpassed everything. It was right that My Celestial Mama had the first place in My Heart,both in sorrow and in love, because each pain suffered for love of Me opened seas of graces and of love, which poured into her pierced Heart. All the souls who suffer because of Me, and only out of love, enter into this wound. You yourself enter into it; and even if all offended Me and nobody loved Me, I would find in you the love which can compensate Me for all. Therefore, when creatures drive Me away and force Me to run away from them, I very quickly come to take refuge in you as though in My hiding place; and finding My own Love, not their own, and a Love suffering only for Me, I say: ‘I do not regret having created Heaven and earth, and having suffered so much. A soul who loves Me and who suffers for Me is all My contentment, My happiness, My reward for everything I have done’. And as though putting all the rest aside, I delight and play with her.

However, while this wound of My Heart is the most painful, such as to surpass everything, it contains two effects at the same time: it gives Me intense pain and highest joy; unspeakable bitterness and indescribable sweetness; painful death and glorious life. These are the excesses of my Love – inconceivable to created mind. In fact, how many contentments did My Heart not find in the sorrows of My pierced Mama?

The second mortal wound of My Heart is ingratitude. With ingratitude, the creature closes my Heart; even more, she herself turns the key with double locks. My Heart swells, wanting to pour out graces and love, but It cannot, because the creature has closed It, and has sealed It with her ingratitude. And I become delirious – I agonize, without hope that this wound of Mine may be healed, because ingratitude keeps embittering it more and more, giving Me mortal pain.

The third one is obstinacy. What a mortal wound for My Heart! Obstinacy is the destruction of all the goods I have done for the creature; it is the signature that the creature puts on her declaration that she no longer recognizes Me – that she no longer belongs to Me. It is the key of hell into which the creature hurls herself. My Heart feels this tearing; It is torn to pieces – and I feel one of these pieces being taken away from Me. What a mortal wound obstinacy is!

My daughter, enter My Heartand take part in these wounds of Mine. Compassionate My tormented Heart. Let us suffer together, and let us pray.” I entered into His Heart. How painful but beautiful it was to suffer and pray with Jesus.

V14 – As I was in my usual state, my always lovable Jesus made Himself seen holding many little lambs in His arms – some leaning on His breast, some on His shoulders, some clinging to His neck, some on the right, some on the left in His arms, and some peeking out with their little heads from within His Heart. However, the feet of all these little lambs were all in the Heart of Our Lord,and His breath was the nourishment He gave to them. They were all turned with their mouths toward the mouth of my sweet Jesus, to receive the nourishment of His breath. It was really beautiful to see how Jesus took highest pleasure, all intent in nourishing them and delighting with them; they really seemed as many births delivered by His Most Holy Heart. Then, turning to Me, He said: “My daughter, these little lambs that you see in my arms are the children of my Will, legitimate births from my Supreme Volition. They will come out from within my Heart, but will keep their feet in the center of my Heart, so that they may take nothing from the earth, and may be concerned with nothing but Me alone. Look at them, how beautiful they are; how clean and nourished they grow, fed by my breath alone. They will be the glory, the crown of Creation.”

V16 – (Luisa says): “…my adorable Jesus came, all goodness, and showing me His opened Heart, told me: “My daughter, place your head upon My Heart and rest, for you are very tired. Then, we will wander around together in order to show you my “I love you’s”, spread over the whole of Creation for you.”

So I hugged Him, placing my head on His Heart to rest, as I felt extreme need of it. After a while, as I was still outside of myself, but always clinging to His Heart, He added: “My daughter (Luisa), I want you, who are the Firstborn Daughter of My Supreme Will, to know how the whole Creation, on the Wings of My Eternal Volition, brings my “I love you” to the creatures; and the creatures, on the same Wings of My Will, making It their own, should give Me their “I love You” in return.

V16 – “My daughter, you gave Me a dwelling in you on earth, and I keep you in Heaven inside My Heart; so, while being on earth, you are with Me in Heaven. The Divinity delights with the Little Daughter of the Supreme Volition, having her in Heaven with Itself. And since We have Our Little Daughter in Heaven and on earth, it is not worthwhile for Us to destroy the earth, as Justice would want to do, since creatures deserve it. At the most, many cities will disappear; the earth will open abysses in several places making lands and people disappear, and wars will decimate it, but out of regard for Our Little Daughter, We will not destroy it, having given her the task to make our Will live on earth.

V16 – I was thinking of the sorrows of the Most Holy Heart of Jesus. Oh, how my pains disappeared when compared to His! And my always adorable Jesus told me: “My daughter, the sorrows of My Heart are indescribable and incomprehensible to human creature. You must know that every beat of My Heart was a distinct pain. Every heartbeat brought Me a new pain, one different from the other. Human life is a continuous palpitating; if the heartbeat ceases, life ceases. And so now imagine what torrents of pain each beat of My Heart brought Me. Up to the last moment of My dying, from My Conception to My last heartbeat, it did not spare Me from bringing Me new pains and bitter sorrows.

However, you must also know that My Divinity, which was inseparable from Me, watching over My Heart, while letting a new sorrow enter at each heartbeat, in the same way, at each heartbeat, It let enter new joys, new contentments, new harmonies and celestial secrets. If I was rich in sorrow and My Heart enclosed immense seas of pain, I was also rich of happiness, of infinite joys and of unreachable sweetness. I would have died at the first heartbeat of pain, if the Divinity, loving this Heart with infinite Love, had not let each heartbeat resound in two within My Heart: sorrow and joy, bitterness and sweetness, pains and contentments, death and life, humiliation and glory, human abandonments and divine comforts. Oh, if you could see My Heart, you would see all possible imaginable sorrows centralized in Me, from which creatures rise again to new life, and all contentments and divine riches, flowing in My Heart like many seas, as I diffuse them for the good of the whole human family.

But who shares more in these immense treasures of My Heart? For those who suffer more, for each pain, for each sorrow, there a special joy in My Heart, which follows that pain or sorrow suffered by the creature. Pain renders her more dignified, more lovable, more dear, more worthy of sympathy. And since My Heart drew upon Itself all divine sympathies by virtue of the pains suffered, in seeing pain in the creature, which is a special characteristic of My Heart, watching over this pain, with all My Love I pour upon her the joys and contentments which My Heart contains. But to My highest sorrow, while My Heart would want to let My joys follow the pain I send to the creatures, not finding in them the love of suffering and the true resignation which My Heart possessed, My joys still follow pain, but in seeing that the pain has not been received with love and honor and with highest submission, My joys do not find the way to enter that sorrowful heart and, grieving, they return to My Heart.

Therefore, when I find a soul who is resigned, who loves suffering, I feel her as though regenerated within My Heart, and – oh, how sorrows and joys, bitterness and sweetness, alternate. I hold nothing back of all the goods which I can pour upon her.”