Hello and welcome to my blog! Thank you so much for stopping by. I chose to publish my blog on the feast day of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, as she has been my most faithful mother and I owe so much to her. I hope that you have a beautiful feast day and remain close to her heart today.
As June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I thought it would be fitting to make my first post a small reflection on a beautiful prayer that I just encountered this month. We are nearing the end of the month of the Sacred Heart, but this devotion is so beautiful that I hope we keep meditating on its sweetness as the year flows on.
St. Gertrude’s prayer in its entirety is sublimely beautiful, but there is one petition in particular that caught my eye: Unchangeableness of the Heart of Jesus, strengthen my heart.
For many, if not all, of us, life is constantly changing and unpredictable. What a blessing to know that we have solid ground in the heart of Jesus. What a grace to know that we have a friend who will never leave us or betray us; for, having once loved us into existence, He can never not love us! What a gift to know that He constantly awaits us in the Eucharist; for the Eucharist is the heart of God. This is something I was reflecting on after learning that in several Eucharistic miracles, the substance of bread has turned into actual living heart tissue.
The Eucharist and the Heart of Jesus are the same thing; and so, it is the Eucharist that we can run to when we feel like a little boat tossed around by the waves of life – for it is in the Eucharist that we find an unchanging love and all the strength we need to carry our crosses. How Our Lord longs for us to run to Him so that He can feed us with Himself and give us supernatural strength. He Himself said to St. Faustina:
Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a feeble image and likeness of My love. (Diary of St. Faustina, 1447)
Dwelling in the afterglow of the luminous feasts of Corpus Christi and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we possess the sweet consolation of knowing how deeply loved we are and that Love awaits us every moment.
Below is St. Gertrude’s prayer to the Sacred Heart. The petitions are so beautiful and each worth pondering.
Sanctity of the Heart of Jesus, consecrate my heart.
Providence of the Heart of Jesus, watch over my heart.
Unchangeableness of the Heart of Jesus, strengthen my heart.
Purity of the Heart of Jesus, purify my heart.
Obedience of the Heart of Jesus, subjugate my heart.
Amiability of the Heart of Jesus, make Thyself known to my heart.
Divine attractions of the Heart of Jesus, captivate my heart.
Riches of the Heart of Jesus, do ye suffice for my heart.
Floods of grace and blessing that flow from the Heart of Jesus, inundate my heart.
O Heart of Jesus! Be thou my joy, my peace, my repose in this world and in the next. Amen.
The next time you are feeling anxious or sorrowful, remember St. Margaret Mary’s words: “The Divine Heart is an ocean full of all good things, wherein poor souls can cast all their needs; it is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness, an ocean of humility to drown our folly, an ocean of mercy to those in distress, an ocean of love in which to submerge our poverty.”
In the Hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
Hannah
The Imperishable Jewel 