SACRED HEART OF JESUS NOVENA - FIRST DAY

                  The Amiable Heart of Jesus

He who shows himself amiable in everything must necessarily make himself loved. Oh, if we only applied ourselves to discover all the good qualities by which  Jesus Christ renders Himself worthy of our love, we should all be under the happy necessity of loving Him. And what heart among all hearts can be found more worthy of love than the Heart of Jesus? 

A heart all pure, all holy, all full of love towards God and towards us; because all His desires are only for the Divine glory and our good. This is the heart in which God finds all his delight. Every perfection, every virtue reign in this heart; —–a most ardent love for God, His Father, united to the greatest humility and respect that can possibly exist; a sovereign confusion for our sins, which He has taken upon Himself, united to the extreme confidence of a most affectionate Son; a sovereign abhorrence of our sins, united to a lively compassion for our miseries; an extreme sorrow. United to a perfect conformity to the will of God. 

In Jesus is found everything that there can be most amiable. Some are attracted to love others by their beauty, others by their innocence, others by living with them, others by devotion. But if there were a person in whom all these and other virtues were united, who could help loving him? If we heard that there was in a distant country a foreign prince who was handsome, humble, courteous, devout, full of charity, affable to all, I who rendered good to those who did him evil; then, I although we knew not who he was, and though he knew not us, and though we were not acquainted with him, nor was there any possibility of our ever being so, yet we should be enamored of him, and should be constrained to love him. How is it, then, possible that Jesus Christ, Who possesses in Himself all these virtues, and in the most perfect degree, and Who loves us so tenderly, how is it possible that He should be so little loved by men, and should not be the only object of our love? 

O my God, how is it that Jesus, Who alone is worthy of love, and Who has given us so many proofs of the love that He bears us, should be alone, as it were, the unlucky one with us, Who cannot arrive at making us love Him; as if He were not sufficiently worthy of our love! This is what caused floods of tears to St. Rose of Lima, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Teresa, St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, who, on considering the ingratitude of men, exclaimed, weeping, “Love is not loved, Love is not loved.”

Affections and Prayers

 O my amiable Redeemer, what object more worthy of love could Thy Eternal Father command me to love than Thee? Thou art the beauty of Paradise, Thou art the love of Thy Father, Thy heart is the throne of all virtues. O amiable heart of my Jesus, Thou dost well deserve the love of all hearts; poor and wretched is that heart which loves Thee not! Thus miserable, O my God, has my heart been during all the time in which it hath not loved Thee. But I will not continue to be thus wretched; I love Thee, I will always continue to love Thee, O my Jesus. O my Lord, I have hitherto forgotten Thee, and now what can I expect? That my ingratitude will oblige Thee to forget me entirely, and forsake me forever? No, my Saviour, do not permit this. Thou art the object of the love of God; and shalt Thou not, then, be loved by a miserable sinner, such as I am, who have been so favored and loved by Thee? O lovely flames that burnt in the loving heart of my Jesus, enkindle in my poor heart that holy fire which Jesus came down from Heaven to kindle on earth. Consume and destroy all the impure affections that dwell in my heart, and prevent it from being entirely His. O my God, grant that it may only exist to love Thee, and Thee alone, my dearest Saviour. If at one time I despised Thee, Thou art now the only object of my love. I love Thee, I love Thee, I love Thee, and I will never love anyone else but Thee. My beloved Lord, do not disdain to accept the love of a heart which has once afflicted Thee by my sins. Let it be Thy glory to exhibit to the Angels a heart now burning with the love of Thee, which hitherto shunned and despised Thee.

 Most holy Virgin Mary, my hope, do thou assist me, and I beseech Jesus to make me, by His grace, all that He wishes me to be. 

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

To the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose, namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take You, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.

 Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty.

Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart, that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You.

May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying in bondage to You. Amen.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus have Mercy on us!

Litany to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.

Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

God, the Son, Redeemer of the World, *

God, the Holy Ghost, *

Holy Trinity, one God, *

Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father, *

Heart of Jesus, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mother by the Holy Ghost, *

Heart of Jesus, united substantially with the word of God, *

Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty, *

Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God, *

Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High, *

Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven, *

Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity, *

Heart of Jesus, vessel of justice and love, *

Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love, *

Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues, *

Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise, *

Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts, *

Heart of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, *

Heart of Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity, *

Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father is well pleased, *

Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received, *

Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills, *

Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy, *

Heart of Jesus, rich to all who invoke Thee, *

Heart of Jesus, fount of life and holiness, *

Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins, *

Heart of Jesus, saturated with reviling, *

Heart of Jesus, crushed for our iniquities, *

Heart of Jesus, made obedient unto death, *

Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance, *

Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation, *

Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection, *

Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation, *

Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins, *

Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who hope in Thee, *

Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee, *

Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints, *

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Jesus, meek and humble of Heart, make our hearts like unto Thine.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son and upon the acts of praise and satisfaction which He renders unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, in Thy great goodness, grant pardon to them who seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end. Amen.

* Have mercy on us.