Presence of God

O Jesus, deign to take me into Your Sacred Heart. Grand that it may be the sanctuary where I may be recollected, sheltered, and find my rest.

Meditation

I. The liturgy of the Feast of the Sacred Heart presents to us the Heart of Jesus as the ark of salvation, our shelter and our refuge. "O Heart of Jesus, ark...of grace, pardon and mercy, O Heart, inviolable sanctuary of the New Law, Temple more sacred than the ancient ark!...Who would not want an eternal home in this Heart?" (RB). "Close to these blessed wounds in the Heart of Christ," exclaims St. Peter Canisius," I shall find refuge; in them I shall build my nest in full security." This has always been the hope of contemplative souls, of interior souls : to take refuge in the Heart of Christ as in their chosen asylum. St. Teresa Margaret of the Heart of Jesus wrote in her last resolutions : "My God, I wish to enclose myself now and forever in Your most loving Heart as in a desert, to live there in You, with You, and for You, a hidden life of love and sacrifice" (Sp). The soul who wishes to sound the depths of the mysteries of Christ and to understand something of His infinite love, will find no better way than to enter within His Heart or, as St. John of the Cross says, "to hide itself in the breast of

II. its Beloved, for to these clefts He invites it in the Canticle of Canticles saying : ‘ Arise, and make haste, my love, my fair one, and come into the clefts of the rock, and into the cavern of the enclosure" (SC 31,5). Let us take refuge then, in the Heart of Christ and contemplate His mysteries and His love, but seek there, too, a shelter for our interior life. This is a place of retreat which is always at our disposal and we can retire there even in the midst of occupations and duties. When rumors, curiosity, gossip, and the vanities of the world threaten to overwhelm us, let us quickly retire by a swift interior movement to the Heart of Jesus; there we shall always find recollection and peace.

In every temptation, we must fly to the Heart of Christ, reflecting on His goodness and charity, comparing them with our "vileness, malice, infidelity, and pride" (St. Peter Canisius). The Heart of Jesuswill be oursurest refuge in temptation; if we wish to escape Satan’s wiles and our own evil tendencies, we must take shelter in the Heart ofHim who conquered Satan, and healed our ills by His wounds. Jesus triumphed over evil; if we take refuge in Him, we will have nothing to fear. Tempests may still rage around us, but our soul will be guarded and protected from shipwreck. No matter what kind of struggles we have to undergo, no matter how bitter or humiliating they may be, if we keep intact our confidence in this divine Heart, it will be our salvation. "Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in Thee, v the Church puts on our lips in the litany of the Sacred Heart.

We must have unshaken confidence in this meek Heart in spite of all our faults and daily infidelities. "Cast all your faults into the abyss of His charity with great confidence and you will immediately be free of them," says St. Peter Canisius. And St. Bernard declared even more forcefully, "I have committed a great sin. My conscience will be troubled but will not despair because I remember the wounds of my Lord. For indeed, He was wounded for our iniquities. What sin is there so deadly that it cannot be remitted through the death ofChrist?" With such confidence we, too, must seek the Heart of Jesus as a sure refuge in all our falls. We will often commit some fault through weakness or surprise in spite of all our good will. Let us then humble ourselves profoundly, acknowledge our weakness with humility, but we must not let this experience separate us from the Heart of Jesus. We should return to Him like the pi'odigal son to his Father and ask His pardon while kissing His sacred wounds, and renew our resolution to take up our abode in His Heart so full of goodness and mercy.

Colloquy

"O most sweet Jesus, the treachery of my sins would forbid my entering Your Heart. But since an inconceivable charity enlarged Your Heart, and since You, who alone are holy, can purify what is defiled, cleanse me from my faults, O good Jesus, and deliver me from my sins. When I am purified by You, I can approach You, O purest One, and enter and abide in Your Heart all the days ofmy life, to know and to do what You wish me to do" (St. Bonaventure).

"Truly, where is there sure and lasting safety and rest for one who is weak if not in Your wounds, O my Savior? I dwell there all the more securely as You are powerful and can save me.

"The world rages around me, the body weighs upon me, the devil lays snares for me, but I do not fall because I am founded on You, the firm rock... If then, O Christ, the thought of Your wounds comes to my mind, if I recall such a powerful and efficacious remedy, I can no longer be terrified by the fear that any harm may befall me. Filled with confidence, I shall take what I need from Your Heart, O Lord, for mercies abound there, and Your wounds are open to permit these mercies to flow forth. They pierced Your hands and Your feet, they opened Your side with a spear; and through these clefts I am able... to taste and see how sweet You are, O Lord!...

"The blade pierced Your soul and reached Your Heart so that You might know compassion for my infirmities. Through the wounds in Your Body, the secret of Your Heart, that great mystery of love, was revealed; the inmost heart of Your mercy was opened, through which You came to us from the heights of heaven. Where then can we see more clearly than in Your wounds, O Lord, that You are sweet, gentle and full of mercy? No one indeed shows greater mercy than He who gives His life for the condemned, for those sentenced to death. Hence, all my hope lies in Your mercy, O Lord, and I shall never be deprivedof it so long as You are merciful" (St. Bernard).