Meditations for the Feast and Octave: of the Holy Heart of Mary: The Vigil of the Feast (8): Miracles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Miracles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

In the Realm of Nature

PICTURE to yourself the realm of nature, the great universe comprising so many wonderful things, namely, the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars and comets, the four elements, of which the air i s peopled by such a great variety of birds; the earth, replete with its marvelous abundance of animals, trees, plants, flowers, fruits, metals, stones; the sea, filled with such a prodigious multitude of fishes. Add to that the creatures of reason, men and angels; consider them in the natural state of their creation. What a miracle to have made this amazing universe out of nothing! It is not only a miracle, it is a world of miracles without number.

Count all the creatures made by God and you will count so many miracles that God has performed in drawing them from the abyss of nothingness. Number all the moments that have elapsed since the creation of the world and you will number so many miracles since preservation is a continuous creation. There are also innumerable other wonders perpetually wrought in the governance of this universe. Now, who is the author of those innumerable miracles? It is the inconceivable goodness and the incomprehensible love of the divine Heart of that adorable Word, mentioned by St. John the Evangelist in the first words of his Gospel: "All things were made by him " (John 1, 3)- It is because of His love for us that our divine Lord has made all things, even though He had always before His eyes the ingratitudes, the offenses and the crimes without limit which He was obliged to suffer and still endures every day from us.

That is why all those things which He created are so many tongues and voices preaching to us unceasingly the ineffable charity of His most gracious Heart, and exhorting us to adore Him, to love Him and to glorify Him in every possible manner.

Heaven and earth, says St. Augustine, and all things contained therein, cease not to tell me that I should love my God: Caelum et terra et omnia quae in eis sunt, non cessant mihi dicere ut amem Deum meum.

Miracles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

In the Realm of Grace

Picture the realm of grace, which comprises innumerable wonders incomparably surpassing those of the world of nature. It encompasses all the miracles of sanctity that have been wrought on the earth by the Holy of Holies; all the wonders that transpired in the Mother of grace; the entire Church Militant; all the Sacraments, with all the marvelous effects which they produce; all the wonderful things that divine grace has effected and will effect in the lives of all the saints that have been and that shall be in this world. What is the source of all those wonders? Is it not the inconceivable charity of the blessed Heart of our Redeemer, who has established and constantly preserves this amazing world of grace on earth, for love of us?

0 my Jesus, let all these wonders of Thy most loving Heart and all the powers of Thy di vinity and Thy humanity be employed to bless Thee and praise Thee unceasingly and eternally: "0 all ye powers of the Lord, bless the Lord" (Dan. 3, 61).

Miracles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

In the Realm of Glory

Let us raise our mind and our heart to heaven, to contemplate the realm of glory, the fair , great and glorious city of heaven, of which all the citizens are forever freed from tribulation and showered with

countless blessings. Let us behold that innumerable army of the blessed: "Which no man could number" (Apoc7, 9), who are more dazzling than the sun, who possess incalculable riches, joys unspeakable and glories indescribable. Consider the inconceivable happiness which]

you in that heavenly Jerusalem, since the Holy Ghost declares to us that never hath eye seen, nor car heard, nor human heart understood nor can ever understand the infinite treasures that God has prepared there for them that love Him. Now, what has made heaven and who is the author of all the miracles contained therein? It is the intense love of the Sacred Heart of the Son of God, who has merited it by His blood, who has filled it with an ocean of unutterable delights, to give us the full and perfect possession of it eternally.

0 my Saviour, graciously let me offer Thee, I beg Thee, as an act of thanksgiving, all the glories and wonders of paradise! If I were possessed of a hundred thousand paradises, how gladly would I, by the help of Thy grace, divest myself of them so as to sacrifice them to Thy eternal praise!

Ejaculatory prayer:

"Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him: and his wonderful works to the children of man." Confiteantur Domino misericordiae ejus, et mirabilia ejus filiis hominum. 324-

The Sacred Heart of Jesus Is a Furnace of Love, Purifying,

Illuminating, Sanctifying, Transforming and Deifying

The Sacred Heart of Jesus a Furnace

Of Love for Us

THE most loving Heart of our benign Saviour is a burning furnace of most pure love for us; a furnace of purifying love, of illuminating love, of sanctifying love, of transforming love and of deifying love. His love is a purifying love, in which the hearts of holy souls are purified more perfectly than gold in the furnace; an illuminating love, which scatters the darkness of hell with which the earth i s covered and lets us into the wonderful brilliance of heaven: "Who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (I Pet. 2, 9); a sanctifying, love, which destroys sin in our souls in order to establish there the kingdom of grace; a transforming love, which transforms serpents into doves, wolves into lambs, beasts into angels, children of the devil into children of God, children of wrath and malediction into children of grace and blessing; a deifying love, which makes gods of men: "I have said: you are gods" (Ps. 81, 6), letting them share in the holiness of God, His mercy, His patience, His goodness, His love, His charity and His other divine perfections: "Partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1, 4)

0 divine love of my Jesus, I give myself wholly to Thee; purify me, enlighten me, sanctify me, transform me into Thee, that I may be naught but love for my God.

The Furnace of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

RADIATES LOVE To ALL BEINGS

The august Heart of Jesus is a furnace of love which spreads its fiery flames in all directions, in heaven, on earth and throughout the whole universe. Its fiery flames would have consumed the hearts of the Seraphim and would have enkindled all the hearts on earth if the terrible chill of sin had not set in. Those divine fires transform all the hearts of heavenly lovers into so many furnaces of love for Him who is all love for them.

All creatures on earth, even senseless, inanimate and irrational beings, feel the effects of the incredible goodness of that magnificent Heart since He loves all things that are and hates nothing that He has made, sin being the only thing that He did not make, the only object of His hatred: "For thou Invest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made" (Wisd. 11, 25)

Jesus Christ possesses an extraordinary love for men, as well for the good as the wicked, for His friends as for His enemies, for whom He has such intense charity that even the overwhelming torrents and floods of their innumerable sins are not able to extinguish it: "Many waters cannot quench charity" (Cant. 8, 7). Not a moment elapses that He does not grant to men manifold natural and supernatural favors, corporal and spiritual, even while they are offending Him and dishonor. ing Him by their misdeeds.

The divine fires of the precious Heart of the Son of God reach even into hell, to the devils and the damned, preserving their being, life and the natural perfections which He gave them at creation, and not punishing them as much as they have deserved for their sins, for which His divine justice might very justly chastise them much more severely than it does: "There is no one that can hide himself from his heat" (Ps. 18, 7)

0 sacred fires and flames of the Heart of my Saviour, rush in upon my heart and the hearts of all my brethren, and kindle them into as many furnaces of love for my most loving Jesus!

Intensity of the Love of the SACRED

Heart of Jesus

Imagine all the charity, all the affections, all the tender and intimate feelings of all the hearts that the omnipotent hand of God might fashion as being collected and united in one heart large enough to contain them. Would they not all be capable of forming one unimaginable furnace of love? But, realize that all the fires and flames of such a furnace would not make one tiny spark of the immense love with which the infinitely loving Heart of Jesus is inflamed towards you, 0 Christian soul.

0 furnace infinitely to be desired! Who will grant me to be plunged into that burning fire? 0 Mother of Jesus, 0 all ye angels, 0 all ye holy saints of Jesus, I give myself to you all and to each i n particular, and I give you also all my brothers and sisters, and all the inhabitants of earth, that you may plunge us all into the abyss of that sacred furnace! Attend and hear, 0 vast furnace of love! A tiny straw asks most humbly and earnestly to be plunged, buried, lost, devoured and consumed wholly i n thy sacred flames and thy holy fires forever and ever!

Ejaculatory prayer:

"0 fire which ever burnest and is never extinguished. 0 love which is ever fervent and never grows tepid, inflame me wholly that I may love Thee wholly." 0 ignis qui semper ardes et nunquam extingueris. 0 amor qui semper ferves et nunquam tepescu, accende me totum, ut totus diligam te! 327-

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