June 14, 2026
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
After having meditated upon the foundation and the excellence of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, we will meditate to-morrow on its practice, and we shall see that it consists in three things: 1st, in exterior worship; 2d, in interior worship; 3d, in imitation. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to study the Heart of Jesus in our meditations, our communions, our visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and to excite ourselves by means of this study to adore it, to love it, to live constantly in a state of union with it; 2d, to endeavor to imitate it in all its virtues, but especially in its gentleness and humility. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the very words of the Saviour Himself: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt. xi. 29).
Meditation for the Morning
May our hearts be dilated and open to love. To-day again let us meditate upon love; let us adore and love the Heart of Jesus (Brev. Paris); let us resolve to love it always. O Sacred Heart, may I forget my right hand, may I forget myself, if ever I forget Thy love and Thy benefits, if I ever cease to love Thee, to place in Thee my confidence, and to take Thee as my model (Brev. Rom.).
FIRST POINT
On the Interior Devotion Due to the Heart of Jesus
All the powers of our soul ought to be employed in its service, like subjects in the service of their Master; that is to say, our understanding ought to study it; our will, to offer it its homage; our memory to render it everywhere and always present. First, our understanding ought to study it; for to know its excellence and its amiability, its dignity and its greatness, its virtues and its holiness, the treasures of grace contained in it, the sufferings which it has endured for us: this is the condition apart from which there is no salvation; this is the secret of eternal life (John xvii. 3); this is the supereminent holiness compared with which all the rest is as nothing; the bottomless and shoreless ocean of holiness, wherein we always find more and more to admire and imitate in proportion as we study it more and more. How have we fulfilled this first duty? We have learnt many things during the course of our life; have we learnt to know the Heart of Jesus? Have we through prayer, meditation, and reading sought to know it well? When we have once known the Divine Heart, our will feels itself urged to offer its homage to it. There is no possibility of restraining its transports and its praises; we adore so much greatness, we adore so much charity; we give thanks for so many benefits; we burn with zeal to make such graciousness loved; we feel the outrages inflicted upon it; we desire to immolate ourselves for its glory; and whatever we do, we think that it is not, after all, enough. Such is the homage which the will owes to the Divine Heart. On its side, memory ought to render it always and everywhere present; present in our prayers and meditations, in order to offer to the heavenly Father His infinitely holy prayers as a supplement to ours; present in our communions, in order to admire the ineffable union of the richest with the poorest of hearts, of the holiest with the most miserable of hearts; present in our visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament, in order to unite us with it and to fill ourselves with its virtues; present before, during, and after every action, that we may begin, continue, and terminate them all in its sentiments and its dispositions; present at every hour that strikes, that our heart may dilate itself wholly in it; present in our troubles in order to console us, in our joys to moderate them, in our anxieties to calm us, in our hastiness to make us pause, in our languor to reanimate us, in our discouragement to raise us, in our coldness to warm us.
SECOND POINT
On the Exterior Worship Due to the Heart of Jesus
In order that the interior worship on which we have been meditating should be maintained and developed in us, it is infinitely useful that an exterior worship should prevent the forgetfulness of it and recall it to our soul by sensible acts, such as: 1st, the annual celebration of the feast of the Sacred Heart, accompanied by special devotions; 2d, the consecration of the first Friday in each month in honor of the Divine Heart; 3d, the rendezvous given every day at nine o’clock in the morning and at three o’clock in the afternoon to the Sacred Heart, in order to say to it, in common with all the souls devoted to it: “O Divine Heart, I love Thee, I adore Thee, I invoke Thee, with all our associates for all the moments of my life, and above all for the hour of my death;” 4th, the presence of a picture of the Sacred Heart upon our table, or in our book, with the characteristics under which it is represented, the cross, the wound whence the blood flows, the thorns, the flames, all of which have a language full of love which sinks into the soul and does it good; 5th, different prayers to the Sacred Heart, above all the frequent use of ejaculatory prayers, such as this: “Heart of Jesus, burning with love for us, make our hearts burn with love for Thee.”
THIRD POINT
On the Imitation of the Heart of Jesus
Jesus Christ teaches us it Himself: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart” (Matt. xi. 29). We ought then to imitate it, 1st, in its meekness: the meekness of heart which regulates all our relations with one another, prevents all contests and all disputes, impetuosities of our character, resentment, and antipathies; which triumphs over evil by good, indifference by affection, hardness by tenderness, and introduces into social and family relations the kindness and cordiality which are the charm of life. We ought to imitate it, 2d, in its humility; the humility which consists not only in recognizing that we are nothing but nothingness and wretchedness, ignorance and depravation, all of which is but too evident, but also in thinking, speaking, and acting in a manner which is in harmony with this knowledge; that is to say, in not esteeming ourselves, but on the contrary despising ourselves profoundly; never saying anything to our own advantage, never seeking to attract notice, but to see, without any feeling of vexation, the matter for contempt which is in us, and to accept this contempt as being most legitimate; to be content to see others honored, and ourselves left in obscurity; others praised and ourselves forgotten or held in small esteem. If this practice seems difficult to us, let us study the Heart of Jesus, thirsting for contempt and suffering (Ps. lxviii. 21); impatient to be plunged into a bath of ignominy (Luke xii. 50), and we shall be ashamed of our self-love and of our pretensions.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.