ALL FOR THE EUCHARISTIC HEART OF JESUS

OFFERING OF THE NOVENA TO THE HEART OF JESUS

Heart of my God, the sweet caresses that You continually deign to lavish upon me and Your infinite patience, which bears with me beyond measure, oblige me to correspond to You, never as You deserve, but at least according to the measure of my insufficiency.

It brought forth the present Novena, which belongs to You alone, because You are the sole Master of my being and of all its actions.

Deign to accept my humble offering; bless it so that it may produce the excellent fruits for which I ardently long, and grant me, in Your charity, the grace to love You without measure and to extend Your reign of love until the last beat of my heart.

PRESENTATION OF THE NOVENA TO THE LOVERS OF THE HEART OF JESUS

This booklet, inspired by the writings of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, more than a Novena, is a bouquet of spiritual counsels that can help souls toward their unification with the Heart of Jesus.

If Jesus suffers an insatiable thirst for the love of men toward His Heart, which beats with infinite love in the Tabernacle. If Jesus has revealed His Heart to us as the final effort of His mercy for our salvation.

If Jesus wishes to be the sole master of every heart and the absolute Sovereign of the home, society, and the universe through the dominion of His Heart.

If the sanctification of the soul and the regeneration of society are sought in vain outside the Heart of Jesus.

Then we must love Him with a passionate, filial, and constant love. In this way, by loving Him, we shall secure our eternal happiness.

Receive, lovers of the Heart of Jesus, and particularly you, my children whom I carry in my soul, these efforts for your sanctification from the humble priest who implores your fervent prayers.

SUGGESTIONS

It is fitting that we prepare ourselves for the First Friday of each month and for the Feast of the Heart of Jesus by fervently praying the Novena. If possible, let us pray it in the holy church, before the Tabernacle.

In our needs, whether material or spiritual, let us turn with filial confidence to the Heart of our God through the prayer of the Novena, beginning it on a Thursday so as to finish it on Friday; may we, if possible, on this final day of the Novena receive our Sacramental God.

ACT OF CONTRITION

Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, have mercy on me.

Come to Me, all you who are burdened, and I will give you rest, You have said. Hearing so sweet a call, and burdened as I am with so many iniquities and miseries, I come to You so that You may purify me, strengthen me, and save me.

Contrite and humbled, I implore Your mercy; and just as You forgave the adulterous woman, the publican, and Magdalene, so forgive this new and more miserable sinner.

I promise You, with the help of Your grace, never again to offend You, but rather to love You, console You, and serve You until the last instant of my life. Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, have mercy on me.

PREPARATORY PRAYER

You have promised, Jesus, Master of my soul, that Your divine Heart will be an ocean of mercy for those in need, and You wish them to come to You with the unlimited confidence of a child toward his Father.

For this reason You have me in Your presence, before that Tabernacle where You are really and truly present through Your infinite love; I come to make known my needs to You, so that You may deign to remedy them, whenever it is pleasing to You and for the good of my soul.

Remedy my needs and, moreover, grant me Your love and make me holy, Heart of Jesus; may I love You without measure, may I love You eternally.

FINAL PRAYER

I have made known to You, Heart of my God, the needs I suffer, asking You, with humility and confidence, to deign to remedy them.

I hope for everything from the infinite love You have for me, and this hope sweetens my sorrows and strengthens me.

I give You humble thanks for the mercy You grant me and for all the favors that throughout my life, despite my crimes, You have bestowed upon me. In return for Your tenderness, receive my heart and, with it, my filial and unshakable promise to imitate You, love You, console You, and serve You. Yours forever, Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist.

ACT OF CONSECRATION

(For the last day of the Novena)

Yours forever, Heart of my Beloved, I come to tell You once again. Spontaneously, freely, and lovingly I consecrate myself to You. More vehemently than ever, I now long for my consecration to be perfect and forever.

I tear my heart away from creatures, whoever they may be, and I tear it away from myself, to give it entirely to You, my Master.

I confess with shame that a thousand times I have been unfaithful to You, breaking my resolutions to belong to You alone; I likewise confess that my misery is infinite, and I lament the furious struggles I suffer from the enemies of my eternal salvation. But notwithstanding this, I desire to be wholly Yours, and wholly Yours I am, Heart of Jesus.

As the child belongs to his father, as the bride to her beloved, as the victim to the one who sacrifices it, so I belong to You, my Father, Spouse, and Sacrificer.

From this moment, and with a solemn promise, I resolve to love You without measure, to console You without ceasing, to serve You fervently, to sacrifice myself according to Your designs, and to be an angel in Your presence.

Now, Heart of Jesus, now take possession of my soul for Yourself alone. Conquer me, divine Captain, in the dreadful struggle that would separate me from You. You are Omnipotent; annihilate, then, my disordered passions and make me holy.

Live in me, reign in me, for I am Yours now and shall be Yours eternally, Heart of Jesus.

FIRST DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS IS AN INFINITE TREASURE OF INFINITE VALUE

How poor we are, and how great is the debt that we sinners have contracted with divine Justice! We need a treasure to enrich us; a treasure of infinite value to make satisfaction for the offenses committed against infinite Majesty; a treasure that constitutes our eternal happiness.

This divine and unique treasure is the Heart of Jesus, the most loving Heart of Jesus. Saint Margaret Mary says: “Jesus showed me His Heart as a treasure that had been given to us to pay our debt and purchase Heaven... And He told me that He had formed the design of manifesting His Heart to men and of opening to them the riches that this treasure contains, so that all who wish to render Him all the honor and love they can may be enriched abundantly.”

Since the Heart of Jesus is the treasure of infinite value, let us not rest, from this day forward, until we possess it: let us honor Him and love Him so as to be its owners eternally.

Heart of Jesus, be my Treasure; purify and beautify my soul, and with Your merits pay my debt. Heart of my God, be my happiness and my All.

(Petition)

SECOND DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS IS THE BARK OF SALVATION AND THE PILOT WHO GUIDES IT

We are shipwrecked! The little bark of innocence was shattered by the furious waves of sin; without ceasing we struggle against the tempest that, upon the sea of this life, is unleashed by our powerful enemies: the world, the devil, and our own passions.

To reach the longed-for harbor of eternal happiness, we need a safe little bark and a skillful pilot. The bark that defies the fiercest hurricane is the wounded Heart of Jesus; and the skillful Pilot who brings us, gently sailing, to the Harbor of blessedness is that same Sacred Heart.

Let us listen to Saint Margaret. “You shall enter the lovable Heart as a traveler enters a secure vessel, whose Pilot is the divine Heart itself, which will happily conduct us across the tempestuous sea of this world.

He will preserve you from the reefs and tempests, which are the suggestions of our enemies, our passions, our self-love, our vanity, and the attachment we have to our own will and judgment.”

“Ah, if only it were understood how much souls advance when they are faithful in allowing themselves to be guided by this divine Pilot, in the bark of His Heart, full of love!”

“We must, then, abandon ourselves absolutely to the care of our prudent Pilot and perform all our actions in a spirit of abandonment to the divine Providence of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let us often say to Him: ‘Save me; do not let me perish in the flood of my iniquities.’”

Heart of my God, my safe little bark and skillful Pilot, let Your child not perish in the sea of his iniquities and miseries.

THIRD DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS IS A PRISON OF LOVE AND A CRUCIBLE OF PERFECTION

To avenge upon man’s crimes the outrage received by divine Justice, He created the eternal prisons of weeping, despair, and fire. There impenitent sinners will expiate without end the infinite debt contracted through guilt. There the fire, fed by the breath of the wrath of God, will embrace without consuming and without purifying the soul and body of the reprobate.

If we wish, sinners who feel shame for the crime and sorrow for the eternal injury and the inextinguishable fire, let us seek another prison and another fire.

But a prison in which we may quickly make satisfaction, and a fire that may purify, beautify, and vivify us with supernatural life.

The redemptive prison is the Heart of Jesus, and the fire of life is His infinite love.

“You shall remain in the Sacred Heart,” writes Saint Margaret, “like a criminal who desires to appease his Judge, shutting himself within this prison of love so as to be bound and pressed so tightly that no freedom remains to him except to love Him.” We must enter the Heart of Jesus, furnace of love, to purify ourselves of all the stains and impurities we have contracted; after having caused our corrupted heart to perish in the divine flames of pure love, we must take there another, entirely new heart.

“Let us remain, then, in this prison of love, to burn without respite.” Heart of Jesus, my Prisoner in the Tabernacle, may I be Your prisoner of Eucharistic love, and with this Your love embrace me, purify me, consume me, and make me eternally happy.

FOURTH DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS IS THE SPIRITUAL TOMB OF HIS LOVERS

To deliver ourselves from death to the life of grace through sin, and to deliver ourselves from eternal death, we need to die mystically every day.

This mystical death is accomplished by going to Jesus and entering through His wound, as into a tomb, living dead to creatures.

Let us no longer look upon the vanities of the world, let us not listen to its deceitful words, and let us not feel its deadly caresses.

Interiorly recollected, with the gaze of the soul fixed upon the Tabernacle and conversing only with Jesus, let us honor His silent Eucharistic life.

Saint Margaret Mary wrote: “To honor the hidden life of our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, we must bury ourselves like the dead so deeply within His Sacred Heart that you desire to be seen by Him alone. Your greatest care must be to hide in this Heart all the good you may do, for fear that it may be taken from you. Seek to live unknown.”

Daily I die, Saint Paul said; may I too, Heart of my God, be able to exclaim: Daily I die for Your love, and You are my spiritual tomb.

FIFTH DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS, MODEL AND MASTER OF SOULS WHO ASPIRE TO HOLINESS

Once the soul is resolved to labor for its perfect sanctification, it needs two things to attain it: a master and model, and an efficacious means.

Well then, the master and model is the most sweet Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, and the efficacious means is love.

The Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist is the great book open to all His lovers; in its sacred pages is contained the science of love, sacrifice, humility, obedience, and all the virtues.

The Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, through His sacred silence, tells us clearly: “You call Me your Master, and so I am; do, then, what I do: come and read in this book of life.”

And the happy soul that goes to the Master in the Tabernacle not only receives teachings of eternal life, but they will be engraved upon it, on condition that it remain “before Him, before Jesus, like a white canvas before a painter.”

And the efficacious means that leads us to perfection is none other than love for His own Eucharistic Heart. Vivified and impelled by this love, the narrow paths become broad, thorns are changed into flowers, and Calvary into Tabor.

To obtain this efficacious means of love, we must desire it and ask for it, and the divine Master will deign to grant it to our heart.

How quickly, sweetly, safely, and happily one reaches holiness by going, on the wings of love, to the Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist!

Heart of Jesus in the Eucharist, I want to be Your disciple: I am already attentive to Your lessons of eternal life. What do You want of me? Speak, for Your servant listens.

SIXTH DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS IS THE FATHERLY BOSOM WHERE HIS LOVING CHILDREN REST

To live in the Heart of Jesus is to possess Paradise in advance, because in Him are found consolation, rest, perseverance, perfect love, and the Divinity.

The Heart of Jesus is the heart of the Word of God, of absolute majesty, in which we all participate; it is the source of all consolation, our life, and the delight of the Blessed.

With reason Saint Margaret lovingly urges us toward the Divine Heart and to rest in Him: “You shall enter,” she says, “into this Sacred Heart, like a beloved child, to heal the wounds you have inflicted upon your soul through your disobedience, vanities, and ingratitude toward this Good Father, who begot us upon the Cross with so many sorrows, and who is entirely covered with wounds and blood.

“And He desires nothing so much as to place you in possession of His kingdom and make us rest upon His bosom, like a beloved child who abandons himself entirely to the care of His adorable Providence. He will take care of him and will not allow him to lack anything or to perish, since He is almighty.

“Give yourselves, then, without reserve to His loving care and give Him your whole heart. It is all He asks of you.”

Heart of Jesus, my anticipated Heaven, may I live in You now and eternally hereafter.

SEVENTH DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS AND LOVE

Saint Margaret relates that she heard Jesus say: “I thirst, but with a most ardent thirst to be loved by men in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”

“Behold the Heart that has so loved men, even to exhausting and consuming itself for love of them.”

These expressions, ardent as darts of fire and sweet and tender as a mother’s kisses, reveal to us the supreme longing of the divine Heart to possess, as sole Sovereign, all our love, and tell us that the love He has for us is infinite.

Let us now accept the loving reign of the Heart of Jesus, giving Him our whole heart.

Let us correspond to His love with our own, sincere, ardent, pure, and generous.

As Saint Margaret said, “we ought to breathe flames of love” for Him who exhausts and consumes Himself for us, for Him who would wish to love us still more, if that were possible.

The world, enamored Heart, calls the ineffable tenderness of Your love “madness”; of that love which delights in me... Well then, You will no longer have to suffer the coldness and hardness of my heart; I will love You passionately, I will love You with “madness.”

Give me Your love, divine Heart, and accept mine, forever.

EIGHTH DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS AND CONSOLATION

Saint Margaret exclaims: “Look upon the Heart of Jesus as a true and perfect friend,” who longs for your good and knows how and is able to console us in our exile.

But He is not only the true and perfect friend; He is the only Friend. He alone, who is divine light, with His eternal wisdom knows the abysses of our wounded heart, unfathomable to the creature; He alone can, by His omnipotence and with the divine balm of His mercies, heal our wounds, dry our tears, and sweeten the bitterness of life; He alone positively desires to be our consolation: “Come to Me,” He has told us, “all you who suffer and are burdened, and I will console and relieve you...”

And to awaken our confidence, so that we may go to Him without fear, He adds: “You are My friends. I will no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what his Lord does. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you all the things I have heard from My Father.” Yes, the Heart of Jesus is the Heart of the only Friend of our souls! Let us correspond to His friendship by loving Him more each day, consoling Him in His sorrows, serving Him generously, and giving ourselves to Him without reserve and forever. Heart of Jesus, friendly Heart, my only consolation in the sorrows of life; deign to receive and confirm my oath of love and vassalage. Yours eternally!

NINTH DAY

THE HEART OF JESUS AND ABANDONMENT

Let us heed Saint Margaret, who calls us to perfect abandonment in the Heart of Jesus: “Have great confidence in the Heart of Jesus; never distrust His mercy, which infinitely exceeds all our miseries. Plunge all your miseries into this mercy. Cast yourselves into the bosom of this mercy of God, with perfect abandonment.”

With the abandonment of the little child in the sweet and secure lap of his mother; with the abandonment of the wife in the arms of her husband, so let us live abandoned in the bosom of the Heart of Jesus, who loves us with a love more solicitous than that of a husband. Let us cause our will to die in His divine will, so that we desire nothing except what He desires.

Let us live, but no longer in ourselves; let us live in the Heart of Jesus; may His life be our life.

Heart of Jesus, heed my humble and ardent supplication: I want to love You in such a way that my life may be one of perfect abandonment in You; may Your light be my intelligence; Your will, my will; Your love, my heart; and Your divinity, the sap that gives me life; may it give it to me abundantly and eternally.

Heart of Jesus, life of my heart, may I love You with Your love.

José María Robles Hurtado

Tecolotlán del Corazón de Jesús, May 3, 1922.

Note: During the time Saint José María Robles was in hiding because of the religious persecution, he made several modifications to it, which he completed on June 1, 1927, twenty-five days before his martyrdom, leaving the present version in its current form.