The Sacred Heart of Jesus

1. It was December 27th of the year 1673 in France, feast of St. John the Evangelist. In the
town of Paray Le Monial, in a convent of the nuns of the Visitation, Sister Margaret Mary was in
adoration before the Blessed Sacrament in solemn exposition. It was then that the Lord
manifested Himself to her, revealing to her the wonders of His love. This was the first of the
apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to her who would later become St. Margaret Mary
Alacoque. In one of these apparitions, “the Lord presented Himself all resplendent with glory;
His five wounds brilliant as five suns. Flames darted forth from all parts of that sacred
Humanity, but especially from His adorable breast, which resembled a furnace of fire. The breast
of the Lord opened, revealing the ‘loving and perfectly lovable Heart that was the living source
of all those flames.’” The Heart “was like a throne of flames more radiant than the sun, and
transparent like a crystal with its adorable wound. It was encircled by a crown of thorns, with a
cross above it.” The Sacred Heart let her see “the inexplicable wonders of His pure Love, and to
what an excess He had carried it for Love of men, from whom He had received only ingratitude
and scorn.” The Lord said to the saint: “Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it has
spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. In return, I
receive from the majority of men only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the
coldness and contempt they have for Me in this sacrament of love.”

2. (LET US ADORE) Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it has spared
nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to testify its love. These were the
words of the Lord. Let us attempt to discover the nucleus, the object of this devotion.

It is about the human Heart of flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The practice of this
devotion does not stop there, but adores this Sacred Heart of Christ as an emblem, as a
symbol of the Love of God for men. That is the way the Lord Himself said it, and that is how
Holy Church has always understood it: Behold this Heart which has so loved men. It is not about
love per se, or about His Heart per se: it is about love symbolized by His Heart of flesh.

3. (HOW AND WHY WE ADORE THE HEART OF CHRIST) In the Encyclical

Haurietis aquas, Pio XII tells us: “Innumerable are the heavenly gifts that this devotion to the
Sacred Heart infuses into the souls of the faithful, purifying them, filling them with supernatural
consolations, and rousing them to achieve all manner of virtues.” And he adds further on: “If we
consider its singular nature, it is clear that this devotion is a most excellent act of religion, in
that it calls for a full and complete desire to entrust and consecrate ourselves to the love of the
Divine Redeemer, of which His pierced Heart is a living sign and symbol. It is also equally
clear, in a more profound sense, that this devotion fosters the correspondence of our love to
the divine Love.” Such great emphasis made by the Pope cannot pass unnoticed by us. Let us
try to be even more diligent, then, in penetrating to the intimate nucleus of this devotion.

Pius XII also tells us that the Church offers the cult of latria to the Heart of Christ, and
this for two reasons.

The first, which is true in regard to all the organs of the Body of Christ , is based on the fact
that His Heart is hypostatically united to the Person of the Word, and therefore is due the
same cult of adoration as the Incarnate Son of God Himself.

The other reason pertains in a special way to the Heart of the divine Redeemer. This Heart,
more than any other member of His Body, is the natural figure or symbol of His immense
Love for men. “It belongs to the nature of the Sacred Heart to have the quality of a symbol or
image that expresses the infinite charity of Jesus Christ, rousing us to return love for love,” says
this same Pope.

Therefore we see that we do not worship the living and glorified Heart of Jesus
considered in itself, as separate from His adorable Body and from His humanity, but as an
organ and symbol of the Love that throbbed in Him and that took Him to the death of the
Cross for us.

We adore the divine, human, spiritual, and sensible Love of Jesus; that Love of the
Lord that is full of the purest tenderness and goodness, under the figure of His most
adorable human Heart.

How great are the inventions of the Love of God towards us men, who are sinners! Have I
been truly devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus up to now? Am I convinced how beneficial this
devotion is to me for the cultivation of an affective and personal love towards the Lord? Have I
done apostolate to spread this devotion? If we have not done so up to now, let us determine to
put this holy devotion into practice starting today, full of admiration for a God who works such
prodigies for His children who have gone astray.

4. How much this reminds us of that beautiful passage in the Holy Gospel in which Our
Lord meets the Samaritan woman!

He came, accordingly, to a town of Samaria called Sichar, near the field that Jacob
gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, wearied as He was
from the journey, was sitting at the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a
Samaritan woman to draw water.
 Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink”; for His disciples had gone away into the town
to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, “How is it that You, who are a
Jew, ask a drink of me, who am a Samaritan woman?” For Jews do not associate with
Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says
to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you, perhaps, would have asked of Him, and He would have
given you living water... Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. He,
however, who drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that
I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto life
everlasting” (Jn 4:5-10; 13b-14).
“If we knew the gift of God!” This is the gift of God for men: His Son Jesus Christ, given up
for our salvation, who sacrificed His life, pouring it out as a libation with an aroma pleasing to
God, voluntarily nailing Himself to the wood of the Cross!

The devotion to the Sacred Heart is the supreme worship of the Love God has for us. It is
the soul and center of all religion, because religion is nothing other than the law, virtue, and
perfection of love, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus contains the grace and is the model and the life
of this love.

5. In the human Heart of Jesus Christ the Most Holy Trinity dwells in a most perfect way, in
a most excellent dwelling; there He has His throne of gold and His temple of precious stones.
For this divine Heart is substantially united to the eternal Word, and where He is, there the
Father and the Holy Spirit are together with Him.

The holiness of this Heart must be a sign for us of the sublime vocation to which we have
been called since our Holy Baptism: we too were made into temples of the Holy Spirit on that
blesséd day in which we were made children of God! Nevertheless, it could be that we do not
love, that we do not appreciate the eminent gift of the state of grace, and that we might even lose
it at times...

Are we aware of the gravity of sin and the incomparable goodness of living in the grace of
God? Do we make an effort to live in a state of grace, or even more, to grow continuously in the
grace of God? Let us look at the sanctity of this Heart and become confused at the many times
we so easily made transactions with sin, soiling ourselves with the mud of our crimes...

6. From the moment of His Incarnation, this human Heart of the Savior beat with the
rhythm of love in order to accomplish with full perfection the Will of His heavenly Father. It
was a most obedient Heart, obedient unto death, in which God the Father was well pleased.

How is my obedience to the teachings of Holy Church, to the advice of my Spiritual

Director, to the directions of my superiors? Let us learn from the admirable docility of this
Sacred Heart to obey from pure love.
 7. How is it possible, we ask ourselves again and again, that this human Heart of Jesus
Christ was able to obey up to the extreme point of dying on a gibbet, to the point of becoming
saturated with our shame, and crushed by our crimes without number? There is only one
response, and it is always the same: It is Love that brought Jesus to Calvary! Concentrated in
that Most Sacred Heart as in a flaming furnace of holy Charity, as in a power plant of infinite
energy, that Love has generated an act of utter immolation of itself for us, together with a torrent
of superabundant graces and goods for gaining His forgiveness. He handed Himself over in this
way because He was consumed by supernatural love for His Father and for us.

It is this ardent Love that for the past two thousand years has attracted the hearts of all the
faithful like a magnet of irresistible power. It has conquered, by the force of pure love, the hearts
of the saints; it has made itself the King and center of all hearts.

In this Heart of the Savior we find our rest, our solace, and consolation for all the crosses and
difficulties of life. We should not become discouraged by the coldness and evil of our hearts: He
desires to inflame us with love; He is all our hope.

8. What does He ask in return? St. Margaret Mary received from the Lord the mission to
spread the devotion to His Sacred Heart, and procure the institution of a feast that would honor it
and make reparation to it. Therefore I ask you, Our Lord told her, that the first Friday after the
Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special Feast to honor My Heart, by communicating
on that day and making reparation to It by a solemn act, in order to make amends for the
indignities which It has received during the time It has been exposed on the altars.

This, then, is what the Lord asks: love and reparation. This affirmation fills us with
confusion. How is it possible that this divine Heart, overflowing with happiness and bliss,
enjoying a beatific union with the Most Holy Trinity Itself, asks for our correspondence? God is
begging for the love of men?! This is because the Heart of Jesus wishes to put within our reach
the remedy for our ills, so that we can accomplish what the Holy Spirit teaches us through the
mouth of St. Paul: what is lacking of the sufferings of Christ I fill up in my flesh (Col 1:24). This
does not mean that the sacrifice of the Lord on the Cross was not perfect, but that I must apply to
my soul this benefit of the Redemption, uniting myself to the Passion of the Savior. In addition,
insofar as we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we must be aware of our vocation of
making reparation to His Heart, outraged by so many sacrileges and offenses that are inflicted
by men—and by us. This is my sublime vocation, and Jesus Christ Himself has taught it to me:
to make reparation for my sins and for the sins of the whole world; to bring some small relief to
His Heart, which has made Itself the victim of sinners.
 Am I aware that, through my Christian vocation, I am called to make reparation for my
own sins, and for the innumerable outrages and sacrileges that men commit to the injury
of God? Am I assiduous in prayer and mortification, and do I receive Holy Communion
frequently in reparation for so many sins?

9. What does the Lord promise us in exchange for our love? This may seem to be a
shameless and base question; do we not know that He promises us Heaven, that He has
conquered us from the Cross? What else could we desire? However, His love always seems to be
in disconformity with Himself, and in an excess of His goodness, He promises us new treasures
of grace, which help us to gain our end more effectively. The Sacred Heart said to St. Margaret
Mary: I promise you that My Heart shall expand Itself to shed in abundance the influence of Its
divine love upon those who shall thus honor it, and cause It to be honored. And He then made to
her twelve promises of benefits that would be poured out upon those who sincerely practiced this
devotion:

1) I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life.

2) I will bring peace to their families.

3) I will console them in all their afflictions.

4) I will be their shelter and refuge during their life, and above all at the hour of their death.

5) I will abundantly bless their work that redounds to My greater glory.

6) Sinners will find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.

7) Lukewarm souls will become fervent.

8) Fervent souls will rapidly gain great perfection.

9) I will give priests the grace to move the most hardened sinners.

10) I will bless the houses in which the image of My Heart is exposed and honored.

11) Those who propagate this devotion will have their name written in my Heart, and will
never be erased from there.

12) I promise you, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My omnipotent love will
gain for those who receive Communion for the first Fridays of nine consecutive months,
the grace of final penitence; they will not die deprived of My grace or of the reception of
the sacraments, for My divine Heart will become for them a secure sanctuary in their last
hour.

Let us stop for a moment to consider briefly a few of these promises:

 a) The 6th, 7th, and 8th promises are full proof that this devotion is a certain and quick way
to reach sanctity. In effect, the Lord promises us that He will lead us along the path of virtue to
the attainment of perfection. It is what St. Ignatius calls the three ways of humility: 1) extricating
sinners from their miseries (6th promise, to prefer to die rather than commit a mortal sin); 2)
extricating the tepid from their smallness of heart (7th promise, to prefer to die rather than
commit a venial sin) and 3) powerfully driving the fervent to reach the heights of perfect souls
(8th promise, to strip them entirely of themselves, trampling honors underfoot in order to imitate
Christ more closely in His supreme humiliation)

This, then, is His Heart, the abyss of all virtues! Let us fully devote ourselves to this
devotion, and the Lord will lead us along the sure road of virtue up to the heights of sanctity!

Have I determined to eliminate “those habitual occasions” of sin, or to engage in an all-out

battle against my dominant fault?

b) There is no doubt that the main meaning of the promises is what we have just
discussed, because the key to attaining sanctity lies in the determined determination of the
will to serve God with decision. If the Sacred Heart gives us special graces to attain this
disposition of soul, what else can we ask from It?

Nevertheless, in another excess of His mercy, so that no one need despair or become
discouraged in the face of the fatiguing path of virtue, He wished to animate us with yet another
promise, the 12th, which is known as “the great promise” of the Sacred Heart: I promise you,
from the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My omnipotent love will gain for those who receive
Communion for the first Fridays of nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they
will not die deprived of My grace or of the reception of the sacraments, for My divine Heart will
become for them a secure sanctuary in their last hour.

In this splendid promise, the Sacred Heart shows Itself to be full of goodness and love, in all
Its tenderness and mercy, in all Its “weakness,” if we can call it that: weakness of love for us, for
our eternal salvation. How little He asks us—to receive Communion on the first Fridays of nine
consecutive months; and how much He offers us in exchange—final perseverance!

From this “great promise” we must learn:

a) The esteem in which the Lord holds our salvation, and to how many dangers it is exposed
in this world. The Sacred Heart knows, with sorrow, how many souls die in His displeasure, and
are irremediably condemned... And being unable to bear this wretched fate of His children, He
offers another prodigal invention of His Love, which is this “great promise”... Do we truly
appreciate the value of our eternal salvation? Do we make use of every means to assure it, and to
distance ourselves, at the same time, from all that puts it in danger, from all occasions of sin?
Have we already received Holy Communion for the first Fridays of nine consecutive months? If
we have not yet done it, let us make the firm resolution to begin next month!

b) From here we can also learn how great is the infallible power of the Blessed Sacrament
for snatching us from sin and from our tepidity and assuring us eternal salvation and sanctity:
(number 10).

10. The fact is that the Sacred Heart of Jesus lives and loves us in the Most Blessed
Sacrament. The infinite Love that God has had for us since Creation, is still consuming itself in
the Sacrament of our altars.

The Most Blessed Sacrament is the sensible and permanent pledge of the Love of God. It is
in the Eucharist that we will find the Heart of Jesus, and from this Eucharistic Heart we
will learn to love God and our neighbor with the Love of God itself.

“If we but knew the gift of God!” says ST. PETER JULIAN EYMARD, that titan of devotion to
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. All the love of the mortal life of the Savior, His love as an infant
in the manger, His love full of apostolic zeal for the glory of His Father during His public life,
His love as victim on the Cross... all of these loves are found reunited and triumphant in His
glorious Heart that lives in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Here we must seek Him in order to
nourish ourselves with His love. He is also in Heaven, but for the angels and saints who are
already crowned. He is in the Eucharist for us: our devotion to the Sacred Heart must be,
therefore, Eucharistic, it must concentrate on the divine Eucharist as the only personal and
living center of the love and the graces of the Sacred Heart for us.

How greatly our tepid hearts are in need of this fire of the love of God in the Most Blessed
Sacrament! How much we need this living water that flows from the wounded side of the
Savior! Here before us, in the Eucharist, as on the Cross, His Heart is open, pouring torrents of
grace and love upon us.

If we knew the gift of God! Would we hesitate even for an instant to put the devotion of the
nine first Fridays into practice, and to teach it to others? If we truly knew the gift of God and
were faithful to it, how tirelessly we would multiply our daily visits to the Most Blessed
Sacrament, that burning furnace of Charity, and entreat Him to put our souls all on fire for those
for whom He poured out all his Blood!

Is the Holy Eucharist the center of my spiritual life? Do I assist at Holy Mass often during
the week, and receive Holy Communion? Do I prepare myself as I should before Mass, and stay
to offer thanksgiving?
 11. “Although the institution of the Holy Eucharist is already commemorated in the daily
Sacrifice of the Mass, we nevertheless believe, in order to confound the faithlessness and
insanity of the heretics, that it is fitting that, at least once a year, a special feast be celebrated in
its honor. In this way reparation can be made for all the faults committed in all the Sacrifices of
the Mass, and pardon can be begged for all the irreverence that occurs during its celebration, and
for the carelessness of those assisting at it...” Thus wrote Pope Urban IV in his bull of 1264, in
which he instituted the Solemnity of Corpus Christi for the Universal Church. The object of this
great feast of the Church, (which we are providentially celebrating today,) as the Pope himself
says, is to make reparation for the many faults and forms of irreverence that Christians commit
in the celebration of the Holy Mass and for their lack of care in assisting at it. To think that
perhaps we ourselves have assisted at Holy Mass with reluctance because of a worthless pastime,
or even—and God grant that we have never done so—have voluntarily missed Mass in order to
occupy ourselves with pleasures and vain things. Can we not perhaps liken ourselves to the dog
in the saying that bites the hand that feeds it? How great is the mercy of God, then, which offers
us this day to conform ourselves to the Eucharistic Heart of His Son. Just as He, from the Holy
Cross, made reparation for our crimes that would have hurled us irremediably into hell, so God
the Father today gives us the opportunity to make reparation for the offenses committed against
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

12. On this day of great solemnity, Holy Church also wishes to honor the Most Blessed
Sacrament with a solemn procession. We carry the Divine Sacrament of our altars in triumph
through the streets in order to honor it in the most excellent way that we can. With the solemn
procession of Corpus Christi, Holy Mother Church wishes to reaffirm her faith in the true, real,
and substantial presence, in the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,
against all modern and ancient heresies. She wishes to parade it triumphantly through the streets
of cities and towns as King and Lord of the universe.

What a great evil false human respect is for Christians! It often causes them to keep silence
in the family, with their neighbors, or at work, with regard to the defense of their faith! Human
respect is a bastard child of self-love, a poison that kills the desire for perfection, an acid that
corrodes the integrity of hearts that must belong only to God. In this way, then, the Lord offers
us an excellent way to make reparation for our own offenses against Him, and an infallible
weapon for definitively ridding ourselves of human respect—that fear of what they will say
— which destroys all authentic piety. By publicly proclaiming faith in our divine King, we
conquer ourselves, and the Lord inflames us with holy charity, so that we might become true
apostles of the Most Blessed Sacrament in our families, in our work, and with our friends,
helping everyone to approach and quench their thirst at this inexhaustible fountain of heavenly
benefits.

Are you, perhaps, in distress or suffering temptations? Turn your gaze to the Heart of Jesus;
take refuge in the Eucharistic Heart of your Savior. Are you lukewarm in your love of God and
of your neighbor? Listen to the words of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament: Behold the Heart
that has so loved men! Put yourself in this Heart, which is a burning furnace of Love!
 Appendix

General notions concerning this cult

Adoration, cult, or veneration is the honor paid to a person on account of his excellence,
joined with a certain submission. If the excellence of the person is infinite or uncreated, the cult
is said to be latria. The cult given to the saints for the excellence of their sanctity is called dulia.
The cult given to the Mother of God, for her most excellent dignity and perfection above all the
saints and angels is called hyperdulia. The term of the adoration or that which is venerated in a
devotion is called the material object, which can be double: the person to which the cult is
exhibited is the complete or general material object; the part of the person which is particularly
adored, for example, the hand, the virtue or action, is the partial material object.

The excellence of the person venerated or the motive for which the material object is
venerated, is called the formal object. This in turn can be general or principal, and it is the
excellence of the person to which cult is offered; or it is special and secondary, and it is the
proper excellence of that part which is directly adored. When we adore Christ, the total material
object is Christ as a whole; his Humanity or any part of it is the partial material object. The
excellence of the person of Christ or the Word is the principal formal object; the excellence of
the part adored is the special formal object.

It is also fitting to distinguish between the absolute or relative cult. Cult is absolute, when the
excellence is the thing itself which is adored. It is relative when the excellence is in some other
with which the thing venerated is tied. Thus the cult which is rendered to God, to Christ or to the
Saints is absolute, whereas that which is given to images, to the cross or to relics is relative. The
divine cult is also called devotion, because the devotion and the cult are identified. “Devotion,”
says St. Thomas, “appears to be nothing other than a will ready to do all that which pertains to
the service of God.” From this will to please God proceed various classes of acts which for this
reason are called devotions. The cult due to the incarnate Word is the cult of latria, which is to
be given to the human nature by reason of its hypostatic union with the divine Word. Thus,
according to the second Council of Constantinople, “With one sole adoration we adore God the
Incarnate Word with His own proper flesh” (Dz 221).

This being given, what is it that the Church proposes for our adoration when she invites us to
honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus? It is only the Heart of flesh? Is it only the metaphorical Heart—
the great charity of the Savior? Is it the Heart of flesh and the metaphorical Heart at the same
time? Is the Heart of flesh the object of worship as an organ or as a symbol? Is it the principal
object or the secondary object, such that love must be what principally receives our attention?
Let us respond to these questions.
 Opinions have been quite varied throughout the history of the Church: some maintain that
the object of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is purely spiritual (denying that we must venerate
the material organ). They hold that the object of the devotion is purely metaphorical (i.e. the
love of Jesus). Others, on the other hand, hold that the sole and complete object of the devotion
is the Heart of flesh of Jesus.
II. Notes on the theological delimitation of this devotion

1. The Heart of flesh. The Heart of flesh is the object of veneration.

2. The Heart of flesh is an emblem of love. The cult, nevertheless, does not stop with the Heart. It
points to the Heart as a symbol of His love. The object is not love in itself, nor is it the Heart in
Itself; it is love under the figure of a Heart of flesh. The proper object of the devotion is the
symbolic Heart, not the metaphorical Heart.

3. Love and the Heart of flesh. There are, then, two elements and two objects of the devotion to the
Sacred Heart. The principal element is love, and the other is secondary, which is the Heart. But
these elements from a single entity, as a sign and the thing signified. The two are essential, and
form no more than one complete object, as the soul and the body constitute no more than a single
man.

4. The Heart as symbol, and the Heart as organ. It is not easy to determine the relationship that exists
between the Heart and love. In modern times, due to a more exact understanding of physiology, there
is an avoidance of speaking of the heart-organ and an insistence on speaking of the heart-emblem.
Not a few prefer to say that the heart is the seat of love. This is found, for example, in the Papal Brief
for the beatification of St. Margaret Mary. We must assume that the devotion involves a natural
relationship between the heart and love; that the object of the devotion is the heart, but not as a
mere symbol. Smoke is a natural sign of fire; a flag is a conventional sign of a country. In this
devotion, the heart is a natural sign, because there exists a real relationship between the heart
and love, a relationship that is conceived as a vital union, and at the same time as an expressive
representation. In this devotion we do not honor the Heart of Jesus as a simple representation, as an
image, or as a pure emblem; we honor it as a vital organ which lived and which lives in the life of
Jesus, which beat and which lives beating with love for us.

5. Object by extension: the innermost part of Jesus. The Heart of Jesus forms a unity with His soul
and with His divine Person; it is symbol and seat of all His virtues and interior sentiments; it is the
center of His intimate suffering, especially of the suffering of His Passion. Thus, the devotion
extends itself to the innermost part of Jesus, since it holds the living Heart as a center of
resonance.

6. Another object by extension: the Person. In the devotion to the Sacred Heart as it exists and lives
in the Church, a special step is taken from the Heart to the Person. In normal language use, through
the use of a literary figure that is called synecdoche, the word heart is frequently used to designate
 the person (“he is a brave soul”; “He is a good heart”). This same thing has been produced through
the devotion to the Sacred Heart. By this extension, then, we adore the whole Person of Jesus, who
reveals Himself to us in His inner life and personal feelings, which speak to us only of love and
kindness.

7. Precise object: The Heart that loves men. In this cult, do we honor the love of Jesus for God, or the
love of Jesus for men? The love of Jesus for men, a love that asks for a loving reciprocation.

8. Precise object: Created love and uncreated love. Just as Jesus Christ has two natures, so He has
two loves: uncreated and created. Which do we love: the love that created Lazarus or that wept for
Lazarus? Proximately, created charity: the charity of the human nature of Christ is the object of
this devotion; for the Heart holds a natural affinity and proportion with that. However,
remotely, also uncreated charity, which is the charity of God (= for God), because in Christ
created charity is the imitation and derivation of uncreated charity. (Note: en la nota en
castellano, dice: “porque en Cristo la caridad creada es imitación y derivación de la caridad
CREADA. Lo cambié como ven. Está bien?)

9. A special quality: unrecognized love. The devotion points, first of all, to love and to the amability
of Jesus. But the history of the devotion brings out this point: Jesus is not satisfied with showing us
His Heart wounded with love, but also shows us this unrecognized love, outraged by those very
people from whom He could expect greater correspondence.

10. Other qualities: Memorial of the Passion and of the Eucharist. For that which concerns the
Passion, it is enough to see how the litanies are penetrated by this idea. It can be said that the
Eucharist and the Passion are the two principal benefits of this love which the Church honors
in the cult of the Sacred Heart.

11. The object of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. The object of this devotion is the loving
correspondence of men to the love that is unrecognized and outraged; a correspondence that
naturally takes on the character of reparation.

12. The act proper to this devotion. It is clearly the act of love, with a few special characteristics: it is a
reciprocal love that never forgets that it is loved; a love of friendship, of intimate and tender
familiarity with Jesus; a love that is unrecognized and outraged, which is what gives
importance to the act of reparation. Reparation is here a secondary act; the primary act is love.
Reparation is a reparation of love (= that grows from love) and not of justice.

13. The spirit of this devotion. It does not only consist in certain pious practices. It involves a whole
life of union with this loving Heart in order to feel what it feels, love what it loves; to please it
in everything: a life filled with love and loving reparation.

14.1 The religion of Jesus. Jesus is everything in our religion. Therefore, nothing helps us more to
know and to love Jesus deeply, nor puts us in such an intimate and personal relationship with Him,
nor makes us live more deeply through Him and with Him, than devotion to the Sacred Heart.
14.2. Religion of love. The whole of Christian life consists in loving God in Jesus; perfection is
defined by union with Jesus and love for Him. It is true, then, that the Christian religion is
summarized in love. That is to say, it is summarized in the Sacred Heart; for devotion to the
Sacred Heart is entirely a devotion to love, a devotion of love.