Feast of the Sacred Heart!

I have blogged about this before, once, a long long time ago (or so I think ..) It's about this very very moving hymn you can sing anywhere you are, anytime you want.. =)

Well here goes:

God of Mercy and Compassion
Au sang qu’un Dieu

1. God of mercy and compassion,
Look with pity upon me,
Father, let me call Thee Father,
‘Tis Thy child returns to Thee.

Refrain
Jesus, Lord, I ask for mercy;
Let me not implore in vain;
All my sins,
I now detest them,
Never will I sin again.

2. By my sins I have deserved
Death and endless misery,
Hell with all its pains and torments,
And for all eternity.

3. By my sins I have abandoned
Death and endless misery,
Where the saints rejoice forever
In a boundless sea of love.

4. See our Saviour, bleeding, dying,
On the cross of Calvary;
To that cross my sins have nail’d Him,Yet He bleeds and dies for me.

Sing it, if you know the tune. I'll try to run some music on this page, and if I manage to do it, those of you who don't know the tune can listen to this hymn. =)

It made me cry again today. And I wanted to cry like a baby.

Meditate on the few words of each verse.

It sort of sums up the relationship between God and human-kind. It sums up why HE came down to earth, just to save us, redeem us. It sums up the reason why HE is GOD.

Deus caritas est - God is Love.

Without His Love, we are NOTHING. Nothing and meaningless.

Life is worth NOTHING, if not for Him and

Without Him dying on the Cross, to save us from our sins, our iniquity.

You can read Isaias chapter 53, from the Old Testament.

(I'll paste it here, taken from www.drbo.org - the D-R Bible Online)

Latin Vulgate

Douay-Rheims Bible
Isaias 53:

Prophecy Of Isaias

< prev Chapter 53 next >

A prophecy of the passion of Christ.

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

2 And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:

3 Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.

8 He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.

9 And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth.

10 And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

11 Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.
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Deus caritas est. It's because of His infinite Love, that's why He is of infinite mercy, and because He is of infinite mercy, He is of INFINITE JUSTICE. It's so logical, so simple!! - Why didn't I think about this a long long time ago?? Deo gratias! for finally making me understand.

Help me to understand you better, to Know, Love and Imitate You.

For you, and only you are the only way to Happiness.

I realised this during the 5-day silent retreat we had at the start of June.

Deo gratias!

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O my Dearest Lord, I am most heartily sorry if I have ever offended you, by the plenitude of my sins, my rubbish you have had to endure for my sake. You had to die to save us, and it is only now that I realise the plenitude of graces you have had in store for us, through your Blessed Mother. I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, O my dearest, dearest God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life.

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Hell exists! and it's a fact.

God is infinite MERCY,

and because he is infinite MERCY, He has to be of infinite JUSTICE.

God is also infinite JUSTICE.

Infinite EVERYTHING.

God is OMNIPRESENT - HE is everything and is FOUND everywhere ,

God is OMNIPOTENT - the creating and driving force of everything in the universe without exception.

Here's something from St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, one of the best philosophers of all the ages (until today), reflect on it (I've posted on this before too .. haha but no harm putting it up again right):

If God loves us so, if He is so provident a Father, why does He let us commit sin? The answer is that He is God, reverently respectful of His children, and He has made us men. Why, since He knows from eternity which of us will lose our souls, did He make us at all? The question is a coward's complaint against his humanity and the share of divinity given to men. If we are to have a chance at heaven, we must run the risk of hell; no men is in hell who did not have time after time, the chance of taking heaven in his grasp. Heaven is worth the risk of hell; God is worth the risk of the devil. It is dangerous to be a man lifted up to the heights of God; dangerous, but a danger well justified by the goals that are open to us. The shared power of God that is ours does not destroy His omnipotence, nor does His eternal knowledge destroy our freedom: we are men and He is God, and we can live that divine life with Him forever, if we will, or we can start our hell on earth and preserve it for all of an eternity.

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Dear God, I love you! This seems so lame, blogging about this, BUT I sincerely do. Thank you so much for everything and yet again, give me strength! For I am greatly in need of Thy mercy and love.

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Here's a link you can go to read more about this most sacred feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I'll copy and paste some of the parts:

ORIGIN OF THIS FESTIVAL

After many devout souls had venerated the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with sincere devotion, in the solitude of quiet life, as is seen in the lives of SS..Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventura, Thomas of Aquin, Francis de Sales, Ignatius, Clara, Gertrude, Mechtild, Catharine of Sienna, Theresa, and others, our divine Saviour willed that His heart's infinite love should be recognized by all men, and be kindled in cold hearts by a new fire of love. For this end He made use of a feeble, obscure instrument, that all the world might know that the devotion to His loving heart; previously almost entirely unknown, was His own work. This instrument, disregarded by the world, was one who shone before God in all 'the radiance of the most sublime virtues; the nun Margaret Alacoque of the order of the Visitation of Mary, at Paray, in Burgundy. In the year 1675, whilst she was one day in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament; our Lord appeared to her, and pointing to His heart which He showed to her, surrounded with flames, surmounted by the cross, encircled with a crown of thorns, and pierced with a gaping wound, He said to her: "Behold this heart, which has loved mankind so much, and which receives only ingratitude and coldness in return for its love. My desire is that you should make reparation to my heart for this ingratitude, and induce others also to make reparation." Our Lord then designated the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi as the special day for this duty. In several subsequent apparitions our divine Lord repeated this injunction, and made the most unbounded promises in favor' of all who would apply themselves to this office of reparation to His Sacred Heart. The following are some of His promises;

1.I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2.I will establish peace in their families.
3.I will console them in all their pains and trials.
4.I will be their assured refuge in life, and especially in death.
5.I will shed abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.
6.Sinners shall find in my Heart an infinite ocean of mercy.
7.Lukewarm souls will be rendered fervent.
8.Fervent souls shall rise rapidly to greater perfection.
9.I will bless those houses where the image of my heart shall be exposed and honored.
10.I will give to priests the gift of moving the hardest hearts.

Persons who propagate this devotion,. shall have their names inscribed on my heart, never to be effaced from it.

Margaret obeyed, but found everywhere the greatest opposition, actual sneers and persecution, even from her Sisters in religion, until finally, with the aid of her divine spouse, she succeeded as mistress of novices, in bringing her young charges to the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But this did not content her zeal; although opposition continued, she strove to fulfil the command of Jesus, who assisted her by at last changing the hardened hearts of the nuns and inflaming them with the same love of His Sacred Heart. This devotion soon spread from the convent throughout the adjoining dioceses, where confraternities in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus arose, and Pope Clement, XIII., after causing the strictest investigation to be made, commanded?the Festival of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to be observed throughout the Catholic Church on the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi.

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read more from the link given above. =) This post is long enough as it is. Oh Yes! .. one more thing.. I know alot of people all HAPPY today .. haha you all know who you are. I'm Glad for all then =)

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[An indulgence of one hundred Days is gained by saying this prayer with true contrition, before a picture of the sacred heart of Jesus, and a plenary indulgence by saying it every day for a month, an,Àã receiving the Sacraments of Penance and Communion, and Praying for the Church.]

O Jesus, most worthy of love! I gratefully offer Thee my heart in compensation for my great unfaithfulness,and consecrate myself wholly and forever toThy service, purposing, with Thy grace, no more to offend Thee. Amen

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God Bless!

In Christo et Mariae et Joseph et Anna et Thérèse!

(Hahaha, I hope I got the Latin correct ...)

Vincit Veritas!