First Friday mARCH 3, 2023 

Guards of Honor 1st Friday / March 2023 Fr. David Bellusci, OP 

“My Heart has expected reproach and misery and I looked for one who would grieve together

with Me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, and I found none!” (Ps. 68)

“BEHOLD THE HEART WHICH HAS SUFFERED SO MUCH!”

Writing in 1684 to Mother Sumaise at Dijon, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque reveals the connection between love, suffering, and abandonment. In the gift of the Cross, all three are given to us. However, as St. Margaret Mary explains, we do not seem to know the worth -- the value -- of the Cross, and so we, “flee from it and cast it...” Instead, the gift of the Cross is for us to “cherish and love.” Pleasure is truly to be found in the Cross because this is where we find the love of Jesus, His suffering, and abandonment to the Father’s will. We are called to “die in its arms”: the Cross of Jesus where we encounter our Saviour. St. Margaret Mary insists on “pure love” that should consume our heart just as “pure love” consumed the heart of Jesus. “Pure love” is repeated in her letters. “Pure love” is understood as a love that does not seek one’s own interest. Instead, “pure love” only desires to be united with the heart of Jesus. “Pure love” is the communion in suffering and abandonment with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Let our Lent be a privileged time of oneness with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we love you and we unite ourselves with you.

Prayer to Renew Our Fidelity and Devotion 

Divine Jesus, my Saviour and my King, with all my heart I  renew the promise which I have made to love, to glorify and  to console Your adorable Heart as a member of the Guard  of Honor. Grant O good Master, to make me daily more  loving, more devoted and more faithful. I ask this same  grace for all the Associates through the most sweet Heart of  Your Mother. AMEN