First Friday May 5, 2023 

Guards of Honor 1st Friday / May 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)

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque writes a powerful letter to Mother Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles in 1684 focussing on the Sacred Heart. St. Margaret Mary makes it clear that everything must  be sacrificed for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. What does this even mean? St. Margaret Mary explains; everything we will, we unite with the Sacred Heart of Jesus; we act with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and we do not undertake anything without first consulting the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The reason for this: all glory must be for the Sacred Heart. At the end, with this reflex to turn to the Sacred Heart, we live for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. Margaret Mary conveys the importance not only of thanking the Sacred Heart for “successes” but also the “ills” that are experienced; moreover, St. Margaret Mary states the importance of being satisfied and not worried about our undertakings. In St. Margaret Mary’s letter, we have a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving rather than finding reasons to be dissatisfied and complain. Why is this? How can we experience disappointment or suffering and be grateful? This is where we learn from St. Margaret Mary and the Saints as we discover their capacity to give thanks in the midst of the greatest hardships right to persecution and martyrdom. The Sacred Heart is the love of Jesus on fire for us; and because of His Sacred Heart, love responds with love and nothing less.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, strengthen our love by your love.

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