SACRED HEART IN THE FILIPINO FAMILY

SACRED HEART KING OF THE FAMILY

Although not celebrated with much fanfare, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Philippine is a steady, long-enduring devotion. Just as the statue of the Sacred Heart adorns most churches, it also adorns almost all Filipino homes. Go to a Filipino home and the first thing you see is the Sacred Heart statue or picture prominently displayed.

First Friday devotions are widely observed and Masses are well attended in churches, schools, offices and even shopping malls. In spite of the popularity of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, however, there seems to be little understanding of the true nature of the devotion. This article is an attempt to put it in the context of the family where the devotion truly should begin.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart should begin in the family for two reasons. The first reason is the family has figured prominently in God's plan of salvation since the creation of the world. God is love; He revealed it when He created humans - male and female. It is through the union of the two in marriage that the race of man develops as a community of love.

It is the first community called to announce the Gospel to the human person, bringing all to a progressive education and catechesis to full human and Christian maturity. Through His incarnation the Son of God became human through a family. He grew up in the bosom of Joseph and Mary and thus gave an example of how to live in a family. To show the primacy of family, He worked His first miracle in the context of a wedding at Cana.

The second reason is the primary value that a Filipino places on his family. It is here that the Filipino finds his core value and response. The family is the foundation and central point of a Filipino's behavior and social relationships. It is the source of his personal identity, and emotional and material support. It provides his basic sense of belonging, stability, and security. Thus, if devotion to the Sacred Heart begins in the Filipino family, chances are it will become entrenched as part of its members' spirituality and way of life and will most likely be carried throughout life.

The challenge lies in the renewal of the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the Filipino Catholic families such that it would be meaningful to the modern generation, not just a rehash of the beliefs of the older generation often no longer relevant to the contemporary generation. It practised in the home meaningfully, the devotion to the Sacred Heart may greatly help the Christian family in effectively fighting the pagan elements of traditional religion, secularization, and modernization that are fast spreading in today's confused and contradictory situations.

To combat the individualism and self-centered thinking of the present generation, attitudes that focus on other people's well-being and comfort should be developed. Values should be restructured so that a personal relationship with Jesus becomes the basis of an inspired vision to encounter Jesus in all the members of the family, especially the sick, the disabled, and the suffering. A new way of life must be inculturated and incorporated into the lives of families. This can be done in the active centering on the unconditional and merciful love of Jesus in the Sacred Heart.

Practices centered on the family begin with the enthronement of the Sacred Heart and the home and consecration of the family to it. The adoption of Jesus as King of the home redirects the aims of the lives of the members of the family. They will make the Sacred Heart King and center of all their desires, thoughts, speech and activities. Since the love of the Sacred heart dominates their lives, their hearts will be purified from incompatible cultural habits and they will become authentic Christians.

As a corollary, another excellent practice would be to recite the daily Morning Offering upon awakening in order to offer one's day - all thoughts, words, and actions-through the Immaculate Heart of Mary - in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the intentions of the Sacred Heart, as well as those of the Holy Father.

Reparation for all the outrages and crimes committed against Jesus in His Most Sacred Heart is done not only in prayer and the First Friday devotions, but more importantly through a friendly, interactive and loving relationship with other people of our families, communities, and parishes. The updated meaning of reparation also includes concern for the poor and abandoned members of our society, justice for the less fortunate members of our community, and care for our environment.

In these meaningful ways, the aim of the Devotion which is a Consecration, Offering, and Reparation will be promoted and modified in a contemporary, modern family setting. As our late Holy Father John Paul II said, this love of the Sacred Heart renewed in our families will bring about a "civilization of love" in our world.


Angelita P. Makalinao
The Messenger of Divine Love
April-June 2008
Volume II Number 4

APPARITIONS OF THE SACRED HEART

APPARITIONS OF THE SACRED HEART

TO SR. MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE

On 27 December 1673, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament, saw in a vision the Sacred Heart at Paray-le-Monial, in central France.

In that very first apparition, Jesus revealed to the young nun His immense and great merciful love for all mankind. Thereafter, two other apparitions followed: one at the beginning of 1674 and the other on July 2 of the same year, always while Sr. Margaret Mary was praying before the Blessed Sacrament.

According to Sister Mary, "He was in a flame of glory; His five wounds burning like suns, flames issuing from all parts of His human form, especially from His divine breast which was like a furnace and which He opened to disclose His utterly affectionate and lovable Heart, the source of all these flames. He revealed to me the indescribable wonders of His pure Heart for humankind. But His eager love had been met only with coldness and rebuffs."

Jesus asked her to "Do me the kindness of at least making up for all their ingratitude. First of all, you are to receive Me in the Holy Eucharist as often as obedience allows. Accept all mortification and humiliation that may result as a token of My Love. Besides this, you are to receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month. Then every Thursday night, you are to get up between eleven o'clock and midnight for an hour, lying face downwards not only to allay God's anger by asking mercy for sinners; but also to soothe in some way the heartaches, I felt when my Apostles deserted me, when I had to reproach them for being unable to watch with Me even for an hour."

A fourth apparition took place on 16 June 1675. It was during that apparition that Jesus requested that a feast honoring the Sacred Heart be established on the First Friday after Corpus Christi (in June). Jesus appeared to her and said. "I am asking you to have the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi set apart as a special feast in honor of my Heart, a day in which to receive Me in Holy Communion and make a solemn act of reparation for the indignities I have received while exposed on the altars of the world."

In those apparitions, Jesus showed to Sr. Margaret Mary His Heart afire with love for all human beings, crowned with thorns (which symbolized the sins of mankind) and pierced with the lance of human sinfulness and ingratitude.

"Behold the Heart that has loved mankind so much," said Jesus, "and which receives so much ingratitude in return."

Not only did Jesus reveal to Sr. Margaret Mary all the depth of His merciful love for all, but also asked the saintly nun to offer REPARATION for the ingratitude and the terrible offenses with which sinners respond to His immense Love. Of these grave offenses, Jesus specifically mentioned the indifference toward the Blessed Sacrament, its profanations, and the unfaithfulness of the persons consecrated to Him.

Among the ways to offer reparation for all these offenses, Jesus singled out the holding of a Holy Hour of Adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament, the Consecration to Him, and the devout reception of Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month.

An integral part of Devotion to the Sacred Heart is thus inspired by the desire of our Lord to have Catholics make solemn reparation for the neglect, indifference and ingratitude of the majority that results in Jesus Christ being left alone, abandoned and forgotten in our altars; never visited to offer consolation for such neglect, though He has given us the miracle of His Divine Presence in the Most Holy Blessed Sacrament, as a supreme gift in His desire to be always with us.

ACT OF REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART

ACT OF REPARATION PRAYER

TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Adorable Heart of Jesus, glowing with love for us and inflamed with zeal for our salvation! Oh Heart, ever sensible of our misery and the wretchedness to which our sins have reduced us, infinitely rich in mercy to heal the wounds of our souls! Behold us, humbly prostrate before You to express the sorrow that fills our hearts for the coldness and indifference with which we have so long requited the numberless benefits You have conferred upon us.

With a deep sense of outrages heaped upon You by our sins and the sins of others, we come to make a solemn reparation of honor to Your Most Sacred Majesty. It was our sins that overwhelmed Your Heart with bitterness. It was the weight of our iniquities that pressed down your face to the earth in the Garden of Olives and caused You to expire in anguish and agony on the Cross. But now, repenting and sorrowful, we cast ourselves at Your feet and implore forgiveness.

Adorable Heart of Jesus, source of true contrition and ever merciful to the penitent sinner, impart to our hearts the spirit of penance, and give to our eyes a fountain of tears that we may sincerely bewail our sins, now and for the rest of our days.

O would that we could blot them out even with our blood. Pardon them, O Lord, in Your mercy and pardon and convert to You all that have committed irreverences and sacrileges against You in the Sacrament of Your Love, and thus give another proof that Your Mercy is above all Your Works.

Divine Jesus, with You there is mercy and plentiful redemption. Deliver us from our sins. Accept our sincere desire and our resolution, with the help of Your grace, henceforth to be faithful to You.

And in order to repair the sins and ingratitude by which we have grieved Your most tender and loving Heart, we are resolved in the future ever to love and honor You in the most Adorable Sacrament of the Altar, where You are ever present to hear and grant our petitions and to be the food and life of our souls.

Be O compassionate Jesus, our Mediator with Your Heavenly Father, whom we have so grievously offended. Strengthen our weakness, confirm our resolution of amendment, and as your Sacred Heart is our refuge and our hope when we have sinned, so may it be the strength and support of our repentance, that nothing in life and death may ever again separate us from You, Amen.


Note: 5 years indulgence each time. Plenary indulgence once a month, if the above prayer is said daily during the month, and a visit is made to a Church, with Confession and Holy Communion are received.

Indulgence of 7 years, if on the Feast of the Sacred Heart the above Act of Reparation and the Litany of the Sacred Heart are said publicly in a Church before the exposed Blessed Sacrament. On the same day, a plenary indulgence if the prayers are said as stated with Confession and Holy Communion are received.