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| (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) |
“In Your dear
presence I humbly kneel, sweet Savior mine; and while I contemplate Your
goodness to me I bewail my base ingratitude towards You. My Jesus, mercy…and
grace!
Oh...I am
astonished at my boldness, when I consider that I am here in Your very
presence, in the presence of the omnipotent God! Were not my proper place in
deepest hell, after all that I have done against You?...but instead of that I
linger in Your consoling presence here, delighting in the tender familiarities
of Your boundless love!...It is still permitted me peacefully to repose in the
fragrant atmosphere of prayer; I am still tolerated among the good. Unto the
hermits of the desert You gave to drink water from the rock-bound spring; and
to eat, the herbs and roots of the earth. But to me You give the adorable Food
of Your Flesh and Blood. How can I but marvel?
I acknowledge
it, my Jesus: it is bold of me to linger here in the delicious abundance of
Your graces. But, surely, since You do not spurn my poor, miserable self,
neither will You reject my heartfelt sorrow.
Dearest Savior,
my heart is aching so! How I wish I had never offended You, my best, most
loving Father! But see…I have come, back…all ashamed. I have come to ask
forgiveness…Do You know who I am? Ah, yes…alas! I am the one who did spit upon
You, who gave You a blow on the cheek, who scourged You, crucified You, put You
to death…not even the sight of Your precious Blood, flowing in streams from
Your so cruelly mangled Body, could keep me from merciless, heartless, bitter
wrong…And now You behold me again. But, Jesus, I am not the miserable creature
I was then!
No; Your love
has conquered me wholly…Oh, now pierce my heart with Your love and let me die
for You! In those sad days it was sin — now it is sorrow, 0 dearest Lord! Be
merciful, spare me, 0 Jesus
…I filled Your
soul in the Garden
of Gethsemani with fear
and sorrow even unto death; now I will comfort it and make it rejoice by
fervent Holy Communion and loving visits to You in this Sacrament of Your love.
I bound Your Body to a pillar and scourged it so unmercifully that Your sacred
Flesh was torn to fragments and Your precious Blood flowed in streams to the
ground; now I will receive that divine Body devoutly and often, and each time I
will solemnly promise never again to let my passions hurt You in any way.
…Yes, I
condemned You to death. 0 dear Jesus, now I am going. to visit You often in
Your earthly dwelling place; here I am going to offer my life to You; here,
with You and from You, I am going to seek the life of grace and the pledge of
life ever- lasting…”
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