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Getting to know the loving heart of Jesus
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February 1, 2024The First Friday Devotion, also called the Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a Catholic devotion emphasizing that Jesus had a human-divine heart. And His heart is full of merciful love. Called “The Alliance of the Two Hearts” at St. Joseph’s Parish in Corpus Christi, it is celebrated with confession time and an evening Mass starting at 6:30 p.m.
The tradition originated in the apparitions of Christ at Paray-le-Monial, France, reported by Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century.
Margaret Mary’s early years were marked by sickness and a painful home situation. “The heaviest of my crosses was that I could do nothing to lighten the cross my mother was suffering,” she wrote. After considering marriage for some time, Margaret Mary entered the Order of the Visitation nuns at the age of 24.
Margaret Mary was reported to be humble, simple, and frank, but above all, kind and patient under sharp criticism and correction. She could not meditate in the formal way expected, though she tried her best to give up her “prayer of simplicity.” Slow, quiet, and clumsy, she was assigned to help an infirmarian who was a bundle of energy.
On December 21, 1674, three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. She felt “invested” in the presence of God, though always afraid of deceiving herself in such matters. She understood that Christ asked her to make His love for humankind evident.
During the next 13 months, Christ appeared to her at intervals. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her love, Margaret Mary was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world — by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour’s vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted.
Like all saints, Margaret Mary had to pay for her gift of holiness. Some of her fellow sisters were hostile. Theologians who were called in declared her visions delusions and suggested that she eat more heartily. Later, the parents of the children she taught called her an impostor, an unorthodox innovator. A new confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, recognized and supported her genuineness.
After serving as novice mistress and assistant superior, Margaret Mary died at the age of 43 while being anointed. She said: “I need nothing but God and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”
These are the revelations that St. Margaret Mary received from Christ:- I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life.
- I will establish peace in their families.
- I will comfort them in their trials.
- I will be their secure refuge during life and, above all, in death.
- I will shed abundant blessings on all their undertakings
- Sinners will find in My Heart an infinite ocean of mercy.
- Lukewarm souls will become fervent.
- Fervent souls will rapidly grow in holiness and perfection.
- I will bless every place where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
- I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
- The names of those who promote this devotion will be written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
- I promise thee, in the excessive mercy of My Heart, that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.
Holy Cross Church (6 pm) and St. Joseph Church (6:30 pm) in Corpus Christi offer a First Friday Mass.
