Fifteenth Day - The Heart of Jesus Invites Us All to Him

"Come to me, all. . . ." (Matthew 11:28) "How beautiful are these words!" says Saint Basil of Seleucia, "Come to me all; I place no bounds to my promises; my Heart is an inexhaustible source of goodness; it can wash away every crime.

"Come to me all, and I will refresh you. The crimes are yours; the remedy is mine; yours are the wounds, mine the cure.

"Come to me all; my Heart is wide enough for all. The ocean of my mercy is vast enough to receive all sinners, who cast themselves therein, like rivers, to drown their offences in its waves.

"Come to me all; for my word cannot remain without effect. It is a net, which I have cast into the sea of the world, to take and enclose all mankind.

"Come to me all; ah! what power is there in these words, which have triumphed over all the nations of the world! what saving, sovereign efficacy, which has bowed the universe in obedience to the yoke of faith." (Nouet.)

Venite ad me omnes. Come to me all; come all to my Heart. Come, children, to the Heart of Jesus: never did the most loving mother feel anything that approaches the tenderness with which this Heart burns for you. Come, ye aged, to the Heart of Jesus; He will renew your youth like the eagle's. Come, ye just, to the Heart of Jesus; secured within this retreat, you shall advance each day from virtue to virtue. Come, sinners, come all to the Heart of Jesus, and the robe of your iniquities, were it red as scarlet, shall be made as white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18)

'Tis towards those sinners, especially, who have most abused His benefits, that the Heart of Jesus shows itself most liberal; it takes pleasure in verifying in them the saying of Holy Scripture; Where sin abounded, there shall grace more abound.

Strayed sheep of the house of Israel, poor soul, who have wearied yourself in the way of iniquity, perchance you say to yourself in the sad condition to which your wanderings have reduced you; Our Lord has forsaken me for ever; He thinks no more of me. (Isaiah 49:14) Hear how He speaks to a soul, Saint Angela of Foligno, whom He had drawn from the abyss of sin, to impart to her the treasures of His mercy; "My children, who have renounced my kingdom by sinning, and have made themselves slaves of the devil, are received kindly by their Father when they return to Him; and, in the transport of joy which He feels at their return, He bestows graces upon them, which He does not always grant to innocent souls. Why is this? First, on account of the boundless love which He bears them; secondly, because the misery in which they are plunged awakens His mercy towards them; and lastly, on account of the sorrow which they feel for having offended so great and so good a God, of whose mercy they esteem themselves unworthy, acknowledging in their hearts that they have deserved hell. For all these reasons, a person who has sinned more may obtain a fuller share of grace, and meet with more abundant mercy."

When shall I at length respond, O Heart of Jesus! to such goodness and condescension? When shall I give ear to the voice of Thy love? When shall I begin to love Thee? Alas! whenever I give Thee my heart, had I given it Thee from the first moment of my life, still it would be ever true that Thou hadst loved me first, and with a love which I shall never be able to repay.

"The strongest friendship amongst men is that which lasts till death, and for which they count it a glory to die. But the Heart of Jesus is our friend during life, in death, and after death; for He gives eternity to those who love Him. Take, then, this amiable Heart for your friend, in preference to all others, for it alone will remain true to you at the day of your death, when all things else will be severed from you. Be assured that it will never leave you, not even when you see yourself abandoned by your truest Mends, but that it will remain at your side in your last combat against the devil, and that it will deliver you from the power of darkness, and from the fury of those roaring lions which are on the watch to devour their prey at the hour of death." (Saint Augustine)

"Ah! how sweet is it," exclaimed a great servant of God upon his death-bed, "to fall into the hands of Jesus dying for us!" How sweet, too, will it be for you to cast yourself, on quitting this life, into the Heart of Jesus wounded for you, if you respond now to the invitation which He holds out to you, of choosing it as your abode!

Practice - An effectual means of giving comfort to the Heart of Jesus, and one within the reach of all, is to do what you can for the relief of the souls in purgatory. The holy sacrifice of the mass, the application of indulgences, prayers, the least action directed to this intention, are so many means of relieving these souls, to which Jesus has an extreme desire of uniting Himself; His justice prevents His satisfying this desire; He waits, if I may say so, for you to place Him under the sweet obligation of making His divine justice yield to His mercy.

Prayer - One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek after, all the days of my life, that I may dwell continually in His Sacred Heart. (Psalm 26:4)

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.