There is nothing in each person so human as the heart. The heart, metaphorically, is regarded as the seat of spiritual life, the "heart" of the soul. Jesus Christ wished to be born, to grow up, work and die like us. He used our feeble human words to give us His doctrine, but it is because His Human Heart vibrated with love and felt all our happy and unhappy feelings, that we feel he is really ours.

In a devotion to the Sacred Heart, we find the true essence of Jesus Christ. In embracing the Heart of Jesus, we learn to walk with Him as a friend. His Heart breaths into our spirit the inspiration of strength, and love, and a sound mind. In the secret places our trials and our doubts, in the hour when our nature trembles on the verge of fall, the hour when our being asserts its immortal righteousness against a base temptation, He is with us, inspiring us with His Memory. The heart of Jesus calls us to be worthy of His affection and in this inpouring of life and energy into our heart from Him enables us to raise above our selfishness, into the aspirations which make us despise our transgressions. His heart inspires hope in the midst of our despair, and gives us the faith to try again when our lives have fallen apart.

In contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus, one is drawn to know more about this Person. To know Jesus Christ, one must read and re-read the Gospels. You will find that Charity stands out as the essential feature of His Heart, Its Source.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, received the unique favor of being visited by Our Lord Himself, who asked her to spread devotion to His Most Sacred Heart. This she most humbly did, once she had received the permission and approbation of her superiors, especially her spiritual director and confessor, St. Claude La Columbiere.

For all Catholic men and women, families and young people troubled by the many afflictions of modern life here is the greatest source of spiritual and temporal help, graces and blessings for those who truly love the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and practice His requested Devotion with the essential prayers and acts including the "First Friday's". The Nine "First Fridays" must be made in honor of His Sacred Heart on nine consecutive months, and communion must be received.

12. I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant all to those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment .

Every first Friday of the month she saw the favours, once already received, renewed and the Heart of Jesus was being shown to her as a luminous sun, whose rays, united together in the manner of inflamed darts, were reflected in her heart.

Then she felt herself lit up by a fire so alive, that it seemed it should have turned to ashes, as the Saviour deigned to tell her all that which He wished of her; ever more manifesting to her His Sacred Heart.

"Once when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, my soul being absorbed in extraordinary recollection, Jesus Christ, my sweet Master, presented Himself to me. He was brilliant with glory; His five wounds shone like five suns. Flames darted forth from all parts of His Sacred humanity but especially from His adorable breast, which resembled a furnace, and which, opening, displayed to me His loving and amiable Heart, the living source of these flames".

Whilst Margaret was contemplating Him, "He unfolded to me", she says, "the inexplicable wonders of His pure love, and to what an excess He had carried it for the love of men, from whom He had received only ingratitude. 'This is', He said, 'much more painful to Me than all that I suffered in My Passion.

If men rendered to Me some return of love, I should esteem as little all I have done for them, and should wish, if such could be, to suffer it over again; but they meet My eager love with coldness and rebuffs. Do you, at least', said He, 'console and delight Me, by supplying as much as you can for their ingratitude'".

"'Fear nothing', the Lord said to me, 'I shall be thy strength. Listen only to what I desire of thee so as to prepare thee for the accomplishment of My designs.' Then the Lord requested of me that I, 'communicate every first Friday of the month, so as to make honourable reparation'".

O, Queen of Heaven, My most loving Mother, I (name) though full of weakness and quite unworthy, yet encouraged by the gracious invitation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, desire to consecrate myself entirely to Him. Conscious of my own unworthiness and inconstancy, I desire to offer everything through your maternal hands, and with childlike trust in your loving care, I look to you to assist me in the fulfillment of my resolutions.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, King of love and goodness, full of recognition for Your Favors, freely and with all my so do I accept this pact between You and me. I shall care for Your interests, and you will care for mine. I wish everything of mine to be Yours and place everything in Your hands: my soul, my eternal salvation, my freedom, my interior progress, my wants, my body, my life and my health. I place in Your hands the small number of good works I am able to perform or which others will offer for me during my life or after my death, if I can be of service to you.

I also place in your hands my family, my possessions, my work, that you may be King of everything that is mine and may dispose of them according to your pleasure. I for my part will do my best in all these affairs, but I shall rest contented with whatever your loving Heart decided in my behalf, difficult though it may be.

In return, I ask that that the time still left to me not be wasted. I desire to do something important and useful that You may reign in the world: By my prayer and aspirations, by my daily tasks, by the suffering which I accept here and now, by my little acts of self-denial. I desire that every moment of my life be spent in promoting and establishing your divine Kingdom. May Your seal be on everything I do until the end of my allotted time, and then may my last breath be spent in words of love of Your most Sacred Heart.

My Jesus, let me live in your heart and pour all my bitterness into it where it will be utterly consumed. Sheltered in your heart I shall not fear impatience. There I will practice silence, resignation to your will, and constancy. I will thank you daily for my crosses and ask your pardon for those who offend me. I will try to acquire patience. I know it is not the work of a day, but it is enough for me to be sure that it can be attained by effort.

Give and take what you will; use me or set me aside as a useless instrument; give me consolations or give me trials; may your will be done in all things. May all this glorify your divine heart and make reparation to it. I wish to make a full gift of all this to you, begging you to accept it and to use it freely for the salvation of sinners.

I felt Jesus always near me, as one feels oneself near another at night without being able to see him because of the darkness. The penetrating eyes of love made me see and feel him in a most loving and certain way, and under various aspects.

This divine presence evokes from me such great reverence that when I am alone it gives me no rest unless I am prostrate or on my knees, like a little bit of nothingness before this omnipotent One. This infinite grandeur encompasses me with it power and so takes possession of me and of my whole body and soul that I think I can say that I no longer have any power over myself, for he acts independently of me. But he does give me profound peace, a joy, a satisfaction, an ardent desire to be conformed to the suffering, humble, hidden, and lowly life of my Savior. And that in such a way that contempt, poverty, sorrow and humiliations are the delicious meats with which he continually nourishes my soul. It no longer has a taste for any other. All my pleasure in this land of exile is that of having every kind of suffering found on the cross, deprived of every other consolation except that of the Sacred Heart.