Month of the Sacred Heart
Devotion to the Sacred Heart must be our constant source of growth in holiness. For the gift of divine grace by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies us is a gift of the Sacred Heart to us: He has merited it for us and communicates it to us: nay, it comes to us only as a participation of Christ's own life and love. Now, we share this life of Christ in the degree in which we are united to Him, first by the sacraments which He has instituted, then by every act of love that binds us to Him. Hence, as the devotion to the Sacred Heart is nothing but an exercise of love, it is a most efficacious means to share Christ's own life and sanctity.
It is for this purpose that in His mercy He has revealed it to us and begged us to surrender our hearts to His: that He may communicate to us the fire of His divine love, and thus make us live by His own divine life. Christ longed, and longs, for holiness in all the members of His Mystical Body, and therefore He gave them this new most efficacious means to reach it. Our holy Mother the Church longs for holiness in all her children, and therefore she has consecrated them all to the Sacred Heart and presses them to be faithful to that consecration. Do we not long for our own holiness? The let us surrender to the loving invitation of Christ and of Holy Church, and endeavor to live our consecration to the Sacred Heart. And, as we long for holiness in our flock, let us spare no pains to make the Sacred Heart “the King and center of all hearts”.
Through the Heart of Mary
Another source of growth in holiness is devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For the gift of the Holy Spirit which sanctifies us and comes to us from the Heart of Jesus, will not reach us except through Mary. Is she not the Mediatrix of all graces? And by directing our devotion in a special manner to the most pure Heart of Mary, we will assuredly secure most effectively her loving bountifulness. She herself has revealed this to the world. As Knights of the Immaculata, we have consecrated ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. If then we are solicitous for our sanctification, we must try and live in the Spirit of that consecration: not only by love and praise, by constant recourse to her intercession, but also by imitating her most pure Heart in her fidelity to the Holy Spirit and in her love for her divine Son.
I wish you all a very holy month of the Sacred Heart. May we all grow in holiness as this is the will of God! (1 Thess 4:3)
God bless.
In Christo,
Fr. Therasian Babu
