June. It is the month o the most venerable, most adorable, most glorious, most holy, most Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Saviour: Jesus Christ.
O sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is
requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thy
altar eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries, to
which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such
great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy
pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation not only for our own
personal offences, but also for the sins of those, who straying far from the path of
salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader,
or, renouncing the vows of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.
We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable
outrage committed against Thee; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offences
against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behaviour, for all the foul seductions
laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violation of Sundays and
holidays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also
to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected,
for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very
Sacrament of Thy divine love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the
rights and the teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.
Would, O divine Jesus, we were able to wash away such
abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy
divine honour, the satisfaction Thou didst once make to Thy eternal Father on the cross and
which Thou dost continue to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts
of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth;
and we sincerely promise to make reparation, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace,
for all neglect of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the
past. Henceforth we will live a life of unwavering faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect
observance of the precepts of the gospel and especially that of charity.
We promise to the
best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible
to follow Thee.
O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin Mary our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of
this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto
death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to
that happy home, where Thou with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest God,
world without end. Amen.
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