Prayer Before A Crucifix: For God’s Grace in the Midst of Grief
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These two prayers below are Acts of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They can help you fill an important need in Jesus' heart and yours as well! The US Bishops felt such prayers important enough as to ask all clergy and laity to join them in prayer on June 11th, one day before the feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
Clearly, our Lord wishes us to join our will to His in love for Him and each other on our earthly pilgrimage to Heaven. And what better way than to appeal to our hearts, where our most sincere feelings and desires reside.
So too with Jesus, who we must remember, as man as well as God, comes to us in Communion at Mass and in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament with His heart filled with immense love and longing for us!
This first prayer below involves each of us looking into our own hearts, individually in order to draw closer to Jesus in His Sacred Heart.
It is known as the "Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus" and was composed by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a 17th Century French nun and mystic (pictured above) who saw our Lord in numerous visions. She was instrumental in spreading devotion to His Sacred Heart after He conveyed His wish for her to do so.
In one vision she actually saw Jesus’ Sacred Heart with flames protruding from it to show His great love for us! The burning love he showed her from His Sacred Heart certainly must have inspired her.
I (N.), give and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, my person, my life, my actions, my pains and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being save to honor, love, and glorify the Sacred Heart. It is my unchanging intention to be all His and to do all for love of Him. I renounce at the same time with all my heart whatever can displease Him.
I, therefore, take You, O Sacred Heart, for the only object of my love, the protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for the faults of my life, and the secure refuge at the hour of my death.
Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the punishment of His just anger. O Heart of love, I put my confidence in You, because I fear everything from my own sinfulness and weakness. I hope for all things from Your mercy and generosity.
Destroy in me all that can displease or resist Your holy Will. Let Your pure love impress You so deeply upon my heart that I may never forget You or be separated from You. May my name, by your loving kindness, be written In You, because in You I desire to place all my happiness and all my glory in living and dying in very bondage to You.
It is important to note that this “bondage” St. Margaret Mary refers to in this act of consecration is one of love for God! Speaking also of another kind of bondage, St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans of how we who were once slaves to sinful behavior could now be servants of righteousness instead through Christ, and attain Eternal life with Him (Rom 6:22-23).
Note also the importance St. Margaret Mary places in that righteousness as coming from God, not solely from her own efforts when she says “I fear everything from my own sinfulness and weakness. I hope for all things from Your mercy and generosity.” (She expresses a similar thought in her prayer of trust in Jesus’ Sacred Heart.)
As our Lord said in the Gospels “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Jesus once told St. Margaret Mary something quite similar when He said “Without me you can do nothing, but I will never let you lack help as long as you keep your weakness and nothingness buried in My strength.”
Our Lord wishes us to approach Him for help and love in humility, even when we’re feeling most uncertain or useless. Don’t be afraid to offer up your own weaknesses and anxieties to Him! He’ll be more than happy to fill your “nothingness” with His awesomeness!
This Second Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus continues in this way:
My most loving Jesus, I consecrate myself today anew and without reserve to Your divine Heart. I consecrate to You my body with all its senses, my soul with all its faculties, and my entire being. I consecrate to You all my thoughts, words, and deeds, all my sufferings and labors, all my hopes, consolations, and joys. Above all I consecrate to You this poor heart of mine that it may love nothing except You and that it may be consumed as a sacrifice in the fire of Your love.
Jesus, dearest Spouse of my soul, accept the desire which I have of consoling Your divine Heart and of belonging to You forever. Take possession of me in such a manner that from this day forth I may have no other freedom than that of loving You and no other life than that of suffering and dying for You.
I put my whole confidence in You, and I hope for the forgiveness of my sins through Your infinite mercy. I place within Your hands all my cares and worries, especially my eternal salvation. I promise to love and honor You in the last moment of my life and to spread the worship of Your most Sacred Heart as much as I can.
My Jesus, dispose of me according to Your good pleasure. I want to have no other reward than Your greater glory and Your holy love. Grant me grace to find my home in Your divine Heart. Here I wish to spend every day of my life. Here I wish to breathe forth my last breath. Be pleased to set up in my Heart Your dwelling place, the seat of Your rest, that we may thus remain inseparably united. May I one day be able to love and possess You forever in the Kingdom of Heaven, where I shall praise without end the infinite mercies of Your Sacred Heart.
Clearly the more we can turn to Jesus to be King and center of our hearts with the help of this Devotion to our Lord's Sacred Heart, the more we might have a better chance to one day achieve the "peace and order to all nations" this prayer speaks of, which is both so sorely needed and so sorely lacking nowadays!
Christopher Castagnoli is the editor and publisher of the website www.ourcatholicprayers.com. This site features articles and commentary on many well known as well as lesser known prayers, along with other aspects of our wonderful faith. He’s also published podcasts of many of his webpages at www.ourcatholicprayerspodcast.com. Chris converted to Catholicism in 1999 when he was baptized by John Cardinal O’Connor at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Chris is also the Assistant Coordinator, as well as a Catechist, for the Cathedral’s RCIA program.
