Priesthood and the Heart of Jesus
June 19th, 2009 by Fr. Pius, OP
It is most fitting that the Year For Priests, inaugurated by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, begins on the Solemnity of the Heart of Jesus. In his book The Priest in Union with Christ, Dominican priest Fr. Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange explicitly connects the holiness of the priest to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There he encourages devotion to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus-that heart that gave us and continues to give us the gift of the Eucharist-as an “effective means of attaining priestly perfection.” Accordingly, he recommends the Prayer to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus not only for priests, but for all who wish to grow closer to Christ in the Eucharist:
PRAYER TO THE EUCHARISTIC HEART OF JESUS
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, gracious companion of our exile, I adore Thee.
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus,
lonely Heart,
humiliated Heart,
abandoned Heart,
forgotten Heart,
despised Heart,
outraged Heart,
Heart ignored by men,
Heart which loves our own hearts;
Heart pleading for our love,
Heart so patient in waiting for us,
Heart so eager to listen to our prayers,
Heart so anxious for our requests,
Heart, unending source of new graces,
Heart so silent, yet desiring to speak to souls,
Heart, welcome refuge of the hidden life,
Heart, teacher of the secrets of union with God,
Heart of Him Who sleeps but watches always,
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.Jesus Victim, I desire to comfort Thee;
I unite myself to Thee;
I offer myself in union with Thee.I regard myself as nothing in Thy Presence. I long to forget myself in order to think only of Thee, to be despised and forgotten for love of Thee. I have no desire to be understood or loved by anyone but Thee. I will keep silent in order to listen to Thee, and I will abandon myself in order to lose myself in Thee.
Grant that I may thus satisfy Thy thirst for my salvation, Thy burning thirst for my holiness,
and that once purified I may give Thee a sincere and pure love. I am anxious not to tire Thee
further with waiting: take me, I hand myself over to Thee. I give Thee all my actions, my mind to be enlightened, my heart to be directed, my will to be stabilized, my wretchedness to be relieved, my soul and body to be nourished by Thee.Eucharistic Heart of my Saviour, Whose Blood is the life of my soul, may I myself cease to live
and Thou alone live in me. Amen.
