MISERENTISSIMUS REDEMPTOR ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI ON REPARATION TO THE SACRED HEART
TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS, AND OTHER
LOCAL ORDINARIES IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE.
Venerable Brethren, Health and the Apostolic Blessing.
Our Most Merciful Redeemer, after He had wrought salvation for mankind on
the tree of the Cross and before He ascended from out this world to the Father,
said to his Apostles and Disciples, to console them in their anxiety, "Behold
I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." (Matt. xxviii,
20). These words, which are indeed most pleasing, are a cause of all hope
and security, and they bring us, Venerable Brethren, ready succor, whenever
we look round from this watch-tower raised on high and see all human society
laboring amid so many evils and miseries, and the Church herself beset without
ceasing by attacks and machinations. For as in the beginning this Divine
promise lifted up the despondent spirit of the Apostles and enkindled and
inflamed them so that they might cast the seeds of the Gospel teaching throughout
the whole world; so ever since it has strengthened the Church unto her victory
over the gates of hell. In sooth, Our Lord Jesus Christ has been with his
Church in every age, but He has been with her with more present aid and protection
whenever she has been assailed by graver perils and difficulties. For the
remedies adapted to the condition of time and circumstances, are always supplied
by Divine Wisdom, who reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all
things sweetly (Wisdom viii, 1). But in this latter age also, "the hand of
the Lord is not shortened" (Isaias lix, 1), more especially since error has
crept in and has spread far and wide, so that it might well be feared that
the fountains of Christian life might be in a manner dried up, where men
are cut off from the love and knowledge of God. Now, since it may be that
some of the people do not know, and others do not heed, those complaints
which the most loving Jesus made when He manifested Himself to Margaret Mary
Alacoque, and those things likewise which at the same time He asked and expected
of men, for their own ultimate profit, it is our pleasure, Venerable Brethren,
to speak to you for a little while concerning the duty of honorable satisfaction
which we all owe to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, with the intent that
you may, each of you, carefully teach your own flocks those things which
we set before you, and stir them up to put the same in practice.
2. Among the many proofs of the boundless benignity of our Redeemer, there
is one that stands out conspicuously, to wit the fact that when the charity
of Christian people was growing cold, the Divine Charity itself was set forth
to be honored by a special worship, and the riches of its bounty was made
widely manifest by that form of devotion wherein worship is given to the
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge" (Coloss. ii, 3). For as in olden time when mankind came forth
from Noe's ark, God set His "bow in the clouds" (Genesis ix, 13), shining
as the sign of a friendly covenant; so in the most turbulent times of a more
recent age, when the Jansenist heresy, the most crafty of them all, hostile
to love and piety towards God, was creeping in and preaching that God was
not to be loved as a father but rather to be feared as an implacable judge;
then the most benign Jesus showed his own most Sacred Heart to the nations
lifted up as a standard of peace and charity portending no doubtful victory
in the combat. And indeed Our Predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, admiring
the timely opportuneness of the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus,
said very aptly in his Encyclical Letter, "Annum Sacrum," "When in the days
near her origin, the Church was oppressed under the yoke of the Caesars the
Cross shown on high to the youthful Emperor was at once an omen and a cause
of the victory that speedily followed. And here today another most auspicious
and most divine sign is offered to our sight, to wit the most Sacred Heart
of Jesus, with a Cross set above it shining with most resplendent brightness
in the midst of flames. Herein must all hopes be set, from hence must the
salvation of men be sought and expected."
3. And rightly indeed is that said, Venerable Brethren. For is not the sum
of all religion and therefore the pattern of more perfect life, contained
in that most auspicious sign and in the form of piety that follows from it
inasmuch as it more readily leads the minds of men to an intimate knowledge
of Christ Our Lord, and more efficaciously moves their hearts to love Him
more vehemently and to imitate Him more closely? It is no wonder, therefore,
that Our Predecessors have constantly defended this most approved form of
devotion from the censures of calumniators, and have extolled it with high
praise and promoted it very zealously, as the needs of time and circumstance
demanded. Moreover, by the inspiration of God's grace, it has come to pass
that the pious devotion of the faithful towards the Most Sacred Heart of
Jesus has made great increase in the course of time; hence pious confraternities
to promote the worship of the Divine Heart are everywhere erected, hence
too the custom of receiving Holy Communion on the first Friday of every month
at the desire of Christ Jesus, a custom which now prevails everywhere.
4. But assuredly among those things which properly pertain to the worship
of the Most Sacred Heart, a special place must be given to that Consecration,
whereby we devote ourselves and all things that are ours to the Divine Heart
of Jesus, acknowledging that we have received all things from the everlasting
love of God. When Our Savior had taught Margaret Mary, the most innocent
disciple of His Heart, how much He desired that this duty of devotion should
be rendered to him by men, moved in this not so much by His own right as
by His immense charity for us; she herself, with her spiritual father, Claude
de la Colombiere, rendered it the first of all. Thereafter followed, in the
course of time, individual men, then private families and associations, and
lastly civil magistrates, cities and kingdoms. But since in the last century,
and in this present century, things have come to such a pass, that by the
machinations of wicked men the sovereignty of Christ Our Lord has been denied
and war is publicly waged against the Church, by passing laws and promoting
plebiscites repugnant to Divine and natural law, nay more by holding assemblies
of them that cry out, "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke
xix, 14): from the aforesaid Consecration there burst forth over against
them in keenest opposition the voice of all the clients of the Most Sacred
Heart, as it were one voice, to vindicate His glory and to assert His rights:
"Christ must reign" (1 Corinthians xv, 25); "Thy kingdom come" (Matth. vi,
10). From this at length it happily came to pass that at the beginning of
this century the whole human race which Christ, in whom all things are re-established
(Ephes. i, 10), possesses by native right as His own, was dedicated to the
same Most Sacred Heart, with the applause of the whole Christian world, by
Our Predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII.
5. Now these things so auspiciously and happily begun as we taught in Our
Encyclical Letter "Quas primas," we Ourselves, consenting to very many long-continued
desires and prayers of Bishops and people, brought to completion and perfected,
by God's grace, when at the close of the Jubilee Year, We instituted the
Feast of Christ the King of All, to be solemnly celebrated throughout the
whole Christian world. Now when we did this, not only did we set in a clear
light that supreme sovereignty which Christ holds over the whole universe,
over civil and domestic society, and over individual men, but at the same
time we anticipated the joys of that most auspicious day, whereon the whole
world will gladly and willingly render obedience to the most sweet lordship
of Christ the King. For this reason, We decreed at the same time that this
same Consecration should be renewed every year on the occasion of that appointed
festal day, so that the fruit of this same Consecration might be obtained
more certainly and more abundantly, and all peoples might be joined together
in Christian charity and in the reconciliation of peace, in the Heart of
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
6. But to all these duties, more especially to that fruitful Consecration
which was in a manner confirmed by the sacred solemnity of Christ the King,
something else must needs be added, and it is concerning this that it is
our pleasure to speak with you more at length, Venerable Brethren, on the
present occasion: we mean that duty of honorable satisfaction or reparation
which must be rendered to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For if the first
and foremost thing in Consecration is this, that the creature's love should
be given in return for the love of the Creator, another thing follows from
this at once, namely that to the same uncreated Love, if so be it has been
neglected by forgetfulness or violated by offense, some sort of compensation
must be rendered for the injury, and this debt is commonly called by the
name of reparation.
7. Now though in both these matters we are impelled by quite the same motives,
none the less we are holden to the duty of reparation and expiation by a
certain more valid title of justice and of love, of justice indeed, in order
that the offense offered to God by our sins may be expiated and that the
violated order may be repaired by penance: and of love too so that we may
suffer together with Christ suffering and "filled with reproaches" (Lam.
iii, 30), and for all our poverty may offer Him some little solace. For since
we are all sinners and laden with many faults, our God must be honored by
us not only by that worship wherewith we adore His infinite Majesty with
due homage, or acknowledge His supreme dominion by praying, or praise His
boundless bounty by thanksgiving; but besides this we must need make satisfaction
to God the just avenger, "for our numberless sins and offenses and negligences."
To Consecration, therefore, whereby we are devoted to God and are called
holy to God, by that holiness and stability which, as the Angelic Doctor
teaches, is proper to consecration (2da. 2dae. qu. 81, a. 8. c.), there must
be added expiation, whereby sins are wholly blotted out, lest the holiness
of the supreme justice may punish our shameless unworthiness, and reject
our offering as hateful rather than accept it as pleasing.
8. Moreover this duty of expiation is laid upon the whole race of men since,
as we are taught by the Christian faith, after Adam's miserable fall, infected
by hereditary stain, subject to concupiscences and most wretchedly depraved,
it would have been thrust down into eternal destruction. This indeed is denied
by the wise men of this age of ours, who following the ancient error of Pelagius,
ascribe to human nature a certain native virtue by which of its own force
it can go onward to higher things; but the Apostle rejects these false opinions
of human pride, admonishing us that we "were by nature children of wrath"
(Ephesians ii, 3). And indeed, even from the beginning, men in a manner acknowledged
this common debt of expiation and, led by a certain natural instinct, they
endeavored to appease God by public sacrifices.
9. But no created power was sufficient to expiate the sins of men, if the
Son of God had not assumed man's nature in order to redeem it. This, indeed,
the Savior of men Himself declared by the mouth of the sacred Psalmist: "Sacrifice
and oblation thou wouldest not: but a body thou hast fitted to me: Holocausts
for sin did not please thee: then said I: Behold I come" (Hebrews x, 5-7).
And in very deed, "Surely He hath borne our infirmities, and carried our
sorrows. . . He was wounded for our iniquities (Isaias liii, 4-5), and He
His own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree . . . (1 Peter ii, 24),
"Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was
contrary to us. And He has taken the same out of the way, fastening it to
the cross . . ." (Colossians ii, 14) "that we being dead to sins, should
live to justice" (1 Peter ii, 24). Yet, though the copious redemption of
Christ has abundantly forgiven us all offenses (Cf. Colossians ii, 13), nevertheless,
because of that wondrous divine dispensation whereby those things that are
wanting of the sufferings of Christ are to be filled up in our flesh for
His body which is the Church (Cf. Colossians i, 24), to the praises and satisfactions,
"which Christ in the name of sinners rendered unto God" we can also add our
praises and satisfactions, and indeed it behoves us so to do. But we must
ever remember that the whole virtue of the expiation depends on the one bloody
sacrifice of Christ, which without intermission of time is renewed on our
altars in an unbloody manner, "For the victim is one and the same, the same
now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the
cross, the manner alone of offering being different" (Council of Trent, Session
XXIII, Chapter 2). Wherefore with this most august Eucharistic Sacrifice
there ought to be joined an oblation both of the ministers and of all the
faithful, so that they also may "present themselves living sacrifices, holy,
pleasing unto God" (Romans xii, 1). Nay more, St. Cyprian does not hesitate
to affirm that "the Lord's sacrifice is not celebrated with legitimate sanctification,
unless our oblation and sacrifice correspond to His passion" (Ephesians 63).
For this reason, the Apostle admonishes us that "bearing about in our body
the mortification of Jesus" (2 Corinthians iv, 10), and buried together with
Christ, and planted together in the likeness of His death (Cf. Romans vi,
4-5), we must not only crucify our flesh with the vices and concupiscences
(Cf. Galatians v, 24), "flying the corruption of that concupiscence which
is in the world" (2 Peter i, 4), but "that the life also of Jesus may be
made manifest in our bodies" (2 Corinthians iv, 10) and being made partakers
of His eternal priesthood we are to offer up "gifts and sacrifices for sins"
(Hebrews v, 1). Nor do those only enjoy a participation in this mystic priesthood
and in the office of satisfying and sacrificing, whom our Pontiff Christ
Jesus uses as His ministers to offer up the clean oblation to God's Name
in every place from the rising of the sun to the going down (Malachias i,
11), but the whole Christian people rightly called by the Prince of the Apostles
"a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood" (1 Peter ii, 9), ought to offer
for sins both for itself and for all mankind (Cf. Hebrews v, 3), in much
the same manner as every priest and pontiff "taken from among men, is ordained
for men in the things that appertain to God" (Hebrews v, 1).
10. But the more perfectly that our oblation and sacrifice corresponds to
the sacrifice of Our Lord, that is to say, the more perfectly we have immolated
our love and our desires and have crucified our flesh by that mystic crucifixion
of which the Apostle speaks, the more abundant fruits of that propitiation
and expiation shall we receive for ourselves and for others. For there is
a wondrous and close union of all the faithful with Christ, such as that
which prevails between the head and the other members; moreover by that mystic
Communion of Saints which we profess in the Catholic creed, both individual
men and peoples are joined together not only with one another but also with
him, "who is the head, Christ; from whom the whole body, being compacted
and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the
operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in charity" (Ephesians iv, 15-16). It was this indeed
that the Mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus, when He was near to death,
asked of His Father: "I in them, and thou in me: that they may be made perfect
in one" (John xvii, 23).
11. Wherefore, even as consecration proclaims and confirms this union with
Christ, so does expiation begin that same union by washing away faults, and
perfect it by participating in the sufferings of Christ, and consummate it
by offering victims for the brethren. And this indeed was the purpose of
the merciful Jesus, when He showed His Heart to us bearing about it the symbols
of the passion and displaying the flames of love, that from the one we might
know the infinite malice of sin, and in the other we might admire the infinite
charity of Our Redeemer, and so might have a more vehement hatred of sin,
and make a more ardent return of love for His love.
12. And truly the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first
and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus,
and nothing is more in keeping with the origin, the character, the power,
and the distinctive practices of this form of devotion, as appears from the
record of history and custom, as well as from the sacred liturgy and the
acts of the Sovereign Pontiffs. For when Christ manifested Himself to Margaret
Mary, and declared to her the infinitude of His love, at the same time, in
the manner of a mourner, He complained that so many and such great injuries
were done to Him by ungrateful men - and we would that these words in which
He made this complaint were fixed in the minds of the faithful, and were
never blotted out by oblivion: "Behold this Heart" - He said - "which has
loved men so much and has loaded them with all benefits, and for this boundless
love has had no return but neglect, and contumely, and this often from those
who were bound by a debt and duty of a more special love." In order that
these faults might be washed away, He then recommended several things to
be done, and in particular the following as most pleasing to Himself, namely
that men should approach the Altar with this purpose of expiating sin, making
what is called a Communion of Reparation, - and that they should likewise
make expiatory supplications and prayers, prolonged for a whole hour, - which
is rightly called the "Holy Hour." These pious exercises have been approved
by the Church and have also been enriched with copious indulgences.
13. But how can these rites of expiation bring solace now, when Christ is
already reigning in the beatitude of Heaven? To this we may answer in some
words of St. Augustine which are very apposite here, - "Give me one who loves,
and he will understand what I say" (In Johannis evangelium, tract. XXVI,
4).
For any one who has great love of God, if he will look back through the tract
of past time may dwell in meditation on Christ, and see Him laboring for
man, sorrowing, suffering the greatest hardships, "for us men and for our
salvation," well-nigh worn out with sadness, with anguish, nay "bruised for
our sins" (Isaias liii, 5), and healing us by His bruises. And the minds
of the pious meditate on all these things the more truly, because the sins
of men and their crimes committed in every age were the cause why Christ
was delivered up to death, and now also they would of themselves bring death
to Christ, joined with the same griefs and sorrows, since each several sin
in its own way is held to renew the passion of Our Lord: "Crucifying again
to themselves the Son of God, and making him a mockery" (Hebrews vi, 6).
Now if, because of our sins also which were as yet in the future, but were
foreseen, the soul of Christ became sorrowful unto death, it cannot be doubted
that then, too, already He derived somewhat of solace from our reparation,
which was likewise foreseen, when "there appeared to Him an angel from heaven"
(Luke xxii, 43), in order that His Heart, oppressed with weariness and anguish,
might find consolation. And so even now, in a wondrous yet true manner, we
can and ought to console that Most Sacred Heart which is continually wounded
by the sins of thankless men, since - as we also read in the sacred liturgy
- Christ Himself, by the mouth of the Psalmist complains that He is forsaken
by His friends: "My Heart hath expected reproach and misery, and I looked
for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one
that would comfort me, and I found none" (Psalm lxviii, 21).
14. To this it may be added that the expiatory passion of Christ is renewed
and in a manner continued and fulfilled in His mystical body, which is the
Church. For, to use once more the words of St. Augustine, "Christ suffered
whatever it behoved Him to suffer; now nothing is wanting of the measure
of the sufferings. Therefore the sufferings were fulfilled, but in the head;
there were yet remaining the sufferings of Christ in His body" (In Psalm
lxxxvi). This, indeed, Our Lord Jesus Himself vouchsafed to explain when,
speaking to Saul, "as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter" (Acts
ix, 1), He said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest" (Acts ix, 5), clearly
signifying that when persecutions are stirred up against the Church, the
Divine Head of the Church is Himself attacked and troubled. Rightly, therefore,
does Christ, still suffering in His mystical body, desire to have us partakers
of His expiation, and this is also demanded by our intimate union with Him,
for since we are "the body of Christ and members of member" (1 Corinthians
xii, 27), whatever the head suffers, all the members must suffer with it
(Cf. 1 Corinthians xii, 26).
15. Now, how great is the necessity of this expiation or reparation, more
especially in this our age, will be manifest to every one who, as we said
at the outset, will examine the world, "seated in wickedness" (1 John v,
19), with his eyes and with his mind. For from all sides the cry of the peoples
who are mourning comes up to us, and their princes or rulers have indeed
stood up and met together in one against the Lord and against His Church
(Cf. Psalm ii, 2). Throughout those regions indeed, we see that all rights
both human and Divine are confounded. Churches are thrown down and overturned,
religious men and sacred virgins are torn from their homes and are afflicted
with abuse, with barbarities, with hunger and imprisonment; bands of boys
and girls are snatched from the bosom of their mother the Church, and are
induced to renounce Christ, to blaspheme and to attempt the worst crimes
of lust; the whole Christian people, sadly disheartened and disrupted, are
continually in danger of falling away from the faith, or of suffering the
most cruel death. These things in truth are so sad that you might say that
such events foreshadow and portend the "beginning of sorrows," that is to
say of those that shall be brought by the man of sin, "who is lifted up above
all that is called God or is worshipped" (2 Thessalonians ii, 4).
16. But it is yet more to be lamented, Venerable Brethren, that among the
faithful themselves, washed in Baptism with the blood of the immaculate Lamb,
and enriched with grace, there are found so many men of every class, who
laboring under an incredible ignorance of Divine things and infected with
false doctrines, far from their Father's home, lead a life involved in vices,
a life which is not brightened by the light of true faith, nor gladdened
by the hope of future beatitude, nor refreshed and cherished by the fire
of charity; so that they truly seem to sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death. Moreover, among the faithful there is a greatly increasing carelessness
of ecclesiastical discipline, and of those ancient institutions on which
all Christian life rests, by which domestic society is governed, and the
sanctity of marriage is safeguarded; the education of children is altogether
neglected, or else it is depraved by too indulgent blandishments, and the
Church is even robbed of the power of giving the young a Christian education;
there is a sad forgetfulness of Christian modesty especially in the life
and the dress of women; there is an unbridled cupidity of transitory things,
a want of moderation in civic affairs, an unbounded ambition of popular favor,
a depreciation of legitimate authority, and lastly a contempt for the word
of God, whereby faith itself is injured, or is brought into proximate peril.
17. But all these evils as it were culminate in the cowardice and the sloth
of those who, after the manner of the sleeping and fleeing disciples, wavering
in their faith, miserably forsake Christ when He is oppressed by anguish
or surrounded by the satellites of Satan, and in the perfidy of those others
who following the example of the traitor Judas, either partake of the holy
table rashly and sacrilegiously, or go over to the camp of the enemy. And
thus, even against our will, the thought rises in the mind that now those
days draw near of which Our Lord prophesied: "And because iniquity hath abounded,
the charity of many shall grow cold" (Matth. xxiv, 12).
18. Now, whosoever of the faithful have piously pondered on all these things
must need be inflamed with the charity of Christ in His agony and make a
more vehement endeavor to expiate their own faults and those of others, to
repair the honor of Christ, and to promote the eternal salvation of souls.
And indeed that saying of the Apostle: "Where sin abounded, grace did more
abound" (Romans v, 20) may be used in a manner to describe this present age;
for while the wickedness of men has been greatly increased, at the same time,
by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, a marvelous increase has been made
in the number of the faithful of both sexes who with eager mind endeavor
to make satisfaction for the many injuries offered to the Divine Heart, nay
more they do not hesitate to offer themselves to Christ as victims. For indeed
if any one will lovingly dwell on those things of which we have been speaking,
and will have them deeply fixed in his mind, it cannot be but he will shrink
with horror from all sin as from the greatest evil, and more than this he
will yield himself wholly to the will of God, and will strive to repair the
injured honor of the Divine Majesty, as well by constantly praying, as by
voluntary mortifications, by patiently bearing the afflictions that befall
him, and lastly by spending his whole life in this exercise of expiation.
19. And for this reason also there have been established many religious families
of men and women whose purpose it is by earnest service, both by day and
by night, in some manner to fulfill the office of the Angel consoling Jesus
in the garden; hence come certain associations of pious men, approved by
the Apostolic See and enriched with indulgences, who take upon themselves
this same duty of making expiation, a duty which is to be fulfilled by fitting
exercises of devotion and of the virtues; hence lastly, to omit other things,
come the devotions and solemn demonstrations for the purpose of making reparation
to the offended Divine honor, which are inaugurated everywhere, not only
by pious members of the faithful, but by parishes, dioceses and cities.
20. These things being so, Venerable Brethren, just as the rite of consecration,
starting from humble beginnings, and afterwards more widely propagated, was
at length crowned with success by Our confirmation; so in like manner, we
earnestly desire that this custom of expiation or pious reparation, long
since devoutly introduced and devoutly propagated, may also be more firmly
sanctioned by Our Apostolic authority and more solemnly celebrated by the
whole Catholic name. Wherefore, we decree and command that every year on
the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, - which feast indeed on this
occasion we have ordered to be raised to the degree of a double of the first
class with an octave - in all churches throughout the whole world, the same
expiatory prayer or protestation as it is called, to Our most loving Savior,
set forth in the same words according to the copy subjoined to this letter
shall be solemnly recited, so that all our faults may be washed away with
tears, and reparation may be made for the violated rights of Christ the supreme
King and Our most loving Lord.
21. There is surely no reason for doubting, Venerable Brethren, that from
this devotion piously established and commanded to the whole Church, many
excellent benefits will flow forth not only to individual men but also to
society, sacred, civil, and domestic, seeing that our Redeemer Himself promised
to Margaret Mary that "all those who rendered this honor to His Heart would
be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces." Sinners indeed, looking
on Him whom they pierced (John xix, 37), moved by the sighs and tears of
the whole Church, by grieving for the injuries offered to the supreme King,
will return to the heart (Isaias xlvi, 8), lest perchance being hardened
in their faults, when they see Him whom they pierced "coming in the clouds
of heaven" (Matth. xxvi, 64), too late and in vain they shall bewail themselves
because of Him (Cf. Apoc. i, 7). But the just shall be justified and shall
be sanctified still (Cf. Apoc. xxii. 11) and they will devote themselves
wholly and with new ardor to the service of their King, when they see Him
contemned and attacked and assailed with so many and such great insults,
but more than all will they burn with zeal for the eternal salvation of souls
when they have pondered on the complaint of the Divine Victim: "What profit
is there in my blood?" (Psalm xxix, 10), and likewise on the joy that will
be felt by the same Most Sacred Heart of Jesus "upon one sinner doing penance"
(Luke xv, 10). And this indeed we more especially and vehemently desire and
confidently expect, that the just and merciful God who would have spared
Sodom for the sake of ten just men, will much more be ready to spare the
whole race of men, when He is moved by the humble petitions and happily appeased
by the prayers of the community of the faithful praying together in union
with Christ their Mediator and Head, in the name of all. And now lastly may
the most benign Virgin Mother of God smile on this purpose and on these desires
of ours; for since she brought forth for us Jesus our Redeemer, and nourished
Him, and offered Him as a victim by the Cross, by her mystic union with Christ
and His very special grace she likewise became and is piously called a reparatress.
Trusting in her intercession with Christ, who whereas He is the "one mediator
of God and men" (1 Timothy ii, 5), chose to make His Mother the advocate
of sinners, and the minister and mediatress of grace, as an earnest of heavenly
gifts and as a token of Our paternal affection we most lovingly impart the
Apostolic Blessing to you, Venerable Brethren, and to all the flock committed
to your care.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the eighth day of May, 1928, in the seventh year of Our Pontificate.
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Prayer of Reparation
O sweetest Jesus, whose overflowing charity towards men is most ungratefully
repaid by such great forgetfulness, neglect and contempt, see, prostrate
before Thy altars, we strive by special honor to make amends for the wicked
coldness of men and the contumely with which Thy most loving Heart is everywhere
treated.
At the same time, mindful of the fact that we too have sometimes not been
free from unworthiness, and moved therefore with most vehement sorrow, in
the first place we implore Thy mercy on us, being prepared by voluntary expiation
to make amends for the sins we have ourselves committed, and also for the
sins of those who wander far from the way of salvation, whether because,
being obstinate in their unbelief, they refuse to follow Thee as their shepherd
and leader, or because, spurning the promises of their Baptism, they have
cast off the most sweet yoke of Thy law. We now endeavor to expiate all these
lamentable crimes together, and it is also our purpose to make amends for
each one of them severally: for the want of modesty in life and dress, for
impurities, for so many snares set for the minds of the innocent, for the
violation of feast days, for the horrid blasphemies against Thee and Thy
saints, for the insults offered to Thy Vicar and to the priestly order, for
the neglect of the Sacrament of Divine love or its profanation by horrible
sacrileges, and lastly for the public sins of nations which resist the rights
and the teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast instituted. Would
that we could wash away these crimes with our own blood! And now, to make
amends for the outrage offered to the Divine honor, we offer to Thee the
same satisfaction which Thou didst once offer to Thy Father on the Cross
and which Thou dost continually renew on our altars, we offer this conjoined
with the expiations of the Virgin Mother and of all the Saints, and of all
pious Christians, promising from our heart that so far as in us lies, with
the help of Thy grace, we will make amends for our own past sins, and for
the sins of others, and for the neglect of Thy boundless love, by firm faith,
by a pure way of life, and by a perfect observance of the Gospel law, especially
that of charity; we will also strive with all our strength to prevent injuries
being offered to Thee, and gather as many as we can to become Thy followers.
Receive, we beseech Thee, O most benign Jesus, by the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the Reparatress, the voluntary homage of this expiation,
and vouchsafe, by that great gift of final perseverance, to keep us most
faithful until death in our duty and in Thy service, so that at length we
may all come to that fatherland, where Thou with the Father and the Holy
Ghost livest and reignest God for ever and ever. Amen.
PIUS XI