The early Church Fathers often saw the opening of Our Lord’s side on the Cross as opening up the Heart of God and His love for us. St. Justin Martyr, writing between AD 135 and 150, says: “We Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as out of a rock.” Actual devotion to the Sacred Heart however did not arise in the Church until around the 10th century. St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, and St. Mechtilde all spoke often of the Sacred Heart. The Dominicans had a special Office in honor of the Wound in the Side of Christ which was celebrated on the same day that the feast of the Sacred Heart is now. In fact three Dominicans were instrumental in fostering devotion to the Sacred Heart, as Pope Pius XII tells us: St. Albert the Great (whom some call the Doctor of the Heart of Jesus), Blessed Henry Suso, and St. Catherine of Siena.
When Pope Piux XI decreed that this Feast of the Most Sacred Heart was to be kept as a feast of the highest liturgical rank by the Universal Church, he asked that a special act of Reparation also be said. The Sacred Heart is an image or sign of the burning LOVE of Our Lord for all mankind; acts of reparation, whether prayers or other loving actions, attempt to console Our Lord for the rejection of that love by so many, and to win graces for their conversion. When Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary He asked specifically for reparation to His Sacred Heart. As Our Lady explained to the little children at Fatima, the sacrifices of doing our daily duty according to our particular state of life if offered with love will become great acts of reparation. Making this intention with our Morning Offering will suffice, though constantly referring to it during the day is even better.
Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart
Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, 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 offenses, 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 promises 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 now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays, 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 teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded. Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood.
We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor, the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the Cross and which Thou continuest 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 recompense, 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 unswerving 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 Mother, 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 with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.