Piug XI
Miserentissimus Rederaptor: Repa
ation to the Sacred Heart, 1928,

MISERENTISSIMUS

REDEMPTOR

Encyclical Letter

of

His Holiness, Pope Pius XI

May 9, 1928

National Catholic Welfare Conference



Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2016

https://archive.org/details/onreparationduetpius



MISERENTISSIMUS REDEMPTOR

ON REPARATION DUE
TO THE SACRED HEART

His Holiness, Pope Pius XI

Venerable Brothers, Greetings and Apostolic Bene-

diction:

//^ UR most merciful Redeemer, having assured the salvation of
the human race by His death on the Cross, before He ascended

to His Heavenly Father, said these consoling words to His sorrow-

ing Apostles and disciples: “Behold I am with you all days, even to

the consummation of the world.” ^ These happy words are also

Our own source of hope and salvation, words which. Venerable

Brothers, come readily to mind every time when, from this high

watchtower, as it were. We look down upon the human family
afflicted by so many grevious ills, and upon the Church, assailed

without respite by attacks and plots. As a matter of fact, this

promise of Our Divine Lord, as it once upon a time raised high

the fallen spirits of the Apostles and urged them on to spread

most zealously the seed of the Gospel through all the earth, so also

it has guided the Church to victory over the powers of Hell. As-

suredly, Our Lord Jesus Christ has always assisted His Church;

and most powerfully and effectively on those very occasions when

she was encompassed by the greatest dangers and calamities. Christ

then bestowed on her precisely those helps most necessary to meet

the conditions of the times, by His wisdom which “reacheth from

end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly.” ^ Nor in our

own times has “the hand of the Lord been shortened,” ^ especially

on such occasions when an erroneous doctrine is being taught and

spread about throughout the world, and by reason of which we

fear that the sources of the Christian life may be dried up, for by

such errors men are led to forsake the Christian life and the love

of God.

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2. Since some Christians, perhaps, are ignorant of, and others

are indifferent to, the sorrows which the most loving Jesus revealed

to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in His apparitions to her, as well as

His wishes and desires which He manifested to mankind, all of

which in the last analysis work to man’s advantage, it is Our

pleasure, Venerable Brothers, to write you at some length of the

obligation which rests upon all to make those amends which we

owe to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. We feel certain that each of
you will zealously teach to your own flocks what We herein write
and that you will exhort them to do all that We wish to be done.

3. From among all the proofs of the infinite goodness of Our

Saviour none stands out more prominently than the fact that, as the

love of the Faithful grew cold, He, Divine Love Itself, gave Himself

to us to be honored by a very special devotion and that the rich

treasury of the Church was thrown wide open in the interests of that

devotion by which we honor the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus “in

whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” ^

As formerly Divine Goodness wished to exhibit to the human

race, as it came from the Ark of Noe, a sign of the renewed covenant

between them, “my bow which appears in the clouds,” ^ so in

our own so troubled times, while that heresy held sway which

is known as Jansenism, the most insidious of all heresies, enemy

of the love of God and of filial affection for Him—for this
heresy preached that God was not so much to be loved by us as a

Father as to be feared as an unrelenting Judge—the most kind Jesus
manifested to the nations His Sacred Heart, unfolding our banner

of peace and love to the breeze, an augury of certain victory in the

battle before us. Wherefore Our Predecessor, Leo XIII, admiring

as he did the great possibilities which devotion to the Most Sacred

Heart of Jesus contains, with reason wrote in his Encyclical Annum

Sacrum: “Just as when the newly-born Church lay helpless under

the yoke of the Caesars, there appeared in the heavens a cross, at

once the sign and cause of the marvelous victory which was soon to

follow,” so today behold before our very eyes there appears another

most happy and holy sign, the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, crowned

by a brilliant cross set among raging flames. In this Sacred Heart

we should place all our hopes, from it, too, we ask and await

salvation.

4. Are we not to see. Venerable Brothers, in that blessed sign

and in the devotion which flows from it, the very substance of our

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holy religion, as well as the rules to guide us toward a more perfect

form of life, since the Sacred Heart is the road which will most surely

lead us to know intimately Jesus Christ and will cause our hearts

to love more tenderly and to imitate Him more generously than we

have heretofore done? Since this is so, it is no wonder then that

Our Predecessors have always defended this most praiseworthy

devotion to the Sacred Heart from the objections launched by those

who will not accept it, that they have praised it most highly and have

always promoted it with the greatest possible zeal in so far as the

conditions of time and place seemed to demand such action. Cer-

tainly, it is due to nothing short of the inspiration of God that the

childlike love of the Faithful for the Sacred Heart increases day by

day; that pious associations to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart

have come into being everywhere, and that the custom has become

quite common of receiving Holy Communion on the First Friday

of the month, a custom which had its origin in the wish of Jesus

Christ Himself.

5. Among the different practices which directly accompany

devotion to the Most Sacred Heart assuredly the foremost is the act

of consecration by which we offer to the Heart of Jesus both our-

selves and all that belongs to us, recognizing that all we have comes

to us from the infinite charity of God. Our Lord, having revealed to

that most pure lover of His Sacred Heart, St. Margaret Mary how

much more He insisted on the immense love which He has borne

toward us than on His rights over us, asked that mankind pay Him

this tribute of devotion. Therefore the Saint herself, together with

.her Spiritual Director, Claude de la Colombiere, first of all offered

Him an act of consecration. In the course of time individuals began

paying Him the same tribute, then whole families and certain asso-

ciations, and last of all, public officials, the inhabitants of cities, and

whole nations. Due to the machinations of wicked persons, both in

the century just ended and in this century, things had come to such

a pass that men despised the rule of Christ and publicly declared

war upon His Church by means of laws and popular enactments

contrary to both the Divine and natural law, even going so far as to

cry out publicly: “We will not have this man to reign over us.” ®

But by this act of consecration there burst forth, in startling

contrast to these cries, the unanimous voice of the lovers of the

Sacred Heart, rising to vindicate the glory and defend the rights

of the same Sacred Heart, “for he must reign”^; “may Thy King-

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dom come.” Finally, at the beginning of the century as a happy

consequence of all this, the whole human race which belongs by

inherent right to Christ, “in whom all things are reestablished,” ®

was consecrated to His Most Sacred Heart by Our Predecessor

then happily reigning, Leo XIII, amid the applause of the whole

Christian world.

6. These auspicious and happy beginnings We Ourselves,

through the great goodness of God, brought to completion, as was

pointed out in Our Encyclical Quas Primas, on the occasion when,

acceding to the desires and wishes expressed by numerous bishops

and the Faithful, We instituted at the close of the Jubilee Year the

Feast of Christ the King of all men, which feast We ordered to be
celebrated solemnly all over the Christian world. By that act We not

only brought forth clearly into the light of day the fact of the

supreme dominion of Christ over all things, over civil society and

the home, as well as over individuals; We also experienced before-

hand the joy of that most happy day when the whole world will sub-

mit joyfully and willingly to the sweet yoke of Christ the King.

Wherefore We commanded that, together with the celebration of
this feast, there should be renewed annually the act of consecration,

and this We did in order to obtain more surely and in greater
quantities the fruits of such a consecration and to bind with Chris-

tian love in the communion of peace all peoples to the heart of the

King of Kings and Sovereign of Sovereigns.

7. Moreover, to all these expressions of veneration, and

especially to that most fruitful one, the act of consecration, which by

means of the institution of the Feast of Christ the King has been, as

it were, again confirmed, it is expedient that another be added, and

of this last. Venerable Brothers, We wish to speak now somewhat at
length. We refer to the act of expiation or of reparation, as it is
called, to be made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

8. If in the act of consecration the intention to exchange, as it

were, for the love of the Creator the love of us creatures stands out

most prominently, there follows almost naturally from this another

fact, namely, that if this same Uncreated Love has either been

passed over through forgetfulness or saddened by reason of our sins,

then we should repair such outrages, no matter in what manner they

have occurred. Ordinarily, we call this duty, reparation. If we are

held to both these duties for the same reasons, we are held to the

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duty of making reparation by the most powerful motives of justice

and of love of justice, in order to expiate the injury done God by our

sins and to reestablish, by means by penance, the Divine order which

has been violated; and of love, in order to suffer together with

Christ, patient and covered with opprobrium, so that we may bring

to Him, in so far as our human weakness permits, some comfort in

His sufferings. Since we are all sinners, burdened with many

offenses, we should honor God. This should take place not only

by means of that cult by which we adore, in the veneration due Him

from us. His Infinite Majesty, or by means of prayer when we recog-

nize His supreme dominion over us, or by acts of thanksgiving when

we praise His infinite generosity toward us; it is necessary to do

more than all this. We must also satisfy the just anger of God

because of “the numberless sins, offenses, and negligences” which

we have committed. Therefore, we must add to the act of consecra-

tion, by virtue of which we offer ourselves to God and become

thereby, as it were, sacred to Him by reason of the sanctity which

necessarily flows from an act of consecration, as the Angelic Doctor

teaches,^ an act of expiation, by means of which all our faults are

blotted out, lest perchance the sanctity of infinite Justice spurn our

arrogant unworthiness and look upon our gift as something to be

rejected rather than to be accepted.

9. All men are obliged to make reparation since, according to

the teachings of our holy Faith, our souls have been disfigured, as a

result of the pitiable fall of Adam, by original sin; we are subject

also to our passions and corrupted in a truly sad way, and have thus

made ourselves worthy of eternal damnation. It is true that the

proud philosophers of this world deny the above truth, resurrect-

ing in its place the ancient heresy of Pelagius which conceded to

human nature a certain inborn goodness which, by our own powers,

raises us up to ever higher levels of perfection. These false theories,

bom of human pride, have been condemned by the Apostle who

admonishes us that “we were by nature children of wrath.” As

a matter of fact, from the very creation of the world mankind has

recognized, in one way or another, the obligation of making repara-

tion, and impelled, as it were, by a natural instinct, has tried to

placate the Deity by offering Him public sacrifices.

10. But no effort on our part would have been great enough to

expiate the faults of men if the Son of God had not assumed human

nature in order to redeem us. The Saviour of mankind announced

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this truth speaking through the Psalmist: “Sacrifice and oblation

Thou wouldst not: but a body Thou hast fitted to Me. Holocausts

for sin did not please Thee. Then said I: Behold I come.” In

truth “He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: He

was wounded for our iniquities,” “who His own self bore our sins

in His body on the tree,” “blotting out the handwriting of the

decree that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He hath

taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross,” so “that

we, being dead to sins, should live to justice.”

11. Though the ample redemption of Christ more than abun-

dantly satisfied for all our offenses,^® nevertheless, by reason of

that marvelous disposition of Divine Wisdom by which we may

complete those “things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ

in our own flesh, for His body, which is the Church,” we are

able, in fact, we should add to the acts of praise and satisfaction

which “Christ in the name of sinners has presented to God,” our

own acts of praise and satisfaction. However, we must always re-

member that the expiatory value of our acts depends solely on the

bloody sacrifice of Christ, which is renewed without interruption

on our altars in an unbloody manner, since in both cases “the

victim is the same, the one who offers himself by means of the

ministry of the priesthood is the same, the very same one who

offered Himself on the Cross, the only difference being in the man-

ner in which the sacrifice is made.” For this reason we must

bring together, in the august sacrifice of the Blessed Eucharist, the

act of immolation made by the priest with that of the Faithful, so

that they, too, may offer themselves up as “a living sacrifice, holy,

pleasing unto God.” Therefore, St. Cyprian dared to affirm

that “the sacrifice of Our Lord is not complete as far as our sancti-

fication is concerned unless our offerings and sacrifices correspond

to His passion.”

12. The Apostle admonished us that “bearing about in our

body the mortification of Jesus” and “buried together with him

by Baptism unto death,” 22 not only should we “crucify our flesh

with the vices and concupiscences”,^^ “flying the corruption of that

concupiscence which is in the world,” but also that the “life of

Jesus be made manifest in our bodies,” and, having become

partakers in His holy and eternal priesthood, we should offer up

“gifts and sacrifices for sins.” For not only are they partakers in

the mysteries of this priesthood and in the duty of offering sacrifices

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and satisfaction to God, who have been appointed by Jesus Christ

the High Priest as the ministers of such sacrifices, to offer God “a

clean oblation in every place from the rising of the sun even to the

going down,” but also those Christians called, and rightly so, by

the Prince of the Apostles, “a chosen generation, a kingly priest-

hood,” who are to offer “sacrifices for sin” ^9 not only for them-

selves but for all mankind, and this is much the same way as every

priest and “high priest taken from among men is ordained for men

in the things that appertain to God.”

13. In the degree to which our oblation and sacrifice will the

more perfectly correspond to the sacrifice of Our Lord, that is to

say, to the extent to which we have immolated love of self and our

passions and crucified our flesh in that mystical crucifixion of which

the Apostle writes, so much the more plentiful fruits of propitiation

and of expiation will we garner for ourselves and for others. A won-
drous bond joins all the Faithful to Christ, the same bond which

units the head with the other members of the body, namely, the

communion of saints, a bond full of mystery which we believe in as

Catholics and by virtue of which individuals and nations are not

only united to one another but likewise with the head itself, “who is

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.” This, too, was the prayer

which Jesus Christ Himself, the Mediator between God and men,

at the hour of His death made to His Father, “I in them and Thou

in Me: that they may be made perfect in one.”

14. As the act of consecration proclaims and confirms our

union with Christ, so the act of expiation, by purifying us from sins,

is the beginning of such union; our participation in the sufferings of

Christ perfects it, the offering we make to Him of our sacrifices for

the welfare of our brethren brings such union to its final consum-

mation. This was precisely the design of the mercy of Jesus when

He unveiled to our gaze His Sacred Heart, surrounded by the

emblems of His Passion, and aflame with the fire of love, that we,

on the one hand, perceiving the infinite malice of sin, and on the

other, filled with a knowledge of the infinite love of Our Redeemer,

might detest more cordially sin and substitute for it an ardent love

of Him.

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15. The spirit of expiation or of reparation has always played

one of the chief roles in the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Certainly, reparation is most consonant, with the origin, nature,

efficacy, and particular practices of this special devotion, a fact con-

firmed by history and the customs of the Faithful, by the sacred

liturgy, and by the official documents of Roman Pontiffs. As a mat-

ter of fact, on the occasion when Jesus revealed Himself to St.

Margaret Mary, though He then insisted on the immensity of His

love, at the same time, with sorrowful mien. He grieved over the

great number of horrible outrages heaped upon Him by the ingrati-

tude of mankind. He used then these words, words which should

be graven on the hearts of all pious souls so as never to be forgotten

by them: “Behold this Heart which has loved men so much, which

has heaped upon them so many benefits. In exchange for this

infinite love It finds ingratitude; instead It meets with forgetfulness,

indifference, outrages, and all this at times even from souls bound

closely to It in the bonds of a very special love.”

16. In order to make reparation for such faults. He, among

other requests, made this special request as one which would be

most acceptable to Him, namely, that the Faithful, inspired by the

intention of making reparation, should receive Holy Communion

—

and for this reason it is called the “Communion of Reparation”

—

and for an hour should practice acts and prayers of reparation

before the Blessed Sacrament—which devotion is rightly called the
“Holy Hour.” The Church has not only approved these devotions

but has enriched them with very special spiritual favors.

17. But how can we, one may ask, believe that Christ reigns

happily in Heaven if it is possible to console Him by such acts as

those of reparation? We answer in the language of St. Augustine,
words quite apposite to our subject: “The soul which truly loves

will comprehend what I say.”

18. Every soul which burns with true love of God, if it but

turns its thoughts to the past, sees in meditation and can contem-

plate Jesus suffering for mankind, afflicted by grief in the midst of

sorrows suffered “for us men and for our salvation,” weighed down

by agony and reproaches, “bruised for our sins,” in the very act

of healing us by His bruises. With so much the more under-

standing can pious souls meditate upon these mysteries if they

appreciate that the sins and crimes of men, no matter when com-

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mitted, were the real reason why the Son of God was condemned

to death and that even sins committed now would be able of them-

selves to cause Christ to die a death accompanied by the same

sufferings and agonies as His death on the cross, since every sin

must be said to renew in a certain way the Passion of Our Lord,

“crucifying again to themselves the Son of God and making Him a

mockery.” And if, in view of our own future sins, foreseen by

Him, the soul of Jesus became sad even unto death, there can be

no doubt that by His prevision at the same time of our acts of

reparation He was in some way comforted when “there appeared

an angel from heaven” to console that Heart of His bowed down

with sorrow and anguish.

19. At the present time, we too, in a marvelous but no less

true manner, may and ought to console that Sacred Heart which is

being wounded continually by the sins of thoughtless men, since

—

and we read this also in the sacred liturgy—Christ Himself grieved
over the fact that He was abandoned by His friends. For He said,

in the words of the Psalmist, “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.”

20. To the above we may add that the expiatory passion of

Jesus Christ is renewed and in a certain manner continued in His

mystic body, the Church. To use again the words of St. Augustine,

“Christ suffered all that He had to suffer: nothing at all is lacking to

the number of His sufferings. Therefore His sufferings are com-

.

plete, but in Him as in the head; there remain even now the suffer-

ings of Christ to be endured in the body.” In fact, Christ Him-

self made the same statement, for to Saul “breathing out threaten-

ings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,” He said,

“I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” By this He plainly affirmed

that persecutions visited on the Church are in reality directed

against the Head of the Church. Therefore, Christ, suffering in

His mystical body, with reason desires to have us as companions in

His own acts of expiation. He asks to be united with us for since we

“are the body of Christ, and member for member,” in so far as

the Head suffers so also should the members suffer with it.^^

21. Now, anyone who uses his eye and mind, if he but think

of this world “seated in wickedness,” can see, as We stated

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above, how urgent, especially in our own times, is the need of

expiation or of reparation. There come to Our ears from every

side the cries of nations, whose rulers or governments have actually

risen up and have conspired together against the Lord and against

His Church We have seen both human and Divine rights over-

thrown in these countries, church destroyed to their very founda-

tions, religious and consecrated virgins driven from their homes,

thrown in prison, made to go hungry, treated with unspeakable

savagery. We have seen troops of boys and girls, torn from the

bosom of Holy Mother Church, made to deny and blaspheme

Christ, and urged to commit the worst sins against purity. We
have seen a whole Christian people menaced, oppressed, in constant

peril of apostasy from the Faith or of a most barbarous death.

These happenings, sorrowful as they are, seem to have been fore-

seen in such calamities as are now occurring, and to anticipate

“the beginning of those sorrows” which will be revealed by “the

man of sin who is lifted above all that is called God or that is

worshipped.”

22. Nor is that other spectacle. Venerable Brothers, less sad

that even among the Faithful, washed as they have been by Baptism

in the Blood of the Innocent Lamb and enriched by His grace, we

encounter so many of every station of life who, ignorant of things

Divine, are poisoned by false doctrines and live a sinful life far from

their Father’s house, without the light of the true Faith, without the

joy of hope in a future life, deprived of the strength and comfort

which come with the spirit of love. Of them one may say quite

truthfully that they are immersed in darkness and in the shadow of

death. Moreover, disrespect for the discipline of the Church is on

the increase among the Faithful as also disrespect for ancient tradi-

tions, upon which the Christian life has been built, by which

domestic society is governed, by which the sanctity of marriage is

protected. The process of educating youth has been weakened or

spoiled by too much effeminacy, and even the right to educate chil-

dren in their religion has been taken away from the Church. Chris-

tion modesty is forgotten, sad to say, both in our manner of life and

of dress, especially by women. There has come into existence, too,

an uncontrollable desire to possess the base things of this world, an

unreasonable regard for civil interests, an intemperate searching

after popular applause, a despisal of legitimate authority and of the

10



Word of God, by all of which the Faith itself is shaken to its

foundations or placed in jeopardy.

23. There must be added to this accumulation of evils the

sloth and laziness of those who, like the Apostles asleep or like

those disciples who had fled away, since they are not firmly rooted

in the Faith, have shamefully abandoned Christ, burdened with

sorrows and attacked by the satelites of Satan, as well as the perfidy

of those others who, following in the footsteps of Judas the traitor,

either with sacrilegious temerity approach Holy Communion or go

over to the camp of the enemy. There thus comes to mind, almost

involuntarily, the thought that we have arrived at the hour

prophesied by Our Lord when He said: “And because iniquity has

abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.”

24. If the Faithful, burning with love for the suffering Christ,

should meditate on all these considerations, it would be unthinkable

that they should not expiate with greater zeal both their own and the

faults of others, that they should not repair the honor of Christ,

be filled with zeal for the eternal salvation of souls. Assuredly, We
may adapt to our own age to describe it what the Apostle wrote:

“When sin abounded, grace did more abound,” for even though

the sinfulness of man has greatly increased, by the grace of the

Holy Ghost, there has also increased the number of the Faithful

who most gladly try to make satisfaction to the Divine Heart of

Jesus for the numerous injuries heaped on Him. What is more,

they joyfully offer themselves to Christ as victims for sin.

25. Anyone who has been considering in a spirit of love all

that has been recalled to his mind up to this, if he has impressed

these thoughts, as it were, upon the fleshy tablets of his heart, such a

one assuredly cannot but abhor and flee all sin as the greatest of

evils. He will also offer himself whole and entire to the will of God

and will strive to repair the injured majesty of God by constant

prayer, by voluntary penances, by patient suffering of all those ills

which shall befall him; in a word, he will so organize his life that in

all things it will be inspired by the spirit of reparation.

26. From the spirit of reparation there have been born many

families of religious men and women, who, day and night, in tireless

manner, have set before themselves the task of taking, in as far as

that is possible, the place of the Angel who comforted Jesus in the

11



garden. Likewise, certain pious associations, approved by the Holy

See and enriched with indulgences, have as their ideal to make repa-

ration for sin by means of certain practices of piety and of the

virtues. And not to speak of all these holy works. We select out one

for mention, namely, the frequent practice of making solemn repara-

tion not only by individuals but often by whole parishes, dioceses,

and even nations.

27. Venerable Brothers, just as the act of consecration, which

began in a small way and afterwards came into general use,

achieved, by reason of Our approval, the splendid purposes and

ends desired, so We wish ardently that this devotion of reparation,
which has already been introduced and is the pious custom of cer-

tain places, possess the seal of highest approval of Our Apostolic

authority, so that it likewise may come to be practiced universally

and in a most solemn manner by all Christian peoples. We estab-
lish, therefore, and We order that annually, on the Feast of the

Sacred Heart, in all the churches of the world, there take place a

solemn act of reparation (the same formula must be used by all and

is the one attached to this Encyclical) to our most loving Redeemer,

in order that we may, by this act, make reparation for our own

sins and may repair the rights of Christ, the King of Kings and our

most loving Master, which have been violated.

28. Nor can We doubt. Venerable Brothers, that from this

holy practice now reestablished and extended to the whole Church

We may expect many signal blessings, not only for individuals but
for society itself, domestic and civil, since Christ Himself promised

to St. Margaret Mary that “He would shower abundantly His graces

upon those who rendered this honor to His Sacred Heart.” As-

suredly sinners “looking on Him whom they pierced,” stricken

by the sorrow of the Church, detesting the injuries offered to the

King of Kings “will return to themselves,” for they cannot become

obstinate in sin in the presence of Him whom they have wounded

“coming in the clouds of heaven” for then too late and without

hope, shall they “bewail themselves of him.”

29. But the just will “be justified still and the holy will be

justified still.” They will consecrate themselves with renewed

ardor to the service of their King. Seeing Him so despised and so

often attacked, seeing too that so many injuries are inflicted on

Him, certainly their zeal for the salvation of souls will be increased

12



when they hear the lament of the Divine Victim, “What profit is

there in My Blood?” and, at the same time, meditate upon the

joy of the Sacred Heart “over the sinner who doth penance.”

30. We, before all other things, hope and greatly desire that

the justice of God, which would have pardoned Sodom if only ten

just had been found therein, shall be exercised with more mercy

towards all mankind. The Faithful, in union with Christ, the Medi-

ator and our Head, will pray for and ask from God such mercy. May

the most gracious Mother of God be propitious to these Our wishes

and to these Our commands; she who gave us Christ the Redeemer,

who watched over Him, and, at the foot of the Cross, offered Him a

victim for our sins. She, too, by reason of her wondrous union

with Him and of a most singular grace of God, became and is

piously known as the Mother of Reparation. Confiding in her inter-

cession with Jesus, “the one mediator of God and man,” who

wished to associate his own Mother with Himself as the advocate

of sinners, as the dispenser and mediatrix of grace. We impart
from Our heart, as an augury of Divine favors and a proof of Our

fatherly love, to you. Venerable Brothers, and to all the flock

confided to your care, the Apostolic Blessing.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, the ninth of May, 1928, the

seventh year of Our Pontificate.

Pius XL

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An Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O sweet Jesus, Whose overflowing charity for men is requited
by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us pros-

trate 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 salva-

tion, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shep-

herd 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 Sun-

days 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

14



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

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 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 offer-

ing we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of

perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the alle-

giance 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.

15



FOOTNOTES

1 Matt. 28, 20.

2 Wisdom 8, 1.

^ Isaias 59, 1.

4 Col 2, 3.

® Gen. 9, 14.

6 Luke 19, 14.

" I Cor. 15, 25.

8 Eph. 1, 10.

® Summa TheoL Ila-IIae,

q. 81, a. 8, c.

Eph. 2, 3.

^^Heb. 11, 5-7.

12 Isaias, 53, 4, 5.

13 I Peter 2, 24.

14 Cc?/. 2, 14.

15 I 2, 24.

10 cf. Co/. 2, 13.

1" Col 1, 24.
13 Cone. Trid. Sess. 22, c. 2.

lOFom. 12, 1.

20^/7. 63, n. 381.

21 II Cor. 4, 10.

22 Rom. 6, 4.
23 Ga/. 5, 24.

24 II Peter 1, 4.

25 II Cor. 4, 10.

26 //e/7. 5, 1.

27 Malach. 1, 10.

I Peter 2, 9.

Heb. 5, 1.

Heb. 5, 1.

Eph. 5, 15, 16

/o/in 17, 23.

In loan. Evang. Tract. 26, 4.

/5a/fl5 53, 5.

Heb. 6, 6.

22, 43.

Psalm 68, 21.

G« Psalm 86.

Acts 9, 1.

Acts 9, 5.

I Cor. 12, 27.

Cf. I Cor. 12, 26.

I John 5, 19.

Cf. Psalm 2, 2.

II 2, 4.

24, 12.

Rom. 5, 20.

/o/zrt 19, 37.

/5<2/(35 46, 8.

26, 64.

Apoc. 1, 7.

Apoc. 22, 11.

Psalm 29, 10.

15, 7.

I r/m. 2, 5.

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

16





1964

NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W.

Washington, D. C.