JUBILEE OF THE REVELATIONS OF THE SACRED HEART 2023-2025
A response to Jesus’ thirst
Let us remember that the Jubilee that we are celebrating until June 2025 is the “grouped” anniversary of the 3 main apparitions of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary, Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial. The first took place on December 27, 1673, the second on the first Friday of a month in the year 1674 and the third in June 1675.
The message that emerges from it has three dimensions: Jesus shows his Heart that loved the world so much, so passionate about love for all men; he complains of receiving in return only ingratitude and indifference; he asks to repair these lacks of love, in particular by the institution of a celebration to honor his divine Heart.
The Guard of Honor that we also call Hour of Presence comes to respond to the thirst of Jesus: by welcoming his love in the present moment and by returning love for love by the offering of our present life.
How was the Guard of Honor born? If we had to say what the starting point of the work of the Guard of Honor is, we could choose the end of December 1862 at the Visitation of Bourg-en-Bresse. Following the reading of a letter of wishes from the Visitation of Annecy, the sisters turned to Sr Marie du Sacré-Cœur and said to her: “it is up to you to find a new way to glorify the Heart of Jesus!” Indeed, the letter contained the following message: “Our Lord complained to a very favored soul that, having revealed His Heart to us, we were not devoting enough zeal to propagate its cult.”
In the community, Sr Marie du Sacré-Cœur Bernaud is known for her great devotion to the Heart of Jesus. She was chosen as she would confide, after a grace received before the Blessed Sacrament: “Our Lord made me understand very clearly that, if I were faithful, I would be a chosen spouse of His Divine Heart, but that this happy title would oblige me to share with my Beloved, the secret, the continual bitterness with which His Sacred Heart had been watered all his life.”
After several successive inspirations, Sr M du SC visualizes a 12 o’clock dial, which she reproduces with, written at the top: Glory! Love! Reparation! Driven internally, she writes below: Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart. This will be the name of the Association of those who commit to offering an hour of their day to the Heart of Jesus. This name of GDH takes us back to Calvary where, next to the crucified Jesus, stand Mary, Mary Magdalene and John who witness the thrust of the lance. In the center of the dial will be painted the image of the Sacred Heart. The sisters of the side each choose an hour and their names are written on the board.
A few weeks later, on Palm Sunday 1863, an obvious fact becomes clear to Sr. M of the SC: the reason for being of the GDH will be to console the Heart of Jesus through reparation and love. During Holy Week she established the program of the work, giving it 5 Patron Saints (ND du SC, St Joseph, St Fr. d’Assise, St Fr. de Sales and Ste Marguerite-Marie), the hour-by-hour organization and the prayer of Offering of the Hour of Guard. The work was completed in April 1863, with the attribution of a Protector for each hour of the dial. Very quickly people outside the covenant, including 2 bishops, registered in turn to have an hour of Guard. A copy of the dial was given to the Visitation of Annecy in order to obtain the approval of the Superior who, in a letter, rejoiced and “blessed the Lord for having given her this pious idea!”
In turn, the sisters of Paray-le-M received the dial of Bourg. Surprise!: they had made an identical dial! Everything is similar: the Heart of Jesus in the center, the 12 hours and their protectors, but given in a different order. Is this not a delicacy of Jesus assuring that the GDH is indeed his work?
In June 1863, the month of the SH, Sr M of the SC had a vision of the piercing of the Heart of Jesus by the lance and the relations of this mystery with the GDH. She understood that the companions of Jesus must “be there to receive this blood and water” flowing from the wound of the Heart of Christ. To welcome these priceless treasures of love and mercy, for oneself and for the world. SO, the object of the GDH…
The special object of the GDH is the SH of Jesus, as visibly wounded by the lance, and wounded invisibly by the arrows of forgetfulness, ingratitude and the sins of men.- the heart of flesh of Jesus was pierced by a lance thrust. Ineffable wound, wanted, accepted by the Savior during his life, suffered by a last excess of love, after his death, and worthy of our adoration. – the divine, living Heart of Jesus, is perpetually wounded: 1 – in his paternity (because Christ engenders us to divine life by his death and his Resurrection), by the forgetfulness and the ingratitude of men, as the prophet Isaiah says: “I have nourished children and they have despised me” Is 1, 2 2 – in his royalty (Christ is King as he says to Pilate (Jn 19) and King of the Universe), by the apostasy of the peoples who reject his social reign: “The kings of the earth rise up, the great ones join together against the Lord and his messiah” says Ps 2 3 – in his priesthood (he is our high Priest – Heb 4, 15) by the profanation of his sacrifice and his sacrament of love, and by the abandonment of the Eucharistic practice (Mass and Eucharistic adoration)
These 3 great wounds, St. Marguerite M. had symbolized them by placing 3 nails in the Heart of Jesus, on the 1st image of the SH that she had herself drawn. SO, the goal of the GDH Is to respond to these 3 great wounds of the Heart of Jesus with a perpetual cult of glory, love and reparation, following the first 3 Guards of Honor who are Mary, Magdalene and John. Indeed, all 3 saw with their eyes the blood and water flowing from the pierced side of Jesus, that is to say the source of our life and our salvation. Mary Magdalene is the model of repentant love, John of restorative love and Mary of immolated love. They are truly the premises of the GDH of Jesus. Thus, returning love for love is to welcome the personal love of Jesus for each of us, to repair the lack of love from which he suffers and to enter into the compassion of his Heart for those who are in so much need of consolation.
HOW? Through the Hour of Presence This Hour of Presence in the Heart of Jesus is an hour during which, while devoting oneself to one’s usual occupations, one strives to accomplish them with greater fidelity, courage, joy, humility, gentleness, love and recollection. It is a time of day – when we join in thought, the Christ living in all the Tabernacles of the world; – when we take ourselves in hand in a responsible way to bring about the Kingdom of God; – when we become aware that God’s gaze is upon us; – when we nourish internally the desire to make the treasures of mercy, peace, tenderness with which the Heart of Jesus overflows abound on the world
Thus, the associates of the Hour of Presence surround in spirit the Holy Tabernacle, they are placed as watchmen and succeed one another from hour to hour throughout the whole world to offer Jesus their thoughts, words, actions, affections… and above all the desire they feel to console his Heart with their love. This is a good way, very simple, and accessible to all to quench the thirst of the One who confided to St. Margaret Mary: “I have a burning thirst to be honored and loved in the sacrament of my love and I find almost no one who responds to my desire.
This Hour of Presence also responds to the intuition of Saint Francis de Sales who in his book, the Introduction to the Devout Life, recalls that Holiness is everyone’s business. It is also the affirmation of the Second Vatican Council which underlines the universal vocation to holiness.
WHO can be a Guard of Honor? Everyone! From the smallest to the greatest, whether sick or healthy, with or without work, prisoner, rejected, isolated, … each one can choose an hour of his day to live it and offer it in order to “glorify the Heart of Jesus in an offering of love and reparation”. Whoever we are, we arrive with our burden …. the Lord carries it for us. “Come to me all you who labor and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28); and we, “take his yoke” (Mt 11:29) which is all love. Let us take the road … each at his own speed. Thus, little by little, hour by hour, we climb the narrow path of holiness. Trusting, letting oneself be loved by Jesus, is a beautiful experience and a great hope for this 21st century where so many men and women are searching for an ideal and happiness. A simple registration can be the beginning of a conversion, of a unique friendship with Jesus, of a deepening of faith and of a new life full of hope.