The introduction

Lord Jesus, you revealed to St Margaret Mary your Heart, which is so passionate with love for all men and for each one in particular.

The prayer is addressed to Jesus and is expressed in the first person plural, because the devotion to the Sacred Heart is both personal and ecclesiastical. The first sentence reminds us of the event, which the Jubilee recalls : the Apparitions of the Sacred Heart 350 years ago. It sends us back directly to the first great Apparition, 27 December 1673, during wich Jesus declares « My divine Heart is so passionate with love for men and for you in particular »

Today, you invite us to draw from the source of your Heart, which remains open more than ever.

 The second sentence reveals the current relevance of the grace experienced in Paray-le-Monial, and contains an allusion to the hymn of Isaiah 12 : « As fresh water brings joy to the thirsty, so God’s people rejoice when He saves them » (v3) ; a verse which gave its name to the Encyclical of Pope Pius XII in 1956, Haurietis Aquas in Gaudio.The final part recalls the affirmation of Pope John Paul II on 6 January 2001, when the Holy Door of the great Jubilee was closed in Rome : « With the closure of the Holy Door, it is a symbol of Christ which is closing. But the Heart of Jesus remains open more than ever ».

The six liturgical requests

In this sacrament of Love which is the Eucharist,

The second part is introduced by the expression « Sacrament of love », which the Lord uses to designate the Eucharist during the great Apparition in June 1675. It consists of five liturgical requests, which enable pilgrims to learn of the spiritual experience of St Margaret Mary.

We offer you our tiredness and our weariness : grant us rest ;

Firstly, on 27 December 1673, she is to rest for a long while on the Heart of Jesus : « He made me rest for a long time on his divine chest ». In a letter to Father Croiset, she was to state that this rest lasted « several hours ». Doing this, she is responding to the call of Jesus in the Gospel to come and rest on his Heart : « Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yolke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit ; and you will find rest. » (Mt 11:28-29). The disciple St John, the first, lived such an experience during the last Supper (Jn 13:25), an event of sufficient importance that the Gospel again alludes to this after the Resurrection (Jn 21:20). Very quickly, the first Christians, associated John with this so particular experience. Thus, in the year 180, Irenaeus of Lyon wrote : «Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who rested on his chest, he also published the Gospel, whilst living in Ephesus in Asia » (Against all heresies III,1,1)

We show you our suffering and injury : comfort us and heal us ;

Secondly, the Heart of Jesus is a source of comfort and healing. Pope Francis invites us to bring our wounds close to the wounds of Jesus. The hymn of the first letter of Peter applies to Jesus what the prophet Isaiah announced in the fourth poem of the suffering servant « By his wounds, we are cured » (Isaiah 53, 5 and p2,24). That which the Pope affirms of any sanctuary : « we go to the sanctuaries to be comforted » (congress of sanctuary rectors, November 2023). This applies to Paray in a singular fashion.

            The analogy of the Heart, with the image of the sun and the furnace, during the Apparition of 1674 recalls the verse of the prophet Malachi « my saving power will rise on you like the sun and bring healing like the sun rays » (Mal 3:20), which is frequently quoted in the spirituality of Paray.

We reveal to you our harshness of heart : change us in gentleness and humility ;

 Thirdly, on 27 December, Jesus asked Margaret Mary for her heart. « I begged him to take it, which he did, and he put it in his adorable heart, in which he showed my heart to me like a small atom, which was consumed in this burning furnace, then taking it from there like a burning flame in the shape of a heart, he put it back in the place he had taken it from ». Thus doing, the Lord realises the promise prophesised by Ezekiel : « I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart » (Ezek 36:26-27). Jesus says of his heart that it is « gentle and humble » (Mt 11:29) and he notes the harshness of heart of those around him or his disciples (for example in Mt 19:8 or Mk 6:52).

We put before you our ungratefulness and our indifference : may we render to you love for love ;

Fourthly, during the apparition of 1674, Jesus complains of the lack of love from men : « He revealed to me the inexplicable marvels of his pure love, and the extent to which he had borne it to love men, only to receive from them ungratefulness and ignorance. » He asks Margaret Mary « to render love for love » to him, an expression which the Visitation sister writes of on several occasions. Moreover, it is the theme of this 350 year Jubilee.

 We tell you of our thirst for loving you and spreading the good news about you : send us out in the power of your Holy Spirit ;

Fifthly, the devotion to the Sacred Heart renew us in the missionary zeal to bear witness to the world of this burning love, to which Margaret Mary and Claude La Colombière were attached, each according to his calling. « My divine Heart is so passionate with love for men, and for you in particular, that no longer being able to contain within itself the flames of its burning charity, he must spread them through you, and be revealed to them to enrich them with its precious treasures that I am showing you » Jesus was to say during the apparition of 1673. The theme of thirst associated with love is also very present in the apparitions. In one of her letters ot Father Croiset, Margaret Mary sees that Jesus chose her as « an instrument to establish this devotion and to attract hearts to love his adorable Heart, which had such an ardent thirst to be known, loved and honoured by men. » 

The final peroration

Lord, we devote ourselves to your Heart, the burning furnace of charity

Finally, the third part appears as the conclusion of the spiritual movement of this prayer of devotion to the Heart of Jesus. It is good to recall that the place of the offering is the Eucharist as we stated above. Devoting oneself to the Heart of Jesus is nothing other than devoting oneself to his person, to Jesus himself. Jesus speaks of his Heart to Saint Margaret Mary as « the burning furnace of pure love » (letter to mother de Saumaise). Throughout the apparitions, it is the symbol of the flames which predominates as for example in the apparition of 1674, which is reproduced on the fresco of the Apparition Chapel :  « Jesus Christ, my sweet Master, presented himself to me, radiating in glory with his five wounds, shining like five suns, and from this sacred Humanity, flames emerged from everywhere, but above all from his adorable chest, which resembles a furnace ; once open there was revealed to me his loving and lovable Heart, which was the living source of all these flames. »

Make us instruments which draw hearts to your Love.

In the retreat of 1678, Margaret Mary notes this affirmation of Jesus « I want you to be an instrument for me to draw hearts to my Love. » this is repeated in our prayer.

Make us burn with your compassion in order to bear witness to the world of this Heart, which has loved us so much. Amen.

The request « to burn with compassion » is placed on the symbolic register of the flames, in which lies the spiritual experience of Margaret Mary, which we have just stated. It is a question of entering « the attitude you should have is the one that Jesus Christ had » (Phil 2:5), in compassion towards the crowds which were jostling him : « As He saw the crowds, Jesus’ Heart was filled with pity for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. » (Mt 9:36). The prayer finishes with the expression of June 1675, which appears as the high point of the spiritual experience of Saint Margaret Mary : « Here is this Heart which has loved men so much, that it has spared nothing to the point of exhaustion, to be consumed to bear witness to them of his Love. »

This commentary on the Jubilee prayer was written by Fathers Etienne Kern and Jean-Rodolphe Kars