You expired, Jesus, but the source of life gushed forth for souls,
and the ocean of mercy opened up for the whole world. O Fount
of Life, unfathomable Divine Mercy, envelop the whole world and
empty Yourself out upon us.

Amen.

Sacred Heart Novena

Fifth Day

The ages roll swiftly along their course.

God's love for His creatures is undying.

The love of Christ lives on in the Mass and in the sacraments
and in His abiding presence upon the altar and in the soul.

But men are fickle. Doubt is a cold and chilling thing. The
hot flame of passion has a way of dying down to the dark,
cold, dusty ashes of bitterness and despair.

So it was that into an age when men taught the denial of
God's love, when they rejected His presence on the altar
or forbade believers to approach the altar, the God of love
came again.

A little nun, holy and loving, knelt in her Visitation Convent.
Margaret Mary, she was called. The combination of the two
names has become music to the Catholic world ever since
that time.

On the altar before her was the vision of the loving Christ.

There was shown the tortured, flaming heart.

There were spoken such words of pathetic beauty, of such
divine yearning, of dignity combined with passion that only
God could have said them.

"Behold the heart that has loved men so much and has been
loved so little in return."

Beholding that heart, we kneel adoringly to say:

The Prayer of The Sacred Heart of Jesus

O God, who in the heart of thy Son, wounded by our sins,
dost deign mercifully to bestow upon us the infinite treasures
of thy love, grant, we beseech thee, that we who now pay Him
the devout homage of our piety may also perform the duty of
worthy satisfaction. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord,
who livest and reignest with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
God, world without end.

Amen.

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of
compassion--inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase
Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not
despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence
submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy
itself.

Amen.