Reparation
Seeing all the misery in which the world has enmeshed itself we, in the words of Pius XI, “endeavor to expiate (our) own faults and those of others, to repair the honor of Christ, and to promote the eternal salvation of souls.” We offer ourselves as victims of love to shield the Sacred Heart from the sins committed against him at every moment. “Love is Reparation and Reparation is Love.”
On one occasion, Our Lord manifested His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary in the form of a tree. The saint wrote, “Our Savior represented devotion to his Sacred Heart in the form of a beautiful tree, whose fruits He wished to distribute abundantly to all those who wished to eat of them, as, by this means, He purposes to ruin the empire of Satan and to establish the Kingdom of His love in the hearts of men.” The tree represents the cross and in the center is the fruit, the wounded Heart of Jesus, from which flows blood and water, symbols of the sacramental life of the Church and all graces. Surrounding the Heart are twelve stars symbolizing the twelve choirs in heaven that give so much glory to Him. Jesus told St. Margaret Mary, “I wish to form around my Heart, a crown of twelve stars composed of my dearest and most faithful servants.” In the background can be seen St. Francis of Assisi.
Our Lord told St. Margaret Mary that after His Blessed Mother, St. Francis of Assisi most closely imitated His Sacred Heart. St. Margaret Mary beheld St. Francis in great brilliance and wrote, "After I had seen all this, the Divine Bridegroom, as atoken of His love, gave me St. Francis as my soul’s guide. He was to lead me through all the pains and sufferings that awaited me.”St. Francis of Assisi is the guardian of souls of reparation and therefore a patron of our community.
From this vision to St. Margaret Mary, the image of the Tree of Reparation came to be. The visions of St. Margaret Mary can be found in The Manual of the Arch Confraternity of the Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus written by Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Bernaud of the Monastery in Bourg, France in 1863. Sister Mary was a Visitation nun who was inspired to begin the Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in which members would unite with the Heart of Jesus, during a chosen hour, even amidst the most ordinary activities, calling down blessings from the Heart of Christ upon the entire world.
Besides the Tree of Reparation, the image of the soul shielding the Sacred Heart from the onslaught of piercing arrows of sin represents Sister Mary Bernaud’s words in the Guard of Honor:
“The special object of the perpetual worship…is the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ once visibly wounded with the lance, now invisibly wounded by the keen arrows of forgetfulness, ingratitude, and the sins of men…a Perpetual Worship of consolation, reparation and love, is the balm which the Guard of Honor pours upon these wounds.
On one occasion, Our Lord manifested His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary in the form of a tree. The saint wrote, “Our Savior represented devotion to his Sacred Heart in the form of a beautiful tree, whose fruits He wished to distribute abundantly to all those who wished to eat of them, as, by this means, He purposes to ruin the empire of Satan and to establish the Kingdom of His love in the hearts of men.” The tree represents the cross and in the center is the fruit, the wounded Heart of Jesus, from which flows blood and water, symbols of the sacramental life of the Church and all graces. Surrounding the Heart are twelve stars symbolizing the twelve choirs in heaven that give so much glory to Him. Jesus told St. Margaret Mary, “I wish to form around my Heart, a crown of twelve stars composed of my dearest and most faithful servants.” In the background can be seen St. Francis of Assisi.
Our Lord told St. Margaret Mary that after His Blessed Mother, St. Francis of Assisi most closely imitated His Sacred Heart. St. Margaret Mary beheld St. Francis in great brilliance and wrote, "After I had seen all this, the Divine Bridegroom, as atoken of His love, gave me St. Francis as my soul’s guide. He was to lead me through all the pains and sufferings that awaited me.”St. Francis of Assisi is the guardian of souls of reparation and therefore a patron of our community.
From this vision to St. Margaret Mary, the image of the Tree of Reparation came to be. The visions of St. Margaret Mary can be found in The Manual of the Arch Confraternity of the Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus written by Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Bernaud of the Monastery in Bourg, France in 1863. Sister Mary was a Visitation nun who was inspired to begin the Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in which members would unite with the Heart of Jesus, during a chosen hour, even amidst the most ordinary activities, calling down blessings from the Heart of Christ upon the entire world.
Besides the Tree of Reparation, the image of the soul shielding the Sacred Heart from the onslaught of piercing arrows of sin represents Sister Mary Bernaud’s words in the Guard of Honor:
“The special object of the perpetual worship…is the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ once visibly wounded with the lance, now invisibly wounded by the keen arrows of forgetfulness, ingratitude, and the sins of men…a Perpetual Worship of consolation, reparation and love, is the balm which the Guard of Honor pours upon these wounds.
