| devotion
to the two hearts
Promises
and Prophecies
There is evidence that it was the will of Our Divine Lord that devotion
to the Sacred heart be reserved for the last ages of the world,
so that, in the last great struggle between Himself and Satan, the
souls that He loves so dearly may be drawn to Him with renewed warmth,
and thus strengthened against the final desperate attacks of the
enemy.
In the times preceding the end of the world, Satan and his cohorts
were to be loosed upon the earth in a mighty effort to draw as many
souls as possible away from God, before the power of Hell would
be remarkably restricted, if not completely broken. Satan’s
mission is one of hate. God wins souls through love. Our Blessed
Saviour knew that the hatred which would be rampant in those evil
days could be best conquered by a devotion which would inspire love
and charity in the hearts of men. It was to serve, as it were, as
a magnet and a bulwark of strength by giving men a clearer knowledge
of God’s deep and abiding love and mercy. It would provide
a harbor of peace and security in those days of confusion and anguish,
when men’s souls would be tried almost beyond endurance.
In all times of great distress or danger, God has provided men with
the means to conquer evil, as evidenced by the history of the world,
both before the time of Christ, but especially since the Redemption.
To mention just one of the instances of divine intervention when
a special devotion was given to the world at a crucial period, let
us consider the Rosary. In the thirteenth century when the Albigenses
were preaching their vicious doctrines against marriage, and the
spread of this heresy seriously endangered the morals of the people,
Saint Dominic began preaching against them. He had but little success
until Our Blessed Lady appeared to him, and told him to encourage
devotion to the Rosary. This was done and the heresy quickly disappeared.
Saint Gertrude, in the fourteenth century, who often conversed with
the Beloved Disciple Saint John, on one occasion asked him why he,
who loved Our Blessed Lord so fervently, had never written anything
about the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He explained to her
his mission was to expound the Doctrine of the Incarnation and that
as for the Love of the Incarnate Word as exemplified by His Divine
Heart, it was reserved for the last ages to make it known, “so
that the world, carried away by follies, may regain a little of
the warmth of early Christian charity by learning of the love of
the Sacred Heart.”
It was on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, three centuries
later in 1647, that Our Lord appeared to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
and made certain promises to those who had a special devotion to
His Sacred Heart, which promises were destined to become the means
of salvation to so many countless Christians. Regarding this vision
, the Saint explained, “I understand that his devotion to
the Sacred Heart was a last effort of His love towards Christian
of these latter times, by proposing to them an object and a means
so calculated to persuade them to love Him.”
In 1815, Mother Maria Rafols wrote concerning her own visions at
the urgent insistence of Our Blessed Lord, in the hope that many,
after reading what He told her, would turn from their evil ways,
and have recourse to His Merciful Heart.
Much of what she has written is prophetic, and concerns itself,
in part, with the destiny of Spain. Referring to her own Mother
House, at Saragoze, Spain, Mother Rafols wrote that the Sacred Heart
would perform such wonders there as to win many sinners away from
their corrupted lives. It is worthy of note that although the Communists
had laid siege to the city of Saragoze, it was never captured, as
was foretold by Mother Rafols.
Our Lord promised her also that no matter what means men might invent
to destroy the faith in Spain, they would be unsuccessful and that
He would reign there until the end of time, because of the love
of the just and chaste souls who would always live in Spain. This
prophecy, only recently unearthed, must have been of great comfort
to the good Christians during the trying days of their Civil War.
So forgotten would be the Word of God in the days to come, that
men would even scandalize and pervert innocent children, and endeavor
to obliterate His Blessed Name from their memory. This was true
in Spain, and is true in many other countries today.
There would be such moral corruption, not only in Spain, but in
the entire world, that God would be forced to destroy entire cities,
should they fail to reform after His call. This is already being
fulfilled and no doubt vastly greater destruction will befall the
world before God is appeased.
It was written that these things would be taking place when the
documents would be found. They were found in 1931. Our Lord further
told Mother Rafols that there is one thing that hurts His Sacred
Heart still more, and that is to be forgotten, offended and despised
by souls consecrated to Him. They sometimes forget how dearly He
loves His chosen ones, how eagerly He waits in the Tabernacle for
them to come to Him for inspiration and assistance in the great
mission of saving souls. He wants them to be humble and chaste,
and to practice true charity towards one another, and thus avoid
giving scandal. He desires that His priests be living models of
Himself and that they propagate devotion to His Most Sacred Heart.
He says that all men have greater love for one another so that there
can be peace on earth, and greater love for Him. The Sacred Heart
was very sad because of the sacrileges men would commit on account
of their coldness toward Him. He said that many would not only not
heed the commands of Holy Mother Church, but would actually persecute
Her and seek to destroy Her. Priests and religious would be treated
with great disrespect.
He desires that men perform acts of satisfaction to forestall the
wrath of Divine Justice, and that the Feast of the Sacred Heart
be made a Holy Day of Obligation, and that all the Faithful receive
Holy Communion on that Day. (It is a Holy Day of Obligation in Spain.)
To those who devoutly wear the image of His Sacred Heart, He promised
great graces and special protection at the hour of their death.
He said that in times to come, many souls would propagate the devotion
to His Sacred Heart.
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