Confraternity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The object of this Confraternity is to honour the Divine Heart of Jesus; to render Him love for love; to thank Him for all His mercies and favours, especially for the institution of the Blessed Eucharist; and to make Him reparation for the coldness and ingratitude with which His infinite charitv is repaid by the generality of Christians.

" It is this I feel more than all I suffered in my Passion", our Lord said to the Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque. " If men would only return my love, I would count all I have done for them as nothing; but, instead of that, I receive from them, for the most part, only coldness and ingratitude. Do thou, at least, atone for their ungratefulness as far as thou art able"

. The spirit of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus may be gathered from these words of our Lord. It is two-fold: First, to make the love of that Sacred Heart for us the subject of frequent and affectionate meditation, and to aim at making a return of love for such infinite love. Secondly, to mourn over and to endeavour to make atonement for the many insults and outrages to which He was subjected during his mortal life, and which, unhappily, He still so frequently meets with, especially in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar.

A special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is intimately connected with that to the Sacred Heart: 1. Because such is the evident intention of our Blessed Lord as evidenced in the circumstances under which He instituted the devotion of the Sacred Heart. 2. Because the Sacred Heart of Jesus is really present, along with His Soul and Divinity, in the Most Holy Sacrament. 3. Because His Sacramental Presence on our altars is most evident proof of that intense love for us with which His Most Sacred Heart is filled. 4. Because, as our Blessed Lord nowhere meets with more neglect and insult than in this very sacrament of His love, so, therefore, should the Blessed Eucharist be the special object towards which the members of the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart should direct their acts of reparation and atonement.

Indulgences.

Granted in perpetuity by the Sovereign Pontiffs, Pius VII., Leo XII., and Gregory XVI., to the members of the Pious Union of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, canonically erected in Rome, in the church of Sta. JVJaria della Pace, and which, by a Brief, dated 12th January, 1803, are extended to all other Confraternities of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, duly aggregated to the above.*

* The following statement is made on what appears to be reliable authority :—His Holiness, Pope Gregory XVI., by an Indult dated the 26th of June, 1831, granted

1. Plenary, on the day of admission—(7th March, 1801). Usual conditions.

2. Plenary, on the Feast of Sacred Heart, or Sunday following.— (7th March, 1801,— 12th July, 1803). Usual conditions.

3. Plenary, on the first Friday or first Sunday of each month (15th July, 1803,—7th

July, 1815). Usual conditions.

4. Plenary, on one other day in each month. (15th November, 1802). Usual conditions.

5. Plenary, at the moment of death.—(7th March, 1801).

6. Seven years and seven quarantines on each of the four Sundays preceding the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

7. Finally, an indulgence of sixty days for every pious work performed by members.— (7th March, 1801).

Members, to be entitled to the foregoing Indulgences, are required to recite habitually every day the prayers of the Confraternity, namely, The Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and Creed, with the aspiration, " Dearest Heart of

to the Bishops of Ireland the extension of said indulgences to the Sodalities of the Sacred Heart, which had been and shall be erected in their respective dioceses. He extended also to these Sodalities, all the spiritual favours and privileges conferred on the Pioui Associations in Home.

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