PRIESTS OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

In reading Fr John Croiset SJ's The Devotion to the Sacred Heart I was struck by discovering the Vows St Margaret Mary Alacoque made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Eve of All Saints (I cannot find the year).  Couched in the language of 17th century France some of them are very particular to her but a number would be applicable to any Christian seeking to live in closer union with the Heart of Christ.  They also seem of particular importance to the sanctification of priests:

š  To commit to pray the Daily Office;

š  To respect others and strive to honour all, even those I find it hard to love;

š  Not to seek for any reward save that of doing the Will of God;

š  To offer myself to my bishop to be used for the good of the Church;

š  To give myself, day by day, to living out of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ and to consider my life as a ‘living sacrifice’, offered on the altar of the world;

š  To never seek out the faults in others “and when I am obliged to speak of them, to do so only in the charity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.”

š  To be generous in my judgments of others;

š  To seek the good of all;

š  To live out of the Divine Will of our Father in heaven;

š  To refrain from “dwelling voluntarily, not only on bad thoughts, but on thoughts that are useless.”

š  To offer my life to the greater glory of God.

These commitments, rooted in our Baptismal consecration, are so easily forgotten but are gems which would enrich the lives of those who are called to live out of the 'Love of the Heart of Jesus'.