BY THE REV. H. NOLDIN, S.J.
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN.
REVISED BY THE REV. W. H. KENT, O.S.C
13. They consecrate themselves wholly and irrevocably to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We know that in accordance with Our Lord's command, B. Margaret was for many years in the habit of writing letters to priests, Religious, and the laity for the purpose of commending to them and spreading the devotion she had so much at heart. That to which she gives the greatest prominence, and of which she speaks most emphatically in her letters, is consecration and oblation of one's self to the Sacred Heart. "The Redeemer," she writes, "generally requires complete self-abandonment from His friends." She puts forward different arguments to induce those whom she addresses to make this act of oblation. "It would give Our Lord singular pleasure," she writes on one occasion, "if you frequently renewed the entire sacrifice of yourself to Him, and practised it faith fully." And she adds: "Would that you only knew what a recompense our adorable Redeemer will give to those who, after consecrating them selves wholly to His Heart, seek solely to honour it." Writing to her brother, the priest, she says: "He who consecrates himself to the Heart of Jesus will not be lost eternally." In another letter she repeats this assertion and explains it thus: "It is my firm belief that those who have dedicated themselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will not be lost, and that they will never fall under the dominion of Satan through mortal sin; provided, that is, that after the complete surrender of themselves they strive to honour, to love, to glorify it to the utmost of their power, by conforming them selves in all things to its sacred teaching. That holy man, Fr. de la Colombiere, desired and aimed at this alone, and it was this which raised him to such a height of perfection in so short a time."