Notes on the Memorial of St. Claude La Colombière.

Today we remember St. Claude La Colombière, a 17th-century French Jesuit perhaps best known for his service as spiritual director to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and for his efforts to assist her in promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The work begun by St. Claude La Colombière continues within the Society of Jesus to this very day. The Jesuits play a major role in promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart through the Apostleship of Prayer, one of the Society's quietest works and yet one of its most effective, reaching millions of people around the world. Taking a hint from The Writer's Almanac, I'd like to offer a prayer for today taken from the writings of St. Claude La Colombière:

O God, what will you do to conquer
The fearful hardness of our hearts?
Lord, you must give us new hearts,
Tender hearts, sensitive hearts,
To replace hearts that are made of marble and of bronze.

You must give us your own Heart, Jesus.
Come, lovable Heart of Jesus.
Place your Heart deep in the center of our hearts
And enkindle in each heart a flame of love
As strong, as great, as the sum of all the reasons
That I have for loving you, my God.

O holy Heart of Jesus, dwell hidden in my heart,
So that I may live only in you and for you,
So that, in the end, I may live eternally with you in heaven.

Amen.

St. Claude La Colombière, pray for us. AMDG.