Most Sweet Jesus

Making amends for the offences of the world.

Reparation is love answering ingratitude. This act, prescribed by Pope Pius XI for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, apologises not only for one’s own sins but for the coldness of the world — and a plenary indulgence is attached to its public recitation on that feast.

The Prayer

Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men
is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt,
behold us prostrate before You,
eager to repair by a special act of homage
the cruel indifference and injuries
to which Your loving Heart is everywhere subject.

Mindful, alas, that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities,
which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts,
we humbly ask Your pardon
and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation,
not only for our own personal offences,
but also for the sins of those who,
straying far from the path of salvation,
refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow You.

Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood!
We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Your divine honour,
the satisfaction You once made to Your Eternal Father on the cross
and which You continue to renew daily on our altars.

Have mercy, O Lord, on us and on all our brethren,
and rule us in Your goodness and peace,
for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit
for ever and ever. Amen.

About This Prayer

Pius XI ordered this act in 1928 to be recited in every church on the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Reparation is easily misread as gloom; it is closer to what a friend does when someone has been badly treated in a room full of people who said nothing — stays behind, and says something.