August 31^st, 2016

Dear Fathers, Brothers, and Seminarians,

As you all know, by God’s grace, at the closing Mass of the past General Chapter, and as result of a unanimous decision of the Chapter Fathers, we consecrated the Institute to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Said consecration took place through the “enthronement” of His image, accompanied by the corresponding prayers, in the church of St. Bartholomew the Apostle at the Institute’s seminary in Montefiascone (Italy).

For us it is an act of great significance and of profound spiritual meaning, a pledge of many fruits of holiness, mutual union and concord, and apostolic fruitfulness for the members of the Institute.

With this consecration, by the sheer grace of God and His mercy, we have simply followed what the Pontiffs have insistently recommended in recent years with specific documents, establishing this devotion throughout the Church not as simply another devotion, but as one essential to the Catholic faith. This is because devotion to the Sacred Heart is nothing other than devotion to the Person of the Redeemer, in whose love consists all the perfection of Christian life and of the consecrated life.[1]

At the same time, we cannot fail to see that in recent times this devotion has gained a new momentum since the institution for the universal Church of the feast of Divine Mercy on the Sunday of the Octave of Easter. This is because Divine Mercy is nothing other than the manifestation of the infinite love of the Heart of Christ.[2]

Through this Circular Letter I would like to exhort everyone to delve more deeply into the meaning of this consecration and devotion, while establishing that in each Province and in each community of the Institute the same consecration or enthronement be made during the current Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis. For the future, we also establish that whenever a new community of the Institute is erected, the enthronement of the image of the Sacred Heart should be made with due solemnity.

1.  Meaning of This Consecration

While I cannot explain the entire significance of this devotion here, I offer a brief summary.

The aim of the consecration of persons, houses, jurisdictions, and of the Institute itself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the worship of the Person of the Divine Redeemer, seeking to love Him with all our heart, with all our strength, with all our mind, and all our soul (cf. Mt 22: 37). This is the same as the end of our religious consecration, in addition to making reparation for the offenses committed against Him, which is also identified with the sacrifice and holocaust of our own religious life.[3]

Thus, Pope Pius XII stated that devotion to the Sacred Heart is devotion to the Person of Jesus, but particularly to His triple love for us: the love He has for us as God, in common with the Father and the Holy Spirit; the love of His most holy human will, full of grace; and His sensible love, perfectly ordered in Him, and which is like the external revelation, with its authentically human traces, of His most tender and infinite mercy.[4]

Such devotion would be in vain if it did not entail a corresponding reply on our part, which is precisely what our Lord complained about to St. Margaret Mary: “Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing . . . and in return, I receive only ingratitude.” In this same sense Pope Leo XIII teaches: “There is in the Sacred Heart the symbol and express image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love Him in return.”[5]

Furthermore, the enthronement also means setting Jesus on a symbolic throne by which the father of the family (the superior of the house or jurisdiction) cedes to Christ all his powers of government and, by doing so, he professes Jesus’ absolute kingship over himself, over the other members of the house, their persons and apostolates, and over the house itself.

Therefore, this consecration must not remain a mere outward sign, but it should imply the desire to unite ourselves more and more to our Savior. This means identifying ourselves with Him as His members, who seek the perfection of charity and mystical transformation, which is the end of our religious consecration. It also means seeking to bring to fulfillment in us the consequences of our baptism by which we were incorporated into Christ. This devotion, then, entails not simply a partial identification with Christ, but rather one that has the characteristic of totality, and, therefore, of perfect identification with Him.[6] To identify ourselves with Him and to transform ourselves into Him also means to immolate ourselves with Him in reparation for our own sins and the sins of all our brothers through the holocaust of our religious life. In fact, reparation is an essential element of this devotion, as the Lord deigned to reveal to Saint Margaret Mary.

2.  Benefits Promised by the Sacred Heart to Institutes that Consecrate Themselves to Him

There are four main benefits promised to the Institutes that render special devotion to the Heart of Christ, as stated by Saint Margaret.[7]

1. Preserving the primitive fervor of the Institute: “These fruits of life and health [that the devotion to the Heart of Jesus will bring] will renew us in the original spirit of our holy vocation.” Elsewhere she says: “Satan wanted to throw up his anger by destroying the spirit [of our Institute], and hereby ruin it. But I think he will not achieve its intent, if we want, according to the intentions of our holy Father [St. Francis de Sales], to use the means he gives us [this devotion] to restore to the first vigor the spirit of our holy vocation, living according to the maxims of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” In a letter to her spiritual director, no longer only in reference to her order, but to all orders in general, she writes: “Above all do all you can so that religious people may embrace [this devotion], because they will draw from it so many favors that no other remedy will be necessary to restore the original fervor and the most exact regularity in the less observant Communities.”
2. Achieving the ends of the Institute: This follows from the renewal of the Institute’s primitive fervor. Recalling a vision in which the Most Blessed Virgin Mary gave the devotion to the Heart of Jesus to the Order of the Visitation and to the Society of Jesus, the saint says: “In proportion as they give Him pleasure, this Divine Heart, source of blessings and graces, will pour them so abundantly on the tasks of their ministries that they will produce fruits far beyond their labors and expectations. And this also regarding the health and perfection of each one in particular.”
3. Union of charity among the members: In a letter, after listing several promises to religious communities, Saint Margaret Mary adds: “And (He promised) that He would pour this sweet ointment of His ardent charity in all the religious communities where He would be honored and that were under His special protection, and that He would maintain united in them all the hearts so as to form but one with His.”
4. Strength and unity in front of the dangers of division and external attacks: The saint says, “I am sure that our holy Founder, fearing that the foundations of his edifice will begin to crack, had asked for a support able to defend it. He was given the devotion to the Heart of Jesus as the means to repair the cracks of the edifice and to serve him as the defense against the attacks of his enemies, and as the support so that it may not succumb in the future” […] “I cannot help but to tell you a few words about the feast day of our Holy Founder. He made me understand that there was no more efficacious means of making reparation for the faults committed in his Institute than to introduce the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and that he wanted to use this remedy” […] “I think this is one of the most effective means for raising it up after it has fallen and to serve as an impregnable castle against the attacks the enemy will continually level against (the Institute), who will try to ruin it by a false spirit of pride and ambition which he wants to introduce in place of the spirit of humility and simplicity, which are the foundation of the whole edifice.”

3.  Promises Made to Those who will Honor Him by This Devotion

In addition to these promises made to religious communities, the Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary other promises for those who honor Him by this devotion. The promises on the efficiency of this devotion concerning personal sanctification are well-known to all, but I think it is good to mention them within this context:[8]

• I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
• I will bring peace to their families.
• I will console them in their sorrows.
• I will be their safe refuge in life, and especially in the hour of death.
• I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
• I will bless those places wherein the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed  and venerated.
• Sinners shall find in my Heart the fountain, the infinite ocean of mercy.
• Tepid souls shall become fervent.
• Fervent souls shall rise to great perfection.
• I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
• Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in my Heart, and it will never be erased.
• In the excess of my mercy, my all-powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final perseverance; they will not die without my grace, nor without the reception of the sacraments. My Heart will be their safe refuge in that last hour.[9]

4.  Properly Prepare for the Consecration

It is apparent to all that the goods promised by the Divine Redeemer to individuals and communities who honor His Sacred Heart are invaluable and infinite. However, the acquisition of these goods will depend largely on our interior dispositions. For that reason, I would like to encourage you to prepare properly for the act of consecration in each of our houses and jurisdictions, by means of an appropriate previous catechesis, for example, using the Good Nights or sermons, and by celebrating a Triduum or a preparatory Novena. The most important papal documents on the subject can be very useful for sermons, since they are both brief as well as very substantial and rich, especially His Holiness Pius XII’s Encyclical Letter Haurietis aquas.[10]

*     *     *     *

Dear all, I think that the act of consecration done at the end of the General Chapter will bear much fruit, especially in terms of personal sanctification and spiritual enhancement of the Institute. It is up to each one of us to be faithful to our religious consecration, and therefore, to use this admirable means that the Lord Himself has revealed repeatedly to renowned saints and that He Himself wanted to propagate in His Church through His vicars, the holy Pontiffs.

Besides, let us not forget that we are in the Jubilee Year of Mercy, a year of special graces, not only to gain indulgences, but also in order to atone for our sins, to obtain forgiveness and mutual reconciliation where it is lacking, as well as to restore peace and harmony wherever necessary. Let us profit, then, from the treasure of the infinite merits of Christ that the Church makes available to us at this precious time so that we may grow in the love of Jesus Christ, which is the main cause and end of our consecrated life.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, of whom we are slaves of love, help us. We ask Her, the “Hodegetria,” She who shows the Way, that She may reveal Her Son to us, that She may form us like Him in the divine mold of Her virginal womb, and that She may bless all our efforts towards our sanctification and make fruitful all our apostolic works.

I take this opportunity to greet all of you cordially, embracing you in Christ and Mary.

P. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
Superior General

[1] On the teachings of the Magisterium cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Haurietis aquas, 4.

[2] The universal feast was instituted following the explicit request of our Lord to Saint Faustina Kowalska.

[3] Cf. ST. Thomas Aquinas, STh 2 2 186 1 and 7; 1 2 108 4; Contra impugnantes, c. 1; De perfectione spiritualis vitae, c. 11; ST. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, 17.

[4] Cf. Haurietis aquas, 54-57: “For these reasons, the Heart of the Incarnate Word is deservedly and rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that threefold love with which the divine Redeemer unceasingly loves His Eternal Father and all mankind. It is a symbol of that divine love which He shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit but which He, the Word made flesh, alone manifests through a weak and perishable body, since in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col 2: 9). It is, besides, the symbol of that burning love which, infused into His soul, enriches the human will of Christ and enlightens and governs its acts by the most perfect knowledge derived both from the beatific vision and that which is directly infused (STh 3 9 1-3). And finally –and this in a more natural and direct way– it is the symbol also of sensible love, since the body of Jesus Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, possesses full powers of feelings and perception, in fact, more so than any other human body. (STh 3 33 2 ad 3; 3 46 6).”

[5] Cf. Encyclical Letter Annum Sacrum (May 25, 1899).

[6] This is one of the strongest and central ideas developed by St. John Paul II in Vita Consecrata; cf. 16-26 and passim.

[7] Letters of St. Margaret Mary, cf. F. Alcañiz, La devoción al Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, ch. 1. In English, The Letters of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (Rockford, IL: TAN, 1997).

[8] In a letter St. Margaret says: “If you knew how much merit and glory you have to honor the gentle Heart of this adorable Jesus, and what will be the reward of those who, after being consecrated to Him, seek only to honor Him! Yes, I think this intention alone will make their actions most meritorious and pleasing before God, that all that they could have done without this application” […] “I do not know, my dear Mother, whether you understand the nature of this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ of which I am speaking. The devotion makes a great change and produces fruit in those who are devoted to it and earnestly practice it.”

[9] This is called the “Great Promise.” The conditions to receive this grace are three: 1. Receive Holy Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months; 2. Have the intention of honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of obtaining final perseverance; 3. Offer each Holy Communion as an act of atonement for the offences committed against the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Sacrament.

[10] The most important specific documents of the Magisterium in chronological order are: Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Annum sacrum On consecration to the Sacred Heart (https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_25051899_annum-sacrum.html); Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Miserentissimus Redemptor On the reparation to the Sacred Heart (https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19280508_miserentissimus-redemptor.html);  Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Summi Pontificatus On the beginning of his Petrine ministry (https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus.html); Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Haurietis aquas On devotion to the Sacred Heart (https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_15051956_haurietis-aquas.html); and BL. Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Investigabiles divitias Christi, on the second centenary of the institution of the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/it/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-vi_apl_19650206_investigabiles-divitias.html). To all this could be added, although it is not a specific text on the Sacred Heart, St. John Paul II’s Dives in Misericordia.