Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ

Catholic tradition includes specific prayers and devotions as Acts of Reparation for insults and blasphemies against Jesus Christ and the Holy Name of Jesus. These include the sufferings during the Passion of Jesus. Similar prayers as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary and Acts of Reparation to The Holy Trinity also exist.

These prayers are recited with the intent to repair the sins of others, e.g. when the name of Jesus Christ is taken in vain, for the repair of the sin of blasphemy or the insults against and sufferings of Jesus in Calvary. Pope John Paul II referred to reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".[1]

Specific Roman Catholic organizations with this purpose exist. For instance, the Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday was founded by Msgr. Pierre Louis Parisis in 1847 and the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was founded in 1851 by the Venerable Leo Dupont, the "Holy Man of Tours".[2] In 1950, the Venerable Abbot Hildebrand Gregori formed the organization "Prayerful Sodality" which in 1977 became the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face.[3]

Apparitions and reparations

The need for prayers of reparation has also been emphasized within messages reported as part of Marian apparitions. A key recent example is the apparition of Our Lady of Akita in 1973 in which Sister Agnes Sasagawa reported the following message from the Blessed Virgin Mary:

"Many men in this world afflict the Lord. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father."

In 1988, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provided a definitive judgement on the Akita messages as reliable and worthy of belief.[4]

The need for prayers of repentance, reparation and penance was also emphasized in the reported messages of Our Lady of Kibeho in 1982.

Rosary of the Holy Wounds

Venerable Marie Martha Chambon.

The Rosary of the Holy Wounds is a Rosary based prayer but it does not include the usual mysteries of the rosary. It is primarily directed at the sufferings of Jesus Christ and was first presented by the Venerable Sister Marie Martha Chambon who lived in Chambéry, France and died in 1907.[5]

She reported that Jesus Christ appeared to her asked her to unite her sufferings with His as an Act of Reparation for the sins of the world. It also has special applicability to the souls in purgatory.[6][7]

Prayer of reparation for insults and blasphemies

Words of the prayer:[8]

O Jesus, my Savior and Redeemer, Son of the living God, behold, we kneel before Thee and offer Thee our reparation; we would make amends for all the blasphemies uttered against Thy holy name, for all the injuries done to Thee in the Blessed Sacrament, for all the irreverence shown toward Thine immaculate Virgin Mother, for all the calumnies and slanders spoken against Thy spouse, the holy Catholic and Roman Church. O Jesus, who hast said: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you", we pray and beseech Thee for all our brethren who are in danger of sin; shield them from every temptation to fall away from the true faith; save those who are even now standing on the brink of the abyss; to all of them give light and knowledge of the truth, courage and strength for the conflict with evil, perseverance in faith and active charity! For this do we pray, most merciful Jesus, in Thy name, unto God the Father, with whom Thou livest and reignest in the unity of the Holy Spirit world without end. Amen

The Golden Arrow

Sr Marie of St Peter with the Golden Arrow.

The Golden Arrow Prayer is part of the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and appears in the book The Golden Arrow, the autobiography of Sr. Marie of St Peter. In her book she wrote that in her visions of Jesus she was told that an act of sacrilege or blasphemy is like a "poisoned arrow", hence the name "Golden Arrow" for this reparatory prayer.[9][10][11]

Words of the prayer:

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable,
most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God
be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored
and glorified in Heaven, on earth,
and under the earth,
by all the creatures of God,
and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Amen.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Vatican archives http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20001021_riparatrici_en.html
  2. ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12775a.htm
  3. ↑ Zenith Vatican News Hildebrand Gregori a Step Closer to Canonization
  4. ↑ EWTN on Akita apparition
  5. ↑ Legionnaires Praying for the Clergy http://www.lpca.us/five_sacred_wounds.htm
  6. ↑ Michael Freze, 1993, Voices, Visions, and Apparitions, OSV Publishing ISBN 087973454X
  7. ↑ Anne Cecil Kerr, 1937, Sister Mary Martha Chambon of the Visitation B. Herder Publishing
  8. ↑ Reverend John P. O'Connell, et al., 1954, The Prayer Book, The Catholic Press, Chicago
  9. ↑ Joan Carroll Cruz, OCDS, Saintly Men of Modern Times. (2003) ISBN 1-931709-77-7
  10. ↑ Dorothy Scallan. The Holy Man of Tours, (1990) ISBN 0-89555-390-2
  11. ↑ Dorothy Scallan, Emeric B Scallan, 1994, The Life & Revelations of Sr. Mary of St. Peter ISBN 0-89555-389-9
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