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me to delight in the service of God, and to despise the false joys of the world. Give me grace to preserve Peace with God, my neighbor, and myself :-give me Patience to bear with all the ills of this life;-make me persevere in the service of God, and enable me to act on all occassions with Goodness, Benignity, Mildness and Fidelity. Let the heavenly virtues of Modesty and Purity adorn the temple Thou hast chosen for Thy abode. O Spirit of Purity! by Thy all-powerful grace preserve my coul from the misfortune of sin, wich for all eternity will be distinguished by the double title and sacred character of a Christian by Baptism, and a soldier of Jesus Christ by the Sacrament of Confirmation. Amen.

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IN HONOUR OF

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS.

THIS practice, in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is divided into nine different offices, compiled from the heavenly lights, which our Lord communicated to his servant, Ven. Marguerite Mary Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation. By this practice, without multiplying vocal prayers or exterior practices, we may pay to this divine Heart a continual interior adoration, which a single person, howsoever fervent, would not be able to perform.

1st. On the Thursday preceding the first Friday of every month, the nine Offices of which this devotion consists, are distributed to nine persons, and each endeavors to acquit himself of his Office with all possible exactness until the next month.

2d. The first Friday of every month is to be distinguished from the rest by the fervor with which all our actions ought to be animated. Therefore as our Saviour enjoined to the Ven. Marg. Mary, in her live, all will receive the Holy Communion with the leave of their respective Superior or spirit

ual Director, and renew the act of consecration. 3d. Every one, to the better accomplishing of his office, will strive in all the services he shall render to the Sacred Heart, to unite himself to the choir of blessed Spirits indicated in the Office itself, and make with them that mystical association which the Ven Margaret made with so great a profit to her soul, in order that they may supply our deficiencies, and fill our places in the hours of sleep, and in all others, whatever may be our impediments; thus the Sacred Heart will be perpetually adored.

4th. And because the purest Heart of MARY is, after the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the most amiable and lovely, and bears a greater resemblance to it, all the associates will possess a cordial and tender devotion to this Sovereingn Queen, honoring Her to their utmost, especially on her principal feasts, and on the first Saturday of every month, and joining their actions and affections to those of this most innocent Virgin, in all the pious acts which they may exhibit to the divine Heart, for it is the most efficacious way to preserve and spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

5th. The greatest service which all have to present to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus,

and the chief fruit to be proposed or intended in the execution of this pious exercise, is the exact observance of all our rules, and duties of our state; bearing constantly in mind the words of Jesus Christ to the Ven. Marg Mary : « Thou canst not do any thing more agreeable to me than to run on with a constant fidelity and sincerity in the way of thy rules, in which the least defects are great in my sight; and a religious person deceives himself, and withdraws far from me, when he thinks to please me. without the exact cbservance of his rules. >> 6th. To connect more strictly the bond of Charity, which unites in the Sacred Heart of Jesus those that practice this devotion, each of them will pray every day for his companions, asking of the Sacred Heart that its love he increased in all, and that none become cold, or withdraw himself from this happy union. To this purpose it will be expedient to excite one another, and propagate, by every means in their power, the reign of the Sacred Heart.

7th. When any one has to separate from his companions, he will thereby not cease to belong to this pious union of special worshippers of the divine Heart, provided he proceed in performing the spiritual exercises. 8th. To avoid all scruples, it is to be observ

ed, that whatever has been said, either in respect to the nine Offices, or to the foregoing acts or exerciscs, is always, and in every circumstance understood not to be binding. The love of the Sacred Heart alone, and the band of this sweet union, are the end and motive of whatever is proposed.

FIRST OFFICE,

PROMOTER.

THE Promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus shall beg of the Eternal Father, that he would enlighten all men, in order that they may know it; and of the Holy Ghost, that he would make our hearts earnest in its love: and of the Blessed Virgin, that she would employ her intercession, to obtain that the influence of this divine Heart may be experienced by those who implore its mercy. During the day, he shall frequently retire into the sacred recesses of the divine Heart, and unite himself to it by the warmest affection; and to honour it the better by his Office, he shall join himself in spirit with the choir of the Thrones. Moreover, he shall once visit the Most Holy Sacrament for the benefit of the Community or Confraternity, praying through the merits of this Divine Heart,

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