The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-04-12
PASTORAL LETTER
OF HIS GRACE THE MOST REV. ARCHBISHOP
OF NEW ORLEANS PREPARATORY TO THE
CONSIDERATION OF THE ARCHDIOCESE AND
THE PROVINCE OF NEW ORLEANS TO THE
SACRED HEART OF JESUS.

= NAPOLEON JosEPH by the Grace Of God and favor
the Holy Apostolic Sec Archbishop Of New orlean
8 Prefnte of the Papal Household, Assistant at th
Pontiacal Throne. Roman Count, eto.,
= To THE CLERGY AND FArsyuI OF Gun DIOCESE Rsalt
| and Benedicton in our Lord Jesus Christ.
} Dearly Belored Co-Laborers and Brethren =
Coeval with the Church is the Devotion to tn
Most Sacred and Adorable Heart of our Lor,
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The Cross is it,
origin. From out the material Heart of Jesus
which the lance of the Roman soldier opened
burst the remnant of that Precious Blood, the
very last drop of which our Divine Saviour
was willing to shed, that we might be cleaused
and our souls purified from every sinful stain.
This material Heart of Jesus an Object as
worthy of our alteration it is meet for our
| homage, was but an e1 ternal expression of that
| infinite love with which the Son of God, from
eternity, hath loved us. 1t was n sensible
| manifestation of that boundless, Incom prehen.
sible Mercy, the Divine Whisperings of which
prompted Him, not alone to demean- Himself
in the assumption of our lowIy nature, but
even to so elevate that nature as to make it
the embodiment of His own Divine Being.
For, from the union of both natures, the Di-
vine and the human, springs but one and the
same Person, the Adorable Person, Jesus
Christ, True God and True Man.
AS Eve in the beginning, grew, beneath the
Plastic Hand of the Almighty out of the flesh
drawn from Adams side while lie Law buried
in the deep, mysterious slumber, into which
the Lord had cast hiD', so did the Church, the
Immaculate Spouse of Christ, Upring from the
Adorable Heart of her Divine Bridegroom, as
He, sleeping the sleep of death, hung upon the
Wood of the Cross. On His ever Sacred and
Adorable Heart has the Spotless Bride of the
Lamb, our Mother in the order of Grace, from
Her very dawn, fixed Her gaze, directed Her
hopes and centred Her affections. For she
Heart is an undying fire whose light, while it
illumines and warns, at the same time enliveps
and quickens; that this Heart aglow with |
love, is a furnace as fiery as it is mex haustble
and in the flames Of which the world is inces.
sanity enveloped; nay, that this ever Sacred and |
Adorable Heart, whose richness is as infinite |
as Its Mercy, is the ever-teeming Fount, whence
nows the Saoramental Grace, that mandates
our spiritual being, and that regenerates,
transforms and-vivifies our souls. For she al
ways perfectly knew, neither has She over
ceased to impress on her children's minds, that
his ever Adorable Heart of Jesus is the Sacred
spring, whence streams out upon the creature.
'Very manifestation of the Divine Mercy. he
ts object the Material the Spiritual, the
Natural or the Supernatural; that 1t is the
fount OF every Grace and Blessing, which we
enjoy here below, as it is of the Eternal Han.
'iness and Glory, of which we hope to be
harers, in the Kingdom of the Blessed.
The Devotion, therefore, to the Sacred Heart
las its reasons in the very essence of the
'hurch, of whose existence as of whose vitality
is a condition.
But the Works of the Creator are ever char
oterized by perfect order and precise adap-
alton to the time; He has judged it meet that
his Devotion to His ever Sacred and Adorable
ieart should follow Creations law, which is
he law of progress 4; as also, that 1T should =.
MOLD itself in the time, at the pIs1 FRAY. a
trough tho instrumentalityvd hin,scace, and
g, in His Eternal Aftable to = of those whom
propagRtn raut- ccrees, hath chosen to be
in tho fagt,ors. And when the period which
1e, in His wisdom, hath appointed for its
had dawned, France, SO fire.
luently styled the Heart of Cfristendom "
md the 1" Centre of Catholicity," was the land
# His choice. The century which He chose
Sas one of religious decay and spiritual de-
1t was one in which mems higher,
md nobler, and loftier aspirations were ma
even paralyzed, by the infdelity
md corruption with which the world was
leluged.
And the instrument which he selected to be
Is originator was not a man remarkable
mong the worlds great ones, either by the
plendor of his position, the brilliancy of his
alent, or the extent of his influence. 1t was
poor, humble, lowly virgin, Blessed Margaret
larry, buried in the seclusion of the cloister,
idden beneath the shadow of the Sanctuary
whose thoughts lowered round no other object,
whose heart beat in unison with none other
ave the ever Sacred and Adorable Heart of her
'rucifed Lord. " In Him hath she disposed her
cart TO ascend by steps" And the nearer she
pproached that Adorable Heart, and the oft
ner she looked down into Its hidden, mystic
ious depths, the reader was that humble
irgin to develop the Devotion to the Sacred
leart of Jesus in every region in Christendom,
hat thus she might realize the words of the
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