The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-06-07
Church
Universal.

7 revelation made to Blessed Margaret
Mary. To these we may add the va
rious other acts of reparation and con-
secration and the many indulgenced
CALCULATIONS and longer paryers.
This month, however, of the year OF
papal jubilee, Leo XIII recommends
to us with particular insistence and
earnestness. THE Little Office of the
Sacred Heart" which he has recently
approved and enriched with an indulg-
ence of 20 0days for each public or
private recitation.
The prayer by excellence of the
church, after the holy sacrifice of the
mass, is the divine office. Its length
and involved rubrics do not admit of
It's being said commonly by the faith
ful, although it is well to recall in this
connection that in the ages of faith
( the whole of the divine office was
daily recited by hundreds of laymen
by kings and princes and those whose
occupations would seem to leave them
little leisure to spend in prayer. For
long time past the. sovereign pontiffs
have authorized and indulgenced forms
of prayer composed after the model of
the divine office, but much shorter and
therefore more suitable for the use of
the laity- OF these, the best known are
The Little Office of the Blessed Yir-
gin usually recited at the monthly
meeting of sodalities erected in her
honor, and THE Little Office of flle I'm
maculate Conception
Such an office in honor of the sacred
heart of, Jesus. was the ardent desire
Of The blessed. Margaret Mary. This
IS evidenced by her letters to. Mother
de Saumafs; Mother Gfayfie and other
religious of the Visitation and TO her
spiritual director, Father sGroiset,e s. j.,
who. in 1881, published a Little Office
of the Sacred Heart" 1n.1727, Father
de Gallifet, s. J., republished the Of
fice with slight notifications and in a
more. complete form, and this edition,
approved by many bishops and widely
employed by the faithful, did much to
advance devotion to the sacred heart
for more than a century and a half. AS
yet the office had not received the au-
thorization and approval of the holy
see. This was given through the sacred
congregation of rites, in Feb. 26. 1901,
to the present edition edited by Father
Xavier. de Franciosi, j. S.
As we go over the pages of this new
office we may well ask ourselves what
more fitting expression could be given
to the love and reverence we all have
for our Lords divine heart. Its
beautiful hymns, its versicles and re-
sponses and antiphones, the prayer
that ends each of the hours, all
breathe this deep spirit of love and
leave untold no aspiration or desire
of our own poor hearts to grow in
likeness to the heart divine. Take, for
example, the Hymn for Lauds:
o Heart, the Godhead's worthy throne.
Thee. did the Spirits power create,
In Marys womb immaculate
The Virgin Mothers Holy One.
Praised is through thee the Trinity:
Thou art the Fathers bliss; the Son
Hath knit Thee with Himself in one;
And rests the Holy Ghost in Thee.
In Thee the wrecked world safety finds,
And faithful souls their peace secure,
A cloister too where chaste and pure
Serenely rest their hearts and minds.
Sweeter art Thou than. honey stored, i
o Sacred Heart to Thee are dear