05 June 2010

Countdown to 400

At the conclusion of our First Friday adoration yesterday, we had a prayer service in union with all our other Monasteries around the world. The program for the prayer service was sent to us from Annecy, where over 70 Superiors are gathered for an assembly to commemoration our 400th anniversary of foundation. Part of this prayer service included an act of consecration to the Sacred Heart. Here we share the English translation of this moving part of the ceremony:

Act of Consecration of the Order of the Visitation to the Sacred Heart
Lord Jesus, the God of all Goodness, your Father and our Father, has given us all things in and through you. Y our heart reveals his heart. Your heart joins with our heart. For your heart is y our everyday human life, your passion, your death and your resurrection.

Today, we consecrate to you the Order of the Visitation into your merciful heart we place its past, present and future. Into your meek and humble heart we confide each community and each sister, for we belong to you.

Through your open heart, we open our own hearts to the visitation of the Holy Spirit. May our desires, our choices, our joys, our moments of fidelity, our weaknesses and failings, our times of trail and our questions all continue to be enlivened by your light and your truth.

Lord Jesus, the Spirit whispers your Father's name in our hearts. Your loving heart calls us to life in community. May we become women of blessing for our sisters, through your heart which welcomes without judging. Teach us how to touch the hearts of the men, women and children of our time. May they discover their own dignity as children of God. Through your heart, turned ever toward the Father help us to pray without ceasing.

We ask this of you, who live with the Father and the Spirit forever and ever. AMEN.

No comments: