Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordine.
They shall look on him whom they have pierced.
And so ends today's Gospel, which records for us the opening of the heart of Jesus
and the birth of the Church.
And when we are reminded of this prophecy,
we are called also to look with the eyes of faith
and with St. Peter's eyes.
St. Peter's eyes.
We ask St. Paul to bend our knee before God
and to be renewed unto the inward man
so that we will know the charity of Christ and be transformed by it.
Today on First Friday, we remember with a particular fervor and encouragement
from the Church and from the private revelation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
to St. Margaret Mary,
we are encouraged to remember with a special fervor and a special,
a devotion by which we offer our day and most especially our communion
in reparation for sins against the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
And we try in a particular way on this day, this First Friday,
to be free of sin, to confess our sins, to receive Jesus in Holy Communion,
and to be a source of consolation to him rather than a source of offense.
We look on him whom we have pierced,
because we have pierced him by our own sins.
Our Lord suffers because of us.
We come before the altar on First Friday, as we do every time we come before the altar,
to be forgiven and healed, to be strengthened, to be nourished and to participate
in the saving love of Christ, to be transformed by it.
So we ask for that grace today.
It's always, you know, our motives and intentions
that have to be transformed before anything else
so that our works of penance and devotion,
the observances of our holy religion
will be given the life that they must have,
which is the life of Christ himself,
the charity of Christ and his saving grace.
May we have that grace today on this first Friday
and during this whole month
dedicated to the sacred heart of Jesus.
© transcript Emily Beynon