Iesu dulcíssime, cuius effúsa in hómines cáritas, tanta oblivióne, negligéntia, contemptióne, ingratíssime rependítur, en nos, ante altária tua provolúti, tam nefáriam hóminum socórdiam iniuriásque, quibus úndique amantíssimum Cor tuum affícitur, peculiári honóre resarcíre conténdimus.
Mémores tamen tantæ nos quoque indignitátis non expértes aliquándo fuísse, ídeo ex imo corde dolóre commóti, tuam in primis misericórdiam nobis implorámus.
O sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence, and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thy altars, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and the injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas, that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon, and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse to follow Thee.
Would that we could wash away such abominations with our own blood! And so, to make amends for the outrages offered to the divine honor, we offer Thee the satisfaction Thou didst once make to Thine Eternal Father on the Cross, and which Thou dost continually renew upon our altars; we offer it joined to the reparations of Thy Virgin Mother, of all the Saints, and of all the faithful. And we promise, by Thy grace, to make amends for our own past sins and for the coldness of so many hearts toward Thy great love. Amen.
This Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart answers a complaint Our Lord Himself made. When He revealed His Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, He showed it crowned with thorns and wounded, and said: "Behold this Heart which has so loved men… and in return I receive from the greater number nothing but ingratitude." He asked, in return, for love and for reparation — that His friends should console His Heart and make amends for the coldness, indifference, and outrages of the world.
Reparation is the offering of some honor or penance to God to make amends for sin, in the way a debt is repaid or an injury healed. Because no creature could ever repay what is owed to the divine love, the prayer does something profound: it offers to the Father not our own poor satisfaction but Christ’s — "the satisfaction Thou didst once make to Thine Eternal Father on the Cross, and which Thou dost continually renew upon our altars." We atone by pleading the infinite atonement already made.
The prayer was composed and prescribed for the whole Church by Pope Pius XI in his 1928 encyclical on reparation, Miserentissimus Redemptor. He directed that it be recited each year on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and attached a plenary indulgence to its public recitation on that day. It is the natural companion of the First Friday devotion and of the whole month of June: not a gloomy prayer, but the response of a grateful heart that has seen how much it is loved, and wishes to love in return where others do not.
O sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence, and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thy altars, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and the injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas, that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon, and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse to follow Thee.
Would that we could wash away such abominations with our own blood! And so, to make amends for the outrages offered to the divine honor, we offer Thee the satisfaction Thou didst once make to Thine Eternal Father on the Cross, and which Thou dost continually renew upon our altars; we offer it joined to the reparations of Thy Virgin Mother, of all the Saints, and of all the faithful. And we promise, by Thy grace, to make amends for our own past sins and for the coldness of so many hearts toward Thy great love. Amen.
Iesu dulcíssime, cuius effúsa in hómines cáritas, tanta oblivióne, negligéntia, contemptióne, ingratíssime rependítur, en nos, ante altária tua provolúti, tam nefáriam hóminum socórdiam iniuriásque, quibus úndique amantíssimum Cor tuum affícitur, peculiári honóre resarcíre conténdimus.
Mémores tamen tantæ nos quoque indignitátis non expértes aliquándo fuísse, ídeo ex imo corde dolóre commóti, tuam in primis misericórdiam nobis implorámus.
O sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence, and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thy altars, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and the injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Mindful, alas, that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon, and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse to follow Thee.
Would that we could wash away such abominations with our own blood! And so, to make amends for the outrages offered to the divine honor, we offer Thee the satisfaction Thou didst once make to Thine Eternal Father on the Cross, and which Thou dost continually renew upon our altars; we offer it joined to the reparations of Thy Virgin Mother, of all the Saints, and of all the faithful. And we promise, by Thy grace, to make amends for our own past sins and for the coldness of so many hearts toward Thy great love. Amen.