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An ideal form of public atonement is . . .
THE HOLY HOUR OF
REPARATION!
This is the 20th Anniversary of
The SOUL ASSURANCE PRAYER PLAN - Dating to 1933, for
ten long years struggling along under severe handicaps like
every great movement, in its early stage it received its
greatest impetus from the BELOVED Cardinal Stritch in old
St. Peter's in Chicago. In 1944 the Cardinal spoke to the men
gathered in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. He spoke to
them in a vein of intimacy and depth that was at once a
prophetic utterance of motivation and a classic of lasting
encouragement for this movement for Reparation to the Injured
Heart of Christ. We need but recall a few of the
phrases of the Cardinal's short talk to recognize in it a kind
of Magna Charta for the Prayer Plan of Reparation to the Sacred
Heart.
" . . . the world will come to know
Christ when more and more individuals walk with Christ, live
with Christ, and think with Christ. Wherever individual
Catholics are gathered together to draw closer to Christ, to try
to love the things that Christ loved, and to walk the path that
Christ walked - there is an advance for the whole world knowing
Christ." ". . . . the great need of mankind is the vision of the
Savior. . .."
Referring to "The Darkness Over the
World" of Pope Pius XII's
Encyclical letter, the Cardinal brought out that
there is need of doing something about this catastrophe, such as
the men gathered before him are sincerely trying to do.
"As you gather here to pray in these Holy
Hours for souls in distress, after all, you are only trying to
live with Christ, for our Blessed Savior loved souls, and loved
souls in distress. You are only trying to satisfy the longing of
the Sacred Heart. You are only trying the better to know Christ,
that Christ may shine forth in your eyes. This is a work of
love." "As surely and as lovingly as those women of the Gospel
dressed and anointed the dead Body for the burial, as surely as
Mary, loving Him, dropped the perfume on His Sacred Feet, you
are trying to express your love. He loved souls and you love
souls with Hi~. By your prayers and acts of reparation you are
trying to reach out for the souls that our Blessed Savior wants
and wants with a tremendous desire. It is a good work, it is a
blessed work - a more important work than many of the external
works that are being done for the Christianization of the
world." " . . . . only in a miracle of His mercies do we
dare call ourselves worthy to kneel before Him, because His
mercies have been showered upon us; and in our love for Him, we
try by our prayers and mortifications to reach out to open to
the souls the fruit of His mercies. This is bringing the world
to Christ, bringing the world to Christ in the most practical
way. I thank you, therefore, for this great work that you are
doing for Holy Church, I bring down upon it my blessing and ask
you in your prayers be- fore our Holy Savior upon the Altar to
remember me and our Church in Chicago."
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