My dear brothers and sisters, I want to begin this post — which was meant to be published in the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus back in 2017. I was inspired and ready to write, but because of furtive and sinful events that occurred, I ended up losing my focus and never again had the time or the inspiration to write. Whenever there are things that can sanctify us greatly, that can change our life and bear great fruit in our story, many temptations and trials arise along our path — sometimes not so much by God's direct will, but at least by His permission, for He knows that we are capable of not falling. In fact, the theme of temptation is itself a great grace of God (we will reflect on this in other posts).
So, here we are — three years later — to reflect on this theme so wonderful and so profound: the holy, most pure, worthy and honourable Heart of our Saviour — the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
The experience we need to make, right at the beginning of this formation, is the same one Thomas made, so that we may not be fearful, weak and needy Catholics, but courageous, strong and valiant ones.
"Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord and my God! Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book." (Jn 20:27-30)
How this ought to impact us and bring us to fall on our knees as Thomas did, according to tradition; how this ought to stir in us a genuine sorrow of repentance for our sins; how this ought to make us fall from the horse of our pride as happened to Saul, and be left blind to the things of the world until we come to truly know ourselves; how this ought to be an experience of faith that we should make constantly…
THE REALITY IS THAT SO MANY OF US ARE SO BOUND AND IMPRISONED IN THE CHAINS OF SIN, SHACKLED LIKE SLAVES OF THE DEVIL OR DECEIVED BY THE FASHIONS AND MAXIMS OF THE WORLD AND OF TECHNOLOGY, WITH EARS ITCHING TO HEAR SOMETHING NEW, THAT THE EXPERIENCE OF CHRIST AND WITH CHRIST HAS BECOME A CONVENIENCE THAT SOME TAKE UP ONLY WHEN THEY ARE IN NEED!
Jesus, with His Heart opened on the Cross, still speaks and lets the echo of His voice resound in every corner of the earth: I THIRST (cf. Jn 19:28); yet how few are those who make time to listen to the voice of Christ, for everyone arranges his own time and uses his freedom of choice to do what pleases him and what is important to him: when someone truly wants to do something, he does not make excuses but finds the means.
We want to find the means to encounter Christ, to let ourselves be found by the loving Heart of Jesus. We want to find a way, through this formation, to lead you into an experience so deep and so true within the Heart of Jesus that it kindles in you the flame of faith, charity and hope that had been extinguished for so long… Open yourself to receive the grace of God!

The purest truth is that we do not know Christ, we do not know His will, we do not know His Word, we do not know His Church, we do not know His Holy Mother, we do not know His life, we have no intimacy with Him — and for this reason we do not know His Heart either!
Many of those who call themselves Catholics are not so in fact, but sheep that do not know the voice of the Shepherd! Jesus said that His sheep know Him, recognise His voice, follow Him and believe everything He teaches.
"But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. That which my Father hath given me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father." (Jn 10:26-29)
My first impression is that this business of calling oneself a Catholic and a follower of Jesus Christ while acting and doing everything, absolutely everything in this life, just as those who are not Catholics do, is something typical of Brazilians. Then I think it is a Latin thing. Then I think it is a thing of shameless people. Finally, my last impression is that this is a thing of people who are not Jesus' sheep — that is, they have no intimacy with Him, they do not know His Heart.
How easy it is nowadays to say that you know someone: you add the person on Facebook, follow their profile on Instagram, exchange messages on WhatsApp or photos on Snapchat — and that's it. You already know them! The society we live in is superficial and full of pretence. There is no truth, no depth, no reality… It is a mixture of illusion with terrible sin! Lies and hedonism are the predominant factor.
It is no wonder that Saint John wrote in his first letter:
"The world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever." (1 Jn 2:17)
BECAUSE THEY DO NOT KNOW CHRIST, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO INTIMACY WITH HIM, BECAUSE THEY DO NOT LIVE A LIFE OF FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD, HUMAN BEINGS HAVE BECOME SOULLESS ANIMALS WHO LIVE BY THEIR INSTINCTS — WORSE THAN THE ANIMALS — TRYING TO SATISFY AND FILL THEIR EMPTINESS WITH THINGS THAT DO NOT FILL. ONLY GOD CAN FILL THE HUMAN HEART!
Only Jesus, who had a human heart, understands as no one else does the anguish, fears and weaknesses we carry within us. But instead of opening ourselves to Christ and revealing our wounds, hurts, bitterness, anger, hatred, resentments, sorrows, loneliness, rottenness and sins, we prefer to deceive ourselves and hide all of this. We prefer to pretend that we are saints and to live alienated in this society ruled by the degraded values of sin and governed by the devil (cf. 1 Jn 5:19).
I have said in previous posts that our struggle is against sin, the world and the devil; but what a pity to know that Jesus offers a remedy to heal us of the sin that dwells within us, an antidote so that we may live in this rotten world without being worldly, and a powerful shield against the devil — yet we still do not accept it: it is His Sacred Heart.
The Heart of Jesus is refuge and security, consolation and protection, healing and deliverance, health and salvation, life and restoration, light and guide, strength and comfort, power and relief, blood and water, life and Cross.
We must learn from Jesus and from His Sacred Heart. We must find this path of spiritual renewal every time we are weary and laden with burdens, for Jesus wants to relieve us. He calls us by name, and if we are His sheep we must listen and go to meet Him:
"Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light." (Mt 11:28-30)
For this reason we can and must be devoted to the Heart of Jesus. What does this mean? It means that we can indeed look with special tenderness and affection, and practise a sincere devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — the same Heart that was pierced on the Cross, the same Heart that is meek and humble, the same Heart of Christ, the only heart that is at once human and divine.
Perhaps only in eternity will we be able to understand what it means to have a heart that is human and divine at the same time. Jesus has a heart just like ours; He feels what we feel, He is moved and goes through everything we go through (except sin), and at the same time He has a divine heart, and being one with the Father, He feels the love the Father has for us, which is the same love He Himself has for us, which is poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5).
I would simply like to bear witness to one of the countless graces I received from the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When I moved away from Brazil and came to live in a distant country where I no longer had friends, a girlfriend, or any ease — since I had to learn the English language — the only thing I had was my faith and my family.
For various reasons, and because it was not being nourished, my faith was drying up, dying, and becoming non-existent within me (after all the experiences I had been through…). My father, my brothers and my stepmother, who became my family, I had for nine months — until I had to leave my father's house and go to live alone with people I did not know.
Many things happened, and because of sin that I had never experienced before in Brazil, which became my life, I once again became a needy, petty person full of emptiness. I have written many times about this neediness and loneliness that took over my days for many weeks, months and, sadly, years.
On one of those days when I found myself alone in the apartment where I was living, I began to listen to some songs and felt an immense longing to hear songs of the Church, songs that would lead me to God. In the middle of one of those songs, the Holy Spirit of God touched me deeply and reminded me of many things I had lived with God, of many experiences and graces that a whole lifetime would not be enough to translate into praise of Christ.
I still remember it as if it were today: I knelt down and began to weep over my sins, repentant for having drawn away from the source of life, the source of love, the source of joy and the source of salvation… And as my tears fell, my heart burned, my body trembled, and my face leaned against the radiator in that room… Humanly speaking, I felt something I could not explain. Spiritually, I had been carried to a very special place, a place where I could be myself and lay down my whole life, without pretence and without restraint. I was inside the Sacred Heart, the Wounded Heart, the Open Heart of Christ.
There I felt the waves of love that pulsed and breathed out grace… The waves that pulsed and moved my heart to repentance… Waves of deliverance that made me shed bitter tears, which did not accuse me but welcomed me and loved me, for like a little child who does not know what he is doing, I had offended this Heart that only loves me. And He loves you very much too!
Let yourself be embraced by the Heart of Jesus, and allow Him to reach you, touch you and enfold you wherever you may be. Let the Sacred Heart of Jesus now be your safe harbour… You do not need to do anything, not even close your eyes, nor leave where you are, nor make any effort at all: you only need to open yourself and ask with sincerity of heart, for the Heart of Jesus welcomes our deepest sincerity: I WANT TO, LORD! I DESIRE AND I NEED, AT THIS MOMENT, TO BE ENFOLDED BY YOUR HEART…
May the Holy Spirit lead your prayer…

Amid so many experiences and graces I received from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I would like to share a song that He inspired in me and that moves me deeply to this day, for the Heart of Jesus is our true home; that same Heart that was opened on the Cross. This is the true place and dwelling of every Catholic!

"I know not how to say I love You, my Jesus
There is no way to say I love You apart from the Cross
I know not how to say I love You, my Jesus
There is no way to say I love You apart from the Cross

Where Your heart is moved with pity and compassion
Where Your heart took in all the pain
Where Your heart suffered the Passion
That heart of Yours gave itself out of love… on the Cross

Teach me to say I love You, my Jesus
Teach me to learn from Mary at the foot of the Cross
Teach me to say I love You, my Jesus
Teach me to learn from Mary at the foot of the Cross

Where from Your heart there flowed blood and water
Where Your heart took in my faults
And in Your heart I found my dwelling
It is Your heart, my only home
There on the Cross, on Your Cross, here on the Cross"


How could we not remember that humble little priest who came from Biguaçu, who became one of the greatest preachers in Brazil and in the world and is on his way to beatification — the great Father Léo, SCJ? With strength and a fine tone he used to proclaim what he was throughout his life: I WANT TO BE A MAN OF THE HEART OF JESUS! May this be our desire too!

"In the Heart of Jesus I wish to live, to suffer and to act according to His designs; and it is through Him that I want to love and to learn to suffer well." (Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque)

We would like to close with the twelve promises that our Lord Jesus Christ left for Saint Margaret Mary to make known to the world, so as to make devotion to His Sacred Heart grow even more. We are not devoted to the Heart of Jesus because of these promises, but because of the love that the Sacred Heart reveals to us — yet since they were so graciously entrusted to us, we wish to accept and receive all the graces bound up with this most beautiful devotion:

1) My blessing shall remain upon the homes in which the image of my Sacred Heart is exposed and venerated.
2) I will give to those devoted to my Heart all the graces necessary for their state of life.
3) I will establish and preserve peace in their families.
4) I will console them in all their afflictions.
5) I will be their secure refuge in life and, above all, at the hour of death.
6) I will pour abundant blessings upon all their works and undertakings.
7) Sinners shall find in my Heart an inexhaustible fountain of mercy.
8) Lukewarm souls shall become fervent through the practice of this devotion.
9) Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
10) I will give to priests who practise this devotion in a special way the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
11) Those who promote this devotion shall have their names written forever in my Heart.
12) To all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays of nine consecutive months, I will grant the grace of final perseverance and of eternal salvation.

May God bless us, grant us the grace to be His devoted ones, and bless us through the Sacred Heart of Jesus!