Adapted from "Reinado Social" Spain.
Note for preparation: Put a little table in your room or place of prayer. On it place a crucifix or an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a lit candle and maybe flowers. During the times of silent prayer, you may play background music. The following rhythm of adoration may be helpful for the individual in private adoration or the leader in group adoration. It is intended for an hour adoration so may be adapted for shorter periods of adoration. The leader’s guidance or comments should be brief. Times of praise, worship, thanksgiving, repentance may be substituted as appropriate
The Heart of Jesus is the symbol of God's love made flesh. The incarnation is like the "humanization" of God's love, which has taken the form of human love in the person of Jesus. For Jesus, the love of God is his "heart," the center of all his actions and attitudes expressed in the Gospel: total dedication, compassion, welcome, concern for the poor, for the sinner and excluding no one. His heart pierced by a lance is a place of refuge into which all can enter and belong.
We need to constantly strengthen our trust in the love that "surpasses all knowledge"; this is the love that we are called to "contemplate, live and announce to the world": the love of God manifested in Christ and symbolized in his pierced Heart, which has saved us, attracted us and made of us "new creatures"; a love that will allow us to see life in a totally new way. Initial Invocation: O God, come to my assistance. -- Lord; make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, -- as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia. Hymn: (Your choice) For Meditation
From his side, thrust by a lance, a river of living water gushed forth, to wash away the sinfulness which has brought us down. Christ, wound and fountain, your death gives us life, which is your grace which we have received at our baptism. Blood and water from the depths of a heart in torment, a Jordan of sacrament bathes us with baptism. And while the cross lasts and on it the Crucified One, a river of grace and light will flow from his side.
Silence for adoration
Psalm to the Heart of Christ.
Remember that you are a creature in the presence of your Creator. Praise God who has given you life; thank him for the love and power of the Savior who freed you from all evil through the power of the Spirit, give glory to the Lord who is all lovable.
He who has believed in the love of Christ lives that love and sings it. The Christian is a missionary of the love of God manifested in Jesus and is inspired by the very charity of Christ which is made of attention, tenderness, compassion, welcome, availability and interest in people's problems.
The Lord has loved us with an everlasting love;
and being lifted above the earth,
he drew us to his Heart, having compassion on us.
Therefore, praise the Lord, all you people.
Bless and praise his holy name
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
What gentleness and kindness is his!
What a generous love that,
leaving his throne in heaven,
he stooped down
to raise the poor from the dung heap!
What a divine folly,
he made himself a slave to make us princes!
What an excess of love;
for by his death, he gave us life!
A soldier pierced his side with a lance,
and from his open side flowed a river of blood and water
to wash away our sins.
Blood and water from his open heart,
like a river of water and light that gives us life.
With everlasting love,
you have loved us, O Lord,
and with tender mercy you redeemed us.
The Lord loved us with an everlasting love
and being raised above the earth,
drew us to his Heart, taking pity on us.
Silence for meditation.
Reading of the Word:
Ephesians 2:4-7.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Silence for reflection.
Try to make your own what you have read in the psalm and the Word. Open the book of your life and discover the feelings which stir in your heart. Try to be true to yourself open to the light and message Christ is trying to give you. Listen with your heart.
Do you sometimes fear God? Why?
When have you experienced the God of love, tenderness, and forgiveness?
How does the love of Christ urge you to proclaim Christian hope and to be more in solidarity with the needy and abandoned?
Petitions.
Heart of Jesus, make your Church holy and a reach out to those in need.
Heart of Jesus, draw us to yourself and renew your covenant with us.
Heart of Jesus, unite us and bring us closer to the Father.
Heart of Jesus, draw sinners to yourself.
Heart of Jesus, be close to and comfort the dying.
Heart of Jesus (add your own petitions…)
Our Father
Prayer.
God and our Father, as we remember in the Heart of your Son the benefits of your love, grant us to receive from that divine fountain an inexhaustible abundance of grace. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Closing blessing:
May the Lord bless us, keep us from all evil and lead us to eternal life.
Amen.
Closing Hymn (Your choice)