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DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEAD
It is during this stay at Neston that we first hear of a subject which was to be
henceforth the all absorbing interest of Teresa's life -the Devotion to the
Sacred Head of Our Lord as the Seat of Divine Wisdom. While awaiting the ruling
of the Church on this important matter, we may venture to believe that the
promotion of this devotion was the special mission for which Her Divine Spouse
had designed her: that the singular graces and favors which He conferred upon
her so freely were intended, not merely for her own sanctification, but with the
further object of fitting her for this work. Our Lord Himself, she frequently
assured her director, had taught her that this sublime devotion would sum up in
itself all the worship due to His Sacred Humanity, and be the great antidote to
the pride of intellect and disbelief which are the crying evils of these latter
times.
When, in the cold hard days of the 17th century, Our Lord wished to prove to the
world the burning love of His Sacred Heart, He chose for His messenger a simple
nun, and now in our own age (1922), He has sought a still more lowly soul to
send forth as the herald of His Wisdom. Surely it is a point of no small
significance that the instrument He had selected for this great work should be
no renowned world famed professor, but an unknown teacher of a poor school!
"I confess to thee O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth because Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones.
Yea Father, for so it hath seemed good in Thy sight". Where indeed, could
He have found a littler one than this simple, humble teacher whose life was
devoted to the very poorest of His children?
Teresa's first reference to this subject is on the feast of the Sacred Heart,
1879-about the very time Father Powell, inspired by the Holy Ghost, placed her
under obedience to write out for him all the secrets of her soul. For the next
few years she recurs to it again and again, showing how frequently Our Lord
appeared to her, each time explaining more fully the hidden depths and beauty of
the Devotion and impressing her with His ardent wish for its propagation. She
burned with longing to carry out His Holy Will, though knowing her own
helplessness, she constantly implored Him to commit the task to some more worthy
soul, some wise and learned man whose words would carry weight. But God's ways
are not mans ways and He made it clear to her that weak and powerless as she
was, it was to her that the work had been confided. She labored incessantly for
this end, and yet, in spite of all her prayers for light, He never showed her
what it was exactly she had to do. Much as she loved to hide her self away, she
would have gone forth gladly to summon the whole world to honor the Sacred Head,
"the house which Wisdom hath built for Herself,"but this sacrifice was
not required of her. She did what she could: she taught the Devotion to the
children and spoke of it to all of her friends. Many to her joy, embraced it
with enthusiasm. Among them were Father Wilberforce, the well known Dominican,
Father Humphrey, S.J., and Mon. Weld, who all examined into it carefully and
then adopted it. The matter was at length brought before Dr. O'Reilly, the
Bishop of the diocese, and Teresa prayed much for some clear proof which might
convince him and cause him, not merely to sanction the Devotion, but actively
promote it. But no such proof was forthcoming and, he took no public action.
Teresa herself never wavered in her faith and hope, looking always for some open
manifestation of the Will of God, as did also her two confessors. Father Snow
wrote: "Both Father Powell and I expected that important miracles would
take place and that these would be of great help in furthering the devotion to
the Sacred Head and at the same time be useful if hereafter if there was
question of her canonization. But I never mentioned this subject to Teresa, nor
did Father Powell to the best of my belief. On the 30th of May, 1884, which
would be shortly before whit Sunday, of that year, she spoke to me of her
intense desire to have the Sacred Head honored and the intense suffering it
caused her. I told her to wait for Whit Sunday, when perhaps Our Lord would let
her know what she could do. On June 6th, she told me that on Whit Sunday Our
Lord had made known very clearly to her that it was not by wonders and miracles
that He would make known the devotion to the Sacred Head. That it was the wisdom
of the world to look for signs but not His way; that when He Himself promised
the Blessed Sacrament He might have convinced by wonders those who refused to
believe, but it was not according to the ways of His Wisdom."
And so Teresa longed and prayed and waited, until at last she seemed to
understand the special part assigned to her, when she wrote: "If it pleases
Him that I should not do anything but be consumed with this desire then His Holy
Will be done".
The explanation of the devotion must be given in Teresa's own words as she
understood it from Our Lord Himself. For the sake of clearness and the chief
extracts from her letters dealing with the subject have been grouped together,
though in point of fact they extend over several years. The first revelation
seems to have been made to her in the little village school house at Neston, on
the Feast of the Sacred Heart, 1879, shortly after her return from sabden. She
described it to Father Powell, first explaining the way in which Our Lord
prepared her for this great vision:
"During Holy Mass on Friday Our Blessed Lord brought before me all my
nothingness and miserable sins and filled me with such great confusion that I
felt that I should almost die. He has so often done the same of late and shown
me at the same time His infinite Majesty that I have been almost annihilated. Ah
my God who shall stand before thee? It seems to me that this feeling must be the
same, or something the same, that the poor soul feels when she stands before God
to be judged. This great humiliation was succeeded by a sweet calm and holy joy
after I heard these words again: "Fear not, it is I" (and such a
torrent of sweet tears streamed down that seemed to refresh the soul
wonderfully.) Not that I really heard the words spoken by the ears but they
seemed impressed on the soul in such a manner that there is no doubt of what I
heard, and these words are works, for, as at the Creation God said; "Let
there be light" and it was so, so I see in an instant verified the import
of these words, for my poor soul that seemed so hard dry and cold, almost
despairing enjoys at once that peace which the world cannot give.
"During the whole day I remained very recollected and although you told me
to give myself entirely into the hands of God, I continually reminded our B.
Lord that both you and Father Wells told me nothing was to be done in public,
for our B. Lord made me feel that He wished to bestow some great favor upon me
which covered me with such shame and confusion that I could hardly raise my
head. For when I see our divine Lord giving His treasures to this vile traitor I
beg of Him to consider what He is about, for I fear that others might undervalue
His great gifts seeing them given to so vile and wicked a wretch.
"When I retired to my room in the evening a deep recollection came upon me.
Oh my God give me light and help that I may be able to express clearly to my
director this which is entirely Thy work. Pity my weaknesses and by Thy
obedience unto death, oh my God and by this same Wisdom which Thou hast shown
me, instruct me, or do Thou oh Lord what Thy unworthy servant is unable to
do....
"I was considering the excessive love of the sacred Heart and offering to
my divine Spouse this same love to make amends for our coldness, and His
constancy and infinite riches to make up for our poverty and misery, when our
divine Lord suddenly represented to me the Divinity as a very large bright
crystal stone in which all things are reflected or are, past present and to
come, in such a manner that all things are present in Him. This immense precious
stone sent forth streams of richly colored lights brighter beyond comparison
than ten thousand suns, which I understood represented the Infinite Attributes
of God. This great jewel also seemed to be covered with innumerable eyes which I
understood represented the Wisdom and Knowledge of God. . . . Our Blessed Lord
showed me this Divine Wisdom as I was saying as the guilding power which
regulated the motions and affections of the Sacred Heart, showing me that it had
the same effect and power over its least action, and raising it, as the sun
draws up vapor from the ocean. He gave me to understand that an especial
devotion and veneration should be paid to the Sacred Head of our Lord as the
seat of divine Wisdom and guilding power of the Sacred Heart, and so complete
this heavenly devotion. . . . ."
This vision occurred at Neston, but most of the subsequent revelations took
place at Bootle, in the Church of St. Alexander which she foresaw would become a
great place of pilgrimage, as she told Father Powell:
"Our Lord has this morning shown me that your requests will be granted and
that greater wonders than those of Knock. He will bring to pass in our very
midst, that the eyes of all nations shall be turned towards us and pilgrims come
from afar off."
The right-hand corner seat of the front bench on the Epistle side is still
pointed out as the place where Teresa usually knelt, and where the heavens were
so often opened to her and she saw and heard many things which it is not given
to man to utter.