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Ecce cor…. [Behold this Heart….]
The Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus have been reproduced thousands of times and translated into over 250 languages. While they have been explicitly and implicitly attributed to Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, the tabular form of these promises appears no where in her writings, and, in fact, there are questions of whether at least of them accurately reflect the promises she reported Jesus made to her, which are found scattered in various letters she wrote. The earliest documented publication of the Promises of the Sacred Heart in tabular form appeared on the inside cover of a booklet entitled Les Offices du Sacre-Couer de Jesus ou exercice d’ adoration perpetuelle (Offices of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or exercise of perpetual adoration), published in 1863 by the L’ Apostolate de le Priere in Le Puy, France. In this publication there were only eleven promises (translated from the French): 1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life. 2. I will establish peace in their families. 3. I will bless every home where the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and honoured. 4. I will console them in all their difficulties. 5. I will be their refuge during life and especially at the hour of death. 6. I will shed abundant blessings on all their undertakings. 7. Sinners shall find in my Heart a boundless ocean of mercy. 8. Tepid souls shall become fervent. 9. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection. 10. I will give priests the power of softening the hardest hearts. 11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in my Heart, never to be effaced. The promises were first published in English by Philip A. Kemper of Dayton, Ohio in 1882, who slightly reordered and reworded the text and added the twelfth promise into the form that they are know today. 12. I promise you that, in the excessive mercy of my Heart, my all-powerful love will grant to all who communicate on the first Friday of the month for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance; they shall not die in my displeasure nor without their sacraments my divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in their last moments. Scholars who have compared the Twelve Promises to Alacoque’s original writings have raised a number of questions. For example, while the promises are formulated in direct speech, e.g., “I will bless the homes in which the image of my Heart….”, Alacoque always used indirect speech, e.g., “Our Lord made known to me that He would bless….” The direct form of diction gives the impression that Jesus himself dictated the promises as formulated and in the same order, which is not the case at least as reported by Alacoque. There are also a number of instances in which words have been changed. For example, the tenth promise reads “I will give priests the power of softening the hardest hearts.” In her letter to Father John Croiset, her Spiritual Director and first biographer, Alacoque wrote, “My divine Master has made it know to me that those who labor for the salvation of souls, shall be successful in their labors and shall have the art of touching the most hardened hearts…." History and questions aside, the Twelve Promises have contributed mightly to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Sacred Heart holy card pictured here with recto text in Latin was published by Kemper. The reverse has the Twelve Promises in Slovakian. |
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