O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, the union of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month. Amen.
1. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart – Jesus knows best what the world needs, what our loved ones need, and what we ourselves need. By offering our prayers for His intentions, we are telling Him that we trust Him. We believe that He will order all things for our ultimate good. Jesus' Sacred Heart is the seat of His love, which burns like an unquenchable flame. The Catechism, quoting Pope Pius XII, says this about Jesus' Sacred Heart: Jesus “has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, 'is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that...love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings' without exception” (#478).
2. the salvation of souls – God wants every single person to be with Him in Heaven forever. He offers saving grace to everyone, but He does not force it on anyone. Therefore, we must pray for this powerful intention that fills the Sacred Heart of Jesus: the salvation of all souls.
3. reparation for sin – Sin is the worst thing that can ever happen because all sin, mortal or venial, is saying “no” to the all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise God. What's more, sin has consequences. When we sin, we get bogged down in spiritual mud. When we repent and confess our sins, God forgives us, but we are still covered in mud. We have to get cleaned up somehow. We have to repair the damage we have done by sin. After all, God is both perfectly merciful and perfectly just. Like a good parent, He makes His children clean up their messes. Father Robert Altier explains, “By uniting our prayers, works and sufferings to those of Jesus, we can actually make some reparation for our offenses against the justice of God. Because we are members of Christ, our offerings become part of the work of our Lord which was to make reparation for the sins of the whole world. Therefore, our offering not only makes reparation for our sins, but for the sins of others as well.” In other words, we cooperate with Jesus' love to scrub ourselves and others of the consequences of sin.
4. the union of all Christians – Just before He died, Jesus prayed to His Father that all His disciples, then and to come, may be one as He and the Father are one. His heart must ache at the divisions Christians have created among themselves out of human pride, ignorance, stubbornness, and hardheartedness. We lift up our prayers that all Christians may indeed someday be one just as Jesus always intended.
5. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops – As the successors of the apostles, bishops are specially chosen by Christ and ordained to be shepherds of the Christian people. Bishops pray for many things: for peace in the world, for their flocks, for those outside the Church, for the Church and her leaders. We join our prayers with those of the bishops, begging God to hear and answer them and us.
6. and of all Apostles of Prayer – Who are these Apostles of Prayer? Some people are called to the contemplative life, and they become monks and nuns devoted to prayer and sacrifice. They unite themselves to Jesus in a special way, and we stand in solidarity with them, joining our prayers to theirs, knowing that they pray for the whole world.
7. and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month – Every month, the Pope recommends prayer intentions to unite the prayers of the whole Church around a specific cause. The Holy Father's prayer intentions for May 2015 are as follows: “That, rejecting the culture of indifference, we may care for our neighbours who suffer, especially the sick and the poor” and “That Mary's intercession may help Christians in secularized cultures be ready to proclaim Jesus.” We should all make a point to know the Pope's intentions for each month and pray for them daily. They can be found on the EWTN website.
8. Amen – With this one little word, we declare a firm “yes” to everything we have just prayed. We once again offer ourselves and our lives to God, surrendering our thoughts, words, actions, joys, and sufferings to Him and joining our prayers with the intentions of Jesus' Sacred Heart and the prayers of the whole Church.
Let us pray:
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, the union of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month. Amen.
Source: “Why is Reparation So Important?” by Father Robert Altier at http://www.courageouspriest.com/father-robert-altier-reparation-important
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