(3) He

He may further join a band for receiving Holy Communion on a day of each month, or of each week, in reparation for sins committed, thereby forming a third class (3d Degree).

REMARKS.

I. ORGANIZATION: The League has a General Director, who is a priest of the Society of Jesus, confirmed by the Pope;

Also, Head or Central Directors for each country or large division, who alone have the right to issue the diplomas, certificates and publications of the League;

Local Directors, i. e., the parish or other priest in charge of the local organization;

Last of all, the Local Director appoints Promoters, who attend to the management and development of the work, and who have power to enrol members and deliver Certificates of Admission received from the Head Director.

II. PRACTICES: Besides the daily intention there are various devotions to the Sacred Heart which the League naturally leads to, such as the Rosary Decade, the monthly or weekly Communion of Reparation, &c.

The receiving of Holy Communion on the First Friday of each month, although no part of the obligations of the League, is a most natural and excellent practice, which all members are urged to adopt, and which is laden with special blessings for itself, as promised directly by our Lord.

III. ADVANTAGES: The special requests for prayers by the Associates are forwarded through the Local Director to the Head Director, and finally sent to the General Centre. They become joined in and supported by the intentions and prayers of the whole League-giving the force of this great union of hearts to each individual's prayers.

Many special Indulgences are attached to membership and to practices connected with it, which Indulgences are enumerated on the Certificate of Admission.

Almost all the religious orders have granted the League participation in all their good works, prayers and merits.

IV. THE MESSENGER: The League publishes, through its various Head Centres, a magazine named the MESSENGER OF

THE SACRED HEART, which is its organ, and contains, besides other interesting matter, a general statement of intentions received and acknowledgment for graces obtained, good works offered up, &c.; also, a General Intention for the month specially blessed by the Pope, and matters of general interest to Associates, showing the growth and working of the League.

It is now published in 14 different languages in 29 editions, and addresses itself to almost all the countries of the world, and is thus the mouthpiece and outward sign of union and communication of the 15,000,000 of members. The American Head Director, as in other countries where the League is most flourishing, issues a large edition of the MESSENGER as a complete devotional magazine, and a popular and cheap Little Messenger (the PILGRIM). The Holy See has also limited the issue of Handbooks and all articles required by the Centres of the League to the Head Directors under the General Centre.

V. NOTE: The League is an entirely distinct organization from the Archconfraternity of the Sacred Heart with which it is often confounded. The latter is organized after the manner of sodalities, and has its special rules and obligations. The essential differentia of the League is its universal union, or league of intentions and prayers for common and joint purposes, carried on by a closely united organization of priests, religious, and lay persons, who promote the interests of the Sacred Heart in union with the Heart of Jesus pleading. Hence its Badge and the motto-Thy Kingdom come!-and its practice of handing up requests for prayers. The League also, as noted, publishes the MESSENGER OF THE SACRED HEART.

VI. The PROMISES OF OUR LORD to those who honor His Sacred Heart are a special aim of the League, which attempts to realize them in its united and organized Apostleship of Prayer.

I

THE LEAGUE IN PRACTICE.

(Augusta, Georgia.)

WOULD have written you before this, but was unable to do

so on account of sickness. Even now I can scarcely hold my pen, so nervous and prostrate do I feel. I must, therefore, give you in a few words the account of the conferring of the Badges last Sunday, April 8. The ceremony was to have taken place on Easter Sunday, but was postponed on account of the children's First Communion, which was set down for April 8.

The V. Rev. Father B, the founder of the parish, kindly consented to preach for me and bless the Badges. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, after the children who made their First Communion in the morning had renewed their baptismal vows, Father Baddressed the Associates, taking for his text the motto of the League-Thy Kingdom Come-and in a clear manner explained the devotion of the Sacred Heart as propagated by the League. The ceremony of blessing the League insignia, as given in the Handbook, p. 124, was then performed, after which the First Communicants went forward to the altar-rail and received the Badge. These were followed by the other Associates to the number of two hundred. More could have been distributed, but we had none. The Promoters were in attendance pinning on the Badges. The Badges were then worn during the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and, in future, all the Associates will wear them on the first Friday and first Sunday of the month. Much fervor was manifested during the ceremony and some, who held back through human respect, are now most anxious to have the Badges.

Since the establishment of the League, there has been a marked increase in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the number of Communions has grown, everybody seems pleased and many consoling favors have been obtained. We now number twenty-one Rosary bands and two more are forming, while new candidates are presenting themselves at every meeting. I offer many thanks to the Sacred Heart for the abundant blessings given this parish during the four months' existence of the Holy League here.

Designated by His Eminence the Cardinal Protector of the League of the Sacred Heart, called the Apostleship of Prayer, (the Prefect of the Propaganda), and confirmed with His special blessing by His Holiness Leo XIII.

THE SPREAD OF DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART.

T is now two hundred years since one of the chief manifestations of the Sacred Heart was made to the prophetic soul chosen for spreading Its devotion in the world. On the 2d of July, Feast of the Visitation, in the year 1688, Blessed Margaret Mary-herself a nun of the order of the Visitationwas before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer. Our Lord, as he had done many times before, showed her His wounded Heart enthroned in the midst of flames. The Blessed Virgin was at His side, with St. Francis of Sales, the founder of the Visitation, and Father de la Colombière, the former confessor of the holy nun. The Sisters of the Visitation were also represented with their good Angels beside them.

The vision had a special meaning. It was to say that the devotion to the Sacred Heart should be a divine and exhaustless treasure to the world, because it would bring men to know more nearly and to love more ardently and to follow more closely Jesus Christ our Lord. The promise was made that the labors of the order of the Visitation and the Society of Jesus in the spread of this devotion should have the blessings of heaven upon them, and "produce fruit beyond all their hopes and all their toils, even for the salvation and perfection of each one of them in particular."

All Catholics know how this promise has been fulfilled. From that day to this, more and more as time goes on, Christians have striven to know and love our Lord in devotion to His Sacred Heart. Our Lord Himself declared that this was "a last effort of His love for our sake."

St. Francis de Sales explained the means by which Christians should be united with God in this devotion. "The Heart of Jesus must be the life that animates us; Its love must be our constant exercise, since this alone can make us one with God, so as to help on by our prayers and good examples the holy Church and our neighbor's salvation. For this end we are to pray in the Sacred Heart and through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Who will thus become anew the mediator between God and men. Our good example must be to live according to the holy precepts and virtues of this Divine Heart; and we shall help on the salvation of our neighbor by spreading this holy devotion. We must strive to pour forth the good odor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ among the faithful in order that we may become the joy and the crown of this loving Heart."

AUGUST comes again with its flood of sunlight from the clear heavens, and its long intense heats that with their slight discomfort to man work great good for him, since they give the last strong fervor needed to ripen the fruits of the autumn. The real pilgrims to Our Lady of Martyrs at her shrine in Auriesville, New York, during this month will know the glory of the fragrant goldenrod by the wayside. But all the readers of our PILGRIM, which is the Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart, should ponder in their hearts the golden August glories of our Lady.

Besides the feasts celebrated directly in her honor, a great number of the Saints whose feasts come at this time of the year were noted as devout servants of Mary. For Thursday, the 2d, there is the great doctor St. Alphonsus Maria de'Liguori, the Founder of the Congregation of the Redemptorist Fathers, who preach everywhere after him the devotion to the Blessed Virgin, especially under the invocation of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Our readers know them well; but how many have seen his Redemptoristines with their blood-red mantles, kneeling in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament day and night, according to their contemplative vocation? Our large cities have need of such communities for the work of prayer and reparation. Perhaps we shall one day have Copyright, 1888, by Rev. R. S. Dewey, S. J.

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