Day 4: Trust

The fourth day of the Sacred Heart Novena turns to the disposition that has, since the time of Saint Margaret Mary, been at the heart of the devotion: trust. The traditional Catholic invocation Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You is the verbal seal of every prayer to the Sacred Heart, and the practice of the devotion is, at root, the long formation of the soul in this trust.

Today's invocation

O most Holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Catholic theology of trust in the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a development of the broader Catholic doctrine of the love of God revealed in Christ. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17). The Heart of Jesus is the visible sign of this love. The disposition proper to the soul that has seen this Heart is trust.

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that distrust is the principal obstacle to the working of grace in the soul. We do not approach the Sacred Heart in confidence because we secretly suspect that the Lord is not really as loving as the Gospel says, or that our particular case is too difficult, or that our sins are too many, or that we have already used up His patience. Each of these is a temptation against the Catholic doctrine of the love of God. The novena's fourth day is the explicit Catholic act of repenting of these temptations and renewing our trust.

Today's intention

Today, bring to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with renewed trust, the intention you have been carrying through these days. Notice if anything in your heart has weakened in trust since Day 1. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I renew my trust in You today. Whatever happens with the matter I have entrusted to You, I know that You love me and that You will dispose all things for the salvation of my soul.

A particular Catholic devotional act of trust, drawn from the Sacred Heart tradition:

Heart of Jesus, in You I take refuge from every distrust. You who have loved me to the point of death on the Cross, will not abandon me now. I trust in You.

Reflection

The Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy (in the Divine Mercy Novena) are theologically continuous. Both are fundamentally about the love of God revealed in Christ; both name trust as the principal disposition of the soul; both have at their center an image of the Heart of Christ as the visible sign of His love. The traditional Sacred Heart invocation (Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You) and the modern Divine Mercy invocation (Jesus, I trust in You) are essentially the same act of the Catholic soul's response to the love of Christ.

The Catholic faithful in moments of acute crisis (medical, financial, family, spiritual) often find that the brief invocation Jesus, I trust in You is the first prayer they can manage. It is enough. The Lord does not require complex prayer in moments of distress; He requires the consent of trust. The novena's fourth day is the moment to renew this consent and to make trust the operative disposition of the rest of the novena.

Closing prayers

Pray three times each: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.