Day 4 — Comfort in afflictions

Meditation

Third promise: "I will comfort them in all their afflictions." The Lord does not promise a life without a cross, but his presence beside us on the cross. The Heart that was pierced knows the cost of pain and turns it into a path of union with him. Turning to the Sacred Heart in trial is not fleeing suffering, but finding in him the strength to bear it with meaning.

Prayer of the Day

Afflicted Heart of Jesus, who in Gethsemane and on the cross knew the weight of pain, grant me your comfort in my afflictions. Unite my sufferings to yours, and make me, upheld by you, able to carry my cross with peace. Amen.

Offering to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (for all days)

O most loving Heart of Jesus! I offer you my prayers, my works, and my sufferings, those of this day and all the days of my life, to do all that pleases you, to repair the offenses committed against you, and to beg for the conversion of sinners. Join them to the infinite merits of your Passion, that they may reach the heavenly Father and lift up supplications for the whole world. Heart of Jesus, I trust in you.

(Our Father, Hail Mary, and Gloria.)