We can take up this prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus written by Pedro Arrupe, SJ, Prefect General of the Society of Jesus, 50 years ago. “Eternal Father, While Ignatius was praying in the chapel of La Storta, you wished, by a singular favour, to accept the request that he had been addressing to you for a long time through the intercession of Our Lady “to be placed with your Son”.
I want you to serve us
You also assured him that you would be his support, saying: “I will be with you”. You went so far as to express your desire that Jesus, entrusted with the Cross, should take him as his servant, which Jesus accepted by addressing to Ignatius these unforgettable words: “I want you to serve us”.
Serving under the banner of the cross
We, the successors of that handful of men who were the first ‘companions of Jesus’, take up in our turn this same request to be placed with your Son and to serve ‘under the banner of the Cross’, where Jesus is nailed in obedience, with his side pierced and his heart open as a sign of his love for you and for all humanity.
Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
We renew the consecration of the Company to the Heart of Jesus and promise greater fidelity, asking for your grace to continue to serve you and your Son with the same spirit and fervour as Ignatius and his companions. Through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who accepted Ignatius’ request, and before this Cross where Jesus delivered to us the treasures of his open heart, we say today, through Him and in Him, from the depths of our being:
Take, Lord, and receive all my freedom, my memory, my intelligence and all my will, all that I have and possess; you have given them to me; to you, Lord, I give them back; everything is yours, do it according to your entire will; give me only your love and your grace; that is enough for me.
Pedro Arrupe, SJ
