Reminders of Cannibalism
Altho the Trinity is composed, as everybody knows, of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and in the Trisagio the three persons are invoked and asked at the same time, nevertheless there are other forms of securing the divine favor, invoking separately only one of the persons of the Trinity. Thus in the Novena of Jesus Sacramentado, the Father is asked by means of the intercession of the Son, or in other words, by only a viscera of the Son or an organ of his body, the heart, or more properly the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “The eternal Father has complacency,” says the Novena (p. 6), “in that it is asked in the name of the Heart of his beloved Son * * *.” “The Father Eternal said so directly to the venerable Mary of the incarnation” (pp. 6–7). “Ask me thru the heart of my only begotten Son, and thru it I shall hear thee and thou shalt obtain all that thou wouldst ask * * *.” Jesus said to his wife Margaret (esposa Margarita): “I ask you that on Friday immediately before the Corpus festivity, you particularly devote yourself to the worship of my heart” (p. 7).
The adoration of the heart is not symbolic; it is the real heart that is adored: “they shall adore with greater frequency, to Jesus transsubtantiated, and in him, to his Divine Heart” (p. 7). “His Novena will be made before an image of Jesus or to His Sacred Heart” (p. 10). The devout one, carrying his adoration almost to a point of the revival of atavic cannibalism, says to Jesus: “O, thou owner of mine! Give me thine body and with it thine heart that I may eat it!” (para que le coma) (p. 12).
There is a Novena dedicated to Saint Angel Custodio (Manila, 1897), who is the “Angel delegated by God to be at our side, and exercise with us the loving offices of a careful tutor, a loving governor, a loving preceptor, a faithful conductor, and an intimate and true friend * * *” (p. 6). “No saint in heaven interests himself more in our soul and in our business than the holy Guardian Angel” (p. 6). His intervention is so useful and “he not only transmits what is asked but modifies our petitions when he knows that some of our petitions might bring us some spiritual or corporal evil” (p. 7). “It is therefore the best guarantee against any error of ours, and naturally it makes a sense of responsibility absolutely useless.”