Dictated by Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre.

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God, be for ever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in heaven, on earth and in hell, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

(40 days indulgence may be gained, by saying this act of praise in honor of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity three limes.)

† CHARLES, archbishop of Tours.

Tours, Good Friday, 15^th of April 1881.

Note:

I. Historical recital. — The Sister says in her writings: “Our Lord opened to me his Heart, and I heard these words: My name is everywhere blasphemed, even children blaspheme it.

“Then he made me understand how painfully this frightful sin wounded his divine Heart, even more than any other; for, by blasphemy, the sinner curses him to his Face, attacks him openly, annihilates the Redemption, and pronounces himself his own condemnation and judgment. — Blasphemy is like a poisoned arrow which continually wounds his Heart, and he told me he would give me a golden arrow wherewith to wound it sweetly, and to heal the malicious wounds inflicted on him by sinners.

“This is the form of praise which he dictated to me, in spite of my great unworthiness, for the reparation of blasphemies against his holy Name, and which he gave me, as a golden arrow, assuring me that each time I should say it, I should wound his Heart with a wound of love. — He added: Pay attention to this favor

for I will ask an account of it from you. At that moment it seemed to me as though I saw, coming forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded by this golden arrow, torrents of graces for the conversion of sinners.”

Mr. Dupont, the holy man of Tours, had a great devotion for the golden arrow, and looked upon it as the basis of works of reparation.

II. THEOLOGICAL AND MORAL EXPLANATION. — The words, and in hell, need not astonish us. They recall those of Saint Paul: “At the name of Jesus let every knee bow, in heaven, on earth, and in hell.”

— The most rigorous theology approves of the sense. Recently (10 March 1886), a man of God, a Religious very much looked up to in his Order and a learned theologian, gave us, in addition, this just and beautiful explanation:

“Men upon earth, the souls in purgatory and the elect in heaven may transport themselves in spirit into hell, and there praise, bless, love, adore and glorify the most holy Name of God, who is in hell all that he is. They can there specially love and praise his justice. — In order to love and praise God anywhere, it is not necessary to be there physically and substantially; it suffices that God should be there, and that we should be there ourselves through love, and in thought. In one of his psalms the Psalmist says to his soul: “In all places of his dominion, bless the Lord, O my soul,” and yet the Psalmist could not physically be in all the places of God’s dominion; «but, according to philosophers, the soul is more in what it loves, than in what it animates.”

“Find, says St. Augustine (Enar. in Ps. cii, 22), a place where God is not, and where he is not blessed. Sic ubique est, ut ubique benedicatur.”

When giving us this explanation, the eminent Religious added: “As a historian, be resolute in upholding a text which bears all the characters of a real revelation. As for me, I love and admire the golden arrow more and more every day, and the prayer seems to me incomparable.”