Keenly aware of the need of extraordinary graces for his country, he turned to the source of all graces, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Thoroughly familiar with the revelations made by our Lord to St. Margaret Mary at Paray-le-Monial, and clearly understanding what so many others have failed to understand - the social aspects of devotion to the Sacred Heart, summed up in the words of our Lord, "I will reign through My Heart," - he decided officially to consecrate his country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the King of kings. No doubt he knew that our Lord had explicitly made this same request of King Louis XIV of France, by means of St. Margaret Mary; that He had promised the king that France would be protected and blessed if the king erected a chapel in honor of the Sacred Heart and would have the Sacred Heart placed on the French flag in recognition of the sovereign dominion of the Sacred Heart over France. The king, for some unknown reason, failed to carry out this request. A century later, the terror of the French revolution broke out in France and started that once-proud country downward to physical and moral miseries unparalleled in her long and troubled history.
Garcia Moreno was not merely a student of history; he profited by what he learned. He determined to do what Louis XIV had failed to do and what he knew the Sacred Heart wanted every nation to do; publicly and officially proclaim Jesus Christ the King of its country. Moreno's act of faith was not in vain. His country, Ecuador, was consecrated to the Sacred Heart, and by decree of Parliament, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, requested by our Lord Himself, became a national feast-day and was ordered celebrated in all churches with great solemnity on the Friday following the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi.
The picture of the Sacred Heart was
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