Come, Holy Spirit.
Come, you who can open my eyes to the reality of sin.
Help me to see the areas in my life that harden my heart
and make it insensitive to the suffering of my neighbor.

Holy Spirit, speak to me during this day.
Show me what’s wounding my heart.
Help me to overcome sin in my life
that I may ponder Christ’s Passion with true feeling,

that my heart may be renewed,
and that I may respond to my neighbor’s suffering
with deeper compassion and more generous mercy. 

Amen. 

An Excerpt from the Book of Fr Michael Gaitley:

“Consoling the Heart of Jesus” 

“…The Passion of Jesus contains the greatest suffering and the greatest love, and therefore, it can evoke our compassion more than anything else. This is important because our hearts have become hardened and need to be healed. Moreover, one of the most important ways they begin to be healed is when they come face-to-face … with the suffering of another.

…The Passion contains yet another gift. With the suffering of others evokes our compassion and thus helps heal our hearts, the suffering of Jesus carries with it an extraordinary gift of grace. When we prayerfully reflect on the Passion, God’s grace powerfully works in our hearts to help us experience compassion and healing…

With deep feeling (compassion) and devotion, may we contemplate the Lord’s Passion, the suffering of his Heart, and his great love for us. In this way… our hears become transformed from stony hearts into hearts of flesh” thus we could be ready to live out the compassion, which is to console the heart of Jesus in his suffering and the suffering of others (135).