The Act of Reparation
The formal Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart, prescribed by Pope Pius XI for recitation on the feast.
Why this practice
In 1928, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor on the duty of reparation to the Sacred Heart. With it, he prescribed an Act of Reparation to be recited each year on the Feast of the Sacred Heart in every Catholic church.
The prayer is one of the great public acts of the Church. To pray it is to stand with the whole Body of Christ before the offended Heart of God and to say, in the name of all, that we are sorry.
How to begin
Reparation is the necessary response of love to a love wounded. It is not penance imposed; it is sorrow that arises of itself.
— After Pope Pius XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor
A prayer for this practice
Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence, and contempt — behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.
Amen.