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Level VI · Reparation · practice 3 of 4

Reparation for blasphemy

When the Name of Jesus is profaned, offer an act of reparation immediately — silently, but really.

Why this practice

The Holy Name Society has long urged this practice: every time one hears blasphemy — the Holy Name used as a curse, the Eucharist mocked, the Mother of God insulted — an immediate interior act of reparation may be made, with no public confrontation needed.

It is one of the simplest and most universal practices of reparation. It can be done in the office, on the street, in a film. The world is filled with material for it.

How to begin

1Memorize one short prayer of reparation. "Blessed be the Name of Jesus" suffices.
2When you hear blasphemy, immediately and silently pray the prayer in reparation.
3Pray also for the person who blasphemed — that they may someday love the Name they now use carelessly.
4Bow your head slightly at the Holy Name when it occurs in conversation or reading; this small reverence is itself a sermon.

There is no sin against the Holy Name that another's whispered blessing cannot repair, if love is in it.

— Traditional

A prayer for this practice

Blessed be the Name of Jesus. May the Heart of Jesus, in the most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and loved, with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even until the end of time. Amen.

Amen.

When you're ready

Union in suffering →