Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Quote of St. Francis de Sales
"Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life;
rather, look to them with full hope that as they arise,
God, whose very own you are,
will lead you safely through all things;
and when you cannot stand it,
God will carry you in His arms.
Do not fear what may happen tomorrow;
the same understanding Father who cares for
you today will take care of you then and every day.
He will either shield you from suffering
or will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace,
and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
Amen."
- St. Francis de Sales
St. Francis de Sales Quote
- St Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 3,3
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
For St. Margaret Mary's Divine Office Feast Day - Office of Readings
"MUST KNOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH SURPASSES ALL KNOWLEDGE"
A
LETTER FROM ST.
MARGARET MARYFrom the Office of Readings, Oct 16th
"It seems to me that our Lord's earnest desire to have his Sacred Heart honored in a special way is directed toward renewing the effects of redemption in our souls. For the sacred heart is an inexhaustible fountain and its sole desire is to pour itself out into the hearts of the humble so as to free them and prepare them to lead lives according to his good pleasure.
From this divine heart three streams flow endlessly. The first is the stream of mercy for sinners; it pours into their hearts sentiments of contrition and repentance. The second is the stream of charity which helps all in need and especially aids those seeking perfection to find the means of surmounting their difficulties. From the third stream flow love and light for the benefit of his friends who have attained perfection; these he wishes to unite to himself so that they may share his knowledge and commandments and, in their individual ways, devote themselves wholly to advancing his glory.
This divine heart is an abyss of all blessings, and into it the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need.
Therefore, you must unite yourselves to the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, both at the beginning of your conversion in order to obtain proper dispositions, and at its end in order to make reparation. Are you making no progress in prayer? Then you need only offer God the prayers which the Savior has poured out for us in the sacrament of the altar. Offer God his fervent love in reparation for your sluggishness. In the course of every activity pray as follows: "My God, I do this or I endure that in the heart of your Son and according to his holy counsels. I offer it to you in reparation for anything blameworthy or imperfect in my actions." Continue to do this in every circumstance of life. And every time that some punishment, affliction or injustice comes your way, say to yourself: "Accept this as sent to you by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ in order to unite yourself to him."
But above all preserve peace of heart. This is more valuable than any treasure. In order to preserve it there is nothing more useful than renouncing your own will and substituting for it the will of the divine heart. In this way his will can carry out for us whatever contributes to his glory, and we will be happy to be his subjects and to trust entirely in him"
Wisdom of the Heart of St. Margaret Mary
"I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus."
"What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only
when He caresses us, and to be cold immediately
once He afflicts us. This is not true love.
Those who love thus, love themselves too much to
love God with all their heart."
"The Divine Heart is an ocean full of all good things, wherein poor souls can cast all their needs; it is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness, an ocean of humility to drown our folly, an ocean of mercy to those in distress, an ocean of love in which to submerge our poverty."
"The Divine Heart is an ocean full of all good things, wherein poor souls can cast all their needs; it is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness, an ocean of humility to drown our folly, an ocean of mercy to those in distress, an ocean of love in which to submerge our poverty."
"Let every knee bend before Thee, O greatness of
my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host.
May every heart love Thee, every spirit adore
Thee and every will be subject to Thee!"
"One cannot love without suffering. He [Jesus]
showed us this very clearly upon the cross,
where He was consumed for love of us. And it is
still the same every day in the Blessed
Sacrament of the Altar... Since love makes
lovers one in likeness, if we love, let us model
our lives on His."
"Love keeps Him there [in the Blessed Sacrament]
as a victim completely and perpetually delivered
over to sacrifice for the glory of the Father
and for our salvation. Unite yourself with Him,
then, in all that you do. Refer everything to
His glory. Set up your abode in this loving
Heart of Jesus and you will there find lasting
peace and the strength both to bring to fruition
all the good desires He inspires in you, and to
avoid every deliberate fault. Place in this
Heart all your sufferings and difficulties.
Everything that comes from the Sacred Heart is
sweet. He changes everything into love."
"Oh, how fortunate you shall be to be able to
receive every day this divine Sacrament, to hold
this God of Love in your hands and place Him in
your own heart! I desire but this one grace, and
long to be consumed like a burning candle in His
holy Presence every moment of the life that
remains to me. For that I would be willing, I
think, to suffer all the pains imaginable till
judgment day, if only I should not have to leave
His sacred presence. My only motive would be to
be consumed in honoring Him and to acknowledge
the burning love He shows us in this wonderful
Sacrament. Here His love holds Him captive till
the end of time. It is of this one can truly
say, "Love triumphs, love enjoys/ Love finds in
God its joys!"
"In order to be like You, who are always alone
in the Blessed Sacrament, I shall love solitude
and try to converse with You as much as
possible. Grant that my mind may not seek to
know anything but You, that my heart may have no
longings or desires but to love You. When I am
obliged to take some comfort, I shall take care
to see that it be pleasing to Your Heart. In my
conversations, O divine Word, I shall consecrate
all my words to You so that You will not permit
me to pronounce a single one which is not for
Your glory.... When I am thirsty, I shall endure
it in honor of the thirst You endured for the
salvation of souls.... If by chance, I commit
some fault, I shall humble myself, and then take
the opposite virtue from Your Heart, offering it
to the eternal Father in expiation for my
failure. All this I intend to do, O Eucharistic
Jesus, to unite myself to You in every action of
the day."
"All for the Eucharist; nothing for me."
"O
Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, and our dear
Mother! O all ye holy angels, who, by your
adoration in our churches, make up for the
little love which your God and our Saviour
receives from men, obtain for us the grace to
comprehend a little the love of Jesus Christ in
the Most Holy Sacrament."
LETTERS OF SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE
SAINT
MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE,
Apostle and Messenger of the Love of the Sacred Heart
Apostle and Messenger of the Love of the Sacred Heart
To Her Brother, the Major
About April, 1687
Nothing could have pleased me more, dearest brother, than the happy news that the Sacred Heart fill your heart with such good dispositions. I fear that yours might have grown cold towards him. That would have pained me very much and I would not have dared speak to you about the Sacred Heart any more because piety is never really solid unless it come spontaneously from the movements of grace. Yours, I am sure, does, because it produces such good results. I had even hoped that things would turn out as you propose. But not believing that your love for this adorable Heart would make you want to sustain so great an expense as the one you speak of, I did not dare mention it to you. So I approached the people I had mentioned, thinking that if a greater number were involved the deficit could easily be supplied. But we clearly see now that we must carry out the plan as you proposed it. We shall not refuse you this. By this you will give me one of the greatest consolations I can have in this mortal life. For nothing can make me happy here except to see this divine Heart of my Lord Jesus Christ loved, honored, and glorified, and to have the good fortune of being able to consumed in suffering for His love. O my dear brother, how fortunate you shall be if He gives you so great a grace as to enable you to go through this undertaking!
I beg you, then, to be firm in following out the inspirations He gives you, so as not to frustrate His designs for making you holy. His grace shall not be wanting. But He expects faithful cooperation from you and me in return for His great love for us. I cannot tell you my full sentiments on this matter just now. I hope my brother (The priest) will not fail to do everything in his power to further a plan so much for the glory of this divine Heart as yours is, and which will draw upon you and your family any graces.
To Mother Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins
From our Monastery in Paray, May 1, 1687
Most Honored Mother,
You could not make me happier than by sending me news of the spread of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I am sure the devotion will prove no less useful to this fine gentleman than it will to all those who practice it with confidence. I shall beg our adorable Jesus with all my heart to shower His grace and love upon them. I hope your heart will be filled more and more with the love of this loving Heart, in which I am wholly yours.
Mary was conceived without sin.
To Mother Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins
From our Monastery in Paray, June 25 ( 1687)
I beg the loving Heart of Jesus to consume our hearts in the pure flames of His holy love, so that they may live and breathe only to love, honor and glorify Him. I assure you, dear Mother, that I have nothing but pleasure in thinking of the ardent zeal this Sacred Heart give you to make Him known and loved. I see in that a great sign of His love for your Charity . You must never let up in this holy work which will, I think, bring you a rich reward from God. In His presence I do not forget you in my unworthy prayers and beg you not to refuse the help of your prayers to one who is wholly yours in the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
To Sister Félice- Madeleine de la Barge, at Moulins
June, 1689
Yes, dearly beloved Sister, I did answer, and quite at length, the letter you mention. But you are not the only who complains about letter getting lost. I can see clearly that the best thing is not to write any more, since I think perhaps the Lord may be letting them get lost only because they are not pleasing to Him on account of my sins. Moreover, I must confess I feel repugnance in writing, seeing myself so far removed from practicing what I advise. Though your soul is becoming more and more dear to me in the Sacred Heart of our adorable Savior, I simply cannot repeat here what I said in my last letters. So I shall merely say a word on what you remark with regard to the love of your own abjection. It is what I think I have already said: accept and suffer in silence everything our divine Master sends you and never say it is enough, no matter how great repugnance nature may feel. That is all. Only one thing is necessary: pure love of God combined with the love of our abjection. We must abandon ourselves to the loving providence of the Sacred and lovable Heart of Jesus and let Him guide and rule us as He wishes. He will be sure to furnish us with all that is necessary for out sanctification if only we are careful to receive it according to His designs. That is sufficient.
Love, then, of our own abjection in the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for us, in order to honor the mysteries of His holy Passion and death. These He wishes us to honor. And we must observe a holy silence, as He did, in all humiliations and sufferings. I assure you that nothing appeals to me so strongly as the silence He kept so perfectly during the whole course of His Passion. In imitation of Him, we should not open our lips except to pray for those who cause us suffering.
You ask me which of the mysteries of His holy passion I like the best. Bearing in mind what I have just told you I would say that it is the Crucifixion. I like to stand with the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross, or rather under the foot of the Cross, in order to attach myself to it and unite myself to all He did for us. But right now, dear friend, we must always find a place for ourselves in His adorable Heart and never leave it no matter what happens. It is a strong fortress and our place of refuge. He will not abandon us as I hope and beseech Hi, with all my heart. How indebted we are to this most loving Heart of Jesus for conducting us along a road as safe as that of humiliations and the love of our own abjection! Let us neither look for not desire any other, for none is more conductive to our sanctification. In the love of this Sacred Heart I am wholly yours.
To Mother Louise- Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins
From our monastery at Paray.
July 4,1686
I beg the Sacred Heart of our adorable Savior to vouchsafe to unite our hearts so intimately by the bonds of His pure love that they may never be separated for a single moment. I assure you, beloved Mother, that He has given me so great an esteem and friendship for your Charity that I think you are doing me a great injury when you cast any doubt on it by thinking I forget you. How could I ever do that, since you are so dear to the loving Heart of Jesus, love Him, and want to be entirely His so as to give Him, and to win for Him, and to win for Him, all the honor, love and glory you can. It is this I think He most of all desires of you, so that later on He may make you feel abundantly the effects of His liberality.
I do not know, dear Mother, whether you understand the nature of this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ f which I am speaking. The devotion produces rich fruit and makes a great change in those who are devoted to it and earnestly practice it. I earnestly hope that the members of your community may be among this number, perhaps this desire and my too great liberty with you displease you; but it is the love of my poor heart that makes me treat in this way one who, I flatter myself, loves me. I have even taken the liberty of sending you a little picture of this Sacred Heart to wear over your own. We found this devotion in the retreat book of Reverend Father la Colombière who is venerated as a saint. I do not know whether you have heard of it, or have the book of which I am speaking. But it would give me great pleasure to send it yo you. So do me a favor beloved Mother, of telling me what you think simply and frakly , so that I may do the same and talk to you openly of the devotion and love of this divine Heart. It is all I desire and aspire for myself and for those who do me the honor of loving me. In him I am completely and respectfully yours.
Most dearly beloved Mother, I beg the help of your holy prayers, so that Our Lord may convert me and not abandon me to my own devices, as I might oblige Him to do because of a life that is criminal and full of sin. All unworthy though I be. I shall not forget you in His holy presence. Once does not forget what one loves.
To Mother Louise- Henriette de Soudeilles at Mouslins
September 15, 1686
It gives me great pleasure, dearest Mother, to be able to make this little sacrifice for you and send, with the consent of our most honored Mother, the book with the Retreat of Reverend Father La Colombieré and the two pictures of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ someone gave us as a present. I assure you, my dear Mother, that I must love you very much and be very much impressed by your goodness, to be able to act thus with you. But I cannot help doing so, thinking as I so that this divine Heart wishes to be absolute Master of yours, in order that you may have it honored, loved and glorified in your community. I trust He intends by this means to pour with greater abundance His graces, and the blessings of love and union, into your hearts , and sanctification into your souls. For He is the inexhaustible source of every good, which wants to diffuse and communicate itself, especially to faithful souls like those in your community. Moreover, I assure you that I am convinced that persons consecrated to this Sacred Heart will never perish. Neither will they fall under Satan´s dominion by mortal sin if, after having given themselves completely to the Sacred Heart, they strive to honor, love and glorify Him as much as they can, by conforming themselves completely to His holy maxims in everything. You would not believe the good results it produces in souls who have the happiness of knowing Him through the medium of this holy man (Father de la Colombière). He himself was completely dedicated to Him and lived only to make Him loved, honored and glorified. I think it is indeed which brought him to such high perfection in so short a time. O my dear Mother! How happy you make me by wanting to render special homage to this loving Heart. It has loved men so much that It utterly spend Itself on the tree of the Cross to prove Its love, and continues to so in the Blessed Sacrament. But your Charity knows all this better than I. I confess sincerely that I am very much wanting in humility to speak to you this way. I am really such a wicked and poor sinner, a mere composite of every kind of misery, capable only of drawing down the wrath of God and of stopping the flow of His Mercy. See, then , how much I am in need of the help of your holy prayers with this adorable Heart. He is my only hope. Do not refuse them to me, I earnestly beg, and I assure you that I shall not forget you when in His presence. If you wish our union and friendship in Him to continue, do not think of sending me any money for the book or the pictures. It is great enough reward to know that you want to love and belong completely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.
In short, Jesus, His love, and His cross are all my happiness in this life. I feel so great a desire that my life remain buried in eternal oblivion that I earnestly begged our dear Mother not to have to write any more to anyone except now and then to Your Charity. I must tell you something that causes me great joy: our community has devoutly determined to place itself in a special manner under the protection of the Adorable Heart of Jesus. A chapel dedicated to its honor is being built. You would not believe how great devotion. Those who delight in honoring the Sacred Heart choose the first Friday of the month to show him some special honor, each one according to her own devotion. I think, my dear Mother, and I cannot help telling you, that those communities which render Him some special homage will enjoy special protection, love and fraternal charity. I must say I feel ashamed to tell you my thoughts so simply. You must give credence only to what Our Lord inspires you to.
In closing I pray that all of us may belong completely to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live only with His love, act and suffer only according to His holy designs, letting Him act in us and do with us as He chooses. I hope you may be completely consumed in His love. I cannot help thinking that the longing I felt to send you this picture of the Sacred Heart came from His desire to establish His kingdom in your community and His reign of love in our hearts. The hearts, my dear Mother, which are in the crown of thorns which encircles this loving Heart are the ones that love it and follow it in suffering. Those in the crown o love-knots ( Lacs d´amour) are the ones that love It with a joyous love.
To Sister Fèlice –Madeline de la Barge, at Moulins Short Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ
I.N.N., give and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ my person and my life, my actions, trials and sufferings, so that I ay no longer wish to make use of any part of my being except to honor, love, and glorify Him. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Him and to do everything for His love, and I renounce with all my heart anything that can be displeasing to Him. I take Thee, then, O sacred Heart, as the sole object of my love, the protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy of my infirmities, the reparation for all the sins of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of my death. Be, then, O Hear of Goodness, my justification with God the Father, and turn aside the blows of His just wrath. O Heart of Love, I place all my confidence in Thee. I fear everything from my malice but hope everything that can displease or resist Thee. May Thy pure love impress Thee so deeply in my heart that I can never forget Thee, nor never be separated from Thee. I conjure Thee by Thy boundless goodness to write my name in Thy Sacred Heart, for I wish to live and die as Thy slave. Amen.
1686
You could find no surer bond, beloved Sister, to draw me into a more intimate union with Your Charity than to love the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not doubt that the sacrifice which you want to make yourself to Him so that you may be wholly His, to do and suffer everything for His love, so that you may be able to live completely unto Him according to His desires- I do not doubt , I say, that this sacrifice is very pleasing to Him. It is a life of sacrifice, of abandonment , and of love. Of sacrifice of all is most dear to you and of what will cost you the most. Of complete abandonment of yourself to His loving care, taking Him as your guide on the way of salvation. You will do nothing unless you ask Him for the help of His grace. And this I am sure He will give you to the measure in which you trust Him. Moreover, we must live the life of love. By our humble submission and complete self-effacement it will unite us with Him and make us altogether like Him in His life of sacrifice, abandonment, and love in the Blessed Sacrament. Love keeps Him there as a victim completely and perpetually our salvation. Unite yourself with Him, then, in all that you do. Refer everything to His glory. Set up your abode in this loving Heart of Jesus and you will there find all the good desires He inspires in you, and to avoid every deliberate fault. Place un this Heart all your sufferings and difficulties. Everything that comes from the Sacred Heart is sweet. He changes everything into love.
Let us love Him, then dear Sister, with all our might and strength. Let us belong to Him without reserve, because He wants all or nothing. And after we have once given Him everything, let us take nothing back. He will be sure to sanctify us in proportion as we are careful to glorify Him. It is for love of Him, beloved Sister, that I bed you to pardon this proud and wicked sinner the liberty your humility has asked her to take, in your letter to our dear Sister Cordier. That is why I have said quite frankly what I think. I have said it simply, too, asking this adorable Heart of Jesus to consume you in His pure love and to grant you my complete conversion. I beg you with all my heart to ask this of him.
To sister (Francoise- Lucrèce ) de Thélis, at Lyond
September, 1687
I beg the adorable Heart of Jesus, mot honored Sister, to make you fell the powerful effects of His merciful charity, and to give you Himself what you are seeking and cannot find in me, the most wicked and unworthy sinner imaginable. That is why, I did not answer you, and why I would not answer anyone else if obedience, an inviolable law with me, did not order me to tell you simply what I think. This I am going to do quite plainly, since you wish it.
In all that Your Charity tells us I find that the best and most important sign is the strong importunity of grace you fell even in spite of so many relapses. This shows God’s burning desire to save your soul. But He will not save us without cooperation. So we must not be presumptuous. For if we think we can go on resisting grace, it will at length tire of pursuing us and leave us so imperceptibly that we will not even be aware of our loss. That is why if today you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your heart. Try to profit by this retreat which you are going to make for this purpose by a strong and efficacious determination to conquer yourself by doing continual violence to yourself, whether it be by detachment or by removing the other stumbling-blocks you well know to be in your path. There must be no more deliberate faults if you wish to enter again into the good graces of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise you will seek him in vain, for He will treat us even as we have treated His grace. May His goodness preserve us from this unspeakably great evil! For what goof can a soul possess that has lost its God?
I have no doubt that it was by the spirit of God that this virtuous priest dealt with you as he did, for I consider him as holy man. There is no use, of course, in calling a physician if we do not want to be cured or use the remedies he prescribes or of we are not willing to abstain from the things that make us sick. Since a disease once known is already half cured, all one needs is a firm “ I will” and everything will be all right. After all, there is question here of the salvation of your soul , so very dear to Our Lord Jesus Christ. I can assure you that there is nothing I would not be willing to do and suffer for it, sin apart, in order to make it wholly devoted to Him Who created it for His glory. No one, however, can work more efficaciously for this end than you yourself. This you will do by following the lights He gives you to do good and avoid evil. Do not, then , I urge you by the love of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, resist grace any longer.
When I spoke to you of devotion to this Heart I meant rather the devotion of perfect conformity with His perfect virtues, and not prayers only. As for your Communions, they must produce in you such good effects that you will no longer commit deliberate sins. If they do not, you must follow in this matter the advise given you. With regard to your being afraid, I think Our Lord will be pleased with you if you go to Him with the dispositions of the prodigal son, not letting fear destroy your confidence. It is not said, however, that this boy, once returned to his father, left him a second time! But forgive me! What will you say of the liberty your humility is causing my pride to take? I beg you not to be angry. I can add nothing more now, except to say that you will have a big share in my unworthy and feeble prayers. But because I am so wicked, my prayers will be useless for you.
These the are my thoughts simply presented. You do not have to agree with them, much less follow them. Follow them only in so far as Our Lord inspires you to do so. With all my heart I beg Him to make you ever faithful in doing the good He asks of you and in offering Him the sacrifice of everything of everything that costs you the most, as He shall make it known to you. There is no middle way, He wants everything or nothing. If only you knew the graces you are doing to receive from Him you would not refuse Him what He asks of you. For your whole peace of soul and all your happiness consists simply in this.
O, my dear sister, if only we could appreciate the great wrong we do our poor soul in depriving it of so many graces and by exposing it to such evident peril by our frequent voluntary faults! These make it lose the friendship of its God. He cannot hear it , nor even those who pray for it, as long as it itself refuses to listen to Him and to be completely converted to Him. He closes to it the entrance to His Sacred Heart because it casts Him out of its own heart. Let us make good use of the time He gives us, Let us delay no longer, And yet we ought not to worry, for all our worrying serves only to increase the difficulty. The spirit of God does everything peacefully. Let us have recourse to Him with love and confidence. He will receive us mercifully and with open arms. But after that let us try not to leave Him any more, for so many voluntary relapses are very dangerous, especially to the soul of a religious.
To Her Brother, the Major
End of June,1689
Would that time permitted me, beloved brother, to express my sentiments in your regard. You would see that the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ gives you these holy inspirations only because of the ardent love He bears you, which makes Him want to possess your heart unreservedly and completely. See to it that He can, in so far as your calling permits it. He asks no more. But although you are unable to carry out all these good desires. He is going to reward you just as though you had put them all unto effect. O, how this divine Heart loves you, my dear brother! And how far removed He is from what you say! I think He wants me to assure you that. You must never lose confidence in His goodness until you have exhausted His mercy. He is surrounding you with it on every side. What should you feat, then except the loss of this confidence in Him, which constrains and follows Him even to the throne of His omnipotence, and gets it bow down and help our weakness?
You would not believe what consolation you give me by having celebrated so well the feast of this adorable Heart. It is marvelous how people everywhere are celebrating it. Truly , dear Brother, it seems to me that this feast of the Sacred Heart is a day of salvation and eternal blessings for all those who honor It with a sincere and humble heart. So let us love this divine Heart, and try to conform ours to It in everything.
Ah, dear brothers, what returns shall we make to the Lord for the great blessings He gives us! It is not His fault that you are not a saint and that our family is not holy. I dare to say He wishes it, and we should spare no efforts on our part to second His designs. That is why He has revealed to us the devotion to His Sacred Heart. It contains treasures beyond comprehension which He wishes to communicate to all well-disposed hearts. For this is a last effort of the Savior to draw sinners to repentance and to give them abundantly efficacious and sanctifying graces to work out their salvation. By this means many will be saved from eternal damnation. Woe to those who do not want to profit by it! Let us contribute to that as much as be established in all hearts. Let us contribute to that as much as we can. Let us spare neither our goods nor our energies.
To Mother de Saumaise, at Dijon
December 22, 1689
With regard to what you say about my speaking frankly to you, I think the lovable Heart of Jesus would not permit me to do otherwise. Yet just at present He has quite annihilated and silenced everything within me, so that He permits me to see and know only in order that I may love and adore Him. I am reduced to nothingness and lost in Him. That is all I can say as to the condition in which HE has now placed me.
Do no let up, dear Mother, in your work. I am confident He will make it succeed for His glory in His own good time. For thins that pertain directly to God’s glory are much different from the things of this world. In these latter one must work hard. But in the things of God, one must be content to follow His inspirations, then let grace work and follow it will all one´s strength, as I see you are doing. The devotion to the Sacred Heart must not be forced. He wants to insinuate Himself into hearts gently and sweetly through charity, like oil, or, rather, like a precious balm, whose perfume and unction spread gently. Let us not worry if we do not see our desires for the glory of his divine Heart accomplished at once. He permits delay only because of the pleasure He takes in seeing our eagerness and longing for that increase. Also so that the fervor which comes from this holy devotion may last longer, by His granting us little by little the things we desire. Non the less, He urges me constantly to make Him known and loved. I offer myself to Him for this, so that He may sacrifice and immolate me as His victim for the accomplishment of all His designs according as His love and good pleasure dictate.
Ah my dear Mother, why are we not aflame with the divine fire He came to cast upon the earth? Yes , we must be consumed with it. I want to make a practice of loving Him and of being consumed in these holy flames. Let us love this Sacred Heat which will be the altar on which we offer our sacrifices. Oh, how powerful is this Heart to appease the wrath of God aroused against us by our many sins! They have drawn down upon as all these calamities that afflict us. We must pray let still worse things befall us. Prayer in common has great power with this Sacred Heart, which will turn aside the rigors of divine justice and place itself between God´s wrath and sinners and obtain mercy for them.
To Sister Jeanne- Madeline Joly, at Dijon
April 10, 1690
You would not believe, dear Sister, how delighted the adorable Heart of our good Master makes me with the zeal you show in making Him known and loved, and at the pains you take in doing so. He will never forget it , I am sure , but will Himself be your eternal reward. Eventually this divine Heart shall reign in spite of all those who oppose Him. Satan and all his followers will be confounded. Fortunate shall they be whom He uses to establish His empire! It seems to me He is like a king who does not think of giving rewards while he is making his conquests and overcoming his enemies, but only then indeed when he has come to reign victoriously on his throne. The adorable Heart of Jesus wishes to establish His reign of love in the hearts of all, to destroy and bring to ruin the kingdom of Satan. It seems to me He has so great a desire of doing this that He promises great rewards to men of good will who work for it with all their heart according to the strength and lights He gives them. Do not be afraid, then, of the difficulties and sufferings you will have to put up with in this holy undertaking. Rather we ought to think ourselves fortunate that He considers us worthy to work for so noble a cause. Yes, I say we ought to be willing to bear every kind of trial, contradiction, calumny, and suffering. The more of these I find the more encouraged I feel and the greater is my hope that this enterprise will succeed for the glory of this lovable Heart and the salvation of many souls. But this is the kind of devotion that cannot be forced or imposed on anyone. It is enough to make it known and then leave to this divine Heart the work of entering the souls He has prepared by His grace. Fortunate indeed are these.
We must love this divine Heart, beloved Sister, in such a way that we no longer live except for Him and through Him. I always say I do not want to write any more, but I cannot help doing so when there is question of speaking of the Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. I must confess that, outside of this, everything torture. But in this divine Heart everything, even the bitterest suffering, is changed into love. Let is make there our real and continual dwelling. If only we abandon ourselves entirely to Him, nothing will trouble us any more. Let us not interfere with His acting in us and for us just as He wishes.
Ask of Him for me that He hide me so carefully in His heart that I remain forever forgotten and despised. Every torture, even death itself, will be a pleasure to me if only He may reign. I find no consolation in this life except in the progress and happy success of this devotion to the Sacred Heart, and in hearing news of it.
Visitation Monastery of Paray Le Monial and The Sacred Heart of Jesus
PARAY
LE MONIAL
and The
Sacred Heart
of Jesus
Place of the Apparitions Of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary
Paray le
Monial is a
small town
in the
Bourgogne
region of
eastern
France. It
is the place
where the
Sacred Heart
of Jesus
appeared to
St. Margaret
Mary of
Alacoque.
The
apparitions
and
subsequent
devotion to
the Sacred
Heart took
place in the
late 17th
century. St.
Margaret
Mary’s
spiritual
director was
St. Claude
de la
Colombiere.
Both
consecrated
themselves
to the
Sacred Heart
and promoted
the devotion
with much
suffering.
This
devotion was
strongly
opposed in
and out of
the Church
and
suppressed
in many
places. In
1856, Pope
Pius IX
proclaimed
the Feast of
the Sacred
Heart for
the entire
Church and
exhorted the
faithful to
consecrate
themselves
to the
Sacred Heart
(1875). St.
Margaret
Mary was
canonized on
May 13th,
1920.
The
Apparitions
Since childhood St. Margaret was formed by the Blessed Virgin. When she was ill she did many corporal penances with great charity. In 1671, she entered the Visitation Convent. One day while she was before the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus allowed her “to rest for a long time on His Divine Heart,” revealing to her “the marvels of His love and the unexplainable secrets of His Sacred Heart” ( Dec. 17th, 1673, Feast of St. John the Apostle).
Jesus said: “My Divine Heart is so passionate of love for humanity and in particularly for you that it is not able to contain itself in the flames of this ardent love. It’s necessary for you to be enriched with His precious treasures . .I have chosen you. . “ And taking her heart, He placed it in His “like a small particle consumed in the burning furnace.”
Since that day the Sacred Heart appeared to her regularly, especially on First Fridays.
Jesus said: “Here is the Heart which has so deeply loved men, it has spared nothing even exhausted and consumed itself to show them my love and in return all I receive from the majority of them is ingratitude.”
First Fridays
Jesus: “ I promise you in the excessive of the mercy of My Heart, that His omnipotent love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the first nine Fridays of consecutive months, the grace of final penance.” (Benedict XV at her canonization)
“Sadly, we can say, Devotion to the Sacred Heart has diminished in some people; from now on, may it flourish more each day, may it be regarded by all as an authentic , excellent and secure devotion which our times demand according to the Second Vatican norms.” (Pope Paul VI).
The Chapel of the Visitation
The Chapel is located in the Monastery of the Visitation - Rue de la Visitation 71600. This is the actual place where the apparitions of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary took place in 1673. Here are housed relics of the Saint.
In the Area
The Sacre Coeur Basilica (Sacred Heart) was built by the Cluny monks in the 11th century. Today it is a very active center for pilgrimages and great religious celebrations. As well, the Chapel of la Colombière is close by. Here are housed relics of St. Claude de la Colombière, confessor of St. Margaret, who along with her ardently spread the devotion to the Sacred Heart. He was canonized on May of 1992.
Today is the Feast of St. Margaret Mary, Apostle of the Sacred Heart
Introduction
"I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of
Jesus. "My love
reigns in suffering, it triumphs in humility and enjoys itself
in unity."
- Words of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary
Saint Margaret Mary was born on July 25th, 1647, at
Janots, a small town in Burgundy. She was the fifth of seven
children of a prosperous notary.
At the age of four, Margaret made a promise to the Lord. She felt inspired to compose this prayer: “Oh my Lord, I consecrate to you my purity and I make a vow of perpetual chastity.” Although she herself later confessed that she did not quite understand the meaning of the words: “vow” or “chastity.”
Her father died of pneumonia when she was eight years old, and she was sent to school with the Urbanist nuns at Charolles. She loved the peace and order of the convent life, and the nuns were so impressed by her devotion, that she was allowed to make her First Communion at the age of nine. Two years later, a rheumatic affliction kept her bedridden until she reached the age of fifteen. During this time she was brought home, where some of her father’s relatives had moved in and taken over the direction of the farm and household.
Daughter of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Being seriously ill upon her return, Margaret sought refuge in the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. She made her a vow that if she would heal her, she would become one of her daughters. Immediately after making this promise, she recuperated her health. Saint Margaret recalled: “As soon as I made this vow I was cured, with a new protection from the most Blessed Virgin, who now became so completely the mistress of my heart that She looked upon me as belonging to her and governed me as being dedicated to her, reproving me for my faults, and teaching me to do the will of my God.”
Aside from obtaining her health, this vow accomplished in Margaret a deep sense of union with the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, her road to sanctity was not free of detours. “On recovering my health,” she later confessed, “I thought only of seeking pleasure in the enjoyment of my liberty, without concerning myself much about the fulfillment of my promise. I gave myself up to vanity and the affection of creatures, flattering myself that the tenderness which my mother and brothers had for me would allow me to amuse and enjoy myself as much as I liked...”
The Blessed Mother reprimanded her when she saw her almost yielding to the terrible struggle that she felt within herself. On one occasion, while seated and reciting the Holy Rosary, Our Lady appeared to her and gave her the following reprimand, which she never forgot: “I am surprised, my daughter,” she said, “that you serve me so negligently!” These words left such an impression on her soul that they served her as warning for her whole life.
But our Blessed Virgin is also tender and consoling. One day, she told Margaret: "Do not fear anything; you will be my true daughter, and I will always be your good mother.”
Saint Margaret made another vow to Our Lady: to fast every Saturday and to recite her Office of the Immaculate Conception. Seeing her ardent desire of total consecration, the Blessed Mother helped her reach her goal.
The Most Blessed Sacrament
The situation in Margaret’s household was quite difficult. Her father’s relatives ignored her mother and her and treated them almost like servants. After Margaret’s recovery, her relatives tried to regulate all her comings and goings. Everything was under lock and key, and there was nothing she and her mother could do without their permission.
Under these circumstances, Margaret began to direct all her affections towards the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, where she sought delight and consolation. However, she was not able to do this freely and without difficulties, for she was not allowed to attend church as often as she pleased. At times, she would receive permission from one of her relatives and later be confronted by another who denied it.
If this situation made her suffer, even greater was the grief she felt seeing the condition of her mother. She suffered from erysipelas (a bacterial infection) on her face which made it swell excessively. Margaret felt her mother would die at any moment. She begged her relatives to help her mother, and they contented themselves with having her bled once by a village surgeon who passed by the house. He expressed to all the family members that Margaret’s mother would not recover without a miracle, but still no one showed the least trouble or concern. Margaret again took refuge in the Holy Virgin and her Sovereign Master, to whom alone she could confide. On the feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord she went to Mass and asked Him to be Himself the physician and remedy of her poor mother, and to teach Margaret what she must do for her.
On her return home she found the swelling had burst, leaving an open wound on the cheek about the size of the palm of the hand which emitted so unbearable an odor that no one could approach her. She did not know how to dress a wound, and until then had never been able to look at or touch one. Fighting her natural repugnance, Margaret would remove each day a quantity of putrid flesh, but she felt courage and confidence in the Lord. In a few days, contrary to all expectations, the wound was healed. Throughout the time of her mother’s illness, Margaret ate and slept very little, but she had perfect conformity with God’s most Holy will and would say to Him: “O my Sovereign Master! This would not have happened if Thou hadst not willed it so, but I return Thee thanks for having permitted it, that thereby I may be made more like unto Thee.”
In the midst of all this, she felt strongly drawn to mental prayer and to the Most Blessed Sacrament. She would express that she knew not how to pray, and the Lord Himself became her teacher. He made her prostrate herself humbly before Him to ask His pardon for everything by which she had offended Him, and, after an act of adoration, she would offer Him her prayer. He presented to her a mystery in which He wanted her to consider Him. Her heart was consumed in the desire of loving Him, which gave her an insatiable longing for Holy Communion and for suffering.
When her mother and other relatives started to talk about marriage, the young Margaret feared going against the vow she had made. She felt a lot of pressure and there were many who sought her in marriage. Her mother, incessantly weeping, told her that her only hope that would put an end to her misery was by marrying her as soon as possible, adding that this would be a great consolation to her. Furthermore, the devil took advantage of the tender affection which she had for her mother, unceasingly representing to her the tears that she shed, suggesting that she would die of grief if she became a nun. On the other hand, the desire to be a nun and the extreme horror which she had of anything against purity haunted her without ceasing.
Finally, the tender love for her mother began to get the upper hand, and she thought that, as she was but a child when she made her vow and did not understand the meaning she thus could easily obtain dispensation from it. She therefore began to frequent society and to adorn herself in order to please others, trying to enjoy herself as much as she could. But during the time she spent in the midst of company and amusement, the Lord continually knocked at the door of her heart. He made her understand that it would be hard to resist the power of His love. She wrote in her diary: "He aimed such burning darts at my heart that they pierced and consumed it on all sides; and the pain I felt in consequence rendered me quite speechless. I felt myself bound, as it were, with cords and dragged with such force that I was at last constrained to follow Him Who called me.”
On one occasion Jesus said to her: “I have chosen thee to be My spouse, and we pledged each other fidelity when thou didst make thy vow of chastity. It was I who urged thee to make it, before the world had any share in thy heart, because I wished to have it quite pure... And then I confided thee to the care of my Holy Mother, that she might fashion thee according to My designs.”
Finally, the Lord Jesus appeared to her all disfigured, as He appeared after the scourging, and said to her: “Wouldst thou take this pleasure, whereas I never had any and delivered Myself up to every kind of bitterness for love of thee and to win thy heart? Nevertheless, thou wouldst still dispute it with Me.” She understood that her vanity had reduced Him to this condition, and that she was wasting precious time, of which He would demand a rigorous account from her at the hour of her death. Along with this extraordinary grace, her desire for religious life was rekindled in her heart with such intensity, that she resolved to embrace it at any cost.
Her entrance into the Visitation Monastery
Seeing her so resolute, her relatives sent her to one of her uncles whose daughter was a religious from the order of the Ursulines. But Margaret did not feel drawn to enter this community. The more she was pressed to enter, so much the greater was her aversion to do so, and she felt an inner voice say to her: “It is not there that I would have thee, but in the Holy Virgin Mary.” Once, while looking at a picture of St. Francis de Sales, it seemed to her that he called her ‘his daughter,’ and cast upon her a look so full of paternal love that she no longer regarded him otherwise than as ‘her good father.’ She felt she must belong to the order which this great saint had founded: the Visitation. She also felt her desire to enter there increase, owing to the sweet name of ‘Holy Mary’ which made her feel that she should find therein what she was seeking.
After many difficulties and trying to convince her family of wanting to enter the Visitation, she was finally drawn to Paray and as soon as she entered the parlour, she heard interiorly these words: “It is here that I would have thee to be.” Her brother gave Margaret the dowry and she was able to enter the convent on the 12th of June, 1671.
After two months as a postulant, she received the habit on the 25th of August, 1671. She expressed what she felt at the time: “My Divine Master gave me to understand that now was the time of our espousal by which He acquired a new right over me, and that I was now doubly bound to love Him with a love of preference. He gave me further to understand that, after the manner of the most passionate of lovers, He would, during that time, allow me to taste all that was sweetest and most delightful in the tokens of His love, which were indeed so excessive, that I was often quite overcome and thereby incapable of acting.”
The young novice was humble, obedient, simple and honest. One of her novitiate companions testified that she edified the entire community “due to her charity towards all the sisters, to whom she never said a word that might offend them, and because of the patience with which she bore all kinds of reprimands and humiliations to which she was submitted frequently.” Her novitiate was indeed far from easy. For example, she found it hard to keep herself in the ordinary ways of the spiritual life. She said: “No matter how much I tried to practice what I was taught, I found it impossible to follow the method of prayer presented to me and was always constrained to return to my Divine Master, although I made every effort to forget all and turn away from Him.” This caused her a great deal of pain since her greatest desire was to be obedient to her Superior.
There was yet another situation which was an occasion of mortification. It concerned a disgust for cheese to which her whole family had so great a natural aversion that, when making arrangements for her reception into the convent, her brother requested that it should never be asked of her to eat it. As the matter was indifferent, consent was easily given, but once she had entered, everyone seemed to have forgotten about it, and Saint Margaret was obliged to eat it under the vow of obedience. At the beginning she struggled from the nausea; but she begged the Lord to assist her since she did not want to be different from the others. After great efforts and self-denial, she was able to eat cheese and offered it as a sacrifice for a period of ten years.
Another difficulty was her reception of supernatural favors from the Lord. Her superiors indicated that such was not the spirit of the daughters of Holy Mary which admitted nothing extraordinary. They saw her experiences as illusions and deceptions, and asked her to request from the Lord, as a proof of security, that He would render her useful to holy religion by the exact observance of all that was prescribed. When St. Margaret took this to prayer the Lord responded:
“Tell your Superior that I shall render thee more useful than she thinks, but in a manner known at present only to Me. Henceforth, I shall adjust my graces to the spirit of thy Rule, to the will of thy Superiors and to thy weakness; so that thou must regard as suspicious everything that might withdraw thee from the exact observance of thy Rule, which it is My will that thou shouldst prefer the will of thy Superiors to Mine, whenever they may forbid thee to do what I command thee. Suffer them to act as they please with thee; I shall know well how to find means for the accomplishment of my designs, even though they may appear to be opposed and contrary thereto. I reserve for Myself only the guidance of thy interior, and especially of thy heart, for, having established therein the empire of My pure love, I will never yield it to others.”
The Lord was not teaching her that the Divine Will is subject to human authority. What He was showing her was that obedience to her superiors is in fact the greatest means to embrace His most Holy Will. Although her superiors are just limited creatures, her obedience would make the Divine Will triumph in spite of everything. The Lord promised that if she obeyed her superiors... “I shall know well how to find means for the accomplishment of My designs. ”Her Mother Superior and her Novice Mistress were both satisfied with this promise, the effects of which were so manifest that they could no longer doubt that they were the words of the Eternal Truth. At last she attained the long desired happiness of holy profession on November 6th, 1672. The Lord kept His promise by purifying and transforming her heart, rendering it into a heart similar to His own.
The priest who celebrated at her profession said to her: “Jesus Christ will give you the light. Go forth through the path of the just, as the shining dawn!”
Saint Margaret wrote that same afternoon: “I, pitiful and miserable nothingness, protest to my God that I submit and sacrifice myself to everything He asks of me, immolating my heart for the fulfillment of His good pleasure, without reserving any interest other than His greater glory and His pure love, to which I consecrate and abandon my entire being and my every moment.”
Three weapons for the battle
Margaret received from the Lord three necessary weapons in order to wage the battle that would win her purification and transformation.
The first weapon: A delicate conscience, and a profound aversion and pain before the slightest fault
One day, on account of a fault she had committed, the Lord told her:
“Learn that I am a Holy Master and One that teaches holiness, I am pure and cannot endure the slightest stain. Therefore thou must act with simplicity of heart and with an upright and pure intention in My presence. Know that I cannot endure the least want of straightforwardness, and I shall make thee understand that, if the excess of My love has led Me to constitute Myself thy Master, in order to teach and fashion thee after My manner and according to My designs, nevertheless I cannot bear tepid and cowardly souls, and, if I am gentle in bearing with thy weakness, I shall not be less severe and exact in correcting and punishing thy infidelities.”
Margaret confessed that nothing was more painful and terrible to her than to see Him ever so slightly displeased with her. All other sufferings, corrections and mortifications were nothing to her in comparison. She went promptly to ask a penance for her faults, for she knew He was satisfied with those imposed upon her by obedience. This weapon was rooted in her great desire to love.
The second weapon: Holy Obedience
The Lord rejected her works performed through self-will and thus reprimanded her severely in her faults against obedience to her superior or to the rule. The smallest reply to superiors, manifesting repugnance to obey, is unbearable to Him in the soul of a religious. Jesus said to her:
“Thou deceivest thyself, in thinking to please Me by actions and mortifications chosen by self-will which, rather than yield, prefer to make Superiors bend their will to it. Oh! Be assured, that I reject all such things as fruits corrupted by self-will which I abhor in the soul of a religious. I would rather that she should take all her little comforts through obedience, than overburden herself with austerities and fasts through self-will.”
The third weapon: Her Holy Cross
The Cross was the greatest of all her gifts. One day, after Holy Communion, a large cross was shown her, the extremity of which she could not see, but it was all covered with flowers. The Lord said to her:
“Behold the bed of My chaste spouses on which I shall make thee taste all the delights of My pure Love. Little by little these flowers will drop off, and nothing will remain but the thorns, which are hidden because of thy weakness. Nevertheless, thou shalt feel the pricks of these thorns so keenly that thou wilt need all the strength of My love to bear the pain.”
In this intense and purifying way the Lord would accomplish His designs in the heart of Margaret. In order to detach her from the affection towards the things of this earth, and even from herself, he allowed her to experience continuous humiliations and neglect. Nonetheless, He would grant her all the graces necessary to endure these trials.
On a particular occasion, the Lord told her: “You must love as if you were not inclined to love, having as your only wish the desire to please me. Do not look for joy outside of Me, for in doing so you would deny my omnipotence and would offend me greatly, since I desire to be everything for you.”
The day after her profession, Margaret Mary was given an “obedience”. She was assigned as nurse’s aide to Sister Catherine August Marest, an excellent religious, but with an active, officious, and fiery temperament. Margaret Mary, on the contrary, was calm, composed, a little slow in her movements. Later, when Margaret wrote about her assignment in the infirmary, she said: “God alone can know how much I had to suffer there!!” She did not exaggerate, for she certainly received a great deal of insults and humiliations.
Jesus made her participate in His terrible anguish of the Garden of Olives, and desired for her to be an immolated victim. She told Him: “I want nothing but your Love and your Cross, and that is all I need in order to be a good religious, which is my desire.”
Revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
First Revelation
On December 27th, feast of St. John the Apostle, Margaret Mary was only 26 years old and had only fourteen months of profession. She was kneeling as usual before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the chapel. It was the moment chosen by God for a great revelation. She told us how it happened:
“I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, when I felt myself wholly penetrated with that Divine Presence, but to such a degree that I lost all thought of myself and of the place where I was. He made me repose for a long time upon His Sacred Breast, where He disclosed to me the marvels of His love and the inexplicable secrets of His Sacred Heart.”
Jesus told her:
“My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for thee in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning charity, It needs to spread them abroad by thy means, and manifest itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious treasures which I discover to thee, and with contain graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition. I have chosen thee as an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance for the accomplishment of this great design, in order that every thing may be done by Me.”
“After this,” she continued, “He asked me for my heart, which I begged Him to take. He did so and placed it in His Adorable Heart where He showed it to me as a little atom which was being consumed in this great furnace, and withdrawing it thence as a burning flame in the form of a heart, He restored it to the place whence He had taken it saying to me: See, my well beloved, I give thee a precious token of my love, having enclosed within thy side a little spark of its glowing flames, that it may serve thee for a heart and consume thee to the last moment of thy life; its ardor will never be exhausted, and thou will be able to find some slight relief only by bleeding. As a proof that the great favor I have done thee is not imagination, although I have closed the wound in thy side, the pain will always remain. If hitherto, thou hast taken only the name of My slave, I now give thee that of the beloved disciple of My Sacred Heart.”
After this great favor, Margaret remained for many days on fire and inebriated with divine love, and so completely out of herself, that she had to do herself violence in order to utter a single word. The effort she had to make in order to join in recreation or to take food was so great that it was all she could do to overcome herself. She could not explain herself to her superior, as she would have wished. She was also not able to sleep because of the pain of the wound which produced such heat that it burned and consumed her alive.
From the time of this first revelation, Margaret would suffer every first Friday of the month a renewed pain in her side, up until the time of her death. It was at these times that the Lord would manifest what he required of her and disclose to her the secrets of His loving Heart.
Jesus said to her on one occasion: “I search for a victim of My Heart, someone who would want to sacrifice herself as an immolated host for the fulfillment of my designs.” In her great humility, Margaret proposed to the Lord various souls, whom she thought would be worthy and faithfully correspond to such a grace. But the Lord answered that it was she whom He had chosen. This would disturb Margaret greatly, since she feared to be recognized personally for the graces she received from the Lord.
Second Revelation
One or two months after the first apparition, the second revelation took place. St. Margaret Mary wrote:
“The Divine Heart was presented to me in a throne of flames, more resplendent than a sun, transparent as crystal, with this adorable wound. And it was surrounded with a crown of thorns, signifying the punctures made in it by our sins, and a cross above signifying that from the first instant of His Incarnation, that is, as soon as the Sacred Heart was formed, the cross was implanted into it and from the first moment it was filled with all the sorrow to be inflicted on it by the humiliations, poverty, pain, and scorn of His sacred humanity was to endure throughout His life and during His sacred passion.”
“And He (Jesus) made me see that He intensely desired to be loved by men and to snatch them from the path of perdition onto which Satan was driving them in throngs. It was this that made Him decide to manifest His heart to men -with all the treasures of love, mercy, graces, sanctification and salvation it contained. Thus, all who wanted to render to Him and obtain for Him all the love, honor and glory in their power would be enriched with the abundance and profusion of these divine treasures of the heart of God which was their source. This heart of God must be honored under the form of His heart of flesh, whose image He wanted exposed, and also worn on me and on my heart. He promised to pour out into the hearts of all those who honor the image of His heart all the gifts it contains in fullness, and for all those who would wear this image on their persons He promised to imprint His love on their hearts and to destroy all unruly inclinations. Everywhere this holy image was exposed to be honored, He would pour fourth His graces and blessings. This blessing was, as it were, a final effort of His love. He wanted to bestow upon men during these final centuries such loving redemption in order to snatch them from the control of Satan, whom He intended to destroy. He willed to place us under the sweet freedom of His rule of love, which He wanted to re-establish in the hearts of all who were willing to embrace this devotion.”
In this second great revelation, Our Lord began to unfold His intentions and to formulate His promises. The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the symbol of His ardent love for us. This image was to be exhibited in homes or worn on the breast, especially in the form of a medal, offering promises of graces and blessing to all who would venerate it. But for the moment, Margaret could not reveal anything of what she had seen, because the time had not come to do so. These revelations would first have to endure trial and suffer great opposition. And there was a lot more that Jesus desired to reveal.
Third revelation
Although this apparition has not been dated with certainty, we have good reason to think it took place in the beginning of June, 1674, most probably on Friday within the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, for Margaret Mary had said that “the Blessed Sacrament was exposed.”
“Once, among other occasions, when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, after feeling completely drawn inward by an extraordinary recollection of all my senses and powers, Jesus Christ, my gentle Master, appeared to me resplendent with glory, with his five wounds shining like five suns, and flames issuing from every part of His sacred humanity. But above all, from His adorable breast which looked like a furnace; and uncovering his breast, He showed me His most loving and lovable heart, which was the living source of these flames.”
At that time Jesus explained to her the marvels of his pure love, and to what extent His love for mankind had gone although He received from them nothing but ingratitude. This apparition was greater than the rest. As a passionate lover, He complained about the ingratitude of His loved ones, and as a divine beggar, stretched out His hand to request our love.
He gave her the following petitions:
* You are to receive Communion as often as obedience will permit you.
* During the night of Thursday through Friday I shall make you share in that mortal sadness that I willed to feel in the Garden of Olives; sadness which will reduce you to a kind of agony more dreadful to endure than death.
* To accompany me in this humble prayer that I shall then present to my Father amid all my anguish, you will rise between eleven o’clock and midnight, and prostrate yourself for one hour with me, your face against the ground, to appease the divine anger by begging mercy for sinners, and also to lessen in some manner the anguish I experienced in my abandonment by my apostles, which forced me to reproach them for not having been able to watch one hour with me.
The most memorable part of this series of apparitions occurred when Jesus pronounced these words: “Behold this heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to the point of spending itself and being consumed to prove its love to them. And in return, I receive from most men only ingratitude because of their irreverence and sacrileges and the coldness and scorn they have for me in this Sacrament of love. But what offends me most is that hearts consecrated to me act in this way. Do thou at least console me by supplying for their ingratitude, as far as thou art able.”
After hearing these words, Margaret could only express to Jesus her impotence, and He replied: “Behold, this will supply for all that is wanting in thee.” And at the same time His Divine Heart, being opened, issued a flame so ardent that she thought she should be consumed, for she was wholly penetrated within it, and no longer being able to bear it, she asked Him to have pity on her weakness. He then responded:
“I will be thy strength, fear nothing, but be attentive to my voice and to what I shall require of thee that thou mayest be in the requisite dispositions for the accomplishment of my designs.”
The Lord then described to her exactly how the practice of devotion to His Sacred Heart would come about, along with its purpose, which is reparation. Finally, Jesus Himself warned her about the temptations with which the Devil will try to deceive her.
“In the first place thou shalt receive Me in Holy Communion as often as obedience will permit thee whatever mortification or humiliation it may cause thee, which thou must take as pledges of My love. Thou shalt, moreover, communicate on the First Friday of each month. -Every night between Thursday and Friday I will make thee share in the mortal sadness which I was pleased to feel in the Garden of Olives, and this sadness, without thy being able to understand it, shall reduce thee to a kind of agony harder to endure than death itself. And in order to bear Me company in the humble prayer that I then offered to My Father, in the midst of my anguish, thou shalt rise between eleven o’clock and midnight, and remain prostrate with Me for an hour, not only to appease the divine anger by begging mercy for sinners, but also to mitigate in some way the bitterness which I felt at that time on finding Myself abandoned by my Apostles, which obliged me to reproach them for not being able to watch one hour with me. During that hour thou shalt do what I shall teach thee. But listen, my daughter, believe not lightly and trust every spirit, for Satan is enraged and will seek to deceive thee. Therefore do nothing without the approval of those who guide thee; being thus under the authority of obedience, his efforts against thee will be in vain, for he has no power over the obedient.”
Severe trials
After the apparition, Margaret lost all consciousness and no longer knew where she was. When they came to withdraw her, seeing that she did not reply or even stand, except with great difficulty, they led her to the Mother Superior. On seeing her thus, as it were, completely beside herself, all burning and trembling on her knees before her, she mortified and humbled her to the utmost capability of her power. After she had told her, though with extreme confusion, what had taken place, she proceeded to humble her still more, and refused to allow her for the time being, anything of what she believed the Lord had asked of her, regarding all that she told her with contempt.
The fire which consumed Margaret from the inside due to the revelations caused her to endure a continuous fever. Her Mother Superior became frightened and had a very wise idea. She said to Margaret: “Why don’t you ask God to cure you? In this way we’ll know if all this comes from the Spirit of God.”
As always, Margaret obeyed. Having presented all this to the Lord, she did not fail to recover her health immediately. For the most Blessed Virgin, her good Mother, appearing to her, bestowed upon her many caresses, and after having conversed with her for a long time, she said: “Take courage, my dear daughter, in the health which I restore to thee at the will of my Divine Son, for thou hast yet a long and painful way to go upon the Cross.”
Mother de Saumaise continued to wonder. Following the most authentic spirit of the Church, she decided to consult theologians. She believed she must force her to break the profound silence she had observed up until that time, with the purpose of treating the subject with persons learned in matters of doctrine. At her superior’s command, therefore, Margaret Mary appeared before “persons of doctrine” of whom we know nothing, not even their names. She was obliged to tell these venerable personages everything that had happened to her. We readily guess she did this only with extreme timidity. God permitted, to increase His servant’s merit, that a few of those whom she consulted did not at first recognize the Spirit who guided her. They condemned her great attraction to mental prayer, called her a visionary, and forbade her to pay any attention to her inspirations. Even one of the counselors who had been invited to express an opinion had casually answered: “Give this girl some soup to eat and everything will be better.”
“They began to say that the Devil was the author of all that occurred within me, and that my soul would be lost if I did not disregard his deceits and delusions.”
Margaret suffered much, not because they would think poorly of her, but rather because of the internal conflict caused by this situation. She began to think that she was mistaken, but as much as she made every effort to resist these attractions, it was impossible for her to resist this Spirit.
The opposition grew stronger, even within the convent walls. As could be expected in a convent where silence is the rule, this animosity found expression most of the day in the form of meaningful headshakes, reproving glances, surly faces. Having a visionary in the house, according to some nuns, was like an invasion from the devil himself. It was a danger, a threat to everyone. It went so far that Margaret Mary later admitted that some of the sisters used to “throw holy water” on her, as though to exorcise Satan’s obsession from her.
Triumph
The Lord had promised Margaret that his work would triumph regardless of all obstacles. This promise began to be fulfilled when, at the beginning of the year 1675, He sent her the Jesuit priest named Claude de la Colombière. As soon as this priest spoke with Margaret, he was able to discern her sanctity and believed in her revelations. He communicated his impression of the young nun to her superior, and this was enough to reassure her, since Fr. Colombière was renowned for his own sanctity and wisdom. Mother de Saumaise commanded her daughter to open her soul to him as well as she could.
Fourth Revelation
It was after meeting Father Colombière that Margaret received the fourth and last revelation, the one relating to the creation of a feast in honor of the Sacred Heart.
It took place during the course of the octave of Corpus Christi, in the year 1675, between the thirteenth and the twentieth of June. Margaret said: “Being before the Blessed Sacrament one day of Its Octave, I received from God signal tokens of His love, and felt urged by the desire of making Him some return, and of rendering Him love for love.” He said:
At the age of four, Margaret made a promise to the Lord. She felt inspired to compose this prayer: “Oh my Lord, I consecrate to you my purity and I make a vow of perpetual chastity.” Although she herself later confessed that she did not quite understand the meaning of the words: “vow” or “chastity.”
Her father died of pneumonia when she was eight years old, and she was sent to school with the Urbanist nuns at Charolles. She loved the peace and order of the convent life, and the nuns were so impressed by her devotion, that she was allowed to make her First Communion at the age of nine. Two years later, a rheumatic affliction kept her bedridden until she reached the age of fifteen. During this time she was brought home, where some of her father’s relatives had moved in and taken over the direction of the farm and household.
Daughter of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Being seriously ill upon her return, Margaret sought refuge in the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. She made her a vow that if she would heal her, she would become one of her daughters. Immediately after making this promise, she recuperated her health. Saint Margaret recalled: “As soon as I made this vow I was cured, with a new protection from the most Blessed Virgin, who now became so completely the mistress of my heart that She looked upon me as belonging to her and governed me as being dedicated to her, reproving me for my faults, and teaching me to do the will of my God.”
Aside from obtaining her health, this vow accomplished in Margaret a deep sense of union with the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, her road to sanctity was not free of detours. “On recovering my health,” she later confessed, “I thought only of seeking pleasure in the enjoyment of my liberty, without concerning myself much about the fulfillment of my promise. I gave myself up to vanity and the affection of creatures, flattering myself that the tenderness which my mother and brothers had for me would allow me to amuse and enjoy myself as much as I liked...”
The Blessed Mother reprimanded her when she saw her almost yielding to the terrible struggle that she felt within herself. On one occasion, while seated and reciting the Holy Rosary, Our Lady appeared to her and gave her the following reprimand, which she never forgot: “I am surprised, my daughter,” she said, “that you serve me so negligently!” These words left such an impression on her soul that they served her as warning for her whole life.
But our Blessed Virgin is also tender and consoling. One day, she told Margaret: "Do not fear anything; you will be my true daughter, and I will always be your good mother.”
Saint Margaret made another vow to Our Lady: to fast every Saturday and to recite her Office of the Immaculate Conception. Seeing her ardent desire of total consecration, the Blessed Mother helped her reach her goal.
The Most Blessed Sacrament
The situation in Margaret’s household was quite difficult. Her father’s relatives ignored her mother and her and treated them almost like servants. After Margaret’s recovery, her relatives tried to regulate all her comings and goings. Everything was under lock and key, and there was nothing she and her mother could do without their permission.
Under these circumstances, Margaret began to direct all her affections towards the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, where she sought delight and consolation. However, she was not able to do this freely and without difficulties, for she was not allowed to attend church as often as she pleased. At times, she would receive permission from one of her relatives and later be confronted by another who denied it.
If this situation made her suffer, even greater was the grief she felt seeing the condition of her mother. She suffered from erysipelas (a bacterial infection) on her face which made it swell excessively. Margaret felt her mother would die at any moment. She begged her relatives to help her mother, and they contented themselves with having her bled once by a village surgeon who passed by the house. He expressed to all the family members that Margaret’s mother would not recover without a miracle, but still no one showed the least trouble or concern. Margaret again took refuge in the Holy Virgin and her Sovereign Master, to whom alone she could confide. On the feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord she went to Mass and asked Him to be Himself the physician and remedy of her poor mother, and to teach Margaret what she must do for her.
On her return home she found the swelling had burst, leaving an open wound on the cheek about the size of the palm of the hand which emitted so unbearable an odor that no one could approach her. She did not know how to dress a wound, and until then had never been able to look at or touch one. Fighting her natural repugnance, Margaret would remove each day a quantity of putrid flesh, but she felt courage and confidence in the Lord. In a few days, contrary to all expectations, the wound was healed. Throughout the time of her mother’s illness, Margaret ate and slept very little, but she had perfect conformity with God’s most Holy will and would say to Him: “O my Sovereign Master! This would not have happened if Thou hadst not willed it so, but I return Thee thanks for having permitted it, that thereby I may be made more like unto Thee.”
In the midst of all this, she felt strongly drawn to mental prayer and to the Most Blessed Sacrament. She would express that she knew not how to pray, and the Lord Himself became her teacher. He made her prostrate herself humbly before Him to ask His pardon for everything by which she had offended Him, and, after an act of adoration, she would offer Him her prayer. He presented to her a mystery in which He wanted her to consider Him. Her heart was consumed in the desire of loving Him, which gave her an insatiable longing for Holy Communion and for suffering.
When her mother and other relatives started to talk about marriage, the young Margaret feared going against the vow she had made. She felt a lot of pressure and there were many who sought her in marriage. Her mother, incessantly weeping, told her that her only hope that would put an end to her misery was by marrying her as soon as possible, adding that this would be a great consolation to her. Furthermore, the devil took advantage of the tender affection which she had for her mother, unceasingly representing to her the tears that she shed, suggesting that she would die of grief if she became a nun. On the other hand, the desire to be a nun and the extreme horror which she had of anything against purity haunted her without ceasing.
Finally, the tender love for her mother began to get the upper hand, and she thought that, as she was but a child when she made her vow and did not understand the meaning she thus could easily obtain dispensation from it. She therefore began to frequent society and to adorn herself in order to please others, trying to enjoy herself as much as she could. But during the time she spent in the midst of company and amusement, the Lord continually knocked at the door of her heart. He made her understand that it would be hard to resist the power of His love. She wrote in her diary: "He aimed such burning darts at my heart that they pierced and consumed it on all sides; and the pain I felt in consequence rendered me quite speechless. I felt myself bound, as it were, with cords and dragged with such force that I was at last constrained to follow Him Who called me.”
On one occasion Jesus said to her: “I have chosen thee to be My spouse, and we pledged each other fidelity when thou didst make thy vow of chastity. It was I who urged thee to make it, before the world had any share in thy heart, because I wished to have it quite pure... And then I confided thee to the care of my Holy Mother, that she might fashion thee according to My designs.”
Finally, the Lord Jesus appeared to her all disfigured, as He appeared after the scourging, and said to her: “Wouldst thou take this pleasure, whereas I never had any and delivered Myself up to every kind of bitterness for love of thee and to win thy heart? Nevertheless, thou wouldst still dispute it with Me.” She understood that her vanity had reduced Him to this condition, and that she was wasting precious time, of which He would demand a rigorous account from her at the hour of her death. Along with this extraordinary grace, her desire for religious life was rekindled in her heart with such intensity, that she resolved to embrace it at any cost.
Her entrance into the Visitation Monastery
Seeing her so resolute, her relatives sent her to one of her uncles whose daughter was a religious from the order of the Ursulines. But Margaret did not feel drawn to enter this community. The more she was pressed to enter, so much the greater was her aversion to do so, and she felt an inner voice say to her: “It is not there that I would have thee, but in the Holy Virgin Mary.” Once, while looking at a picture of St. Francis de Sales, it seemed to her that he called her ‘his daughter,’ and cast upon her a look so full of paternal love that she no longer regarded him otherwise than as ‘her good father.’ She felt she must belong to the order which this great saint had founded: the Visitation. She also felt her desire to enter there increase, owing to the sweet name of ‘Holy Mary’ which made her feel that she should find therein what she was seeking.
After many difficulties and trying to convince her family of wanting to enter the Visitation, she was finally drawn to Paray and as soon as she entered the parlour, she heard interiorly these words: “It is here that I would have thee to be.” Her brother gave Margaret the dowry and she was able to enter the convent on the 12th of June, 1671.
After two months as a postulant, she received the habit on the 25th of August, 1671. She expressed what she felt at the time: “My Divine Master gave me to understand that now was the time of our espousal by which He acquired a new right over me, and that I was now doubly bound to love Him with a love of preference. He gave me further to understand that, after the manner of the most passionate of lovers, He would, during that time, allow me to taste all that was sweetest and most delightful in the tokens of His love, which were indeed so excessive, that I was often quite overcome and thereby incapable of acting.”
The young novice was humble, obedient, simple and honest. One of her novitiate companions testified that she edified the entire community “due to her charity towards all the sisters, to whom she never said a word that might offend them, and because of the patience with which she bore all kinds of reprimands and humiliations to which she was submitted frequently.” Her novitiate was indeed far from easy. For example, she found it hard to keep herself in the ordinary ways of the spiritual life. She said: “No matter how much I tried to practice what I was taught, I found it impossible to follow the method of prayer presented to me and was always constrained to return to my Divine Master, although I made every effort to forget all and turn away from Him.” This caused her a great deal of pain since her greatest desire was to be obedient to her Superior.
There was yet another situation which was an occasion of mortification. It concerned a disgust for cheese to which her whole family had so great a natural aversion that, when making arrangements for her reception into the convent, her brother requested that it should never be asked of her to eat it. As the matter was indifferent, consent was easily given, but once she had entered, everyone seemed to have forgotten about it, and Saint Margaret was obliged to eat it under the vow of obedience. At the beginning she struggled from the nausea; but she begged the Lord to assist her since she did not want to be different from the others. After great efforts and self-denial, she was able to eat cheese and offered it as a sacrifice for a period of ten years.
Another difficulty was her reception of supernatural favors from the Lord. Her superiors indicated that such was not the spirit of the daughters of Holy Mary which admitted nothing extraordinary. They saw her experiences as illusions and deceptions, and asked her to request from the Lord, as a proof of security, that He would render her useful to holy religion by the exact observance of all that was prescribed. When St. Margaret took this to prayer the Lord responded:
“Tell your Superior that I shall render thee more useful than she thinks, but in a manner known at present only to Me. Henceforth, I shall adjust my graces to the spirit of thy Rule, to the will of thy Superiors and to thy weakness; so that thou must regard as suspicious everything that might withdraw thee from the exact observance of thy Rule, which it is My will that thou shouldst prefer the will of thy Superiors to Mine, whenever they may forbid thee to do what I command thee. Suffer them to act as they please with thee; I shall know well how to find means for the accomplishment of my designs, even though they may appear to be opposed and contrary thereto. I reserve for Myself only the guidance of thy interior, and especially of thy heart, for, having established therein the empire of My pure love, I will never yield it to others.”
The Lord was not teaching her that the Divine Will is subject to human authority. What He was showing her was that obedience to her superiors is in fact the greatest means to embrace His most Holy Will. Although her superiors are just limited creatures, her obedience would make the Divine Will triumph in spite of everything. The Lord promised that if she obeyed her superiors... “I shall know well how to find means for the accomplishment of My designs. ”Her Mother Superior and her Novice Mistress were both satisfied with this promise, the effects of which were so manifest that they could no longer doubt that they were the words of the Eternal Truth. At last she attained the long desired happiness of holy profession on November 6th, 1672. The Lord kept His promise by purifying and transforming her heart, rendering it into a heart similar to His own.
The priest who celebrated at her profession said to her: “Jesus Christ will give you the light. Go forth through the path of the just, as the shining dawn!”
Saint Margaret wrote that same afternoon: “I, pitiful and miserable nothingness, protest to my God that I submit and sacrifice myself to everything He asks of me, immolating my heart for the fulfillment of His good pleasure, without reserving any interest other than His greater glory and His pure love, to which I consecrate and abandon my entire being and my every moment.”
Three weapons for the battle
Margaret received from the Lord three necessary weapons in order to wage the battle that would win her purification and transformation.
The first weapon: A delicate conscience, and a profound aversion and pain before the slightest fault
One day, on account of a fault she had committed, the Lord told her:
“Learn that I am a Holy Master and One that teaches holiness, I am pure and cannot endure the slightest stain. Therefore thou must act with simplicity of heart and with an upright and pure intention in My presence. Know that I cannot endure the least want of straightforwardness, and I shall make thee understand that, if the excess of My love has led Me to constitute Myself thy Master, in order to teach and fashion thee after My manner and according to My designs, nevertheless I cannot bear tepid and cowardly souls, and, if I am gentle in bearing with thy weakness, I shall not be less severe and exact in correcting and punishing thy infidelities.”
Margaret confessed that nothing was more painful and terrible to her than to see Him ever so slightly displeased with her. All other sufferings, corrections and mortifications were nothing to her in comparison. She went promptly to ask a penance for her faults, for she knew He was satisfied with those imposed upon her by obedience. This weapon was rooted in her great desire to love.
The second weapon: Holy Obedience
The Lord rejected her works performed through self-will and thus reprimanded her severely in her faults against obedience to her superior or to the rule. The smallest reply to superiors, manifesting repugnance to obey, is unbearable to Him in the soul of a religious. Jesus said to her:
“Thou deceivest thyself, in thinking to please Me by actions and mortifications chosen by self-will which, rather than yield, prefer to make Superiors bend their will to it. Oh! Be assured, that I reject all such things as fruits corrupted by self-will which I abhor in the soul of a religious. I would rather that she should take all her little comforts through obedience, than overburden herself with austerities and fasts through self-will.”
The third weapon: Her Holy Cross
The Cross was the greatest of all her gifts. One day, after Holy Communion, a large cross was shown her, the extremity of which she could not see, but it was all covered with flowers. The Lord said to her:
“Behold the bed of My chaste spouses on which I shall make thee taste all the delights of My pure Love. Little by little these flowers will drop off, and nothing will remain but the thorns, which are hidden because of thy weakness. Nevertheless, thou shalt feel the pricks of these thorns so keenly that thou wilt need all the strength of My love to bear the pain.”
In this intense and purifying way the Lord would accomplish His designs in the heart of Margaret. In order to detach her from the affection towards the things of this earth, and even from herself, he allowed her to experience continuous humiliations and neglect. Nonetheless, He would grant her all the graces necessary to endure these trials.
On a particular occasion, the Lord told her: “You must love as if you were not inclined to love, having as your only wish the desire to please me. Do not look for joy outside of Me, for in doing so you would deny my omnipotence and would offend me greatly, since I desire to be everything for you.”
The day after her profession, Margaret Mary was given an “obedience”. She was assigned as nurse’s aide to Sister Catherine August Marest, an excellent religious, but with an active, officious, and fiery temperament. Margaret Mary, on the contrary, was calm, composed, a little slow in her movements. Later, when Margaret wrote about her assignment in the infirmary, she said: “God alone can know how much I had to suffer there!!” She did not exaggerate, for she certainly received a great deal of insults and humiliations.
Jesus made her participate in His terrible anguish of the Garden of Olives, and desired for her to be an immolated victim. She told Him: “I want nothing but your Love and your Cross, and that is all I need in order to be a good religious, which is my desire.”
Revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
First Revelation
On December 27th, feast of St. John the Apostle, Margaret Mary was only 26 years old and had only fourteen months of profession. She was kneeling as usual before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the chapel. It was the moment chosen by God for a great revelation. She told us how it happened:
“I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, when I felt myself wholly penetrated with that Divine Presence, but to such a degree that I lost all thought of myself and of the place where I was. He made me repose for a long time upon His Sacred Breast, where He disclosed to me the marvels of His love and the inexplicable secrets of His Sacred Heart.”
Jesus told her:
“My Divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for thee in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning charity, It needs to spread them abroad by thy means, and manifest itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious treasures which I discover to thee, and with contain graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition. I have chosen thee as an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance for the accomplishment of this great design, in order that every thing may be done by Me.”
“After this,” she continued, “He asked me for my heart, which I begged Him to take. He did so and placed it in His Adorable Heart where He showed it to me as a little atom which was being consumed in this great furnace, and withdrawing it thence as a burning flame in the form of a heart, He restored it to the place whence He had taken it saying to me: See, my well beloved, I give thee a precious token of my love, having enclosed within thy side a little spark of its glowing flames, that it may serve thee for a heart and consume thee to the last moment of thy life; its ardor will never be exhausted, and thou will be able to find some slight relief only by bleeding. As a proof that the great favor I have done thee is not imagination, although I have closed the wound in thy side, the pain will always remain. If hitherto, thou hast taken only the name of My slave, I now give thee that of the beloved disciple of My Sacred Heart.”
After this great favor, Margaret remained for many days on fire and inebriated with divine love, and so completely out of herself, that she had to do herself violence in order to utter a single word. The effort she had to make in order to join in recreation or to take food was so great that it was all she could do to overcome herself. She could not explain herself to her superior, as she would have wished. She was also not able to sleep because of the pain of the wound which produced such heat that it burned and consumed her alive.
From the time of this first revelation, Margaret would suffer every first Friday of the month a renewed pain in her side, up until the time of her death. It was at these times that the Lord would manifest what he required of her and disclose to her the secrets of His loving Heart.
Jesus said to her on one occasion: “I search for a victim of My Heart, someone who would want to sacrifice herself as an immolated host for the fulfillment of my designs.” In her great humility, Margaret proposed to the Lord various souls, whom she thought would be worthy and faithfully correspond to such a grace. But the Lord answered that it was she whom He had chosen. This would disturb Margaret greatly, since she feared to be recognized personally for the graces she received from the Lord.
Second Revelation
One or two months after the first apparition, the second revelation took place. St. Margaret Mary wrote:
“The Divine Heart was presented to me in a throne of flames, more resplendent than a sun, transparent as crystal, with this adorable wound. And it was surrounded with a crown of thorns, signifying the punctures made in it by our sins, and a cross above signifying that from the first instant of His Incarnation, that is, as soon as the Sacred Heart was formed, the cross was implanted into it and from the first moment it was filled with all the sorrow to be inflicted on it by the humiliations, poverty, pain, and scorn of His sacred humanity was to endure throughout His life and during His sacred passion.”
“And He (Jesus) made me see that He intensely desired to be loved by men and to snatch them from the path of perdition onto which Satan was driving them in throngs. It was this that made Him decide to manifest His heart to men -with all the treasures of love, mercy, graces, sanctification and salvation it contained. Thus, all who wanted to render to Him and obtain for Him all the love, honor and glory in their power would be enriched with the abundance and profusion of these divine treasures of the heart of God which was their source. This heart of God must be honored under the form of His heart of flesh, whose image He wanted exposed, and also worn on me and on my heart. He promised to pour out into the hearts of all those who honor the image of His heart all the gifts it contains in fullness, and for all those who would wear this image on their persons He promised to imprint His love on their hearts and to destroy all unruly inclinations. Everywhere this holy image was exposed to be honored, He would pour fourth His graces and blessings. This blessing was, as it were, a final effort of His love. He wanted to bestow upon men during these final centuries such loving redemption in order to snatch them from the control of Satan, whom He intended to destroy. He willed to place us under the sweet freedom of His rule of love, which He wanted to re-establish in the hearts of all who were willing to embrace this devotion.”
In this second great revelation, Our Lord began to unfold His intentions and to formulate His promises. The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the symbol of His ardent love for us. This image was to be exhibited in homes or worn on the breast, especially in the form of a medal, offering promises of graces and blessing to all who would venerate it. But for the moment, Margaret could not reveal anything of what she had seen, because the time had not come to do so. These revelations would first have to endure trial and suffer great opposition. And there was a lot more that Jesus desired to reveal.
Third revelation
Although this apparition has not been dated with certainty, we have good reason to think it took place in the beginning of June, 1674, most probably on Friday within the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, for Margaret Mary had said that “the Blessed Sacrament was exposed.”
“Once, among other occasions, when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, after feeling completely drawn inward by an extraordinary recollection of all my senses and powers, Jesus Christ, my gentle Master, appeared to me resplendent with glory, with his five wounds shining like five suns, and flames issuing from every part of His sacred humanity. But above all, from His adorable breast which looked like a furnace; and uncovering his breast, He showed me His most loving and lovable heart, which was the living source of these flames.”
At that time Jesus explained to her the marvels of his pure love, and to what extent His love for mankind had gone although He received from them nothing but ingratitude. This apparition was greater than the rest. As a passionate lover, He complained about the ingratitude of His loved ones, and as a divine beggar, stretched out His hand to request our love.
He gave her the following petitions:
* You are to receive Communion as often as obedience will permit you.
* During the night of Thursday through Friday I shall make you share in that mortal sadness that I willed to feel in the Garden of Olives; sadness which will reduce you to a kind of agony more dreadful to endure than death.
* To accompany me in this humble prayer that I shall then present to my Father amid all my anguish, you will rise between eleven o’clock and midnight, and prostrate yourself for one hour with me, your face against the ground, to appease the divine anger by begging mercy for sinners, and also to lessen in some manner the anguish I experienced in my abandonment by my apostles, which forced me to reproach them for not having been able to watch one hour with me.
The most memorable part of this series of apparitions occurred when Jesus pronounced these words: “Behold this heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to the point of spending itself and being consumed to prove its love to them. And in return, I receive from most men only ingratitude because of their irreverence and sacrileges and the coldness and scorn they have for me in this Sacrament of love. But what offends me most is that hearts consecrated to me act in this way. Do thou at least console me by supplying for their ingratitude, as far as thou art able.”
After hearing these words, Margaret could only express to Jesus her impotence, and He replied: “Behold, this will supply for all that is wanting in thee.” And at the same time His Divine Heart, being opened, issued a flame so ardent that she thought she should be consumed, for she was wholly penetrated within it, and no longer being able to bear it, she asked Him to have pity on her weakness. He then responded:
“I will be thy strength, fear nothing, but be attentive to my voice and to what I shall require of thee that thou mayest be in the requisite dispositions for the accomplishment of my designs.”
The Lord then described to her exactly how the practice of devotion to His Sacred Heart would come about, along with its purpose, which is reparation. Finally, Jesus Himself warned her about the temptations with which the Devil will try to deceive her.
“In the first place thou shalt receive Me in Holy Communion as often as obedience will permit thee whatever mortification or humiliation it may cause thee, which thou must take as pledges of My love. Thou shalt, moreover, communicate on the First Friday of each month. -Every night between Thursday and Friday I will make thee share in the mortal sadness which I was pleased to feel in the Garden of Olives, and this sadness, without thy being able to understand it, shall reduce thee to a kind of agony harder to endure than death itself. And in order to bear Me company in the humble prayer that I then offered to My Father, in the midst of my anguish, thou shalt rise between eleven o’clock and midnight, and remain prostrate with Me for an hour, not only to appease the divine anger by begging mercy for sinners, but also to mitigate in some way the bitterness which I felt at that time on finding Myself abandoned by my Apostles, which obliged me to reproach them for not being able to watch one hour with me. During that hour thou shalt do what I shall teach thee. But listen, my daughter, believe not lightly and trust every spirit, for Satan is enraged and will seek to deceive thee. Therefore do nothing without the approval of those who guide thee; being thus under the authority of obedience, his efforts against thee will be in vain, for he has no power over the obedient.”
Severe trials
After the apparition, Margaret lost all consciousness and no longer knew where she was. When they came to withdraw her, seeing that she did not reply or even stand, except with great difficulty, they led her to the Mother Superior. On seeing her thus, as it were, completely beside herself, all burning and trembling on her knees before her, she mortified and humbled her to the utmost capability of her power. After she had told her, though with extreme confusion, what had taken place, she proceeded to humble her still more, and refused to allow her for the time being, anything of what she believed the Lord had asked of her, regarding all that she told her with contempt.
The fire which consumed Margaret from the inside due to the revelations caused her to endure a continuous fever. Her Mother Superior became frightened and had a very wise idea. She said to Margaret: “Why don’t you ask God to cure you? In this way we’ll know if all this comes from the Spirit of God.”
As always, Margaret obeyed. Having presented all this to the Lord, she did not fail to recover her health immediately. For the most Blessed Virgin, her good Mother, appearing to her, bestowed upon her many caresses, and after having conversed with her for a long time, she said: “Take courage, my dear daughter, in the health which I restore to thee at the will of my Divine Son, for thou hast yet a long and painful way to go upon the Cross.”
Mother de Saumaise continued to wonder. Following the most authentic spirit of the Church, she decided to consult theologians. She believed she must force her to break the profound silence she had observed up until that time, with the purpose of treating the subject with persons learned in matters of doctrine. At her superior’s command, therefore, Margaret Mary appeared before “persons of doctrine” of whom we know nothing, not even their names. She was obliged to tell these venerable personages everything that had happened to her. We readily guess she did this only with extreme timidity. God permitted, to increase His servant’s merit, that a few of those whom she consulted did not at first recognize the Spirit who guided her. They condemned her great attraction to mental prayer, called her a visionary, and forbade her to pay any attention to her inspirations. Even one of the counselors who had been invited to express an opinion had casually answered: “Give this girl some soup to eat and everything will be better.”
“They began to say that the Devil was the author of all that occurred within me, and that my soul would be lost if I did not disregard his deceits and delusions.”
Margaret suffered much, not because they would think poorly of her, but rather because of the internal conflict caused by this situation. She began to think that she was mistaken, but as much as she made every effort to resist these attractions, it was impossible for her to resist this Spirit.
The opposition grew stronger, even within the convent walls. As could be expected in a convent where silence is the rule, this animosity found expression most of the day in the form of meaningful headshakes, reproving glances, surly faces. Having a visionary in the house, according to some nuns, was like an invasion from the devil himself. It was a danger, a threat to everyone. It went so far that Margaret Mary later admitted that some of the sisters used to “throw holy water” on her, as though to exorcise Satan’s obsession from her.
Triumph
The Lord had promised Margaret that his work would triumph regardless of all obstacles. This promise began to be fulfilled when, at the beginning of the year 1675, He sent her the Jesuit priest named Claude de la Colombière. As soon as this priest spoke with Margaret, he was able to discern her sanctity and believed in her revelations. He communicated his impression of the young nun to her superior, and this was enough to reassure her, since Fr. Colombière was renowned for his own sanctity and wisdom. Mother de Saumaise commanded her daughter to open her soul to him as well as she could.
Fourth Revelation
It was after meeting Father Colombière that Margaret received the fourth and last revelation, the one relating to the creation of a feast in honor of the Sacred Heart.
It took place during the course of the octave of Corpus Christi, in the year 1675, between the thirteenth and the twentieth of June. Margaret said: “Being before the Blessed Sacrament one day of Its Octave, I received from God signal tokens of His love, and felt urged by the desire of making Him some return, and of rendering Him love for love.” He said:
“Thou canst not make Me a greater return of love than by doing what I have so often asked of thee.” Then, showing her His Divine Heart, He said: “Behold this Heart, Which has loved men so much, that It has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify to them Its love; and in return I receive from the greater number nothing but ingratitude by reason of their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt which they show Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel the most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat me thus. Therefore, I ask of thee that the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special Feast to honor my Heart, by communicating on that day and making reparation to It by a solemn act, in order to make amends for the indignities which It has received during the time It has been exposed on the altars. I promise thee that My Heart shall expand Itself to shed in abundance the influence of Its divine love upon those who shall thus honor It, and cause It to be honored.”
Father de la Colombière ordered her to commit to writing all that she had made known to him concerning the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Margaret obeyed, and her greatest desire was that the designs of Jesus would be fulfilled.
Ten years were to lapse before the Feast of the Sacred Heart was adopted even by the monastery of Paray. Throughout those ten years, conflict had persisted around the case of Margaret Mary. In 1678, Mother de Saumaise, who had come to believe her, protected and admired her, left the monastery of Paray to become superior at Moulins. But before she left, she ordered Margaret to reveal to the community all that the Lord had told her. Margaret delivered the message, stood up before the community and told them of the “punishments that divine justice” intended to inflict on that very monastery. While she knelt motionless, the sisters became furious. If she had been able to gather together all the sufferings she had experienced until then and those she had since, this would not seem comparable to what she had to endure that one night. She was dragged from one place to another, with unbelievable humiliations. This had been the culminating moment of opposition against her. Most of the nuns opposing her quickly realized that they had gone too far. The next morning, there were not enough confessors to meet the needs of all the nuns seeking absolution. During Mass on that day, Margaret Mary had the consolation of hearing the following words deep within her soul: “Finally, peace has been established and
my
holiness of justice is satisfied by the sacrifice you have
made to me!”Much against her will, Margaret was named assistant to the superior and mistress of novices. This was part of the fulfilment of the Lord’s plan, in order that Devotion to the Sacred Heart would be established. However, during her life Margaret was never able to see the full recognition of this devotion.
On the evening of October 17th, having previously announced herself that this would be the date of her death, she entrusted her soul to the Lord, the One whom she had loved wholeheartedly.
Only three years after her death, Pope Innocent XII addressed a brief to the monastery at Dijon whereby he enriched the feast of the Sacred Heart with precious indulgences, extending the privilege of celebrating it to all Visitation monasteries. In 1765, Pope Clement XIII introduced the feast at Rome. Finally, in 1856, Pope Pious IX extended the feast to the entire Church. Finally, in the year 1920, she was beatified by Pope Benedict XV.
Supernatural Interventions
The life of St. Margaret Mary was marked by supernatural experiences; but these were never a cause to escape the realities of daily life. Much on the contrary, they brought about many trials and the need to exercise heroically the virtues which make up the sanctity needed on a day to day basis.
In the year 1680, she was gravely ill. Approaching the feast of Corpus, she was allowed to receive the Bread of Life, but at the same time, was forbidden to take medicine or visit the infirmary for a period of five months. Her superior added, in writing, that under Holy obedience, she had to request her health to the Lord in order to fulfill everything that the rule demanded of her, up until the feast of the Presentation of Our Lady of that same year.
During the five months set by the Mother Superior, St. Margaret was perfectly healthy, and thus Mother Saumaise was satisfied with her accomplishment of this trial.
Another divine intervention occurred when St. Margaret was about to enter her annual retreat. At that time, she was in the infirmary with a high fever. Her Mother Superior said to her: “My daughter, I entrust you to the care of Our Lord Jesus Christ; may He guide, govern and heal you according to His will.” The Lord appeared to her, made her get up from bed and told her: “I want to return you healthy to the one that has put you under my care.” She was thus cured and appeared as though she had never been sick.
Jesus once appeared to her carrying the Cross, covered with wounds and bleeding. On that occasion He said to her: “Is there no one to take pity on Me and share my sorrow in the pitiful state to which sinners reduce Me, especially at the present time?” The saint offered herself and took on her shoulders the heavy cross, all studded with nails.
Once, as she approached the Eucharistic table, she saw the Host as a resplendent sun and the Lord who had a crown of thorns in his hands. He placed it on her head as he pronounced these words: “Receive, my daughter, this crown as a sign of the one you will soon experience by conforming yourself to Me.”
Her three ardent desires
Her greatest desires were:
-To love God and to receive Communion.
-Desire to suffer. As a consequence of her desire to love, she wanted to surrender her life, since she had nothing more to give.
-Desire to die, in order to be united to Her Love. She was nonetheless content to live until the day of judgment, if that was the will of God, although this separation was as painful as a thousand deaths.
Along with her love of God, she had the most tender charity towards her neighbors, even more so when it came to her religious sisters.
Her natural qualities
St. Margaret was quite sensible, timid, discrete and good spirited, her heart was charitable to the extreme. She had a poor formal education, but at the same time, she had a profound wisdom when it came to supernatural truths. She was just and brave in order to be faithful to the truth. She knew how to forgive from the heart. The greatest persecutions and humiliations she endured were forever buried to the point that she was able to be extremely gentle to those who had made her suffer.
She overcame her natural repugnance out of love.
Among other things, she felt an aversion to writing and attending the parlor. However, she made a vow to the Lord, promising to fulfill these tasks without manifesting her dislike, as an offering so that a young woman would receive the sacraments. The Lord allowed this and furthermore, the young woman made the religious vows before her death. Throughout her life, Margaret feared breaking this vow, due to the resistance she must offer herself.
Oblation to the Lord is more important than her actions
She must surrender herself entirely out of love, in adoration and self oblation, in conformity to the sacrifice of Jesus, whom she received in the Eucharist.
These graces gave rise to new flames of ardent zeal in the heart of Margaret, but before being an apostle through her actions, she would first be a martyr due to the numerous physical and moral pains that she endured from having offered herself as a holocaust to the Lord.
Her friends, the souls in Purgatory
She treated the souls in Purgatory as her beloved friends. Her Divine Master had donated Margaret to these souls during the year 1683. She must do whatever and suffer whatever to rescue them from the fires of Purgatory. St. Margaret participated in the sufferings endured by these souls; she would pray and practice penances in order to obtain their freedom. One day, while sitting before the Blessed Sacrament, a soul appeared to her, surrounded by flames. It was the soul of a Benedictine monk who had once confessed to her. He asked her to apply to his soul all that she should do and suffer for three months, which she promised to do with the consent of her superiors. He explained to her that the causes of his sufferings were his preference for his own interests instead of the glory of God, his strong attachment to his own reputation; secondly, his poor charity toward his brethren; and finally, for his twisted intentions in his practices of devotion and in his relations with creatures. Margaret promised to cooperate, and during three months his soul remained close to this voluntary victim, making her participate in the effects of the purifying fires of Purgatory.
The intense pain made her shed tears and groan continually. At the end of the three months, he appeared to her in a very different state; he was bathed in joy and glory, and about to be admitted into eternal bliss. He thanked her and promised to be her protector before God.
Her Death
At the end of the life of this faithful spouse of Christ there was still missing the last purification of her soul, which was done by the One who always was her Spouse of holiness and justice. In the midst of her admirable peace she suddenly felt attacked with terrible doubts about God’s judgement. Her ardent desires to die were replaced by profound terror. “Would I be saved or condemned?” This painful doubt oppressed her and broke even more her wounded hands which were pressing the crucifix against her heart; and she cried out with her voice all broken from her tears: “Be merciful Oh Lord, be merciful!” Nevertheless very soon she submerged herself in the Heart of Jesus and in doing so a profound peace invaded her heart never to leave her again.
On October 17th, 1690, St. Margaret Mary asked to receive the viaticum and after a day of intense sufferings, she died at 7:00pm. She was 43 years old and had 18 years of religious profession. The doctor on his knees beside her bed said that, since she lived only for love, love was the cause of her death.
Before she died she said: “I only have the need of God and the need of immersing myself in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Of the many promises Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to Saint Margaret Mary in favor of souls devoted to His Sacred Heart the principal ones are as follows:
1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will give peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. I will be their refuge in life and especially in death.
5. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.
9. I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.
10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
11. Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart.
12. In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)