Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
Paray le Monial, France
Paray le Monial is a beautiful, quiet town nestled in the center of France. But the power that eminates from this town is pure Holy Spirit. You can still feel the presence of our Lord Jesus. For it is here that our Lord appeared to a nun over a period of seventeen years. He brought His faithful message of Love to an unfaithful people who had grown cold. Here, He once again spoke of that tremendous Love of His to become man and suffer death, even death on the cross.
Margaret Mary was a Visitation nun from 1671 to 1690. Our Lord appeared to her many times, in the Chapel of the Visitation in Paray le Monial. Not only have these revelations from our Lord Jesus been accepted by the Church, but because of the virtuous, selfless life of this nun, she was raised to the Communion of Saints in 1920.
Over a period of seventeen years, our Lord Jesus shared this mandate with her: He desired the faithful to come to the foot of the altar. He promised that great graces would be poured out from His Sacred Heart. He told her that from the moment the Angels proclaimed His incarnation to His triumph of the Cross, His heart suffered constantly because of the sins of men, those that had been committed from the beginning of time and would be until the end of time.
His greatest wound He said, was apathy, the lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament, His Body and Blood. For that reason, He wanted a devotion to His Sacred Heart which He directed St. Margaret Mary to have instituted.
Margaret Mary Alacoque was born in Charolles, twenty miles outside of Paray le Monial on July 25, 1647. Little did her family know when she was born how powerfully the Lord would use her, one day, nor did they have any idea that she would be the instrument He would use to bring about devotion to His Sacred Heart and the nine first Fridays.
Margaret Mary was devoted to our Lord Jesus, all of her life. She spent much time under the influence of her godmother who taught her about her faith. At four and a half years old she made a vow of perpetual virginity, in front of a statue of our Lady, in her godmother's garden. Her parish church, too far to visit each day, she would spend long hours in the woods, on her knees adoring our Lord Jesus Who was present in the Blessed Sacrament in her church.
Our Lord Jesus was not easy on Margaret Mary. He did not hesitate to discipline her when the occasion would arise. Those He loves, He chastises. She was to know that with the gifts, comes the price. To whom much is given, much is required. Once, when she was a teenager, she took part in a masquerade, during a carnival. Jesus appeared to her scourged from head to toe, ropes painfully rubbing against His Hands. He told her that her vanity was the reason He suffered those wounds.
Her family was unflinchingly opposed to her joining a religious community. Therefore, she had to teach catechism secretly. Her brother ridiculed her, in public, whenever he caught her teaching. After much struggle, she finally walked through the doors of the convent of the Visitation sisters of Paray le Monial on June the 20th, 1671 to begin her life as a religious.
She took her vows a year later on November the 6, 1672. During her ten day retreat, in preparation for the ceremony, Margaret Mary was praying in the garden of the convent when our Lord Jesus appeared to her. He spoke gently, softly, revealing to her the mystery of His Passion. It was the beginning of a very intimate relationship between Margaret Mary and her Lord Jesus. He was preparing her for what He had in store for her.
On the vigil of the Feast of the Visitation, Margaret Mary was in choir with the rest of the nuns. They were singing Te Deum ("to You, God"-one of the most famous hymns in our Church-one of thanksgiving to our Lord, a solemn invocation for a blessing and a profession of faith) Margaret Mary had lost her voice and couldn't sing with them. All at once, the baby Jesus appeared in her arms; her voice returned and she sang with the rest of the Nuns, in glory of our Lord.
Jesus asked Margaret Mary to make a holy hour. One Thursday evening, as she prostrated herself on the floor from eleven to midnight, our Lord allowed her to share, with Him, His agony in the garden of Gethsemane.
In the life of every Saint, you will find the Blessed Mother. Once when Margaret Mary was seriously ill, her superior ordered her to pray to the Blessed Virgin to intercede with the Lord for a healing. Our Lady, accompanied by Angels, appeared to Margaret Mary and she was healed of her illness, immediately.
On another occasion, with other Nuns present in the convent garden, Margaret Mary had a vision of the Sacred Heart of Jesus surrounded by Seraphic Angels. The Angels made a pact with Margaret Mary at that time: they would suffer in her, she in turn would rejoice in them. To remember this, the garden was renamed Yard of the Seraphim.
With the Miracle of the Eucharist of Lanciano, the Host turned into a Human Heart. Therefore, it is only fitting that, one day, at the very moment Margaret Mary received Holy Communion from Father Claude Columbiere, the Sacred Heart of Jesus united itself forever with her own heart and that of Father Claude. Father Claude later became her spiritual director and confessor. He has been beatified and his shrine is in a church a few blocks from the church of the Visitation.
In the church of the Visitation, on the right side of the main altar there is a grill behind which Margaret Mary heard Mass and received Holy Communion. One day, deep in prayer, she went into ecstasy. Our Lord Jesus, present in the Blessed Sacrament, was exposed on the altar. He gave her the message of Love that she was to spread to the whole world. He showed her His Wounded Heart and asked her to establish a Feast in honor of His Sacred Heart.
Our Lord had appeared to her. He had issued a mandate, but He didn't make the way smooth for Margaret Mary to bring about this devotion to the Sacred Heart. She knew great pain as everyone opposed her. She had only her Lord as her consoler and strength. At last, Margaret Mary, now mistress of novices, was to see her sorrow turn into joy. To her amazement and delight, one day, upon entering the oratory, what did she see, but her novice sisters kneeling before an image of the Sacred Heart which they had placed on the altar.
She had predicted the day of her death. On the evening of October the 17th, 1690, Margaret Mary commended her soul to her Savior. Her battle fought and won, it was time to go home to eternal life with her Lord. Her tomb is in the church of the Visitation, on the same side as the grille where she had known such unity with the Lord.
"Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart." Jesus had loved God with His whole Heart; Margaret Mary loved Jesus with her whole heart. Because of the Great love Jesus and the Father had for one another, the Holy Spirit flows from Their One Heart. And so it was with Margarte Mary Alacoque. At last. she plunged herself into the heart of her Savior. Those were her last words.
In keeping with the tradition, which began immediately after the institution of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, we bring pilgrimages to this special shrine every year. The Relic Room at Paray le Monial tracks the life and writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, as well as the history of the growth of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus promised that wherever the image of His Sacred Heart had a place of honor in the home, He would pour forth His blessings and graces. Margaret Mary said this was the last act of His Love that He would grant to all men, in the last days, in order to save them from Satan.
The promises of the Sacred Heart, presented to the world through St. Margaret Mary, are identical with the promises of the Gospel. When all priests, like Blessed Claude Colombiere, and religious like St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, when every member of the body of Christ really understand His promises, when they all become so completely penetrated by it to the point that every action of their ministry will be inspired with a tender devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Catholic Church will know a renewal and a fervor and passion equal to that of the most beautiful Christian eras.
Saint
Margaret Mary Alacoque's last desire
was to plunge herself into the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. In our time, when we
are being suffocated by lies, not
knowing who or what to believe, when all
our values are being demeaned, when even
the marriage covenant is being mortally
wounded, our Lord's Sacred and Faithful
Heart is hope and promise. The world
needs to be reminded we are not alone,
that we are loved with that faithful and
passionate love of Jesus. Today, hang
up a picture of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus and that of His Mother Mary's
Immaculate Heart. Honor Them for all
the world to see, and watch what happens
in your life.
Taken from
“Visionaries, Mystics and Stigmatists
book, by Bob and Penny Lord
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