Mr. Titus

Fr. Herkel

The month of June, as you know, has been set aside by custom in the Church for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, just as the month of May has been devoted to our Blessed Lady. Since 1856 the feast of the Sacred Heart has been universally observed on the Friday following the octave of Corpus Christi, and it was raised to the first class in 1889; so it is a feast of comparatively recent origin in the Church. Therefore this devotion is proper to our modern age, in a way that was somehow unnecessary in the past. This feast day was requested to be established by our Lord Himself, in an apparition to St. Margaret Mary, more than 300 years ago. It seems that our Lord is offering us this devotion because it is especially opposed to the present spirit of the world, and especially adapted to the present needs of the Church. The spirit of the world, to define it in general terms, has been increasingly indifferent to our Lord Jesus Christ over the past several hundred years. We ought to perceive the devotion to the Sacred Heart as a remedy to this ill, for it is an appeal for love. As this appeal was made most strongly to a holy French nun of the seventeenth century, it is her life we will now present, and her revelations we will describe.

Life of St. Margaret Mary

Margaret Mary was born in a small village, Terreau, in province of Burgandy, France, on July 22, 1647. Her father was Claude Alacoque and her mother was named Philiberte. They are described as a middleclass family, and they were devout Catholics. Margaret Mary was the fifth of seven children. Her baptismal name was Margaret, and her confirmation name was Mary.

When Margaret Mary was only four years old, she displayed the wonderful effects of God’s grace on her soul. She felt such a horror for sin that it was enough for her parents to tell her she was in danger of offending God, to prevent her from disobeying in any matter. Also, at this young age Margaret Mary made a vow of chastity to God, and would repeat it as a private prayer between the two elevations of the Mass, saying: “My God, I consecrate my purity to Thee; my God, I make a vow to Thee of perpetual chastity.” ¹

When Margaret Mary was older she wanted to go into a convent, but her family pressured her and told her that it would be the death of her mother if she pursued this. They wanted her to marry. But our Lord urged her to carry out her resolution to enter the religious life. One morning after she had received Holy Communion she seemed to behold our Lord as “the handsomest, richest, most powerful, most perfect and most accomplished of lovers.” ² He reproached her gently saying: “Why is it that after being pledged to Me for so many years you now wish to break with Me and take another lover? If you offer Me this insult, I shall abandon you forever, but if you are true to Me, I will never leave you, and will make you victorious over all your enemies. I forgive your ignorance because you do not know Me yet, but if you are faithful and follow Me, I will teach you to know Me, and will reveal Myself to you”

On another occasion when kneeling before her crucifix she expressed this desire saying: “How happy should I be, my dear Lord, if Thou would imprint in me the likeness of Thy sufferings.” “That I mean to do,” replied our Lord, “provided you do not resist Me, and that on your part you do what you can.” ³

Recognizing Margaret Mary’s resolution, her family next urged her to enter a local convent, where they could maintain contact with her, but she expressly wished to go “where I have no acquaintances. I will be a religious for the love of God alone.” ⁴ When Margaret Mary visited the convent at Paray-le-Monial, some of the nuns were surprised at seeing her so joyful, and supposed she was foolish, but the Superior, a prudent woman, judged otherwise, and soon discovered that God had prepared a treasure for their convent in the person of the young lady who begged for a place among them. Margaret Mary was obliged to return home to arrange her temporal affairs, but this was soon done, and she entered the novitiate at Paray-le-Monial on May 25, 1671. This is a convent of the Visitation Sisters, founded by St. Francis de Sales.

During her novitiate our Lord inspired her to ask for humiliations. He said to her: “Acknowledge then that you can do nothing without Me. My assistance shall never be wanting to you provided that you do always keep your own weakness and nothingness buried in My strength.” ⁵

Novitiate of Humiliation and Obedience

One humiliation occurred publicly in the refectory. Margaret Mary disliked cheese, and it was not served in her childhood home. At the convent, French cheese was served and Margaret Mary took some; she interpreted this as her superior’s wishes and perhaps even the will of our Lord. She resolved to overcome the strong repugnance she felt, but despite all her efforts she could not eat it, and left the cheese untouched on her plate. There are rules in convents about eating all that one takes, and Margaret Mary had broken the rule. The Mistress of Novices noticed and arranged for cheese to be specifically offered to Margaret Mary at another meal. Margaret Mary was determined to obey and gain the victory; she summoned up all her courage and did her best to eat the food that was so abhorrent to her, but once more she found herself unable. After being chastised by the Novice Mistress for her lack of mortification, she sat down in front of the Blessed Sacrament for several hours asking the Lord to give her strength to overcome her repugnance. After three days, Our Lord spoke to her saying: “There must be nothing withheld from love,” and He bade her try again, promising that in the end she would triumph⁶ And it came to be! But what a humiliation to be unable to eat cheese and to be publicly chastised for that!

Our Lord desires the re-establishment of charity in all hearts. He made Margaret Mary see, that not only persons living in the world, but religious also did not fear to wound charity. He said: “It is these members already half-corrupted and ready to be cut off which cause Me such pain. They would even now have received their punishment had it not been for their devotion to My holy Mother, who appeases My offended justice, which can only be satisfied by the sacrifice of a victim.”⁷

By the end of her noviciate, Margaret Mary had, of course, told her superiors about her revelations. Although they saw much good in the young novice, it seems they did not completely believe her, and they criticized her for thinking that she was special in the sight of our Lord because He spoke to her. If she did not give up this sort of thing she believed that she would not be received by the daughters of Holy Mary (a title of the nuns of that convent). She pleaded with our Lord to help her. Our Lord replied: “Tell your Superior that she need not fear to receive you, for I will be answerable for you, and if she thinks Me solvent, I will be your surety.”⁸

The Mother Superior told Margaret Mary to ask our Lord, in token of good faith, to make her useful to the Order by exact observance of its rules. Our Lord replied: “Very well, My child, I grant all that you ask, for I will make you more useful to the Order than anyone expects, but in a way known as yet only to Myself. Henceforth, I will adapt My graces to the spirit of your rule, the will of your superiors, and your own weakness, so that you may view with suspicion whatever would hinder you in the exact observance of your rule, which I desire you to set above everything else.”⁹ Her childlike humility helped her to be submissive to our Lord. He said to her: “I am seeking a victim for My Heart, who will be willing to sacrifice herself as an offering for the fulfillment of My designs.”¹⁰

Margaret Mary went on a retreat in October 1672 to prepare for her profession. She was thinking of her general confession of her whole life, and she was attacked by scruples. Our Lord appeared to her and said: “Why do you torture yourself? Do what is in your power, and I will make good what is lacking. I desire nothing in this sacrament so much as a contrite and humble heart, which accuses itself without dissimulation, having a sincere wish never more to offend Me.”¹¹ She made her confession, and as the priest raised his hand to give her absolution, “I seemed,” she said, “to see and feel myself stripped and yet at the same time clothed in a white robe, and I heard the words: ‘This is the robe of innocence with which I am clothing your soul, in order that henceforth you may live only the life of a Man-God, that is to say, that you may live as if not living, but suffering Me to live in you.”¹²

Just before her profession on All Souls’ Day, Margaret Mary thought of all her infidelities to grace and offered herself to God as a holocaust of sorrow and expiation. Our Lord accepted this and said to her: “Remember it is a crucified God you wish to espouse; for this reason you must conform yourself to Him in bidding adieu to all the pleasures of life; from henceforth there will be none for you which will not be overshadowed by My Cross.”¹³ Our Lord then placed before her eyes His Holy Humanity attached to the Cross for the salvation of the world, and He desired her to attach herself also to the Cross. During this same retreat, and perhaps on the same day – for the theme seems to follow from what we have just told – Margaret Mary wrote down these words which our Lord dictated to her: “Behold the wound in My side, so as to make there your real and permanent abode: it is there that you will be able to preserve the robe of innocence with which I have clothed your soul, in order that you may live henceforth the life of a Man-God; live as if no longer alive, so that I may live perfectly in you; thinking of your body and of all that may befall it, as if it no longer existed, acting as if not acting, but I alone in you. For this end it is necessary that your powers and senses remain buried in Me, and that you be deaf, dumb, blind, and insensible to all earthly things; you must will as not willing, without judgment, without desire, without affection, and without any wish, save that of My good pleasure, which should be all your delight: and seeking nothing apart from Me, if you would not insult My power and offend Me grievously, since I wish to be everything to you. Be ever ready to receive Me, and I shall ever be ready to give Myself to you, because you will often be exposed to the fury of your enemies. But fear nothing; I will encompass you with My power, and will be the reward of your victories. Beware of ever opening your eyes to regard yourself apart from Me. Let it be your motto to love and suffer blindly: one heart, one love, one God!”¹⁴

The Fine-Tuning of Sanctity

	Convent of the Visitation in Paray-le-Monial, France

From the time of her profession, our Lord allowed Sister Margaret Mary to enjoy His divine presence continually in a new manner. She saw Him with the eyes of her soul; she felt Him, as it were, near her. This Divine Presence produced in her an ever-growing reverence for God, and a profound feeling of interior annihilation. She wished to be continually on her knees or prostrate on her face before her Lord, and when she was alone, she was always, as far as possible, in one of these positions.

Sr. Margaret Mary was employed at the convent as assistant infirmarian. The Sister Infirmarian was a capable woman, physically strong and mentally alert. She was distressed by Sr. Margaret Mary’s clumsiness. Margaret Mary had the particular misfortune to trip and fall in staircases; later it was recognized that many of these accidents were the work of the devil. One time, while Sr. Margaret Mary was carrying a shovel full of hot coals, she fell from the top to the bottom of the staircase; not a single coal was dropped and she got up unhurt. But more often she broke whatever she was carrying, and hurt herself.

Unsatisfied with the hardships of convent life, St. Margaret Mary wanted to do more penance. Sometimes she did so without receiving her Superior’s permission, and our Lord appeared to reprove her severely for this: “You deceive yourself,” He said to her, “in thinking to please Me by practicing this kind of mortification chosen by self-will, which would rather have the will of Superiors bend before it than bend itself. Know that I … abhor self-will in a religious.”¹⁵ This lesson made such an impression on her that she resolved to practice the most exact obedience.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s vision of the Sacred Heart

In a similar state of mind, St. Margaret Mary was praying in the chapel, complaining to our Lord that she was not suffering enough at His service. Our Lord favored her with a vision of a large cross-covered with flowers. Then He said to her: “This is the bed of my chaste spouses, where I will let you enjoy all the fullness of My love: gradually the flowers will fall, and nothing will be left you but the thorns that they now conceal because of your weakness. These thorns will make you feel their pricks so intensely, that you will need all the strength of your love to endure the pain.”¹⁶ Margaret Mary prayed that she wanted nothing but His Cross and His Love, which would make her a good religious.

One of Sr. Margaret Mary’s greatest delights was to sing the praises of God in choir with her sisters. In June of the year after her profession, God allowed her to lose her voice completely, and she was for some weeks condemned to silence. Connected with this was Margaret Mary’s great love for our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. She would spend all of her free time in the chapel. Sometimes she passed almost the entire day on her knees, immobile, in profound recollection. The community was surprised that a sister of such frail health could have such strength of endurance. It was so noticeable that her Superior told her not to be more outwardly devout then her Sisters, and not to be constantly before the Blessed Sacrament on feast days.

Sr. Margaret Mary loved to suffer for our Lord; she yearned for suffering. To encourage her desire, our Lord revealed to her many phases of His own suffering. He disclosed to her His Heart torn and pierced with wounds. “See the wounds which I receive from My chosen people. Others content themselves with striking My Body; these attack My Heart, which has never ceased to love them. But My love will give place at length to My just anger, to chastise these proud souls so attached to the earth, who despise Me for creatures, and fly humility to seek esteem for themselves. And, as their hearts are void of charity, they have nothing left but the name of religious.”¹⁷ On another occasion, besieged by the same request from the Saint, our Lord said to her: “Have a little patience; later I shall make you experience what you must suffer for My love.”¹⁸

During the next year our Lord favored Sr. Margaret Mary with great revelations of His love. Early in the year, still in preparation for these great revelations, our Lord appeared to Sr. Margaret Mary while she was reading a spiritual book. “I wish to make you read in the Book of Life, which contains the science of love.” Then showing her His Sacred Heart pierced for our salvation, He said: “My love reigns in suffering; it triumphs in humility; it rejoices in unity.” ¹⁹

It was not only through beautiful visions that our Lord prepared His servant for the work He destined her for. He demanded the entire love of her heart. Once, when Sr. Margaret Mary had been guilty of some slight insincerity through self-love, Our Lord reproved her severely: “Learn that I am holy and teach holiness. I am pure and cannot suffer the slightest stain. Therefore you must act with simplicity and with a right and pure intention in My Presence. The least deceit is displeasing to Me. I will make you understand that if My love has made Me your Master so that I may teach you and model you according to My Will, I cannot support lukewarm and careless souls. If I am gentle in bearing with your weakness, I shall be none the less severe in correcting your infidelities.” ²⁰ These kind but reproachful words had their effect, and Margaret Mary is a saint more because of our Lord’s corrections than because of visions and extraordinary favors.

 

First Great Revelation

On December 27, 1673,²¹ the feast of St. John the Evangelist, Sr. Margaret Mary was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, exposed in a monstrance on the high altar. All at once she felt herself “invested” (to use her own expression) with the Divine Presence. In a state of ecstasy, she heard our Lord calling her, and she seemed to spend a long time leaning against His divine breast, as St. John had done at the Last Supper. There our Lord made the first great revelation of the secrets of His Sacred Heart. He said to her: “My Divine Heart is so passionately in love with men, and with you in particular, that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its ardent charity, and must needs spread them by your means, and manifest itself to men and enrich them with the precious treasures that I will reveal to you. These treasures contain the graces of salvation and sanctification necessary to draw men out of the abyss of perdition, and I have chosen you, as a very abyss of unworthiness and ignorance, for the accomplishment of this great design, in order that all may be done by Me.” After these words, our Lord asked Sr. Margaret Mary for her heart. This she willingly offered, and our Lord seemed to take her heart out of her chest and place it through the wound in His side. Then He withdrew it, all on fire, and set it back in its place. “Behold, My beloved, a precious pledge of My love, which is inserting in your side a tiny spark of its most fiery flames, to serve as your heart and to consume you until your last moment. Its heat will not diminish, nor will any relief be found save to a slight degree by bleeding, and I will mark the blood so plainly with My cross, that it will bring you more humiliation and suffering than alleviation. This is why I desire you simply to ask for it, as much for you to practice what is required of you by your rule, as to give you the consolation of shedding your blood on the cross of humiliations. And in token that the great favor I have just done you is not imaginary, but the foundation of all those that I still have to bestow upon you, although I have closed the wound in your side, the pain of it shall ever remain with you; and though hitherto you have adopted the name of My slave, I now give you that of the beloved disciple of My Sacred Heart.”²²

There is always a danger of deception even self-deception when one receives what might be an extraordinary revelation of God. To leave Sr. Margaret Mary with a memento or perpetual assurance of the reality of the vision, our Lord granted her request of suffering. The wound in her side was not a visible stigmata but an invisible one. Yet it did cause real physical pain and resulted in humiliation. Sr. Margaret Mary’s weakness was so visible after this revelation that, although she did not complain, everyone noticed. In all simplicity Margaret Mary told them that nothing would relieve her but bleeding. This dubious medical remedy had already been abandoned by educated French doctors, and she was laughed at. She was sent to the infirmary and other remedies were attempted, but without avail. Sr. Margaret Mary became weaker and weaker until she could hardly speak or even breathe. In this state, a doctor declared, it would be folly to bleed her, but the Mother Superior was alarmed and ordered it to be done. Reasoning that there was no hope in either case, the doctor complied and bled her slightly. Instantly the sickness ceased, her speech and respiration became free, and the invalid immediately found herself strong enough to leave the infirmary, which she would have done had she been allowed. This miracle was a great help to convincing the Superior of the truth of the apparitions, but those who did not so readily believe treated her as a “malade imaginaire” ²³ – a person suffering from nerves, as we should now say.

	St. John leaning upon Jesus' Chest at the Last Supper

The biographers of St. Margaret Mary are agreed that it was not with bodily eyes that she beheld our Lord drawing her to Himself and making her lean on His Heart, nor did she actually see Him take her heart and plunge it into His own. It was an imaginative and perhaps intellectual vision; her external senses were unaffected by this wonderful apparition, nor was it seen by others. By means of this sudden enlightenment, she penetrated more deeply than ever into the mystery of the Sacred Heart. For over a year, as we have seen, there had been preparatory visions, instructing Margaret Mary in virtue and giving her a special insight into the mercy and love of Jesus Christ. Hitherto He had treated her with favor, but still as a servant; on this day He called her a disciple, and soon He would make her an Apostle of His Sacred Heart.

The preparatory visions of St. Margaret Mary were personal – direct communications of our Lord for the good of her own soul. The great revelations differ from this in being public – communications of our Lord for the good of the whole Church and of all the human race. In the revelation of December 27, 1673, our Lord makes this distinction clear by speaking briefly of His love for men. We have here, from our Lord Himself, a theological explanation of the devotion to His Sacred Heart. The heart is the symbol of love. This new devotion is the grand effort of our Lord, “passionately in love with men,” to draw them to Himself and away from hell. In the following revelations the public aspect will be much more explicit.

The first great revelation took place on the feast of St. John the Evangelist. It is of interest that 353 years previously St. John had appeared to St. Gertrude in 1320 AD. St. Gertrude asked St. John how he, having rested his head on our Lord’s breast at the Last Supper, had not written much for our instruction regarding the Heart of Jesus. St. John replied: “To speak …of the sweetness of His Heart’s pulsations has been reserved for later times, that, through hearing of such things, the world, when growing old and losing its love of God, may regain its fervor.” ²⁴

 

Second Great Revelation

	St. Gertrude the Great

A few weeks, or possibly months later, there was another great revelation of the Sacred Heart. In a letter written on November 3, 1689, to Fr. Croiset (whose book “The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus” has been reprinted by TAN), St. Margaret Mary describes this second revelation as follows: “This Divine Heart was shown me on a throne of flames; it was more resplendent than the sun and transparent as crystal; it had its own adorable wound, and was surrounded by a crown of thorns, signifying the stings caused by our sins, and there was a cross above it, implying that from the first moment of the Incarnation, that is to say, as soon as the Sacred Heart was formed, the cross was planted in it, and it was filled from the first instant of its existence with all the bitterness of the humiliations, poverty, sorrow, and contempt which the Sacred Humanity was to endure during the whole course of His life, and in His Sacred Passion. He showed me also that the ardent desire that He had of being loved by men and of rescuing them from the path of perdition where Satan drags them in crowds, had made Him form the design of manifesting His Heart to them, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of graces, of sanctification, and salvation which it contains, in order that He might enrich all who were willing to render to it, and procure for it, all the love, honor, and glory in their power, with the profusion of these Divine treasures of the Heart of a God from which they spring. He told me that this Heart was to be honored under the form of a heart of flesh, the picture of which He wished to be exposed and worn by me on my heart, in order to impress its love upon my heart, and fill it with all the gifts with which His Heart is full, and so destroy all irregular movements within it. He said that wherever this holy picture should be exposed to be honored, He would lavish His graces and blessings, and that this blessing was a last effort of His love to favor men in these latter times with a most loving redemption, to deliver them from the thraldom of Satan, which He intended to overthrow, that He might place us under the gentle liberty of the dominion of His love, which He wished to re-establish in the hearts of all those willing to practice this devotion.” ²⁵

This second revelation clearly builds on the previous one. First, our Lord revealed His intention – to manifest His love and to bestow “the graces of salvation and sanctification.” Now, our Lord is beginning to manifest the particular manner in which He will bestow these graces; Jesus wishes His Sacred Heart to be honored as an object of devotion. The other symbols accompanying this vision of the Sacred Heart (the cross, the crown of thorns, and the wound of the lance) commemorate Christ’s Passion, with its concomitant sufferings, insults, and outrages; these symbols indicate that the spirit of the devotion to be inaugurated was to be one of reparation.

But the principal object of this vision is the heart of flesh, surrounded by flames (which are not a cause of pain, for they are called a “throne”), and resplendent as the sun. It is a heart in shining glory. Goodness tends to spread itself, and here is the Heart of Christ, bursting forth with love for men.

The image of the Sacred Heart, which is so familiar today, is found in Christian art before this apparition, but not with all of these symbols together. A heart appears on the coat of arms of the Visitation Order, for the founder, St. Francis de Sales, had a great devotion to the our Savior’s adorable Heart. This image of the Heart of Jesus was privately venerated in many convents of the Order, but a study of the archives indicates that there was one house where there was no evidence of such veneration, and that house was at Paray-le-Monial. If anything, this is a proof that St. Margaret Mary did not derive the idea of this devotion from her surroundings, but was truly super-naturally inspired. A drawing was made according to the apparition by a nun at Paray-le-Monial, or possibly by St. Margaret Mary herself, and was first venerated there, in the novitiate, in 1685. It took time to establish this devotion, but it is now familiar throughout the Catholic Church.

Third Great Revelation

The date of the third great revelation is uncertain, but it is conjectured that it occurred within the octave of Corpus Christi of 1674. St. Margaret Mary beheld this vision while in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. The following is her own account of it: “I felt myself wholly drawn within myself by an extraordinary recollection of all my senses and powers. Jesus Christ, my gentle Master, presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His five wounds shining like so many suns. From His sacred Humanity issued flames on all sides, especially from His adorable Breast, which resembled a furnace, and which was open, disclosing to me His most loving and most lovable Heart, the living source of these flames. It was then that He discovered to me the unspeakable wonders of His pure love, and to what excess He had gone in loving men from whom He received only ingratitude and neglect, ‘Which I feel much more’ (He said) ‘than all that I suffered in My Passion. If only they made Me some return for My love, I should think but little of all that I have done for them, and should wish, if it were possible, to do yet more. But they have only coldness and rebuffs to give Me in return for all My eagerness to do them good. Do you at least give Me consolation by making up for their ingratitude as far as you are able.’

“I reminded Him of my weakness and He replied: ‘Here is what will make good all that is wanting to you.’ At the same time, His Sacred Heart being open, there issued from it a flame so hot that I thought to be consumed by it, for I was penetrated by its heat, and being no longer able to endure it, I besought Him to take pity upon my weakness. ‘I will be your strength,’ was His reply, ‘fear nothing, but listen to My voice and attend to My designs. In the first place, you shall receive Me in the Blessed Sacrament as often as obedience will allow you, no matter what mortifications and humiliation may result to you, but they must be regarded as pledges of My love. Moreover, you shall receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, and every Thursday night I will make you share the heavy sorrow that it was My will to feel in the Garden of Olives. This sadness will bring you, without your comprehension, to a new state of agony, harder to bear than death. In order to be with Me in that humble prayer which I then offered to My Father in the midst of My agony, you shall rise between eleven o’clock and midnight, so as to lie prostrate with Me for an hour, with your face on the ground, both to appease God’s anger, and ask mercy for sinners, and also to sweeten in some measure the bitterness that I felt when abandoned by My apostles, who forced Me to reproach them with not being able to watch with Me one hour. During this hour you shall do what I will teach you, But listen, My daughter, and do not lightly believe or trust every spirit, for Satan is eager to deceive you. Wherefore do nothing without the approval of those who guide you, in order that, having the authority of obedience, you may not be misled by him, for he has no power over those who are obedient.” ²⁶

A few historical words are perhaps necessary to explain this request. It was not the custom in seventeenth century France for good Catholics to receive Holy Communion every day. Even within a Visitation convent, the sisters would not necessarily have received the Blessed Sacrament every Friday. This was one of the abuses our Lord wished to remedy by His apparition. The theory behind this reticence to receive Holy Communion had its origin in the heresy of Jansenism. Jansenism may be explained symbolically by the style of crucifix it favored. On a regular cross, Christ is represented with His arms outstretched to embrace all, if possible, within the bounds of His mercy, and with His head cast down, looking at us upon the earth. The Jansenists made crucifixes on which Christ’s hands are nailed to the wood, straight above His head, and His eyes are turned up to heaven. The Jansenist crucifix symbolically suggested that only a few souls are permitted to receive forgiveness, and that Jesus is somehow avoiding the sight of our sinful world.

Jansensim was a heresy about grace spread throughout France by the posthumously published writings of Cornelius Jansen, the Catholic bishop of Ypres, in Holland. “His fundamental error consists in disregarding the supernatural order; for Jansen… the vision of God is the necessary end of human nature; hence it follows that all the primal endowments designated in theology as supernatural or preternatural, including exemption from concupiscence, were simply man’s due.”²⁷ [N. of the Ed.: Therefore, man being deprived of these “essential” gifts after Original Sin, would be almost completely incapable of doing any good. We see here how Jansenism joins with Luther’s Heresy]. This heretical principle was spread together with an exaggerated moral and disciplinary rigorism, under the pretence of a return to the primitive Church. Rather than attract sinners to the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion, Jansenists insisted so much on a sinner’s unworthiness as to drive even pious souls away from the frequent reception of Holy Communion.

The revelation of divine Love to St. Margaret Mary is contrary to the spirit of Jansenism, for Christ recognized Margaret Mary’s weakness, and strengthened her with fire from His own Heart. Also, there is an opposition in practice, for our Lord was specifically asking for Holy Communion and the adoration of His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

There is an obvious connection between devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Both are devotions to Jesus Christ, who is whole and entire in every particle of the Blessed Sacrament, and likewise honored, not only in a small physical part of His Body, but in His entire person, when His Heart is honored. Although this devotion is directed to the physical organ, which is the Heart of Jesus, it does not stop there. The heart is a symbol of love, and the love of Jesus is proper to His Person. Hence it is most proper to manifest our devotion to the love of Jesus by spending our time in adoration before the sacramental presence of Jesus in the tabernacle.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Our Lord Himself requested some such dedication of our time to be with Him in watchfulness and prayer when He took His disciples with Him into the Garden of Olives. That was a Thursday night, the night before He died. It is not surprising that Jesus makes the same request of us, today, “Can you not watch one hour with Me?”

The wound in the Sacred Heart is the motive for such prayers; a holy hour should be made in reparation for the sins inflicted upon our Lord. It is easy to understand that we must make reparation for our own sins, but we must also spend time expressing our love for our Lord, in order to console Him. During the Agony in the Garden our Lord saw the burden He was going to bear – the sins of the world. He was overwhelmed. But an angel appeared to comfort our Lord, and part of that comfort must have been the vision of our good works done out of love for Him. What we do today consoled our Lord then in reality. Christ’s desire for our reparation was expressed clearly by His words: “Do you at least give Me consolation by making up for their ingratitude as far as you are able.”

Fourth Great Revelation

The final great revelation took place during the Octave of Corpus Christi in 1675. Our Lord allowed a whole year to intervene between the third and fourth revelations. The first messages to St. Margaret Mary were received with distrust and prejudice by some. This was an excitement disrupting the usual quiet and united life of the Visitation convent. Perhaps a year’s delay was necessary for the message to be examined more impartially.

St. Margaret Mary gives the following account of this final revelation: “Being on one occasion before the Blessed Sacrament, one day during its octave, I received from my God excessive tokens of His love, and felt myself desirous to make some return and to render Him love for love; then He said to me: ‘You can not make Me any better return than by doing what I have so often asked of you.’ Then, uncovering His Divine Heart, He said: ‘Behold this Heart which has so much loved men, that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, in order to give them testimony of its love, and in return I mostly receive only ingratitude, through their irreverence and sacrilege, and through the coldness and scorn that they have for Me in this Sacrament of love. What causes Me most sorrow is that there are hearts consecrated to Me who treat Me thus. Therefore I ask of you that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special feast in honor of My Heart, by communicating on that day, and by making it solemn reparation and honorable amends to make good the insults that it receives during the time when it is exposed on the altars. I promise you also that My Heart will expand, so as to shed abundantly the influence of its Divine love upon those who render it this honor and induce others to render it.’”²⁸

Thenceforth there was something new in the Church. A new feast day was to be established. A new era of grace was about to open for souls.

While the faith does not change, and our understanding of doctrine and devotion only develops. The manner in which our Lord intervened, through St. Margaret Mary, to establish the Feast of the Sacred Heart is extraordinary, but the devotion is far more ancient than this apparition. “In approving the devotion to the Sacred Heart, the Church did not trust to the visions of Blessed Margaret Mary; she made abstraction of these and examined the worship in itself. Margaret Mary’s visions could be false, but the devotion would not, on that account, be any less worthy or solid. However, the fact is that the devotion was propagated chiefly under the influence of the movement started at Paray-le-Monial; and prior to her beatification, Margaret Mary’s visions were critically examined by the Church”.²⁹

The Sacred Heart Through the Ages

	St. Claude de la Colombiere

From the time of the Apostles there has always been in the Church a devotion to the love of God, who gave the world His only-begotten Son, or to the love of Jesus, who suffered for our sake, and whose Heart was opened on the cross. The Fathers comment on Christ’s open side, and the mystery of blood and water flowing forth. Yet it is only in the eleventh and twelfth centuries that we find unmistakable evidence of devotion to the Sacred Heart. For example, let us quote the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 - 1153) as proof that devotion to the Sacred Heart was known and practiced in his day. “He writes in his book Vitis Mystica: ‘O sweetest Jesus, what riches Thou hast stored up in Thy Sacred Heart! Can it be that men are indifferent to the loss, which they suffer by the neglect and indifference, which they show to this amiable heart? As for me, I will spare no pains to gain It and possess It. … Henceforth this Sacred Heart will be both the temple where I shall never cease to adore Him, and the Victim which I shall unceasingly offer to Him; and the altar on which I shall offer my sacrifices, on which the same flames of divine love with which It burns, will consume mine…. Come, my brethren, let us enter into this amiable Heart never again to go out from It. My God, if we feel such consolation at the bare remembrance of the Sacred Heart, what will it be when we love It with tenderness, what will it be if we enter into It and make our dwelling there always? Draw me completely into Thy Heart, O my amiable Jesus. Open to me this Heart which has so many attractions for me!” (30) We have mentioned the vision of St. Gertrude, and it would be well to add that St. Melchtilde (1240 – 1298) spoke much of the favors she had received from the adorable Heart of Jesus. Also the Franciscan Order promoted a devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus, in which the Wound in the Heart featured prominently. The knowledge of the revelations to St. Margaret Mary was first made known to the world by a little book, written and zealously circulated in France and England by St. Claude de la Colombiere, S.J. He was, for a time, the confessor of Sr. Margaret Mary, who made known the revelations to him. He was probably also the first priest to consecrate himself specifically to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which he did on June 21, 1675.

 

Consecration and Enthronement

The desire for such consecration is implicit in our Lord’s sorrowful words of the fourth apparition: “What causes Me most sorrow is that there are hearts consecrated to Me who treat Me thus [insultingly]. Therefore I ask [for…] honorable amends to make good the insults”. It is with the desire to make this reparation that we are all urged to consecrate to the Sacred Heart of Jesus our entire selves, our whole will, our affections, our desires, and all that we have. A popular and laudable method of making this consecration is to enthrone the Sacred Heart in your home. Enthronement means to place on a throne or a place of honor; thus an image of the Sacred Heart is set up in a public part of the home, and honored there ever afterwards (for ex. With votive candles, flowers, prayers…) When the Sacred Heart is enthroned in a Church or a private home, the principle is simply to profit by the generous promise made by Christ in the second great revelation, that wherever this holy picture should be exposed to be honored, He would lavish His graces and blessings, and that this blessing was a last effort of His love to favor men in these latter times with a most loving redemption, to deliver them from the thraldom of Satan. This is a devotion we can and should all practice. On the day of the enthronement a special prayer of consecration should be said, and perhaps a certificate signed by the Priest. On every day afterwards, try to love our Lord more. His picture will be a reminder of His love for you. Pray to our Lord more often, and let Him rule and direct your family life.

Our Lord Jesus Christ already possesses all things, but yet, “in His infinite goodness and love, He in no way objects to our giving and consecrating to Him what is already His, as if it were really our own; nay, far from refusing such an offering, He positively desires it and asks for it: ‘My son, give Me thy heart.’ We are, therefore, able to be pleasing to Him by the goodwill and the affection of our soul. For by consecrating ourselves to Him we not only declare our open and free acknowledgment and acceptance of His authority over us, but we also testify that if what we offer as a gift were really our own, we would still offer it with our whole heart. We also beg of Him that He would vouchsafe to receive it from us”.³¹

 

Other Visions

Sr. Margaret Mary continued to live within the walls of her convent, and to behold visions of our Lord. On June 21, 1686, the feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated for the first time at Paray-le-Monial. It was a great triumph, which would eventually extend to the universal Church. “The four remaining years of Margaret Mary’s life were full of consolation and graces, bestowed in almost unbroken succession. Her Divine Master continued to visit her frequently, and it was then that she received those famous promises, known as the Promises of the Sacred Heart, which were partially contained – as the reader has no doubt observed – in the great revelations, and which, rightly understood, can do much to restore faith in the souls of men, and to promote their sanctification.”³² Twelve promises to all those who will embrace that devotion are commonly listed (Cf. p. 15).

 

Conclusion

Sr. Margaret Mary died peacefully at the convent on October 17, 1690, after devoutly receiving the last sacraments. On the morning of her death, the doctor who attended her “declared that she had no alarming symptoms, and even after she had breathed her last he continued to say that he had observed nothing in her illness to suggest so speedy an end; he could not doubt that she had died simply of love of God.”³³ Margaret Mary was declared a saint by Pope Benedict XV on October 17, 1920 (her feast day). Her body rests in an exposed tomb at an altar of the convent of Paray-le-Monial.

The greatest triumph of devotion to the Sacred Heart came on June 11, 1899, when Pope Leo XIII consecrated all mankind to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In an encyclical on the subject, the Pope ordered prayers to the Sacred Heart and a special act of consecration to be pronounced in the principal church of every city, so that all Catholics might join with him in an active manner. In union with this great Pope, “We urge and exhort all who know and love this divine Heart willingly to undertake this act of piety”. ³⁴

References:

1. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 8, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

2. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 49 - 50, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

3. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 23, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

4. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 25, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

5. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 33, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

6. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 75 - 76, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

7. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 36 - 37, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

8. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 79, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

9. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 82, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

10. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 91, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

11. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 97, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

12. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 97 - 98, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

13. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 41, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

14. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 100, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

15. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 49, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

16. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 103 - 104, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

17. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 60, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

18. Rt. Rev. Emile Bougaud, The Life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 116, TAN, republished 1990.

19. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 66 - 67, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

20. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 70, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

21. The dates of these apparitions are debated. St. Margaret Mary has not indicated them exactly. I am following Msgr. Demimuid's calculation.

22. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 116 - 117, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

23. Sr. Mary Philip, Life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, P. 77, Sands and Co., London, 1924.

24. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 136, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

25. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 124 - 125, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

26. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 127 - 129, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

27. J. Forget, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, P. 287, article on Jansenius, Robert Appleton Co., New York, 1910.

28. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 132 - 133, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

29. Jean Bainvel, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, P. 164, article on the Heart of Jesus, Robert Appleton Co., New York, 1910.

30. John Croiset, S.J., The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, P. 90 - 91, TAN, republished 1988.

31. Pope Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum, from The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, P. 457 - 458, TAN, republished 1995.

32. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 219, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

33. Monsignor Demimuid, St. Margaret Mary, P. 225 - 226, Burnes Oates and Washbourne Ltd., London, 1927.

34. Pope Leo XIII, Annum Sacrum, from The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, P. 458, TAN, republished 1995.