Every October 16, the Church celebrates Saint Mary Margaret Alacoque (1647-1690), French nun of the Order of the Visitation of Saint Mary, known for having been a witness and repository of the promises and revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The apparitions of the Lord, in which he showed his loving heart to Margaret, occurred in the place where the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is today, Paray-le-Monial (France).
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“Enter through the narrow gate” (Mt 7, 14)
Marguerite-Marie Alacoque – the saint’s first name – was born in Verosvres (France) in 1647. When she was eight years old, in 1655, her father died and she entered the boarding school of the Poor Clare sisters, where she began to feel attracted to life. in common that the nuns wore.
Margarita María received her First Communion at the age of nine. At eleven she began to develop a painful rheumatic disease that forced her to stay in bed, so she had to leave boarding school and return to the family home. In these circumstances, Margaret would seek solace in the Virgin Mary, to whom she promised that if she restored her health, she would become one of her daughters.
After almost four years bedridden, the girl miraculously recovered her health – the saint would attribute this healing to the Mother of God for the rest of her life.
“I am the best that in this life you can choose”
Margarita’s childhood would also be marked by family tensions. Her father’s death prompted her paternal grandmother and two of her aunts to move in with her. These women took over the house and began to mistreat their mother. Margarita was not allowed to go to church freely, except for Sunday mass, which became a source of deep sadness for her, because she liked to go to temple every day.
Margarita’s mother, she and her five siblings were then left at the expense of the intruders, in a condition of semi-slavery. Afflicted by constant mistreatment, Margarita thought that our Lord was asking her for something special. He thought that he should imitate Him as best as possible to endure the sorrows and pains, like those He suffered in His Passion.
Therefore, from now on, Margaret would begin to accept difficulties with more patience, with the desire to resemble the suffering Christ. He discovered how much the idea of being in front of the Tabernacle, where the Blessed Jesus is, attracted him. She relates how the Lord manifested himself to her in those moments of prayer: “I am the best that you can choose in this life. If you decide to dedicate yourself to my service you will have peace and joy. If you stay in the world you will have sadness and bitterness.”
A pierced heart
Margarita, then, decided to become a nun, even though she did not have the support of her family. Thus, in 1671 she was admitted to the community of La Visitación, founded by Saint Francis de Sales. He entered the convent of Paray-le-Monial. There, not everything was rosy for the young girl, but she went through difficult times, some of them caused by the harsh treatment of her superiors or by the conflicting personalities of some of her sisters.
All in all, an unpredictable turn would occur. On December 27, 1673, the Sacred Heart of Jesus appeared to Margaret for the first time. She had asked for permission to go on Thursdays from 9 to 12 at night to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. It was a gesture of mercy in memory of the three hours that Jesus spent praying and suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane; when suddenly, the tabernacle opened and he discovered himself in the presence of the Lord Jesus, in his humanity and divinity.
Our Lord had his Sacred Heart exposed on his chest: it appeared wounded, surrounded by burning flames and with a crown of thorns on top. Then, Jesus, pointing his finger at his own heart, said: “Behold the heart that has loved people so much and in return receives ingratitude and forgetfulness. You must seek to make amends to me.”
That was God’s initial request for Margarita, his visionary, to dedicate herself to spreading devotion to the Heart of Jesus as a form of reparation.
The promises
The Heart of Jesus appeared to the visionary for 18 more months. In these meetings, the Lord repeatedly asked him to celebrate a party dedicated to his Sacred Heart. This celebration should take place on the Friday of the week following the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi).
Furthermore, Jesus communicated to Margaret a set of promises for those who became devotees of his Heart. She relates it like this: “He will bless the houses where the image of my Sacred Heart is displayed and honored. He will give peace to families. He will make sinners good and those who are already good he will make saints. He will assist at the hour of death to those who offer me communion on the first Fridays (of the month) to ask my forgiveness for so many sins that are committed.”
With the best company
Because of those things of God, the Jesuit priest San Claudio de la Colombiere (1641-1682) was appointed chaplain of the convent where Margaret lived.
A spiritual bond would immediately be born between the two saints, which would later take on a greater dimension: in the long run, the Society of Jesus would become the greatest propagator of devotion to the Heart of Jesus in the world.
“Jesus, I trust in you”
In the last stage of her life, Margarita was appointed mistress of novices. The Heart of Jesus told him: “If you want to please Me, trust Me. If you want to please Me more, trust more. If you want to please Me immensely, trust Me immensely.”
On October 17, 1690, in Paray-le-Monial, Margaret was called to the Father’s House. His death occurred in peace, as he came to see how his community had grown in fruits of holiness thanks to the Sacred Heart, and how much of the rejection that initially existed against the devotion that he promoted over the years had disappeared.
“When you love, everything speaks of love”
Saint Margaret Mary died confident that she would be forever at the side of her beloved Lord, whose heart she had taught many others to love.
Devotion to the Heart of Jesus continued to spread from the Visitandine monasteries and thus, in 1765, Pope Clement XIII introduced the feast of the Sacred Heart to the city of Rome. Around 1856, Blessed Pius IX extended it to the entire Church and finally, in 1920, Margaret was proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict XV.
“When one loves, everything speaks of love, even the jobs that require our total attention can be a testimony of our love” (Saint Mary Margaret Alacoque).
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If you want to know more about Saint Margaret Mary of Alacoque, we recommend this article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/Santa_Margarita_Mar%C3%ADa_de_Alacoque.
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