Every June 8, the Church reminds María Droste Zu Vischeing, universally known as the Blessed Maria del Divino Heart, religious of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, who decisively influenced the Pope Leo XIII consecrated the world to the sacred Heart of Jesus.
“It is impossible to resist the voice of God”
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
María Droste Zu Vischeing was born in Münster (Germany) on September 8, 1863, the day of the solemnity of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Next to her came to the world a twin brother, Max. His parents were fervent Catholics and belonged to the German nobility, remaining faithful even during the difficult years of the “Kulturkampf” (“Cultural Combat”, 1871-1878), in which the German Empire harassed legal and culturally to the Catholics of the country.
In her early childhood, Maria learns to play the piano and lives a serene childhood next to her family. From these days his encounter with devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus comes. He receives the first communion with Max in April 1875 and months later, in September, also confirmation. The first religious concerns pass through their head, although without greater solidity.
In 1878, Mary is impacted by a sermon around the great commandment of the law, which Jesus speaks in the Gospel of St. Matthew: “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” She tells herself what those words raised in her soul: “At that time I thought: I have to become a religious! I would have preferred that my ears would not have heard it, but it is impossible to resist the voice of God.”
A heart open to the spirit
In 1879, being in the boarding school of the sisters of the Sacred Heart in Riedenburg, Mary understood a fundamental truth that would mark her for the rest of her life: “I began to understand that without the spirit of sacrifice the love of the heart of Jesus is only an illusion,” the Blessed.
When he turned 20, Maria listens to a voice that says: “You will be the wife of my heart.” On August 5 of that same year, 1883, María expresses her parents the definitive desire to become religious.
“You will be the wife of my heart”
Ten years after hearing the sermon that changed his life, in 1888, Maria entered the convent of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd in Münster, responding to an inspiration that the Sacred Heart had raised inside.
In 1889 he took religious habits, on the same day – January 10 – in which in Lisieux the Carmelita Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús did the same. La Beata adopts the name of “Sr. Maria del Divino Heart ”.
Consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart
At some point between 1887 and 1888, Sr. Mary, at the express request of Jesus -who continued to reveal his will through internal locutions -wrote a letter addressed to Pope Leo XIII to ask for the consecration of humanity to the sacred Heart of Jesus.
Pope Leo XIII not only accessed the petition, but expressly pointed out that this had been “the most important decision of his pontificate.” On May 25, 1899, the Pope publishes the Encyclical “Year of the sacred”(Sacred Year), in which he explains the need to consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Christ. Sr. Maria received the news with deep joy. However, his health was deteriorated and would not live the day when the consecration was carried out.
On June 8, 1889 Sr. Maria gave his soul to the Lord in Porto (Portugal), at the Mother House of the Congregation, after having suffered a paralysis for three years. Only 3 days later, on June 11, the Holy Father presided over the world’s consecration ceremony to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
On the day of the solemnity of all saints, on November 1, 1975, Sr. Maria was beatified by Pope St. Paul VI, at the end of the 300 years of the revelations of the Heart of Jesus to Santa Margarita María Alacoque, whose side the Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart is distinguished as a great apostle of the mercy of the Sacred Heart of Christ.
For more information enter here.
Central writing
The Catholic Agency for Information – ACI PRESS, is part of the news agencies of the ACI group, one of the greatest generators of Catholic news content in five languages and belonging since June 2014 to the family of Ewtn Global Catholic Network, the largest television Catholic chain in the world, founded in 1981 by the Angélica mother in Irondale, Alabama (United States), and that reaches more than 85 million homes in 110 countries and 16 territories.