Announce it and let it be announced to the whole world, that I set neither limit nor measure to my gifts of grace, for those who seek them in my Heart.
-Jesus to St. Margaret Mary
Who is St. Margaret Mary Alacoque?
BEFORE BECOMING A VISITANDINE NUN and mystic who helped bring about a worldwide veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Margaret Alacoque was a simple and timid girl who was subject to a difficult upbringing. Her family was fragmented due to her father’s untimely death and her mother having to spend much time away from home to feed her five children. Consequently, Margaret had to be raised by her relatives who gave her much anguish as she struggled to fit in.
EARLY LIFE
Early in life she knew that she wanted to pursue a religious vocation, as she saw the nuns as “living saints” whose life she wanted to model. As a child she once made a vow during mass which the Lord would ultimately call her to fulfill: “O my God, I consecrate to You my purity, and I make You a vow of perpetual chastity.”
However, as she grew older, and her mother pressed her in the direction of marriage, she struggled under the pressure of her family’s expectations:
Finally, the tender love for my mother began to get the upper hand, and I thought that, as I was but a child when I made my vow and did not understand the meaning thereof, I could easily obtain a dispensation from it.
-From St. Margaret’s Autobiography
LIFE IN THE WORLD
During her teenage years and into her twenties she made her way, although reluctantly, into society and the world of courtship. Throughout all this, she had not forgotten Jesus and the readiness she had to commit herself totally to Him. She had to endure a prolonged interior conflict which was exacerbated by the desires and demands of her family and friends.
Even during her time in the world attending balls and festivals, her life was marked by severe corporal austerities and intense inner turmoil. Eventually, a vision of Jesus after Communion gave Margaret a deep and lasting impression of peace in her soul.
She saw Him as “the most beautiful, the wealthiest, the most powerful, the most perfect, and the most accomplished amongst all lovers.” Following this, she made a resolution to her family to enter the religious life.
The road to entering the convent was very difficult but eventually Margaret embarked upon her vocation as a religious sister of the Order of the Visitation and took the name Mary in honor of the Blessed Mother who had constantly been a source of help to her.
St. Margaret Mary’s Vocation
HER VISIONS
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENTS during her life at the monastery took the form of visions in which Jesus communicated to her the importance of a devotion to His Sacred Heart. Here is an excerpt from her autobiography about a vision which had a profound effect on her and which puts her in relationship with other mystics of the Sacred Heart:
One day, having a little more leisure–for the occupations confided to me left me scarcely any–I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament when I felt myself wholly penetrated with the Divine Presence, but to such a degree that I lost all thought of myself and of the place where I was, and abandoned myself to this Divine Spirit, yielding up my heart to the power of His love.
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, which so far He had concealed from me.
Then it was that, for the first time, He opened to me His Divine Heart in a manner so real and sensible as to be beyond all doubt, by reason of the effects which this favor produced in me, fearful, as I always am, of deceiving myself in anything that I say of what passes in me.
It seems to me that this is what took place: “My Divine Heart,” He said, “is so inflamed with love for men, and for you in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must spread them abroad by your means, and manifest Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious treasures which I discover to you, and which contain graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition. I have chosen you as an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance for the accomplishment of this great design, in order that everything may be done by Me.
Following this vision, Jesus continued to bless Margaret Mary with revelations which brought her peace and instilled in her a great reverence for His Divine Heart. The visions were, however, a source of great distress to her also, as many of her fellow sisters treated her with contempt due to her special calling within the community. Jesus’ request for a special feast day to be declared in honor of His Sacred Heart caused St. Margaret Mary no small amount of anxiety and she had to endure many hardships within and without before it could be undertaken.
THE HOLY HOUR DEVOTION
Jesus also invited her to participate in His Agony by making a Holy Hour every Thursday night before midnight. This she did each week, tasting for herself the terrible sorrow which Jesus bore to redeem us from all our sins. It was from this revelation of the Lord that the practice of making a Holy Hour originated, which is carried out commonly all over the world today.
The Nine First Fridays and the Twelve Great Promises
ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT REVELATION St. Margaret received which helped shape the devotion to the Sacred Heart is the practice of attending Nine First Friday masses in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Observing this as well as the other aspects of the Enthronement Devotion make one a recipient of twelve divine promises, which are as following:
1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of death.
5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless the homes in which an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.
12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.
St. Margaret Mary’s Death and Legacy
OPPOSITION AND SPREAD
THE SPREAD OF THE SACRED HEART Devotion that began during her life was very slow to pick up speed in the century following her death. Margaret Mary Alacoque died in 1690 having seen much opposition toward the devotion. Despite this, priests of the Society of Jesus were eager to promote the Sacred Heart devotion and did so with zeal. In particular among these was Claude la Colombiere, who served as Margaret Mary’s spiritual director and who was convicted of the authenticity of her revelations. John Eudes also preached missions across France in order to help the broader public learn about the Sacred Heart.
Ultimately, the Church developed a great love and devotion to the Sacred Heart, with many saints and popes commending it as a special favor to our age to communicate God’s love for humanity. It is hard to overstate the amount to which the devotion has shaped the Church as we know it today. There are countless parishes named after the Sacred Heart and many of the greatest saints in the last 150 years have been great lovers of it. These include St. Therese of Lisieux, St. John Henry Newman, St. Gemma Galgani, St. Faustina Kowalska, St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa), St. John Paul II, and more.
Image From Aleteia
WHAT IT MEANS TODAY
The key element of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is being in relationship, and the Enthronement Devotion is meant to connect whole families to the Source of all grace. Families are invited to console the Heart of Jesus and make amends for the evils committed against it. They in turn are enriched by a greater knowledge of what it means to be cherished by God and to spread this love to others. The history of the Sacred Heart and the devotions begun by St. Margaret Mary are not over–in fact, there is still much work to be done. Remembering the need in our present age for the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart, let us take it up with the resolution of becoming saints completely transformed by His Love.
