Live + Jesus

As the feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque approaches, our minds turn to our Sister who was entrusted with an important mission in the life of the Church: to let people in a world that had grown cold, know of the intense love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all God’s people.

St. Margaret Mary’s life was scarred by multiple sufferings of body, mind, and heart, both in her early life and within the walls of the Visitation in Paray le Monial. After her father’s premature death, she and her mother suffered intense abuse from relatives with whom they were forced to live. A mysterious illness kept Margaret bedridden for four of her teenage years.

Upon entrance into the Visitation Order, in 1671, Margaret did not fit into the usual mold of a Visitation sister. Her motives in sharing the revelations of the Sacred Heart, which had been entrusted to her heart, were questioned by her superiors and sisters. They saw her conduct contrary to the simplicity of the Visitation. Yet these multiple sufferings were God’s way of preparing the heart of St. Margaret Mary to be the recipient of the love of His Sacred Heart. She was to be his emissary in letting a world that was detached from spiritual values know of the intense love of his Sacred Heart. 

From the earliest years of the foundation of the Visitation Order, our sisters have placed the Sacred Heart at the center of our lives as followers of Jesus. Our Spiritual Directory encourages us, after receiving the Eucharist, to see our Lord as seated in the center of our hearts and to bring before him all our powers and senses, to envision his commands and to promise a faithful response to them. This prayer helps us to live in the presence of God, to accept as coming from His loving Heart the events of our day, and to strive always to live the little virtues of the Sacred Heart, especially gentleness and humility.

My favorite Scriptural passage is in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. (3: 14-21). I paraphrase it a bit.

 “For this reason, I fall on my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its true name. I kneel before the Father so he may grant me, in accord with the riches of his glory, the grace to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in my inner self. Why? So that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that rooted and grounded in love, I may have the strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length, the height and depth of God’s love, and to know personally the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.” It is the love of Christ that will lead me to the very fullness of God and will help me learn anew each day how to live an ever-deeper life of faith.

What is the Sacred Heart of Jesus calling us to in light of today’s world – a world that is torn by division and turmoil on every level?  Our best response is to prayerfully cast our minds and hearts into the Heart of Jesus and to pray earnestly that a quiet acceptance and living of the values of His Sacred Heart may begin to permeate areas of conflict. Prayer is our mightiest weapon.

Sister Mary Berchmans, VHM

Superior of the Georgetown Visitation Monastery

Washington, DC.