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At certain times in the history of the Church, one special event or one particular person has been important to call believers back to Jesus. We remember how he struck Saul from his high horse, renamed him Paul and sent him to preach to the nations. Or how he spoke to St. Francis of Assisi from the cross and later shared his wounded side with him to remind all Christians of the beauty and simplicity of his Gospel. In seventeenth-century France, Jesus opened his Heart anew to a humble and prayerful Sister, Margaret Mary Alacoque. Many people of that time saw him as distant from their lives, but Jesus showed Margaret Mary how close he was to her. They were not receiving Holy Communion at Mass, yet he invited her to receive Communion more often. Some even felt entirely cut off from God, so he asked her to pray more fervently for them.
While Margaret Mary knelt in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus showed himself with his Heart aflame with love. And just as he did with St. Paul and St. Francis, he asked Margaret Mary to help others understand how personal his love is.
The words of the Sacred Heart to Margaret Mary became known to others only gradually. But they eventually had a deep influence throughout the Church, resulting in special prayers to the Sacred Heart, more devoted reception of Holy Communion, statues and pictures that have become familiar and a special Feast of the Sacred Heart each June.
Jesus requested that people realize his great love for them and return love for love. This is the center of the devotion and has a solid foundation in the words of Jesus in the Bible. At the beginning of the twentieth century, this holy Sister was declared Saint Margaret Mary because the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which she promoted rings true both to the message of the Gospels and to the traditions of the Church.
Will You Take It? Vocation Office
P.O. Box 206
Hales Corners, WI 53130
1-800-609-5559 |