Do you think that you have sufferings from family members or associates?
The saint whose feast is celebrated today, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, was favored with visions of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in her childhood, and he believed this to have been a normal experience that any child might have. Even as a child, therefore, this favored child of Our Lord's was blessed with tremendous sufferings from a pair of domineering paternal aunts, who persecuted her and her mother after her father's death. This early childhood suffering, which was accompanied by a physical affliction that left her bedridden for four years, was just a preparation for the suffering that Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque endured to spread public devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus at the specific request of Our Lord Himself.
The hearts of men had grown cold because of Jansenism when Our Lord revealed the secrets of His Most Sacred Heart to Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque in the Visitation Convent in Paray le Monial, France, between December of 1673 and June of 1685. We cannot let our own love for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus grow cold in our hearts. We must forgive as we are forgiven, and we must remember the high price of infidelity that France paid for the refusal of King Louis XIV to consecrate the whole of France, and not just Paris, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (as is related in an appendix to this article).
My next original commentary will be about Laudate Deum. As I have a medical procedure to undergo today, though, I think that it may be Friday or Saturday before the commentary can be completed and thus posted on this website. Thank you.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, an intimate of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and a faithful client of Our Lady through her Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.
