When my husband, who is French, suggested that we visit the relic of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Atlanta, Georgia, I wasn’t particularly interested, but I tagged along supportively.
A line of people wound throughout the church, waiting for a moment near St. Margaret Mary’s relic. When it was my turn, I looked down at the little bone from the rib nearest her heart, which had been so full of love for the Lord. I closed my eyes and said a generic prayer.
Beside the relic stood a priest: Father Antoine Bergeret from the Sanctuary of Paray-le-Monial, where Jesus appeared to St. Mary Margaret Alacoque and revealed his Sacred Heart.
As I left the relic, I noticed that Father Bergeret was following me. He asked if I spoke French. I said that I did, and he seemed a bit nervous as he told me: “You are very important to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.” The episode, I later learned, was very much in the style of this little visionary of the Sacred Heart, who was shy, quiet and obedient, but direct when doing God’s will.
Margaret had visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in which she “saw this divine Heart as on a throne of flames, more brilliant than the sun and transparent as crystal.”
Even as a child, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) preferred spending time with the Blessed Sacrament to playing. After her father died, plunging her family into poverty, she found comfort in the Real Presence.
While in her monastery, St. Margaret Mary had visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in which she “saw this divine Heart as on a throne of flames, more brilliant than the sun and transparent as crystal. It had its adorable wound and was encircled with a crown of thorns, which signified the pricks our sins caused Him.” Later, it was Christ’s incarnate heart, present in the Eucharist, that gave her strength when her vision was doubted and criticized.
The Lord revealed a simple devotion for St. Margaret Mary to hand on to the faithful. It consists in receiving Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays, spending an hour with the Blessed Sacrament on Thursdays, and consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I have found these three practices to provide spiritual focus amid the distractions and pressures of our busy, digital age. Even better, they come with promises: to obtain necessary graces for our lives, peace in our homes, comfort in afflictions, secure refuge in life and death, abundant blessings, an infinite ocean of mercy for our sins, a fervent soul, the grace of final perseverance and — for priests — the ability to touch even the hardest of hearts.
If you are looking for spiritual focus or for the strength to persevere in difficulties, I recommend taking up the simple practices the Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Already doing these devotions? Try to bring to them the single-mindedness of the little visionary herself. As she encouraged a friend, “Let us love Him with all our might and strength. Let us belong to Him without reserve, because He wants all or nothing. And after we have given Him everything, let us take nothing back.”
