On Oct. 16, Roman Catholics celebrate the life of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French nun whose visions of Christ helped to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart throughout the Western Church.
Margaret Mary was chosen by Christ to arouse the Church to a realization of the love of God symbolized by the heart of Jesus.
Christ favoured her with a number of apparitions between 1673 and 1675. His human heart was to be the symbol of his divine-human love. By her own love Margaret Mary was to make up for the coldness and ingratitude of the world—by frequent and loving Holy Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month, and by an hour’s vigil of prayer every Thursday night in memory of his agony and isolation in Gethsemane. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted.
St. Margaret Mary’s incorrupt body rests above the side altar of the Chapel of the Apparitions located at the Visitation Monastery in Paray le Monial, France. Pilgrims attracted there from all parts of the world have claimed many blessings.
Whisper your prayers to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque on your visit to Paray Le Monial. Join a Pilgrimage to the Great Marian Shrines of Europe (Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal) with Fr. Dexter Prudenciano, RCJ leaving on May 20, 2019.
St. Mary Margaret Alacoque, pray for us.
