Saint Spotlight: St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

 Now that I have summer modesty covered for now, let's move back to the month of the Sacred Heart. I have mentioned St. Margaret Mary Alacoque several times since the beginning of June, but I have yet to really take a look into her life. As we know thus far, she was specially chosen by Our Lord to spread the devotion to His Sacred Heart, along with the First Friday devotion. Through her zeal, perseverance and great love, we now have this devotion, which is well-loved by many Catholics around the world. 

St. Margaret Mary was a French mystic born on July 22nd, 1647, in France in what is now known as the Commune of Verosvres. As a little girl, she developed an extraordinary love for the Blessed Sacrament. From the time she was a child into her adulthood, she practiced harsh corporal mortifications. During a serious illness, she consecrated herself to Our Blessed Mother and vowed to enter the religious life. Following this, she was immediately cured. Soon after she added "Mary" to her name, in honor of the Blessed Mother. Around this time, she began to have visions of Jesus, but in her holy simplicity she assumed that these visions were part of the norm for all. Even through difficult times, (the death of her father and sudden poverty) she maintained her great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. After her family recovered financially, at the age of 17, her mother urged her to enter into society, which she did out of obedience. She had not forgotten her vow, but believed it to be no longer relevant because it was made in her childhood, and she was now a young woman. 

 When the Lord desires a soul to be only His, He makes it known in different ways; ways that always speak to the innermost being of the soul. This precisely happened to our dear saint. After a party, while still arrayed in her beautiful clothes and ornaments, she experienced an intense vision of Our Lord. He looked as if He had been scourged, with blood and fresh wounds. He told her that His Heart was brimming with love for her because of her past promise, and reproached her for not being mindful of Him. This experience deeply touched her; she fulfilled her vow and became a fully professed Visitation nun on November 6th, 1672 . Years later, through visions, Our Lord made it known to her that she was to be the one to make known the love and spread the devotion of His Sacred Heart. This was not an easy task. In the beginning many doubted the authenticity of these visions. This must have caused her interior sorrow and discouragement, but as I said before, she continued to persevere. Eventually the visions were accepted and pronounced to be genuine. After becoming the Novice Mistress to her convent, she saw the private practice of this devotion take place at the beginning of 1686, and two years later a chapel was built in honor of the Sacred Heart. Our Lord called His faithful servant home on October 17th, 1690. She did not live to see the devotion to the Sacred Heart spread around the world, but she successfully completed her divine mission. Her feast day is October 16th. She is the patron of those who have lost parents and those who are devoted to the Sacred Heart. 

 I find St. Margaret Mary's life to be very inspirational, especially the way she abandoned everything at her young age to follow Christ. Only the bravest and most devoted souls have the courage to do what she and many other religious have done. She is a wonderful model of leaving behind the allurements of this world, out of love for Christ.

While St. Margaret Mary was a Blessed, this great saint intercessed for my own dear patron, St. Gemma Galgani, while she was suffering severely from spinal meningitis. With the help of St. Gabriel Possenti of Our Lady of Sorrows (my other patron), St. Gemma completed a novena to St. Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart. Although St. Gemma was not too familiar with St. Margaret Mary, St. Gabriel insisted that she loved St. Gemma dearly and desired her to carry out the novena, so as to heal and secure many graces for her. The novena was finished and very soon after, St. Gemma was spared death and fully healed. This novena began St. Gemma's profound devotion to the Sacred Heart, which greatly aided her in her process of becoming a victim soul and holy saint. 

 St. Gemma's story is only one of the fruitful experiences that has been borne through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's work of spreading the devotion to the Sacred Heart. In my own life, His Sacred Heart has poured out innumerable graces, as He has used His most loving Heart to draw me to closer to Him and to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. But I'm not the only one. The souls which Our Lord has gathered through His Sacred Heart are countless. A myriad of graces have flowed and souls have been saved because St. Margaret Mary devoted her life to bringing this beautiful, holy devotion to us. It's utterly amazing what can happen when we forget ourselves, and say "Yes" to Our Lord. 

Let us look to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in thanks and ask her to teach us how to inflame our own hearts with love for the fiery furnace of love that is the Sacred Heart. 

"The Sacred Heart of Christ is an inexhaustible fountain and its sole desire is to pour itself out into the hearts of the humble so as to free them and prepare them to lead lives according to His good pleasure."

                                                                    -St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us,

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us,

Mater Dolorosa, ora pro nobis.

-Yvonne Gemma

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