"Behold this heart that has loved men so much, and has been loved so little in return,

Friday, 6/3/16

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a feast associated with St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. A girl from a very pious French family, she lived from 1647 to 1690. As a girl she often spoke of Jesus visiting her, and she thought it happened that way with every Catholic. Baptized Margaret, her love for Mary moved her an officially prefix  Mary to her name.  

Although she had promised the Lord to live only for him. She was seventeen when her father’s death left the family destitute, so she followed her mother’s orders to mix in society, to look for a good match. But, at twenty-four, praying before the Blessed Sacrament  she had a strong feeling of Jesus holding her close to his heart. He told her, “Behold this heart that has loved men so much, and has been loved so little in return.” Her mother, convinced of the truth of that, allowed Margaret to enter the Visitation Convent just east of Paris.

Those intimate meetings with Jesus continued with Margaret Mary, and many of the people who found them unbelievable, were brought around to accept them. They were moved by Margaret Mary’s casual assumption that Jesus must be visiting other people the way he visited her.