St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's was a heart filled with fire. Jesus chose to reveal to this Visitation nun a Heart ablaze - His own Sacred Heart. I think it's accurate to say that the saint encountered the Fire of Jesus' love and reflected it back to Him. Love met love, Heart met heart, Fire met fire. But the story did not end there.
Jesus entrusted to Margaret Mary a mission: to spread the message of His fiery love.
"My Divine Heart," Christ said in an apparition to this humble nun in 1673, "is so passionately fond of the human race, and of you in particular, that it cannot keep back the pent-up flames of its burning charity any longer. They must burst out through you."
St. Margaret Mary later wrote: "Jesus asked for my heart, which I begged Him to take, and He placed it in His adorable One, in which He showed it to me as a tiny speck consumed in this burning furnace. Then, taking it out as a burning flame shaped like a heart, He replaced it in the place from which He had taken it."
St. Margaret Mary said many things that strike at the very core of my "cloistered" heart. I have room here for a few examples....
"Our Lord frequently told me that I should keep a secluded place for Him in my heart, where He would teach me to love Him."
"I beg the Sacred Heart of Jesus to deign to consume ours in the flames of His holy love, so that they may live and breathe only to love, honor and glorify Him."
"Jesus Christ is the true friend of our hearts, and they are made for Him alone. They cannot find rest, joy, or satisfaction except in Him."
"He wants your heart without reserve."
Jesus wants my heart without reserve. He desires my love in return for His.
How will I respond?
Detail of painting by Georges de la Tours, cropped and digitally altered. In public domain.
*This is a second repost from the archives of 6/13/13.
