img_0916Friday October 16th is the Feast of St. Margaret Mary, a Visitation Nun from Paray-le-Monial, who received the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

We have chosen a particularly spiritual letter she wrote to another Visitandine, encouraging her in her devotion to Jesus, to help you also grow in your love of the Sacred Heart.

1686 To Sister Felice Madeleine de la Barge

You could find no surer bond, beloved Sister, to draw me into a more intimate union with Your Charity than to love the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not doubt that the sacrifice which you want to make of yourself to Him so that you may be wholly His, to do and suffer everything for His love, so that you may be able to live completely unto Him according to His desires-I do not doubt, I say, that this sacrifice is very pleasing to Him. It is a life of sacrifice, of abandonment, and of love,  Of sacrifice of all that is most dear to you and of what will cost you the most.

Of complete abandonment of yourself to His loving care, taking Him as your guide on the way to salvation.You will do nothing unless you ask Him for the help of His grace. And this I am sure He will give you to the measure in which you trust Him. Moreover, we must live the life of love. By our humble submission and complete self-effacement it will unite us with Him and make us altogether like Him in His life of Sacrifice,abandonment and love in the Blessed Sacrament.

Love keeps Him there as a victim completely and perpetually delivered over to sacrifice for the glory of His Father and for our salvation. Unite yourself with Him, then, in all that you do: Refer everything to His Glory. Set up your abode in this loving Heart of Jesus and you will there find lasting peace and the strength both to fruition all the good desires He inspires in you, and to avoid every deliberate fault. Place in this Heart all of your sufferings and difficulties. Everything that comes from the Sacred Heart is sweet. He changes everything into love.

Let us love Him, then dear Sister, with all our might and strength. Let us belong to Him without reserve,because He wants all or nothing. And after we have once given Him everything, let us take nothing back.

He will be sure to sanctify us in proportion as we are careful to glorify Him.

It is for love of Him, beloved Sister, that I beg you to pardon this proud and wicked sinner the liberty your humility has asked her to take, in your letter to our dear Sister Cordier. That is why I have said quite frankly what I think. I have said it simply too, asking this adorable Heart of Jesus to consume you in His pure love and to grant you  complete conversion. I beg you with all my heart to ask this of Him.

 

Source: Letters of St Margaret Mary Alacoque