The month of June is the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Feast of His Heart falls on June 15th this year.
Usually when the Visitation Order is recognized in relation to Jesus’ Heart, it is through His holy instrument, St. Margaret Mary.
But other Visitandines were also gifted with a deep appreciation of Our Lord’s Loving Heart.
Venerable Sister Anne Madeleine Remuzat, of Marseilles, France, was a Visitation Nun whose prayers encouraged the consecration of that city to the Sacred Heart, which saved Marseilles from the bubonic plague.
Venerable Sister Anne Madeleine was born in 1696, a generation younger than St. Margaret Mary.
By Jan 23rd, 1713, she was a Professed Sister of the Visitation Monastery in Marseilles. Seven years later, in 1720, during the devastation caused by the plague at Marseilles, she understood that Our Lord was asking that a feast in honor of the Sacred Heart would be instituted. The Bishop of the Diocese established this feast on October 22, 1720.
The prism of her prayer therefore, takes shape as the Heart of Christ in her call to a deeper relationship with the Sacred Heart and an intercessory ministry that saved a city from the bubonic plague. I’d like to draw attention to her inner disposition that enabled her to be prepared for such a powerful ministry. This is how she explained her own attitude:
“Whatever way God chooses to deal with me, to know that it is His good pleasure and that he is satisfied ought surely to satisfy me. Yes my God I promise Thee with all my heart that no matter what befalls me, be it ever so painful or irritating, I will always say “do just as it pleases Thee best, dear Lord. I submit willingly to all. I cannot say more”
This is a fundamental Salesian stance to possess. God’s good pleasure is a hallmark of our spirituality, and it was a hallmark of her own attitude.
A broader perspective of her disposition is also evidenced in a vow she made:
“Today, December 8 1727, Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Virgin, in accordance with the inspiration vouchsafed me, with the permission of my Confessor and Superior, and in dependence on their wishes- they being empowered to dispense me in case of scruple or embarrassment, I engage myself by vow to hand over to God all my prayers, works and sufferings to be used by Him for any soul to whom He may wish to apply them.”
This is a generous heart and also, a very obedient heart. One could almost say she made sure to cover all her bases! But I imagine her intent was to guarantee the accomplishment of God’s Will by prefacing her vow with such a deep state of obedience to her Superiors. Once qualified in this way, she gives God everything. Her prayers are handed over to Him to apply to any soul as God wished. She did not cling to her own intentions in prayer. Even beyond this, she gave the Lord all her efforts and good works and all the pain in her life, also using those characteristics to benefit the souls known only to God, not to herself.
Her ultimate goal most likely, is suggested by her simple mantra:
“May He reign, may I cease to be”
The essence of her prayer was her relationship to the Heart of Jesus. He Himself called her to this focus and she was faithful to the call.
“Oh! That I had a new heart to love Thee with! Oh! That I had all the love of all the hearts in all the world, so that I might give Thee Thy desert of love.”
In addition to the litanies of the Sacred Heart with which we are familiar and that were drawn from the prayer life of Venerable Anne Madeleine , she also composed a special spiritual “fast or retreat” prior to the Feast of the Sacred Heart, with spiritual instruction and prayerful aspirations. She wrote of the essential preparation for this Feast as that of Silence, in three forms; that of the spirit, that of language and the third that of our whole selves.
As those three silences become united within, prayer honors our Lord in various ways: His holiness, truth, sovereignty and the divinity of His Heart. She prayed:
May I have, like your prophet, a heart contrite and humble which you do not scorn!
Speak Lord, and make me flexible to your word.
I adore O Sacred Heart of Jesus, your sovereign power and your hold on me and all your creatures. I wish to give to you the homage of the most perfect submission, command me all that you will want, and give me all that you command me.
You do not want holocaust or sacrifice; I say; here I am.
Venerable Anne Madeleine also gave advice about communal prayer. She once said to a Novice Directress:
“ My dear friend you will do me a great favor if you will encourage your novices to practice a form of devotion which we have undertaken here; to draw among ourselves the days that remain until Ash Wednesday and let each one on the day it falls to her to make a spiritual retreat, one however which will make no exterior difference in her day; ask them to offer it in reparation for the crimes committed those days consecrated to pleasure, during which the Heart of Jesus is more than usually forgotten and outraged; assure them they will be repaid amply by the Divine Heart and that this devotion will greatly increase their fervor.”
Here’s an interesting way of praying for others, taking turns as it were in a sacrificial offering of the day and in a special way devoted to our Lord’s Heart. It’s creative; it keeps the flame burning throughout the week.
Sister Anne Madeleine Remuzat had an influence on other people. Public officials actually consulted here as well as private citizens. She emphasized the Love of God and devotion to the Sacred Heart in her responses. It is said that individuals turned to God in conversion of heart, those already faithful became more so, religious congregations grew in holiness and many young women answered the call to religious life.
The most famous challenge Sr Remuzat had was the same challenge that all of Marseilles received in 1720 when the bubonic plague erupted in that city.
Her prayers for society, city and the abasement of disease were heart-rending and accompanied by sacrifice and self-giving to a deep degree. The plague abated, returned a few years later, but again subsided.
Venerable Anne Madeleine’s ministry extended to the community’s apostolate, the boarding school.
It seems that parents in the early 1700’s seemed to be as pro-active in their girls’ education as we witness today; for it was under their appeal that Sister Anne Madeleine was named Head Mistress of the Visitation school in her community. Her prayer ministry and influence with others both in the school and wider community continued unabated, until her death in 1730.