In order to prepare for the Feast of St. Margaret Mary on October 16th, Sunday night’s chat focused on this Visitandine Saint of the Sacred Heart.
Here are some topics and highlights:
- Do we think about Jesus Christ being “so passionately fond of the human race”? How can this be true?
- Why was Our Lord passionate about St. Margaret Mary in particular, as he said he was? What was it that made her so attractive to him?
- What are the other parts of the message of the Sacred Heart, as expressed by the Visitation Order?
Oct 14 2012, 7:36 PM
Guest539 (guest): How do we know that St. Mary witnessed the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and that it wasn’t deception?
__R: Our parish has great devotion to the Sacred Heart
Sister : The Church studied it carefully and in fact her brain was preserved
How do they express it R?
. Cel(guest): so they run research on her brain?
Sister : No but the fact that it remained intact was taken as a sign
R: we have a First Friday, First Saturday devotion (First Friday of course being for the Sacred Heart) and it starts at 5pm and goes until 2am Sat
5:00-6:00 PM – Confessions: 6:00 PM – First Friday Mass In Honor of The Sacred Heart of Jesus followed by Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament and the recitation of the Holy Rosary.
:00-11:45 PM – Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament
7:15-8:30 PM – Silent Adoration
Sister : That’s beautiful!
__R 8:30 PM – The Holy Rosary
__R: 9:00 PM – The Divine Office #1-5
10:00 PM – The Chaplet of Divine Mercy
wow,even confession at that hour
__R: First Friday / First Saturday Communion of Reparation
All night reparation vigil in atonement for the heinous sins of mankind greviously offending
The Sacred Heart of Jesus and The Immaculate Heart of Mary
we also have the live webcam going so others that can’t be there can watch
J: what goes on outside of the silent time?
http://www.wlcr.org/resources/devotion.htm
Car: His heart is passionately in love with all of us.
Guest539 (guest): I don’t usually think of Jesus as being passionately fond of us, but he had to have been, to come live among us, didn’t he?
C: Yes! I think He created us to be loved by Him and by each other
C: Yes, I feel that way sometimes too, when I think about all the things I have done wrong
Sister : If someone has not experienced that passionate love from the Lord, or don’t realize, how can we show them?
C: which means we must let Him tell us how He sees us, and not get bogged down in how we see ourselves?
Guest539 (guest): The great thing about Jesus is that we can focus on him, and not on ourselves, and trust that he will help us accept ourselves as we are….weak human beings but beloved by him regardless.
Ka: I am joining you too. I am a Visitation Sister from Minnesota!
J: Hi Sister
SrM: Hello from Minneapolis!
Car: Through our own love of others, without judgements, we can show Gods pure love. Only through Him.
Car: Yes, focus on Him, not on ourselves.
SR M:: Lots of love shown here in the ‘hood by all the neighbors today!
Ka: about the love of Christ…will help us accept ourselves and are beloved regardless.
Guest539 (guest): Trust is something that we are challenged by the Lord every day to practice.
J: Sister M in the Hood….love it
Car: How do we learn trust in Him?
Ka: Yes, I am from the the Hood! We live among the marginalized and many do not see themselves as lovable.
SR M: The whole backyard garden here was redone and replanted for the winter by loving friends – amazing!
Ca: which means we must let Him tell us how He sees us, and not get bogged down in how we see ourselves?
Guest539 (guest): For me, I learn to trust Him when I am afraid but ask for His guidance, and then follow it even when I can’t see how it can possibly work…
Cel(guest): Loving God gives us the wisdom to understand others and the courage to not give up on them
SR M: Yes, often we move forward blindly/uncertainly, like Sr. Margaret Mary.
__R: Do you ever find that you ask for His guidance, and start to follow it and without even meaning to pull away from following it?
Car: yes!
C: unfortunately
J: oh yes ..I find my own way down that path too often
R: I was in Adoration this morning and all I could think about was how my life is like the ocean..
SR M: That’s why prayer is so important: our flashlight in the dark!
Car: I over think things, use my intellect instead of my heart. Then I have to return to prayer.
Cel (guest): I trust God cause there’s always those moments wheere Im hitting the crossroads and signs and directions keeps appearing
J: love that image R
SR M: Nice image, R
Guest539 (guest): When our minds wander, we just gently pull them back to Him. That’s all….simple and gentle, like He is with us.
__R: I’m thinking I need a tsunami with my soul so it won’t pull away haha
J: I have loved another image like that I heard before of ocean…we are like a drop of water and God is the ocean of mercy…when we are dropped into it His mercy is unlimited
Cel(guest): To trust him,I think its being contented with what we have and learning to wait and watch things slowly to happen in our lives
__R: nice J
C: Or sometimes He keeps me and my sins disappear into the sea of mercy
SR M: Thanks goodness for His sea of mercy!
Ka: Everything is living in the present moment in the Hood…as we love our folks that come by…if only for the moment! But the love of the sacred Heart is permanent!
J: yes C..that was more of what I was trying to say
J: our sins are like a drop of water compared to His ocean of Mercy
SR M: And trying to show that same mercy back to others
J: of we only turn to Him with them
Cel (guest): yes but I think we shouldn’t take that for granted
__R: ok, so when I’m pulling back, I”m reaching for His Mercy! yay.. I like that
C: take it for granted?
Ka: St. Margaret Mary, a Vis nun, was asked to give this message of love and mercy, because no one was “getting it”.
Celphied (guest): be comfortable of his forgiveness
__R: I’ve had that image of the waves stuck in my head all morning since Adoration
J: No Cel..you are right..never take for granted
C: it’s a good one R, and He’s likely trying to show you something. stay with it until you see
Guest539 (guest): No one was “getting it” when Jesus first came to walk on the earth, either….how is it that we forget about His love?
Cel (guest): I think its best to do an act of kindness twice of the sins we commit
SR M: I always need to overdo to make up for what I’ve underdone.
__R: I even wrote it all out when I was in Adoration, it struck me that hard this morning. I think I needed to hear this tonight
J: so R…how do we keep the wave always going toward him?
__R: I don’t know
__R: a Tsunami!
SR M: tsunami of love
Ka …another thing about St. Margaret Mary…she is one to pray to because she was sick for so long when young and recovered.
SR M: She learned to lean hard on Our Lord!
__R: So at my parish when they do the “office” that I pasted earlier, it’s not the “offices” like the LOTH, it’s a different type of office, apparently written by St Margaret Mary.. do you know what I’m talking about?
J: or maybe when the wave goes back into ocean instead of turning away from God image we are just resting there with Him in His mercy for a bit?
__R: yes J, I think that’s it
SR M: And then it’s back out into the sea again
Ka: I use to tell my students, when they would talk about someone sick in their family or a friend, to pray to St. M. Margaret-she knew how it felt.
SR M: We can ask her intercession in a special way on Tuesday, her feast day.
Guest539 (guest): Being sick certainly does cause us to lean hard on the Lord for strength. It also helps ease the pain if we offer it to Him to use in whatever way He sees fit….that makes the pain diminish.
__R: but if you read/pray these offices that she wrote, they really make you understand His love
08 AM
Ka: Yup! October 16th is her Feast day.
SR M: Yes, not “wasting” pain but offering it for others is a great habit.
Car: I have had alot of experience with that.
SR M: I’m sure we have her Office, Rachel. Send me your mailing address (smaryroberta@visi.org) and I’ll mail it to you.
Car: reading St. Faustina helped alot.
__R: well, what I mean is there are 9 offices and we pray them on First Fridays
J: Car..that book was wonderful
C: yes, Sr Faustina is among my favorites too!
SR M: St.MM said this about pain: No matter how sever it might be, it is an agreeable refreshment compared with Our Lord’s
Guest539 (guest): I can believe that
Ka: First Fridays in a Visitation monastery is very special. We alwys have adoration, no matter where that monastery is located.
SR M: So we rest in Our Lord during Eucharistic Adoration
Car: And, when I offerit up in attonement, pain is so much easier to bear.
Guest539 (guest): Loving God is easy; it’s loving the people around me that I find so challenging.
Ka: Over the years, through our spirituality I have become more loving…I am NOT there yet, but as we place the focus on Jesus, we grow in love of God, ourselves,and other, right?
SR M: St.MM exclaimed at one point, “O Love! O! the excess of the love of a God towards so miserable a creature!”
Here in the ‘Hood it’s all about loving God’s people!
Ka: Yes, 539, that is the hardest part…and I am still at that.
J: I walked today on a warm breezy day here in Ohio…how amazing it was…I felt such a strong presence of God…just so powerful
SR M: So amazing that St.MM was so eager to share the hard part of loving God: I esteemed and cherished nothing so much as the share He gave me of His Cross.”
SR M: So amazing that St.MM was so eager to share the hard part of loving God: I esteemed and cherished nothing so much as the share He gave me of His Cross.”
Guest539 (guest): Is his cross and his yoke the same thing?
SR. M.: Yes, His yoke is what He gives us to carry.
Guest539 (guest): When he says his yoke is easy and his burden light, that makes it sound like the cross we carry is also light, but sometimes it isn’t…that’s why I wondered.
Ka: So how will you all celebrate St. Marg. Mary on Tues of this week? Prayer, Mass, read about her life or what can it be?
SR M: We’ll have our school’s famous “Marshmallow Roast” – “roasting” the teachers.
__R: Mass and prayer, and I’d like to find these Offices, so I think I’m going to head to my parish after work and get a book to take home and type them out
Oct 14 2012, 8:34 PM
Cel(guest): Thanks r
C: no doubt to inspire charitable roasts!
Oct 14 2012, 8:35 PM
Ka: The Vis school here in MN will hand out M&M candy…in hopes when they graduate M&M’s will remind them of this great saint of love
SR M: Or to think about how St.MM was “roasted” in so many ways
SR M: “O my Lord and my God, Who alone knows the anguish I suffer…” St.MM said.
SR M: So, let’s each stand on a street corner passing out MandM’s and praying for St.MM’s intercession for each!