Today, March 13th 2014 is not only the First Anniversary of the election of Pope Francis but the 151st Anniversary of the Foundation of the Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, also known today as the Hour of Presence!
http://visitationspirit.org/2012/01/what-is-the-guard-of-honorhour-of-presence/
The Love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus continues to thrive in the Visitation Order. In our Monastery of Nantes, France, a good friend, Father Edouard Marot, will be giving a special weekend retreat to the public on The Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist, April 5 and 6, 2014.
The Visitation Monastery of Nantes has a long history of devotion to the Sacred Heart.
This special heart emblem is unique to that community.
These images were drawn by the Sisters and disseminated with zeal by Mother Marie – Claude de Bruc , from 1787.
What event triggered this initiative? It was new revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Visitation of Nantes. It is possible to identify from contemporary accounts ,that it was to Sister Marie- Anne Galipaud nicknamed “the holy Sister of Nantes .” In a vision, the Lord told her : “Now, my Heart is trampled upon , mocked , despised and forgotten .” The same complaint was made to St Margaret Mary a century earlier with this appeal: “LOVE , LOVE , this revered Heart , do your best to make it loved , adored and worshiped.This love , I do not want spoken of only, but imitated. ”
To revive the devotion and confidence in the Sacred Heart, the Sisters produce a prodigious amount of images.
Since 16 October 2007 , the Visitation of Nantes took over the manufacture and distribution of these emblems of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To date more than 85,000 have been given in France and in many countries on 4 continents.