Lent is a time of Mercy and that prodigious Mercy flows from the Wounded and Sacred Heart of Jesus.
This is being recognized in a powerful way in a Diocese in France, whose Bishop plans to consecrate his diocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary this coming June 2014.
He has written a Lenten Pastoral Letter to his people, entitled “Behold this Heart Which has So Loved Men”, this phrase being the words of Jesus to the Visitation Nun St. Margaret Mary who received revelations of the Sacred Heart.
Bishop Aillet of the Diocese of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron, France has a well planned program to enlighten those of his Diocese who will be a part of this consecration.
He clearly shows that the Devotion to the Sacred Heart retains an urgent message for us today and a practice of necessity and that St. Margaret Mary’s mission is not complete. He speaks of consecrating one’s family to the Sacred Heart with Enthronement of a blessed picture of the Sacred Heart in the home, and has called for a pilgrimage of the relics of St Margaret Mary through his diocese from now through June.
Bishop Aillet says in his Letter: ” Devotion to the Sacred Heart, as defined by Jesus himself by revealing his Heart and directed to St. Margaret Mary, plunges us into the depths of the Christian life, inaugurated on the day of our baptism. It was then that God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son” ( Co 1, 13). By the concrete love he has shown us that day, uniting us in his death and resurrection, Jesus consecrates us into his love, so that we belong to Him and abide in the covenant of love , insofar as we dedicate our lives, all aspects of our life, to His love, responding with love for love. It is necessary to pass through the experience of His mercy, whenever we are unfaithful to His love. And it is clear that the Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an inspiration from heaven to always give more flesh to our baptismal consecration.”
Source:
http://diocese64.org/actualites/15-eveque/parole/257-voici-ce-coeur-qui-a-tant-aime-les-hommes
Elsewhere in France, at the Visitation Monastery in Nantes, Father Edouard Marot will host a weekend April 5 and 6 2014 on the Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist, also during Lent.
And from Marseille, the city FIRST consecrated to the Sacred Heart in 1720, whose Visitandine Sister Anne Madeleine Remuzat’s cause for beatification is moving along, we have this news: That the Basilica will soon feature an historic painting of the Sacred Heart, restored recently, that shows Visitation Nuns in thanksgiving for the saving of the city from the bubonic plague.
View the painting here:
http://sacrecoeurprado.over-blog.com/article-31504206.html
Continue to pray that every Diocese may be consecrated to the Loving Heart of Jesus!