The Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial, France was the site of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
Imagine what it would be like to visit there!
We did, as Visitandine Pilgrims during our 400th anniversary year!
These are some memories:
One cannot not give adequate thanks to Our Lord for this grace of all graces in being within the walls of our Visitation Monastery in Paray on this Feast of His Sacred Heart during our 400th anniversary year! What a blessing!
The day was spent at the Monastery, beginning with all night adoration for those who were able, then breakfast, morning prayer and Mass. Adoration continued all morning, and we were also free to wander through the garden, take pictures or pray in the oratory which was the room in which St. Margaret Mary went home to God.
Paray is clearly a shrine for the public with as many as four liturgies in various languages throughout the day and the Visitandine sacristan being attentive to these liturgies.
A movable grate, with glass window and venetian blinds, permits the Sisters in choir to either participate in the Chapel liturgies, or enclose themselves for their own time of prayer without disturbance by or to those same ongoing liturgies.
We had our first silent meal in two weeks in the Paray refectory, in the traditional manner and setting, but towards the end, being a Sister’s Profession anniversary, Mother permitted us to speak and sing to the Sister. The Irish nun then took us English speaking Sisters (all 3 of us) for a tour while the French speakers, the majority, went with another Sister.
Sister brought us to the first oratory dedicated to the Sacred Heart, the first painting of the Sacred Heart, and through the well situated infirmary and porch.
We also went into a room dedicated to various relics of the Saint; the traveling bag she used, her bones, vestments worn at her canonization, etc; then to the library where we could see a display of her own writings; the actual pages of her autobiography and her letters.
The most emotionally moving part of the day was an incredible procession of lay people through the Paray Monastery’s gardens, with a contingent of priests bearing the Blessed Sacrament; a procession into which all of the Vistandines entered. The French hymns resounded throughout the garden enclosure as they walked, or were pushed in wheelchairs akin to Lourdes, 600 to a 1000 people in heartfelt prayer on their way to the Shrine chapel.
