A wonderful opportunity to soak in the environments in which St. Margaret Mary lived was presented to some Visitandine Sister pilgrims during the 400th anniversary of the Visitation Order.
To help prepare for St. Margaret Mary’s Feast this Friday, October 16th, recalling those memories of the journey stir up the extraordinary moments of prayer and insights gained during that trip.
One journal records those days in this fashion:
Wed June 9
Today we left Annecy for Paray-le-Monial. Our first stop was Verosvres, the birthplace of St Margaret Mary. The Superior of Paray met us at the Church where St. Margaret Mary was baptized, where we attended Mass. The Church was very old, with splintery pews and a baptismal font of stone, so worn with age. We proceeded to her childhood home, now a high school, where we had lunch, then a tour of the room she was born in.
We traveled on to Charolles – St Margaret Mary’s godmother’s estate and castle. A young woman with two babies lives there now. The view was magnificent and the property so European with turrets and towers and castle-like structures.
Finally we arrived at the mustard colored buildings of the town of Paray. 
Greeted with ” gouter” in “Cana” a retreat dining area within the precincts of the Monastery, we afterwards hurried off to the Chapel of St.Claude, then to a diorama nearby with the history of St Margaret Mary, and again back to the Monastery to be shown our chambers within the ancient monastic corridors. My room looked out upon the tower of the Basilica, French style roofs and gardens. It was dedicated to St John the Evangelist.
Friday June 11
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 S Margaret Mary went home to God.
Paray-le-Monial 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 Monastery 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.![St_Margaret_Mary[1]](http://visitationspirit.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/St_Margaret_Mary1.jpg)
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.
Who said there is no faith in France?
Everywhere we went the churches were full and the people sang heartily, their faces glowing; every Mass was concelebrated and very reverent and liturgically up to date.”
As you prepare to celebrate St. Margaret Mary’s Feast, place yourself spiritually in her town and Monastery as you ask for her intercession. May your prayer be enhanced and answered!