Dear friends,
This May is an opportunity to celebrate the canonization of Saint Marguerite-Marie and its influence over the centuries since May 13, 1920.
How did Margaret Mary experience confinement? She experienced it quite concretely during periods of family persecution as a child. Her room, smaller than a nun’s cell, was the place where she liked to find Jesus in secret. Several times, she was prevented from communing, so she found refuge on a rock and, turning her gaze to the bell tower, she thought of Jesus who was there and offered her her heart. During her mother’s illness, doctors and relatives did not care about her and Marguerite-Marie found refuge in Jesus and Marie, asking them to guide her hands to heal her. She herself, in health difficulties, remained at peace and led her mother to confide in Jesus since there is no other recourse.
In this letter you will find some examples to help you too to follow the Heart of Jesus with confidence.
Let us also think of all these works created by or for lay people, which invite us to live the devotion to the Heart of Jesus in our house: the family of the Heart of Jesus, a small fraternity of which each member takes turns to pray a novena to the Sacred Heart ; the guard of honor and the hour of presence at Jesus with Mary and John at the foot of Calvary; the apostolate of prayer for those who cannot go to the field, uniting with the prayer of the Pope and the Church; the enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the family and the invitation to make our house a Bethany where Jesus enjoys resting; the holy hour that we can live at the foot of our bed or as a family in front of the image of the Sacred Heart that we have been able to induct …
Dear brothers and sisters, here are many initiatives that confirm that Jesus is knocking on the door of our house or apartment to stay there. In our turn, in these trials, let us give him love for love and enter into the charity of his heart.
May Saint Margaret Mary intercede for us and help us to love and make love to the Heart of Jesus.
Father Benoit Guédas,
rector of the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart.