Discover the exceptional figure of the Venerable Louise-Marguerite Claret de la Touche, Visitandine, at the origin of a congregation whose mission is to pray for priests.
Louise-Marguerite was born on March 15, 1868 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye into a family of the aristocracy. After the death of her father in 1875 and the remarriage of her mother, she lived in Valence. Despite her private vow of virginity, she leads a fairly dissipated youth where God no longer had much room. Despite this, at the dawn of her adult life, her faith revives as in the time of her childhood, she then leaves the pleasures of the world and idleness to enter the monastery of the Visitation of Romans-sur-Isère at the age of 22.
October 17, 1892, on the feast of Blessed Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (who will be canonized in 1920), she made her profession. Her fragile health does not prevent her from being a fervent nun. On August 2, 1895, she made a “vow of abandonment” to the Lord to give herself up ever more with confidence to his will.
In 1896, she took as confessor Fr. Alfred Charrier S.J. who will be her spiritual director.
Soon she received special graces. June 5 1902, the eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, Jesus said to her: “I I will give you the souls of priests.” The Lord revealed to her then the treasures of love contained in His Sacred Heart, which must particularly benefit priests so that they may spread them on the faithful.
From there, she undertook the writing of a book for priests: The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood (or The Heart of Jesus and the priest).
In 1906, the anticlerical laws of separation of Church and State led to the expulsion of almost all the religious men and women of France. Her monastery is forced to flee to Italy. Having become superior of her community in 1907, she sought a new place to settle. On March 19, 1914, on the feast of St. Joseph, she founded the Visitation of the Sacred Heart in Vische (Italy), which aims to support priests through prayer. A Priestly Alliance brings together priests who live from this spirituality. She devoted her entire last year of life to this work.
She surrenders her soul to God on the 14th May 1915. Three years later, on April 24, 1918, the Institute received the name of Sisters of Bethany of the Sacred Heart. Her visions and writings inspired Mgr Matteo Angelo Filipello, bishop of Ivrea, and the Father Alfred Charrier, S.J., who founded the Universal Priestly Alliance of Friends of Sacred Heart, canonically erected on June 16, 1918.
The beatification process of Mother Louise-Marguerite Claret de la Touche is open since 1937 and Benedict XVI declared her Venerable on June 26, 2006.
We relate here an extract from the book “The Sacred Heart and the Priesthood” which she wrote. “Christ belongs to the priest!” He voluntarily gave himself to him. Through the Eucharist, to the Holy Sacrifice, it becomes the divine possession of the Priest. All of Jesus: his spirit, his doctrine, his words, his very holy soul, his very loving Heart, his very pure body, his divinity, everything belongs to the Priest who can dispose of it as his property, his property particular. He takes it in his hands, he quenches his thirst with his blood, he feeds on his flesh, and not only does he live from Jesus, but he makes others live from him. In fact, if he can enjoy his possession, he can give it to the faithful and make souls benefit from it. Christ is the priest’s but the priest is also Christ’s, there must be reciprocity. And because Christ entirely gave himself to the priest, the same priest entirely must give himself give fully, totally to Jesus. The priest offers him his mind, his heart, his body, that is to say all its intelligence, its thoughts, its affections and its wills, all his works and all the moments that constitute his life. The priest belongs to Christ who can therefore dispose of him with the same power as the priest can dispose of Jesus. For there to be equality, the priest must, by the hand of Jesus Christ, be as the white host is in the hands of the priest. Meditate on this that there is something profound and divine in this union of Christ with the priest, and 6 reciprocally, of the priest with Christ. It is not like the union of the Word with humanity in Jesus, but it is something deeply narrow and intimate. The priest is for souls. Indeed, he is their possession as he himself is in possession of Christ. He is theirs, he no longer belongs to himself and no longer lives for himself. It must be totally given, dedicated to souls. The mother does not belongshe doesn’t her child? Doesn’t she owe everything to him, and doesn’t he have the right to all the help? what can she give him in his weakness? And the child also belongs to his mother. He is her property is a deposit that the Good Lord has entrusted to her, she takes it wherever she wants. She cajoles him or corrects him when he does something stupid; she disposes of it as she pleases for her well, and is entitled to his obedience. It is by the example of an upright and orderly life that the mother raises her child, it is the same for the priest. Thus what can be delicate in the heart of the priest for souls who have become his treasure in Christ, also arouses in souls respect, confidence, for priest that God gave them to lead them to Him. The souls are therefore at priest ; and of this double possession, made in the spirit and grace of Jesus, must born, on the part of the priest, a boundless dedication, and on the part of the souls a unreserved trust. But so that the faithful have full confidence in their priests, they must be models of holiness, and to have priests according to the Heart of God, the faithful must pray more for this intention. Needless to say ! » Let us pray that the hearts of priests burn with the very love that consume the Heart of Jesus!