Day 1: Prayer
“Teach us to pray” Lk 11:1
Let us ask today for the grace of prayer, a prayer centered on Jesus, as transmitted to us in the Gospels, as Jesus himself taught our saint, in order to love him and to be like him.
“When I addressed myself to my sovereign Master, he told me how he wanted me to pray; which has served me all my life. He made me humbly prostrate myself before him, to ask his forgiveness for everything in which I had offended him… Then he presented himself to me in the mystery in which he wished me to consider him. My heart was consumed with the desire to love Him, and this gave me an insatiable desire for Holy Communion and to suffer. »
Prayer
Lord, teach me to pray to you as you desire to be prayed to, to meet you, to listen to you, to love you and to be united throughout this day.
“Hail, Heart of my Master, teach me.”
Day 2: Doing What God Expects of Us
“Thy will be done!” Mt 6:10
Like St. Margaret Mary, we seek to love Jesus. Let us understand today that to love Him is to do what He asks of us.
“Being once before the Blessed Sacrament, on the day of its octave, I received from my God excessive graces of his love, and felt touched with the desire of some return, and of returning love for love, and he said to me: ‘You cannot make me a greater one except by doing what I have already asked you so many times.’ » A 92
Prayer
Teach me, Lord, to hear your voice, to know what you expect of me, and to carry it out, with joy and love.
“Hail, Heart of my Father, govern me.”
Day 3: Depend on Mercy
“Apart from me you can do nothing. » Jn 15:5
Our saint is shown that it would be harmful for her to do too well on her own, if this were to make her proud and render the good care of Jesus useless. Let us ask today for the grace to love throwing ourselves into the arms of Jesus to ask for forgiveness.
“Alas! I am not faithful and I often fall: in which sometimes he seemed to take pleasure, as much to confound my pride, as to establish me in distrust of myself… And then this sovereign Good of my soul came to my aid, and like a good Father stretched out the arms of his love to me, saying to me: “So you know very well that you can do nothing without me! ” Which made me melt with gratitude… to see that he only took revenge for my sins… through excesses of love. » At 71
Pray
Lord, grant me not to desire a perfection which would make your mercy vain, but to want to need you in everything.
“Hail, Merciful Heart, answer for me. »
Day 4: Overcome with Jesus
“He gives to the humble the brightness of victory” Ps 149, 4
Saint Marguerite-Marie experiences that the Lord accentuates her faults rather than resolving them, because he likes to see her fight and win. Let us ask today for the grace to love spiritual combat.
“I was so cozy… But he did not want to diminish my sensitivity, nor my great repugnances, as much to honor those that he had wanted to feel in the Olive Garden, as to provide me with material for victory and humiliation . » A 71
And even, “it would increase my sensitivities and my repugnances, in such a way that I would do nothing except with difficulty and violence, to give me material for victory, even in the most trivial and indifferent things. » At 90
Pray
Lord, grant me to bear with patience my failings, and to lean resolutely on the work of your salvation in me, which is your victory and not mine.
“Hail, most holy and profitable Heart, help me. »
Day 5: A goalkeeper by our side
“Their angels always see the face of my Father” Mt 18:10
The Lord will place a special guardian angel with our saint, whose presence she will often experience.
It is an opportunity for us today to remember that there is only one angel dedicated to watching over us.
“Our Lord came to console me, saying to me: ‘My daughter, do not grieve, for I want to give you a faithful guardian who will accompany you everywhere and assist you in all your interior needs, and who will prevent your enemy from taking advantage of all the faults into which he thinks he will make you fall by his suggestions, which will return to his confusion’ – a grace that gives me such strength that it seems to me that I have nothing more to fear. for this faithful guardian of my soul assists me with so much love, that he frees me from all these sorrows. MS 49
Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for the guardian angel you have placed by my side, to watch over me. Grant that I may be sensitive to his presence and that I may better let myself be guided by him.
“Hail, Heart of my Creator, perfect me.”
Day 6: Let go of the compensations
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Mt 6:21
St. Margaret Mary considered it a remarkable grace that Jesus never let her find comfort outside of Himself. Let us ask today for the grace not to settle down in earthly rejoicing, but to put our joy in God alone.
“My Divine Master… He wanted me to suffer in silence, having made me adopt this motto: I want to suffer everything without complaining, since my pure love prevents me from fearing anything. He wanted me to expect everything from him; and if it happened that I wished to procure any consolation, he made me meet with nothing but desolation and new torments for all relief
: which I have always regarded as one of the greatest graces that my God has bestowed upon me. » A 85
Prayer
Lord, keep me from seeking to satisfy my heart with creatures who cannot fill it. Keep it as the place of your only presence.
“Hail, Magnificent Heart, burst forth in me.”
Day 7: Supporting Yourself
“How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are!” Song 1:15
St. Margaret Mary was always lucid about her faults and her share of interior ugliness. Let us ask today for the grace of the right love of ourselves, in spite of what we do not like in ourselves, and which makes us suffer.
“God, through his goodness, always sustained me, in the midst of persecutions, contradictions and humiliations… on the part of myself, who has been the most cruel enemy I have had to fight, and the most difficult to overcome… It pained me to believe that I was abhorrent to all creatures, and that they had great difficulty in bearing with me, as they had much to suffer myself. And all this gave me continual pain… » A 85
Prayer
Lord, I pray you to look upon me with tenderness and wonder; Let me now know the value I have in your eyes.
“Hail,
Heart of my Friend,
caress me.”
Day 8: Tapping into the Heart of Jesus
“Take my yoke upon you.” Mt 11:29
We are not without means to move forward on the path since Jesus gave us his Heart.
Margaret Mary said to Jesus, “My God… I will always pay you only with your own possessions, which are the treasures of your Sacred Heart. And she adds: “That is what he was pleased with.Jesus to the saint: “This Heart will be your surety, who will answer and pay for you; He will be the repairer of all your faults, and will take care to fulfill all your duties and obligations, and you will lack help only when he lacks power… L 133
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you have done everything for me. You give me your Heart. Grant me to think of it often, so that I may draw from it all the graces I may need today.
“Hail, Most Faithful Heart, pray for me.”
Day 9: Knowing Love
“You’ll know…” the love of Christ. Eph 3:19
Let us ask today for the grace to be seized by Jesus’ love for us.
“He made me rest for a long time on his divine breast, where he revealed to me the wonders of his love, and the inexplicable secrets of his sacred heart, which he had always kept hidden from me, until he opened it to me for the first time, but in such an effective and sensitive manner that he left me no reason to doubt it… » A 53
Prayer
Lord, grant me the grace to believe in the immense love you have for me in particular, to let myself be seized by him, and to abide in him.
“Hail, Dear Heart, kiss me.”
Source: Santuaire Paray Novena, Spiritual Warfare – Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart Paray-Le-Monial (sacrecoeur-paray.org)