May 15, 2025 Monastery of the Visitation – Soresina DON DANIELE PIAZZI «THIS IS THE HEART THAT HE LOVED SO MUCH»
SUMMARY 1. St. Margaret Mary: biographical notes
2. The experience of St. Margaret Mary is in the wake of mysticism: what is it?
3. Devotion and worship of the Sacred Heart: the origins – the liturgical feast – the influence on spirituality and pastoral care
4. Magisterial interventions
1. ST. MARGHERITA MARIA: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Margherita was born into a wealthy family in Burgundy in 1647. Her parents were fervent Catholics, but not enough to allow one of their daughters to become a nun. And yet Margherita already at the age of five consecrates herself to the Lord with a vow of chastity, but only at 24, overcoming the resistance of her family, does she manage to enter the Order of the Visitation founded by Saint Francis de Sales.
1.1 Among the Visitandines, but with Jesus Margherita – who, upon taking vows, added the name of Maria to her own – does not feel at ease among her fellow nuns: she has always had visions of the Madonna, but she never speaks of it. The rumors, however, go around, and many among the nuns and among her superiors do not believe her or even make fun of her, implying that she is sick or crazy. Among the Visitandines, however, she will remain for over twenty years, experiencing extraordinary graces but also enormous penances and mortifications that she will always face with a smile.
1.2 An autobiography for the Truth
1 It will be her spiritual father, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, who will recognize in her the charisma of the Saints and will order her to tell her mystical experiences in what will become her autobiography, which has come down to us. At first she resists, then out of obedience she agrees, but while she writes she remains convinced that she is doing it only for herself, she does not realize the value of what she is recounting in those pages. From 1673, Marguerite Marie also begins to receive visits from Jesus who asks her to have particular devotion to His Sacred Heart, which appears to her «radiant like a sun, with the adorable wound, surrounded by thorns and surmounted by a cross, lying on a throne of thorns». From her 1hrome extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://www.gianfrancobertagni.it/materiali/misticacristiana/Margherita %20Maria%20Alacoque,%20Autobiografia.pdf 1 story will emerge the iconography that we know today and, also for her mystical testimony, the institution of the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, set the day after the octave of Corpus Domini.
1.3 The great promise Jesus appears to Margaret Mary for 17 years, until the day of his death, when it will be again He who comes to take her by the hand. He calls her the “beloved disciple”, communicates to her the secrets of his heart and makes her a participant in the science of love. From Jesus, the nun also received a great promise: whoever received communion for nine consecutive months on the first Friday of the month, would be given the gift of final penance, that is, to die receiving the sacraments and in the absence of sin. Jesus also asked her to appeal to the King of France, Louis XIV, to consecrate the country to the Sacred Heart, but the Saint did not receive a response from the sovereign.
1.4 Death and Cult
Margherita Maria died on October 17, 1690. Centuries later, thanks to her and the development of the cult, which gradually became universal, a sanctuary dedicated to the Sacred Heart was built in the Montmartre district of Paris between 1875 and 1914, and consecrated in 1919. Beatified by Pius IX in 1864, she was canonized by Benedict XV in 1920. This is the prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that the Saint recited: I give and consecrate to the adorable Heart of Jesus my person and my life, my actions, pains and sufferings so as not to use any part of my being, except to honor Him, love Him and glorify Him. This is my irrevocable will: to be all His and to do everything for His love, renounce everything that might displease Him. I choose you, Sacred Heart of Jesus, as the sole object of my love, guardian of my life, pledge of my salvation, remedy for my frailty and inconstancy, repairer of all the sins of my life and safe refuge at the hour of my death. Be, O Heart of goodness and mercy, my justification before God the Father and turn away from me his just indignation. Loving Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in you, because I fear everything from my malice and weakness, but I hope for everything from your goodness. Destroy in me everything that can displease you. May your pure love be deeply imprinted in my heart so that I can never forget you or be separated from you. I ask you, by your goodness, that my name be written in you, because I want to live and die as your true devotee. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you!
2 2. MYSTIC
The experience of Saint Margaret Mary is in the wake of mysticism
2 The mystical experience is never something that can be acquired through exercises, ascetic techniques or esoteric paths. It does not presuppose any moral perfection nor a spiritual evolution similar to biological evolution. Saint Teresa of Avila says: “We cannot elevate ourselves if God does not elevate us”; therefore mysticism as an “experience” is the violent, sudden irruption of God into the soul, their union. Mystics speak of a “fire of love”, of “illumination”, of “divinization”, of a gift of undeserved and unheard-of grace, indubitable and incomprehensible at the same time, sublime and dazzling, full of thrilling enjoyment and transforming. And it is not necessary to write a treatise to explain what “grace” means. It is enough to refer to a term of immediate understanding: “gratis”. Mysticism as a theological discipline is interested in studying the testimonies of those who, in the history of religions, have experienced what we have just said and much more. Over the centuries, many definitions have been proposed. The most complete is undoubtedly the one coined by Father Albert Deblaere, S.J.: «Direct and passive experience of the presence of God». The importance of the revelations of Saint Margaret lies in the fact that they help us understand how much «carnality» there is in devotion to the Sacred Heart. Let us always read what she shares with us: Once, before the Blessed Sacrament, with a little time available, because my duties left me very little, I found myself completely invested by this divine presence, so strong that I forgot myself and where I was. Then I abandoned myself to this divine Spirit, giving my heart to the strength of his love. He made me rest for a long time on his divine breast and there he made me discover the wonders of his love and the inexplicable secrets of his Sacred Heart, which he had always kept hidden from me». Leaning against the Redeemer’s chest, she heard these words addressed to her: “My Divine Heart is so passionately in love [with men] that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its ardent charity. It must shed them through you, and manifest itself to enrich them with its precious treasures, which contain all the graces they need to be saved from perdition.
3. DEVOTION AND CULT OF THE SACRED HEART
3.1 The origins
The cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was not born, as some might think, in the 17th century, following the well-known revelations of Saint Mary Margaret Mary Alacoque, but dates back several centuries. In a certain sense it is rooted in the homilies and works of various Fathers of the Church between the 4th and 7th centuries. Especially those of Asia Minor, commenting on the water and blood that, according to the evangelist John, flowed from the pierced side of Jesus on the cross, have mentioned the wound in the side of Jesus as the source of the Spirit: of the Word, of grace and of the sacraments that communicate it. I will only mention Saint Augustine, who Pope Francis’s encyclical Dilexi vos summarizes in n.103 as follows: 2https://www.mistica.it/
3 Saint Augustine paved the way for devotion to the Sacred Heart as a place of personal encounter with the Lord. For him, that is, the chest of Christ is not only the source of grace and the sacraments, but he personalizes it, presenting it as a symbol of intimate union with Christ, as a place of an encounter of love. There lies the origin of the most precious wisdom, which is that of knowing Him. In fact, Augustine writes that John, the beloved, when at the Last Supper he bowed his head on Jesus’ chest, approached the secret place of wisdom. Centuries later, the one who is indicated by some as the last of the Fathers, an expression of biblical-monastic theology, Saint Bernard, took up the symbolism of the pierced side of the Lord, explicitly understanding it as a revelation and gift of the love of his Heart. Through the wound it becomes accessible to us and we can make our own the great mystery of love and mercy: I take for myself from the bowels of the Lord what I lack, because they abound in mercy, nor are the cracks lacking through which they can flow to me. They pierced his hands and his feet, they torn his side with the spear, and through these cracks I can suck the honey of the stone and the oil of the hardest rock, that is, taste and see how sweet the Lord is. […] The iron pierced his soul, and approached his heart so that he can no longer not pity my weaknesses. The entrance to the secret of the heart is opened through the wounds of the body, that great sacrament of piety appears, the bowels of mercy of our God appear.
Devotion to the pierced heart of Jesus is noted in medieval mystical writers, both German and French between the 11th and 12th centuries: I only remember Bernard’s contemporary, William of Saint Thierry (+1148): You love us because you make us your lovers and we love you because we receive your Spirit. Your Spirit is your love that penetrates and possesses the intimate fibers of our affections […] While our love is affectus, yours is effectus, an efficacy that unites us to you thanks to your unity, to the Holy Spirit that you have given us. The devotion will develop especially in Flanders, now the Netherlands, between the 13th and 14th centuries, and then spread to Germany, France and Italy. I cite some names known to medieval historians and of spirituality: Maria d’Oignies, Lutgarda d’Aywières, St. Mechtilde, St. Gertrude; to these forerunners are added the Dominican communities of Colmar and Schonensteinbach, the Carthusians of Trier, Strasbourg, Cologne. In Italy the Franciscan order actively contributed with St. Bonaventure (+1274), closing parenthesis, St. Margaret of Cortona (+ 1297) and St. Angela of Foligno (+1309) with her famous Book of Visions. There was no shortage of images representing that heart opened by the spear or alone, surmounted by the initials IHS, or surrounded by flames. Or even surrounded by two hands and two pierced feet. Hymns, rhythms in honor of the heart of Jesus enjoyed great popularity among the devotees: famous for example is the one already attributed to the blessed Herman, archbishop of Cologne (+1241) in the form of a three-song poem, instead the work of the Cistercian abbot Arnulf Van Leuven (1240-1248): Summi Regi cor, aveto! Te saluto corde laeto. Te complecti me delectat et hoc meum cor affectat ut ad te loquar, animes. Ave, Heart of the Supreme King! I salute you with a festive heart. Embracing you delights me and so my heart desires you so that by speaking with you, I may find life again. In a monastery of Visitandines I cannot fail to mention the contribution to the devotion to the Heart of Jesus of Saint Francis de Sales, as summarized in the encyclical Dilexit nos of Pope Francis at nn. 114 – 118 114.
In modern times, the contribution of Saint Francis de Sales (+ 1622) is noteworthy. He often contemplated the open Heart of Christ, which invites us to dwell within Him in a personal relationship of love, in which the mysteries of life are illuminated. We can see in the thought of this holy doctor how, in the face of a rigorist morality or a religiosity of mere observance, the 4 Heart of Christ appeared to him as a call to full trust in the mysterious action of his grace. This is how he expressed it in his proposal to the Baroness de Chantal: “It is very clear to me that we will no longer remain in ourselves […] and that we will dwell forever in the wounded side of the Savior; without him, in fact, not only cannot we, but even if we could, we would not want to do anything.” 115. For him, devotion was far from becoming a form of superstition or an undue objectification of grace, because it meant an invitation to a personal relationship in which each one feels unique before Christ, recognized in his unrepeatable reality, thought of by Christ and considered in a direct and exclusive way: “This most adorable and most lovable heart of our Master, burning with the love he professes for us, a heart in which we see all our names written […]. It is certainly a matter of great consolation to be loved with such affection by Our Lord who always carries us in His Heart» […] 116. «Yes, my dearest Daughter, He thinks of you, and not only of you, but also of the smallest hair of your head: it is a truth of faith that must absolutely not be doubted» … «O God, what happiness to be thus in the arms and on the chest [of the Savior]. […] Remain thus, dear Daughter, and like another little Saint John, while the others eat various foods at the table of the Savior, you rest and incline, with the simplest trust, your head, your soul, your spirit on the loving chest of the dear Lord». «I hope that you are in spirit in the cave of the turtledove and in the torn side of our dear Savior. […] How good this Lord is, my dear daughter! How lovable is his heart! Let us remain there, in that holy domicile». [108] 118. For all these reasons, when it came to thinking of a symbol that could summarize his proposal for spiritual life, he concluded: “I have therefore thought, my dear Mother, if you agree, that we should take as our coat of arms a single heart pierced by two arrows, enclosed in a crown of thorns”.
3.2 The liturgical feast
From the second half of the 14th century, devotion seems to decline throughout the 15th. But it resumes vigorously in the 16th century, tending every day more to transform itself into Catholic devotion, and to demand official recognition of the liturgy. This occurred first of all in France, but limited to simple diocesan approval. It is to John Eudes (1601-1680) who goes the honor of having inaugurated the cult of the Sacred Heart. By decree dated March 8, 1670 of the bishop of Rennes, Eudes obtained the faculty to solemnly celebrate every year on August 30, the festa of the Sacred Heart in the homes of the congregation he founded, Using office and mass forms composed by him. The example of the bishop of Rennes was imitated by others throughout France, as well as in several dioceses of Italy and Germany. It should be noted that the long and tireless apostolate of John Eudes in favor of devotion to the Sacred Heart preceded the time of Saint Mary Margaret Alacoque. However, it was from the second hotbed of devotion, the Visitandine monastery of Paray le Monial, where Saint Mary Margaret lived and died, that the first proposals to the Holy See for the institution of a feast throughout the Church came. However, it was only in 1856 that Pius IX, urged particularly by Abbot Prospero Guérangere of Solesmes (a leading figure in the early Liturgical Movement), decreed the extension of the feast to the entire Church. It was set on the Friday after the then existing Octave of Corpus Christi, the Friday on which it is still celebrated. The chosen date keeps the solemnity connected both with the Passion and with the Eucharist (being placed on the Friday following the current celebration on Corpus Christi Sunday).
3.3 Four centuries of devotion and worship between the Bible, theology, spirituality and popular devotion Pope Pius XII in the encyclical Haurietis aquas of 1956 summarized the meaning of the devotion to the Heart of Christ as follows: «It is not the worship of an organ separated from the Person of Jesus. What we contemplate and adore is Jesus Christ whole, the Son of God made man, represented in an image of his 5 where his heart is highlighted. In this case the heart of flesh is taken as an image or privileged sign of the most intimate center of the incarnate Son and of his love both divine and human, because more than any other member of his body it is the natural index, or symbol of his immense charity. We can summarize the promises made to Saint Margaret thus:
1. My blessing will remain on the homes in which the image of my Sacred Heart will be exposed and venerated.
2. I will give to the devotees of my Heart all the graces necessary for their state.
3. I will establish and preserve peace in their families.
4. I will console them in all their afflictions.
5. I will be a safe refuge in life and especially at the hour of death.
6. I will pour out abundant blessings on their works and their enterprises.
7. Sinners will find in my Heart an inexhaustible source of mercy.
8. Lukewarm souls will become fervent through the practice of this devotion.
9. Fervent souls will quickly rise to great perfection.
10. I will give to priests who practice this devotion in particular the power to touch the most hardened hearts.
11. People who spread this devotion will have their name written forever in my Heart.
12. To all those who for nine consecutive months will receive communion on the first Friday of each month, I will give the grace of final perseverance and eternal salvation.
These indications have been translated into devotional practices, which have shaped parish pastoral care, especially since the middle of the 19th century. They have had the merit of educating the faithful in a spirituality that is not learned, but not magical-sacral either. For centuries, the practice of the first Fridays of the month and of the month of the Sacred Heart (June), has educated: – – – – a Christocentric faith: the person of Jesus pierced on the cross is at the heart of devotion. In a certain sense, through the humanity of Christ, one has access to the mystery of Easter, of his life given; access that is achieved with frequent Eucharistic communion; to take charge of sinners, loving them, and “repairing” the consequences of sin that offends God and disfigures man. Thus, one has been educated to use mercy towards the sinner and to the communion of the mystical body, because if one member suffers, the whole body suffers. In centuries of spirituality and Catholic theology that has struggled to delineate the activity and role of the action of the Spirit, devotion to the intimate, immersive, enveloping and unconditional love of Christ (see the image of the pulsating heart, of fire, of light …), has made the faithful perceive the dynamism of the action of the Trinity and of Christian life, which lives of the relationship – action between God and the believing soul. In centuries in which participation in the liturgy was confined to moral duties (the virtue of religion): you must praise your God; and the rites were the prerogative of the fixism of the rubrics (this is how it must be celebrated for the rite to be regular), devotion to the Sacred Heart has put Jesus back at the center of Christian life. All this even if the cult has known pietistic and intimate drifts, sometimes cloying. Of course there are some shortcomings: no reference to the Sunday, to the theological sense of the Eucharistic ritual and the Trinitarian doctrine remains under the radar. But it has been like this for much of the second half of my llennium up to the liturgical movement and Vatican II.
6 Equally, the theme of reparation for the offense that sinners commit against God, almost a “vicarious atonement” for the sins of others, has risked communicating the idea of a Father who is a rigorous judge who demands at all costs that someone pay, first and foremost, the crucified Son. Seasons that are more attentive to the biblical message and to a mature ecclesiology and soteriology will have to mature, so that the problem of evil and its consequences is more widely investigated. It is the great theme of the communion of saints, of the baptized, which sees us in solidarity in the good that we do, but also in bearing each other’s burdens, including the evil that others do. The Apostleship of Prayer, today the Pope’s World Prayer Network, deserves a mention. In 1844, the Apostleship of Prayer (AdP) was born thanks to the work of Fr. Francis Xavier Gautrelet S.I., in France, in a student house of the Society of Jesus. In 1879, Leo XIII was the first Pope who entrusted the monthly intention for which to offer one’s day to the Apostolate. How many of us with white hair remember that we opened the day, as in seminaries and religious houses, with the prayer: Divine Heart of Jesus, I offer you through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of the Church, in union with the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the prayers, actions, joys and sufferings of this day in reparation for sins and for the salvation of all men, in the grace of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of the Divine Father. Amen. In a certain sense, the AdP had given the laity the means to live their baptism in the simplicity of daily life and to participate in the priesthood of the whole Church. Certainly there was no theological awareness of the baptismal vocation or of the common priesthood of the faithful.
4. MAGISTERIAL INTERVENTIONS
4.1 Pope Pius IX: devotion becomes universal In 1856, Pius IX elevated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to universal worship, establishing devotion as an integral part of the Catholic liturgy. His decision had the effect of rapidly spreading this practice throughout the Catholic world, inviting the faithful to unite in the adoration of the Heart of Christ.
4.2 Leo XIII: Annum Sacrum With this encyclical, on the eve of the Holy Year of 1900, the Pope asks all the bishops of the Catholic Church to consecrate the human race to the Heart of Jesus. The dominant theme is that of the “Lordship” of Christ, of his “Royalty”. This is a universal Lordship, over the entire human race and the cosmos, that Christ has, both by virtue of his being the Son of God, and because by dying on the cross he saved all humanity.
4.3 Pius XI: Miserentissimus Redemptor Pius XI thought that Catholics should work to create a totally Christian society, in which Christ reigned over every aspect of life. He therefore intended to build a new Christianity that, renouncing the institutional forms of the Ancien Régime, would strive to move within contemporary society. The encyclicals Quas primas (December 11, 1925), which also instituted the feast of Christ the King, and Miserentissimus Redemptor (May 8, 1928) on the cult of the Sacred Heart are part of this program: “It is certain that among all the practices that properly belong 7 to the cult of the Most Sacred Heart, the pious consecration stands out, worthy of mention, by which we offer ourselves and all our things to the Heart of Jesus, acknowledging that they have been received from the eternal charity of God.”
4. 4 Pius XII and the Encyclical Haurietis Aquas The venerable Pope Pius XII, with the encyclical Haurietis Aquas of 1956, offered one of the most profound contributions to the understanding of the cult of the Sacred Heart. He vigorously defended devotion from the criticisms of Naturalism and Sentimentalism, highlighting how it represents a concrete response to the love of God manifested in the heart of Christ. The encyclical invites the faithful to immerse themselves in the waters of divine mercy that flow from the Heart of Jesus.
4.5 John Paul II: The Heart of Christ, Source of Mercy John Paul II saw in the Sacred Heart of Jesus an inexhaustible source of mercy. During his pontificate, he constantly promoted devotion to the Heart of Christ, emphasizing the importance of responding to his love with trust and dedication. He invited all the faithful to immerse themselves in this redeeming love, which brings healing and peace.
4.6 Pope Benedict XVI: the Sacred Heart as a synthesis of the Gospel In May 2006, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Haurietis Aquas, in the letter to the Superior General of the Jesuits, Benedict XVI reaffirmed the importance of the devotion to the Sacred Heart as a “synthesis of the Gospel”. The Heart of Christ, the Pope explained, is not only a symbol of his divine love, but also of the human love that he has for each of us. Renewing this devotion means approaching the source of love that permeates the whole vita cristiana.
4.7 Pope Francis and his latest encyclical: Dilexit nos With the publication of his latest encyclical Dilexit nos (24 October 2024), Pope Francis adds his contribution to the long tradition of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The text enriches the tones of devotion with biblical references and inspiration3. Pope Francis draws attention to the profound and unconditional love that flows from the Heart of Jesus, a love that invites us to serve our brothers and sisters and to live a life of compassion and solidarity. He writes at n. 101: In the pierced Heart of Christ are concentrated, written in the flesh, all the expressions of love in the Scriptures. It is not a love simply declared, but his open side is a source of life for those who are loved, it is that source that quenches the thirst of his people. As Saint John Paul II taught, “the essential elements of this devotion belong permanently to the spirituality of the Church throughout her history, since from the beginning the Church has turned her gaze to the heart of Christ pierced on the cross”. It is right, in the presence of the relics of Saint Mary Margaret and the community of the Visitandines, to conclude this intervention with what is written in nn. 121-124 of the encyclical cited: 121. The intense recognition of the love of Jesus that Saint Margaret Mary transmitted to us offers us precious incentives for our union with Him. This does not mean that we feel obliged to 3https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/encyclicals/documents/20241024-enciclica-dilexit-nos.html 8 accept or assume all the details of this spiritual proposal, where, as often happens, human elements linked to the desires, concerns and interior images of the subject are mixed with divine action. This proposal must always be reread in the light of the Gospel and of all the rich spiritual tradition of the Church, while we recognize how much good it has done in so many sisters and brothers. This allows us to recognize gifts of the Holy Spirit within this experience of faith and love. More important than the details is the core of the message that is transmitted to us and that can be summarized in those words that Saint Margaret heard: “Behold that Heart that so loved men and that spared nothing to the point of exhausting and consuming itself to testify to them of its love”. 122. This manifestation is an invitation to grow in the encounter with Christ, thanks to a trust without reservations, until reaching a full and definitive union: “May the divine Heart of Jesus replace us so much as to live and act only in us and for us. May his Will […] act absolutely without resistance on our part; in conclusion, may his affections, desires, and thoughts take the place of ours, but above all his love that will love itself in us and for us. And so, that lovable Heart of Jesus being for us everything in everything, we will be able to say with Saint Paul that we no longer live but that it is he who lives in us”. 124. Elsewhere we note that the One who gives himself to us is the risen Christ, full of glory, full of life and light. Although at various points he speaks of the sufferings he endured for us and of the ingratitude he receives, here it is not the blood and painful wounds that stand out, but the light and fire of the Living One. The wounds of the Passion, which do not disappear, are transfigured. Thus, the Mystery of Pascha is revealed here in its entirety: «Once, […] while the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, […] Jesus Christ, my sweet Master, presented himself to me all resplendent with glory, with his five wounds shining like five suns. From every part of that sacred humanity flames burst forth, but above all from his adorable breast, which resembled a burning furnace.
After having discovered it, he showed me his loving and most lovable Heart, the living source of those flames. It was then that he revealed to me the inexplicable wonders of his pure Love and to what excess this had pushed him to love men, from whom he then received in return only ingratitude and indifference».