This month of June, 2025, we celebrate 350 years since the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. As Guards of Honour our devotion to the Sacred Heart is formalised in our Guard of Honour enrollment and the Dial with the Hour we choose, “Hour of Reparation.” Whether we have been Guards of Honour for three years, or just joined, how has the Sacred Heart of Jesus transformed us? Yes, transformed. Sacred Heart devotions are not just rituals that are practised, but they are intended to bring the faithful closer to Christ. Adoration and the Sacraments, Confession and Communion are fundamental to this. But how has the Sacred Heart worked through us so others fall in love with the Heart of Jesus, so that, the coldness, indifference, and blasphemy towards the Sacred Heart of which Jesus speaks to St. Margaret Mary, is transformed not only into a burning love that we have, but that others also have.

We cannot feel content or satisfied that we have done enough, that we have loved enough. Love has no limit. Grace has no limit. What comes in the way between ourselves and God, ourselves and others, are those defects: impatience, pride, self-centredness, spiritual sloth, concupiscence (this includes food). While the austere asceticism of mystics such as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque might be asking too much—nobody really uses instruments of mortification anymore, and perhaps a few manage with water and bread on Fridays (and Wednesday)—but what ascetic practises do we engage in. Or has asceticism been abandoned? What concrete acts do we perform as a sign of our desire to be closer to the Sacred Heart? And also purified because divine love “purifies” This is why St. John Eudes uses the “burning furnace” image to speak of the love of Jesus! Love is concrete. Mercy is concrete. Catholics have always emphasised on the concreteness of how we live the teachings of Christ. Jesus Himself says, “If you love me, you will keep my Commandments” (John 14:5). Obedience, is concrete: to do what is holy and pleasing to God and to avoid what is unholy and displeasing to God. It is by love that we come to know the Heart of Jesus, His eternal love for us, and our finite and fragile love for Him.

When was the last time we went to Confession? The Saints have endless sins they ask forgiveness for; but more and more people don’t seem to know what sins to confess? Does this mean the sense of sin is lost? How do we approach the Sacred Heart at Communion when we are in a state of sin? How do we spend time in Adoration seeking to hear the voice of God when we are impure in so many ways? “Blessed are the pure for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

To be one with the Sacred Heart means a receptivity to allow Jesus to unite us to His Heart, to allow Him, to transform us, so the Heart of Jesus can beat within us. So, the ways of the world do not lead us or even distract us, but the pulse of the Sacred Heart Jesus is that which moves us.

Life is, as it were, an hour of strife, of agony and of suffering.  We must watch and pray, and have our agony of blood if we would reach the end happily. But how shall we bear this agony? Let us place ourselves beside Jesus in the Garden of Olives; and see how He prays, and struggles, and agonizes for love of us; and unite our suffering to His. Through this nearness to our divine Lord, we shall find strength and courage. They are not to be found elsewhere. But we must “watch” and pray, with our good Master, in our hours of suffering, and not “SLEEP” indolently, far from Him.

“With Thee, sweet Savior, I will watch and pray, Thou wilt sustain me through life’s dreary day.”

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque writes to Sister Marie-Gabrielle Morant at Moulins in 1686. In this short three-quarter page letter, we encounter the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and His flames of pure love. The burning love of Jesus is purifying, and so, Saint Margaret Mary can recognise her wretchedness and wickedness. As divine love wipes away our dirt, we can see ourselves more clearly: pride and selfishness, especially. Sister Margaret Mary seeks to be “humiliated” and “despised” by everybody. This clarity of self-perception reflects the cleansing love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus shaping her. Such experiences terrify us, being humiliated and despised, but Saint Margaret Mary embraces the redemptive significance of suffering. So long as we can acknowledge our miseries, we can also offer thanksgiving to God for coming to rescue us, to save us, “His Sacred Heart is an inexhaustible fountain of mercy.” This is why Saint Margaret Mary states, “It seeks only to fill humble hearts emptied of self…” If our hearts are full of pride, how can Jesus enter our hearts with that love He wants to give us? And so, the daily experiences that serve to humble us, that purify us of pride and self-love, we should welcome as our hearts are rendered more open to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is not praise or flattery that we should seek or content ourselves with. Only loving the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that He may love us in return. To love means to suffer; there is no other way. Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque tell us that when we love, we become like our beloved, and so, we are to live our lives like Jesus, our Beloved.

It is the Heart of Jesus that gives this invitation. But to whom? To ALL, and particularly to you, dear Soul, who are weary, burdened and afflicted! He desires to refresh you and to console you. If, during this month, the chalice of pain is offered to you, do not lose courage; go to Jesus! Do you not hear Him still calling “Come unto Me.” Ah! who knows as He knows, how to heal our wounds, how to soothe our grief? Those who have suffered like to be with those who suffer. The Heart of Jesus, broken by the ingratitude of men, will so perfectly understand you.

These words proceeding from the adorable Heart of Jesus will be your support and your strength during this month. Jesus may present you with this Chalice as a part of His design of love towards your dear soul. He may ask you to taste it, but He will not ask you to drink it all. He reserves the bitterest portion for Himself. Do not refuse this cup of sorrow any longer. Whatever may be the affliction and the pain of which it is composed, look to Jesus; and uniting your dispositions to the adorable dispositions of His Heart, say, in each moment of anguish or trouble, “Father, not my will but Thine be done.”

“I take the chalice, Lord, which Thou hast given to me; and pray, while drinking it, my love may comfort Thee.”

When Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque writes to Sister Félice-Madeleine de la Barge at Moulins in 1686, we are given the Short of Act of Consecration that the Saint writes for her Visitandine Sister at Moulins. The words in this Short Act of Consecration reflect the central elements of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The consecration begins with “I” and the person’s name, “I…X give and consecrate to the Sacred Heart…” This tells us that the person acts in two ways: to “give” and to “consecrate”: our entire being is given and consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does this mean when we “give” and “consecrate”? It means we offer ourselves, placing ourselves before the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He makes us “sacred” by His own Heart. So, what we are doing in fact, is allowing Jesus to penetrate our Heart with His.

Jesus is the centre of this act of consecration, “my person and my life, my actions, trials and sufferings…” because each day we choose Jesus to be our all: when we have difficult choices, when we face challenging trials, and especially endure suffering: the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the one to be honoured, loved, and glorified, and that becomes the sole purpose of our being, only to “honour, love, and glorify Him.” This is consistent with the first words, “I…X…” because in the consecration we are giving ourselves, our complete being, there is nothing left behind or excluded. Love is generous, not selfish. Love does not hold back, love gives all. This is what the consecration tonthe Sacred Heart teaches us: giving all our being to Jesus.

The meditation on St. Margaret Mary’s Short Consecration will continue next month.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque writes in September 1686 to Mother Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles who is the Superior of the Visitandine community at Moulins. We discover in this letter the passion that moves St. Margaret Mary so in love with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that she wants to share with her sisters, in her Visitandine communities, so that this burning love of the Sacred Heart may spread like wildfire. Love is conveyed by sharing love; love is not meant to be contained for oneself. The truest love is the Heart of Jesus offered as a sacrifice for us. This explains why St. Margaret Mary is so eager to make the Revelations known, to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is why St. Margaret Mary insists – with mindful humility – on devotion to the Sacred Heart by the placing the image of the Sacred Heart in a prominent position for the protection of oneself and one’s family, and also to honour the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In writing to Mother Louise-Henriette, three significant words are used in relation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: to be “loved,” “honoured,” and “glorified.” We understand from St. Margaret Mary’s writings that this is the mission given to her by Jesus. St. Margaret Mary’s letters express the missionary quality – and appeal — of making the Sacred Heart of Jesus not only known, for knowing Jesus is the start, but to lead others to love, honour, and glorify Jesus. St. Margaret Mary knows this to be her mission, but she reminds us that this is our mission, the mission of the Church: to make Jesus loved, to make Jesus honoured, to make Jesus glorified. This mission St. Margaret Mary carries out with faith and courage. We also need to pray for faith and courage. St. Margaret Mary also reminds us that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has its source in the Gospel: The Heart of Jesus was sacrificed on the “tree of the Cross” to show His love for us, and “continues to do so in the Blessed Sacrament.” The love of the Sacred Heart is the one and same sacrifice offered on the Cross and continues to be offered in the Blessed Sacrament. The love of Jesus is true because it is real. As St. Margaret Mary conveys in her letter, Jesus still reaches out to us in His Body and Blood offered for us and to us.

As we read St. Margaret Mary’s letters, we discover her ongoing struggle: to make the Sacred Heart of Jesus known. On July 4 th , St. Margaret Mary writes from Paray-le-Monial to Mother Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles at Moulin. Jesus tells St. Margaret Mary that His Sacred Heart is meant to be adored – and so the significance to display the image of the Sacred Heart. 

St. Margaret Mary insists on this point. The struggle she has manifests itself in two ways: 1.) the blasphemes against the Holy Eucharist in the form of indifference, rejection, and unprepared reception of the Sacrament; and 2.) the numerous obstacles that St. Margaret Mary encounters to spread the devotion. St. Margaret Mary tells Mother Louise-Henriette, “I do not know, dear Mother, whether you understand this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ of which I am speaking.” St. Margaret Mary even had difficulty to have the devotion accepted in her own monastery at Paray-le-Monial. Mother Greyfié at Semur, St. Margaret Mary’s former Superior, was the first to introduce the devotion — at the monastery of Semur. Devotion to the Sacred Heart spread because St. Margaret Mary persevered, conveying what Jesus revealed to her in spite of the skepticism of her own Religious Sisters. In other words, the Sacred Heart devotion we promote today and that we strive to live by started with serious difficulties, nevertheless, a courageous woman; namely, the cloistered Visitandine nun. St. Margaret Mary guides us in what we still find today: the indifference towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His precious Body and Blood in the Sacrament; the challenges in spreading the devotion in our pagan culture. Yet, if a cloistered nun by the grace of God succeeded in transmitting the devotion that is now spread across the world, we can certainly persevere in transmitting the devotion in our own communities.

St. Margaret Mary writes to Mother Greyfié who is at the Visitandine convent of Semur. Writing at the end of June, beginning of July in 1686, St. Margaret Mary confides that she feels “annihilated” by her “destroyed” reputation. The acceptance of the divine Revelations was not immediate; and while St. Margaret Mary sought approval for the Revelations, she also faced ridicule by her own community.

We often overlook the fact that the Saints we attach ourselves to had undergone great suffering and purification in order to please God. To simply attach ourselves to a Saint or a devotion without fully appreciating the trials the Saint had undergone is to miss the message: the Church canonizes a Saint recognising holy sanctity — heroic virtue — a model whom we can follow and through whom we can seek intercession. The austerity of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque may not be for everybody, but radicality in living the Gospel is meant for all the followers of Christ. The willingness to defend and correct errors and to live in truth is intended for all of us. Radicality is the opposite of lukewarm. In our religious zeal of reparation to the Sacred Heart, we reduce the outrages and blasphemies directed towards Jesus.

The revelation to St. Margaret Mary is to ask the Father to make the Sacred Heart known, the Holy Spirit to make the Sacred heart loved, and the Virgin Mary, using her maternal influence, have the effects of the Sacred Heart are experienced by all those who turn to Jesus. The Visitandine community of Semur was the first to honour the Sacred Heart of Jesus and so the Semur community won the friendship  of Jesus. Semur becomes the well-beloved community of the Sacred Heart. While the Sacred Heart receives bitterness by the offenses caused by many, Jesus takes pleasure where His Sacred Heart is honoured.