We are the Guards of Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The month May prepares us for the Sacred Heart in the month of June. We can ask the Immaculate Heart of Mary to help us in our spiritual preparation to unite us with her Son.

So, we should take a moment to reflect, “What does it mean to be a Guard of Honour?” “How do we prepare our hearts for the Sacred Heart?”

As Guards of Honour we all have our scheduled day and time to unite ourselves with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Even when we are engaged in some other activity at our scheduled time, we remain spiritually one with the Sacred Heart if that is our intention. Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart Bernaud tells us, “The zeal that consumes the Heart of Jesus must pass on to the hearts of His friends. The most humble “Guard of Honour” can and must be apostle and saviour with Jesus Christ.” So, we “make an offering of [our] day-to-day work, during the course of [our] privileged hour…” (Manual of the Association of the Guard of Honour of Jesus, Hour of Presence, pp. 31, 41). The hour is offered in a “spirit of praise and reparation.” This is why we have the symbolic enrollment of the members on the dial.

Repeatedly, we hear, “reparation.” What does this mean? We only need to look at the cross where Jesus gives us His heart. A soldier’s lance pierces the flesh of Jesus; blood pours from his side where his heart is wounded. This is all we need to know, stated clearly in St. John’s Gospel , “[O]ne of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out” (19:33-34). The condition of Jesus is conveyed in Psalm 69, “insult has broken my heart and I despair; I looked for compassion, but there was none, for comforters, but found none.” Jesus gives us His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist.

And so, reparation is for insults, indifference, blasphemies towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

In this month of May, let us ask the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to help prepare us to be one with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen.

The Pilgrimage from earth to Heaven is often difficult and rough and full of peril. Do not walk by yourself while you have a Friend who offers to join you–to accompany you on the way. This divine Friend is Jesus! He is all powerful–He is all good. He is both willing and able to protect you in all danger. Beseech Him, then. each morning to be the Companion of your pilgrimage; and not to leave you alone for a moment. Place your hand, as it were, in His and go on without fear. In difficult places you will always find Him at your right hand. Contemplate Him with the eyes of your heart.  

Ask of Him strength and wisdom. He will never fail you.

Like many of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque’s letters — in fact most of her letters – suffering is the recurring theme. Writing to Mother Sumaise during Lent, March 1686, St. Margaret Mary identifies the Heart of Jesus — this adorable Heart of love that has suffered for us — calling us to be united with His heart, also in suffering. Yet, “suffering” is not only the language of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, “suffering” is the language of the Saints — the only means by which we can be one with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

The Mother of Our Saviour knew this best: her Immaculate Heart was united with her son’s Sacred Heart on the Cross. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is given to us at the Cross; and Mary is at the foot of the Cross with her Son – and Jesus gives us His Mother, “This is your Mother.” Why is suffering central in the writings of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and so many of the Saints: when our suffering unites us with Jesus crucified, our suffering has a salvific value: human suffering has meaning when we are one with Jesus. For Jesus teaches this himself: “Whoever wants to be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me” (Matt 16:24-28). 

The Lenten season provides this penitential period of self-denial, a chosen form of penance so we journey with Jesus in the desert. Of course, suffering we may encounter even when we do not choose it as a result of health-issues that come our way, or the suffering caused by painful relationships, and the loss of loved ones. No matter how we may experience suffering, when we are one with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we participate in His suffering on the Cross. This suffering of ours – one with Jesus — helps purify us of our sins; we can also offer this suffering for others who are in need our prayers. And as Guards of Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our prayers, our self-denial, our suffering, serve to console the heart of Jesus caused by the repeated blasphemies which His Sacred Heart is subjected to. And so, we are consolers of the Sacred Heart. Let us stand with Mary at the foot of the Cross consoling the Heart of Jesus.

When St. Margaret Mary Alacoque writes to Mother de Sumaise at Dijon in March, 1696, we are given further insight in how St. Margaret Mary deals with suffering, and even the nature of this suffering – “contradictions and humiliations from creatures.” When people with whom we share our faith, our common journey of prayer and devotions, going to Confession and Communion, offend us by refusing to accept the depth of our spiritual life or those very personal moments with our Lord, and respond instead, with derision and scorn, indeed, this is painful – the Cross that St. Margaret Mary carries. She is being purified like the great mystics through these humiliations demonstrating her faith through endurance. For God to carry out his mission and choosing certain individuals for this, He wants the expression of our love through the trial and purification of our sinful nature to make more room for Him and His mission. 

St. Margaret Mary even acknowledges that she might succumb under the weight of His cross. She feels her vulnerability, her fragility, how much longer could she endure this suffering. Nevertheless, St. Margaret Mary carries her cross as the “goodness He deigns to send me.” St. Margaret Mary understands that the cross is not punishment but sent by the goodness of God as God knows how best to cleanse us, strengthen us, and prepare us. In the midst of this turmoil, St. Margaret Mary finds that she is never abandoned by God, even though she sees herself as a “wretch.” How does St. Margaret overcome all this hardship she encounters? She says it herself: she finds “refuge” in the adorable heart of Jesus. 

We can learn from St. Margaret Mary not only to persevere in the midst of suffering, but to take refuge in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus to help us through suffering.

We can start our new year with the short Act of Consecration that appears in St. Margaret Mary’s letter to Sister Félice-Madeleine de la Barge at Moulins written in 1686. The prayer reads as follows:

I (Name) give and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ my person and my life, my actions, trials, and sufferings, so that I may no longer wish to make use of any part of my being except to honour, love, and glorify Him. This is my irrevocable will, to belong entirely to Him, and to do everything for His love, and I renounce with all my heart anything that can be displeasing to Him. I take, thee, then, O Sacred Heart, as the sole object of my love, the protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the remedy for my infirmities, the reparation for all the sins of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of my death. Be then, O Heart of Goodness, my justification with God the Father, and turn aside the blows of His just wrath. O Heart of Love, I place all my confidence in Thee. I fear everything from my malice but hope everything from Thy goodness. Consume in me everything that can displease and resist Thee. May Thy pure love impress Thee so deeply in my heart that I can never forget Thee, nor ever be separated from Thee. I conjure Thee by Thy boundless goodness to write my name in Thy Sacred Heart for I wish to live and die as Thy slave.  Amen.

How are we to understand the love that St. Margaret Marie Alacoque desired? A “pure divine love”? As we strive to follow Jesus in the footsteps of this great mystic who was infused by God’s grace, can we experience this “pure divine love” ourselves? In other words, as we deepen our knowledge of the privileged relationship that St. Mary Margaret had with Christ, and the graces she received, our own desire increases to share in this divine intimacy, this pure divine love. But how? St. Mary Margaret’s letters to Mother de Sumaise stress humiliations and suffering by which she is united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her own heart purified of worldly attachments including detachment from herself. We respond to pure divine love by building on our own particular vocation, while answering our call to sanctity. And so, our hearts increasingly open to pure Divine Love like springtime blossoms receiving the sun. 

In writing to Mother de Sumaise at Moulin in 1680, St. Margaret Mary’s letter highlights the significance of loving God in this life. St. Margaret Mary understood to be united with Jesus for all of Eternity starts in this life we live. God provides us with this opportunity to love Him by the “precious treasure of His cross.” We can experience our life as an “exile” where the only pleasure is really to “love God and suffer for this love.” St. Margaret Mary recognises the relationship between the Cross that is given to us and “hope in His mercy.” St. Margaret Mary identifies the Heart of Jesus Christ with the Heart of Mercy. We are one with this Heart of Jesus when we carry our Cross. The Heart of Jesus is where we find our pleasure, our delight, our joy. What is this joy?  St. Margaret Mary tells us: “Suffering with Jesus Christ.”

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque perceives, understands, and  experiences the Sacred Heart of Jesus as “Sacred Fire.” The work  of the Holy Spirit, the source of this Visitation Sister’s visions,  offered these graces of encounter: the mystical presence of Jesus  transformed St. Mary Margaret into a vessel of love and  communion. The Sacred Fire points to the Divine Heart of Jesus  that burns and purifies. Approaching the Sacred Heart of Jesus  means to be loved and purified by Him, the same Heart offered up  for each of us at the Cross. The Sacred Heart of Jesus draws us into  a deeper love for Him who saves us, Son of the ever-living God,  who sacrificed His life for us. Jesus is Truth Incarnate and Love  Incarnate, calling us evermore, into communion with His Sacred  Heart of Fire.  

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the heart written in thorns of  truth; the Sacred Heart of Jesus is filled with the flesh of  love. The depth of the Heart of Jesus is unfathomable. His  love for us can never be exhausted. We respond with the  truth our intelligence is made for. To be one with the Sacred  Heart is to adhere to truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and  the Life. In one of her letters of 1678 St. Margaret Mary  Alacoque expresses thanks to the Lord for many things but  especially the Cross of Jesus that accompanies her daily. Let  us give thanks to the Lord, as St. Mary Margaret does,  knowing the Cross is what unites us with the Sacred Heart  of Jesus.