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.