St. Margaret Mary Alacoque writes a powerful letter to Mother Louise-Henriette de
Soudeilles in 1684 focussing on the Sacred Heart. St. Margaret Mary makes it clear that
everything must be sacrificed for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. What does this even mean?
St. Margaret Mary explains; everything we will unite with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we act
with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and we do not undertake anything without first consulting
the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The reason for this: all glory must be for the Sacred Heart. At
the end, with this reflex to turn to the Sacred Heart, we live for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
St. Margaret Mary conveys the importance not only of thanking the Sacred Heart for
“successes” but also the “ills” that are experienced; moreover, St. Margaret Mary states the
importance of being satisfied and not worried about our undertakings. In St. Margaret
Mary’s letter, we have a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving rather than finding reasons to
be dissatisfied and complain. Why is this? How can we experience disappointment or
suffering and be grateful? This is where we learn from St. Margaret Mary and the Saints as
we discover their capacity to give thanks in the midst of the greatest hardships right to
persecution and martyrdom. The Sacred Heart is the love of Jesus on fire for us; and
because of His Sacred Heart, love responds with love and nothing less.

In March, 1687, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque writes to her brother, James; he is parish priest at Bois-Sainte-Marie. From this letter we discover what sanctity looks like, both in how we desire for ourselves, but also for others to grow in sanctity as Saint Margaret Mary clearly desires for her brother.

The only thing that matters to Margaret Mary for her brother is the “advancement in holy love…correspond perfectly with the designs of God.” Margaret Mary does not talk about income, or career, or even “whatever makes you happy.” Only one thing matters: holiness, after all, this is the design of God for each of us.

As God calls us all to sanctity, just as Margaret Mary desires for her brother, we cannot be “complacent,” either. How can God achieve the perfection he wants us to strive for if we are complacent? To do “violence to oneself,” as Margaret Mary acknowledges in her brother’s case, means simply to suffer as we strive for what is true, good, and holy. 

Margaret Mary points out that the things of the world are “perishable pleasures” and “empty things,” that at the end, simply leave us with a troubled conscience, as Margaret Mary points out with pleasure, one “craves” to always have more. 

Margaret Mary also asks her brother to make it known to her what can help her in her conversion. She is consistent in her desire to suffer, and in this letter to her brother she informs him that she wants to “suffer properly.” Margaret Mary requests that the sacrifices of her brother’s’ Masses will help her in this suffering. She has discovered that Jesus wants her to love Jesus in her suffering. And so, Margaret Mary, to love Jesus in suffering, thirsts for the Cross.

St. Margaret Mary writes to Mother Sumaise at Dijon, February 17, 1687.

St Margaret Mary is well aware that the one who will obstruct the devotion to the Sacred Heart is Satan. But what does this mean? Devotion to the Sacred Heart? Is it simply having a picture in our room? Or a statue of the Sacred Heart? St. Margaret Mary makes it clear when she writes to Mother Sumaise: “the souls of the many who consecrate themselves completely to him, and love, honour, and glorify Him, will be saved… by this devotion to this loving Heart.” These are powerful words. The Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Sacrament, are inseparable from our salvation. But St. Margaret Mary writes, “completely” consecrate themselves. In other words, we cannot be lukewarm in our devotion, but “completely,” to love, honour, and glorify” Jesus.

Giving ourselves totally to the Sacred Heart of Jesus because His Heart saves. We know that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is offered to us in the Blessed Sacrament that we receive, and adore, and our personal preparation is an act of faith knowing we receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord.

Our devotion to the Sacred Heart cannot be lukewarm, but an act of truth, since Jesus offers Himself to us in truth, in His heart on the Cross and in truth in the Blessed Sacrament at Communion. Love is driven by truth because we can only love what is true, namely God and the good and holiness in each person. We can never love errors or wickedness as this will lead us to loving evil and false gods. When St. Margaret Mary speaks of Satan, this is precisely what Satan sets out to do, to lead us away from the Sacred Heart of Jesus, turn us away from the truth, just as Satan had done with the first man and first woman. Salvation by the Sacred Heart means to be saved by the love of Jesus, truth and holiness, Jesus who is the way the truth and the life.

Perhaps Jesus has made a great void around you; perhaps He has torn away many illusions from your heart; overthrown many supports; caused many joys to vanish; and you feel yourself alone– sadly alone! Oh, rejoice! The Master has acted thus only that He may have you all for Himself; that He may speak more tenderly to your heart. Away from this solitude and encumbered by transitory possessions, you may not have hearkened to the voice of Jesus! Perhaps, even, you might not have desired the ineffable treasure of His Heart! But now you are at last alone–free to receive and listen to this dear Friend. Incline towards Him the ear of your soul, and you will hear Him saying to you, “My child, I love you; give Me your heart.” Refuse it not to Him!

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque writes to her brother, a priest, in March 1687, expressing her love for him, her desire for him to advance in holiness, “a high degree of perfection.” For St. Margaret Mary, it’s not only being a priest that is a noble vocation, but rather, being a holy priest, a priest who seeks to perfect his priesthood, “He will not be satisfied with ordinary virtue in you.”

St. Margaret Mary recognises the challenges her brother must confront, “perishable things” and “empty pleasures” where one only “craves more.” The solution to these attractions and temptations as St. Margaret Mary tells her brother, “You will never find peace or repose until you have made a complete sacrifice to God.” And so, she directs her brother on a path where he totally belongs to God, and “despises everything else.”

And St. Margaret Mary offers her brother the means to do this: grace and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. She further acknowledges that she still stands far from perfection herself, telling her brother to make it known to her what is needed for her “perfect conversion.” The remarkable humility of the Saints who never downplay their sins, “I am very far from what God wants me to be,” St. Margaret Mary tells her brother. She even adds, “As yet I have done nothing for him.” St. Margaret Mary understands the value of suffering, although she acknowledges that she needs help by her brother’s prayers to “suffer properly.” Aware of her own limitations, St. Margaret Mary leaves us quite astonished with the intensity of her spiritual life and what she desires for her brother. She does not for a moment employ words to suggest her own sanctity, her own certitude, her own privileges, although she has received Revelations from Jesus Himself.

St. Margaret Mary teaches us in her letter to her brother that Sacred Heart is the path to sanctity: we need the burning heart to purify us of our impurities and to strengthen us. But Jesus does not heal us without our acknowledgement of what we need to be healed of. This is why St. Margaret Mary tells her brother directly, “you cannot become complacent.” Overcoming sin presupposes we recognise the sins we are battling. We cannot love Jesus, nor will not see God, with impure hearts. And so, we seek forgiveness, cleansing, and healing, so we can truly become one with the burning Heart of Jesus.

Jesus presents Himself to you during this month nailed and torn by the crimes of sinners – asking from your love a balm for each of these wounds. Will you refuse it to Him? To cure His pierced Hands –consecrate to Him even the smallest actions of your hands. To soothe His torn Feet—offer Him each step you take. To relieve the wounds of His Body—apply yourself to the mortification of your senses. But, for the Wound of His tender Heart, Jesus will accept but one alleviation—and He asks it of you with earnest entreaties: it is the love of your heart. Love then; love much, since it is the only means of relieving your suffering Love—Jesus.

“My sister, my friend, thou hast ravished my heart…”

Dear Soul, to whom the good Master gives such loving appellations rejoice! Be filled with joy, with gratitude and love on hearing these words! A Brother! A Friend! What could you have more? And when this Brother–this Friend–is Jesus! What else is there to desire! What more can you crave than to possess the affection of such a Brother? What can you fear supported by the arm of such a Friend? Oh! Nothing, unless it be that you fear not to love Him enough, not to confide sufficiently in His Heart! Let there be no more discouragement, but instead, much love and confidence. You cannot exceed in this towards so good a Brother, so tender a friend!

In her letter to Mother de Saumaise at Dijon in March 1687, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque addresses the dilemma about spending time with others – or with Jesus.

She writes from the perspective of a cloistered nun, and believed that distractions of writing letters or visiting with others would take her away from prayer, and attention drawn to her, when she could spend this time with God.

St. Margaret Mary disliked such social activities and found them “repugnant” because she believed they were wasteful. She was concerned in replying to the people, she would be “continuously making new acquaintances,” which did not interest her, as her focus was on a contemplative life of solitude, silence, and prayer.

Yet, St. Margaret Mary tells us, “He gave me to understand that writing was for His glory; that I should answer those who write to His wretched slave about the devotion to the Sacred Heart.” In other words, St. Margaret Mary realised that writing becomes an opportunity, the occasion to speak to others of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to make his Sacred Heart known.

And similarly, the parlour where she met with visitors, she “finds this so painful that often I show much repugnance.” Reflecting on this afterwards, St. Margaret Mary confides, “I feel great remorse in not doing what I think God demands of me” not responding to the people who seek her because she prefers to remain unknown. By showing this repugnance, St. Margaret Mary regrets she fails God’s “design of doing them good” — they are deprived of God’s graces.

To make matters worse, St. Margaret Mary believes she is deceiving people because she is far worse than how they think of her. What we might call hypocrisy since we often find ourselves behaving one way, and yet, we are well aware of our sins and sinfulness. What St. Margaret Mary Alacoque conveys is the pain in being present to others, having their attention, and the good impression the people have of her.

St. Margaret Marry understands the suffering she must undergo, united with the Sacred Heart of Jesus; the graces she received were for those whom Jesus sent her way. Is this not also true for us, Jesus sends us those individuals so they may receive graces through the Sacred Heart? And this is a great act of Charity.

At the start of the year, 1687, St. Margaret Mary writes to her brother, Father James, parish priest at Bois-Sainte-Marie. Understandably, she loves her brother and she wants him to be holy. Basic instructions to holiness that St. Margaret Mary offers to her brother, we can apply in our own lives. Holiness is meant for all of us. What does she tell him: this world is a “vale of misery and tears.” St. Margaret repeats the words of the Salve Regina, “to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears…” And all is “vanity and affliction to the spirit” alluding to St. John’s letter (1 John 2:15-17). She restates a basic Biblical teaching taught to us as repeated by the Catholic Church, “only to serve and love God alone.” St. Margaret Mary advises her brother to eliminate three things: 1.) attachment to earthly things, especially, pleasure. She expresses this in terms of “attachments” –she does not say pleasure is bad, rather the attachment to pleasure and she adds gambling, suggesting a weakness of her brother. Gambling represents the category of addictions and so we can think of our own addictions that we need to combat or overcome, whether it being a “shopaholic,” food or social media addict, and the many others… 2.) St. Margaret Mary also talks about everything superfluous in dress and personal habits, distinguishing between the necessary and unnecessary—how many outfits do we need? And she adds that the money that is saved can go to the poor. 3.) Not to be “mixed up” in the things of the world means not to allow any “willful self-indulgence.” In other words, not to be “worldly” and this also echoes St. John’s letter (1 John 2:15-17). Our desires should be directed towards pleasing God rather than what pleases the world. She reminds her brother to devote himself entirely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As members of the Guards of Honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this letter is intended for each one of us.

This last letter of 1686, St. Margaret Alacoque writes to her former Superior, Mother Saumaise, at Dijon. At this time, in responds to the Revelations of Jesus, St. Margaret Mary continues to seek approval of devotion to the Sacred Heart because there is controversy and opposition. Why should her Revelations be taken seriously? How does Sister Mary Margaret even know if they are from God? And Communion on First Fridays? In the 17 th century frequent communion was quite unusual and not an established practise. How does a cloistered nun in a Visitation convent, called to humility, and hidden from the world, find approval for the Revelation and then support to make the message of Jesus known? As we encounter the challenges before St. Margaret Mary, we also learn how she unites herself with the heart of Jesus: hidden, withdrawn, unknown.

St. Margaret Mary raises another concern; a factor causing obstruction in the spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart: Satan. Not only is it difficult for her to find approval, let alone spread the devotion, but how can she do this as a cloistered nun committed to obedience, the vow that serves to purify us of pride? Caught within her own spiritual turmoil and interior battles, she will not allow Satan to win the upper hand, not by breaking her Vows, and not by sabotaging the Revelations. St. Margaret Mary already knows that Satan wants to snatch many souls away from Jesus, and with devotion to the Sacred Heart, Satan himself will lose souls. And so, St. Margaret Mary states boldly, “We must withstand all the attacks of Satan.” St. Margaret Mary is responding to parish priests who either prohibited devotion to the Sacred Heart or refused to admit new devotions. Even publishers during St. Margaret Mary’s time were prohibited from publishing anything on devotion to the Sacred Heart.

St. Margaret Mary resigned herself to the Will of God; He started this devotion, He will bring it to completion—if it is His will. In this way, St. Margaret Mary can prioritise her obedience to her superiors and her life as a cloistered nun submitting herself to God’s will. We can follow St. Margaret Mary’s example and put God’s will first, our vows and religious duties, and what helps us grow in sanctity before anything else, and to avoid those acts and habits that detracts us from sanctity.