St Margaret Mary Alacoque

When Margaret was a little girl she was sent to a school run by the Poor Clare Sisters. She grew to love Jesus and was especially devoted to Jesus in the Eucharist. When she was 11 years old, she became very sick and had to be in bed for 5 years. She made a promise to Mary that she would become a nun if she got better and, when she was 17 years old, she was healed. After this miracle, she added Mary to her name and continued to spend a lot of time in prayer. She would often have visions of Jesus, which she thought was normal! One day Jesus reminded her that she had promised His mother Mary to join a convent if she was healed and that He loved her so much that He wanted her to live her life only for Him. At the age of 24, she joined the Visitation Convent in Paray-le-Monial. She continued to have visions where Jesus taught her to love His Sacred Heart and He told her that she needed to help other people grow in love of His Sacred Heart too. He told her that in order for people to grow in love of His heart, they should go to Mass and receive Communion on the first Friday of every month. They should also spend 1 hour adoring the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday and on the feast of the Sacred Heart. During this time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus told her to think about His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane before He was crucified. When Margaret Mary tried to get people to follow these directions, they didn’t believe she was having visions of Jesus. After struggling for many years to spread this devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the new Mother Superior of her convent, as well as the confessor of the convent, St. Claude, believed her. Now many people follow this devotion and grow to love Jesus more through his Sacred Heart. After her death, her body never decayed and is still incorruptible; those who visit her tomb claim many blessings through her intercession.