What Margaret Mary, you, and me have in common...

"His Sacred Heart will do everything for me if I let him.  
He shall will, he shall love, he shall desire for me 
and make up for all my faults."  

~St. Margaret Mary~

This coming Monday (October 16th) is the Feast of St. Margaret Mary, a hidden and humble nun from France, who God chose to reveal the tender and powerful devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary in the 17th century when the Jansenist heresy was widespread, especially throughout France.  It was a heresy that focused on predestination and perfectionism to a fault--that we needed to be perfect in order to earn God's approval and salvation.  It was a heresy that poisoned much of the Catholic theology of that time-period.  This heresy made people feel so ashamed that they constantly felt that they were disappointing God, often to the point were they would not even receive Holy Communion out of a feeling of unworthiness.  It made people look at God as a harsh judge who was ready to punish them at the slightest mistake.  Of all the heresies over the centuries, this one perhaps wounded Jesus' heart the most because it turned people away from His love and mercy--the very love and mercy He died on the cross to lavish upon us!  Here is a great excerpt from the book "Consoling the Heart of Jesus" by Fr. Michael Gaitley, that captures the story of St. Margaret Mary so well:

"From his sorrow at being so misunderstood and abandoned, Jesus looked for someone who would take pity on his aching Heart.  From the tabernacle, he cast his gaze out on all of France, searching for a true friend on whom he could unburden some of his heartache and through whom he might finally convince people to believe in his tender love and mercy.  Eventually, he found such a friend:  a little nun named Sr. Margaret Mary.  To this blessed soul, Jesus released an ocean of anguish as he disclosed his Divine Heart.  Appearing on the Cross, he said to her in a voice full of sadness and grief:

Behold this Heart, this heart so deeply in love with men, it spared no means of proof--exhausting itself until it was utterly spent in order to testify to its love!  In return, I have received from the greater part only ingratitude...  This hurts me more than everything I suffered in my passion.  Even a little love from them in return and I should regard all that I have done for them as next to nothing, and look for a way of doing still more.  But no; all my eager efforts for their welfare meet with nothing but coldness and dislike.  Do me the kindness, then--you, at least--of making up for all their ingratitude, as far as you can."  (emphasis mine)

Wow, how beautiful that Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary to console His sorrowing heart... And He asks this of you and me, as well!  Yes, we (sinners though we are) can somehow make up for the ingratitude that Jesus receives from most of the world by simply loving Him and being grateful to Him for His love and mercy!  You, at least, and me can be the ones that quench His thirst for love and remove some of the bitter sorrow from His heart!  Just like Margaret Mary did!  That's what we have in common with this great saint!  We can do this in so many little ways:

1. Go visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament so that He will not be alone, and just tell Him that you love Him and enjoy spending time with Him
2. Make small sacrifices throughout the day to tell Jesus thank you for the sacrifice He made for you (give up an extra cup of coffee, hold your tongue and smile when someone irritates you, clean a toilet or two joyfully :)...etc)
3. Make an effort to receive the Eucharist more than once a week to show your love for Him and your gratitude for the gift of receiving His Heart (literally) in the Eucharist
4. At 3:00pm (the hour Jesus died on the cross), stop for a moment to thank Jesus for His sacrifice, to express your love, and, if you have time, say a Chaplet of Divine Mercy
5. Buy a picture of the Sacred Heart and each time you gaze at it, hear Him saying to you:  "Behold this Heart that loved so much, yet is so little loved."  And then reassure Him that He is loved by you...you, at least...and me!  

...the possibilities are endless!

St. Margaret Mary, pray for us, pray that we are given the grace to console Jesus' Heart with our love, as far as we can!

P.S. And if you've taken the time to read this far, please offer up a prayer for my aunt Margaret who is having a surgery on Monday (St. Margaret Mary's Feast day no less!) to remove some cancer that was found in her mouth.  Pray for complete healing, for peace, for God's holy will, and for many souls to be saved as she unites her suffering with Jesus'.