Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Today is the feast of St. Margaret Mary - although it was actually celebrated yesterday, the 16th.  At the outset of this project we asked for her patronage, and I feel that she has indeed been watching over the writing and reading of this icon.   As I have said elsewhere in this blog, I rather like the drawing she actually made to serve as an aid to the devotion of the Sacred Heart.  It has far more in common with our icon than subsequent images as it tries to convey a sense of the theological or biblical context of the Sacred Heart. I find it very touching as it was this image and not the kind of image that became popular which she herself recommended.

Oftentimes people tend to associate the Sacred Heart  too closely with her experiences - as important as they were -  and not understand or explore the wider and deeper meaning of the devotion within the teaching and tradition of the Church. ( That is what this blog  and the icon has tried to do. ) The encyclical Haurietis Acquas by Pius XII in 1956 thus pointed out that :

.. it is clear that the revelations made to St. Margaret Mary brought nothing new into Catholic doctrine. Their importance lay in this that Christ Our Lord, exposing His Sacred Heart, wished in a quite extraordinary way to invite the minds of men to a contemplation of, and a devotion to, the mystery of God's merciful love for the human race. In this special manifestation Christ pointed to His Heart, with definite and repeated words, as the symbol by which men should be attracted to a knowledge and recognition of His love; and at the same time He established it as a sign or pledge of mercy and grace for the needs of the Church of our times.  In addition, that this devotion flows from the very foundations of Christian teaching is clearly shown by the fact that the Apostolic See approved the liturgical feast before it approved the writings of St. Margaret Mary.. 

St Margaret Mary must be honoured and celebrated as someone who, perhaps more than any one else, championed the cause of the devotion, and for this we must be thankful.

Dear St Margaret Mary pray for us as we place all our trust in the Sacred Heart.  And we pray with your own words  saying:

May the loving Heart of Jesus consume our hearts in the pure flames of His holy love, so that they may live and breathe only to love, honour and glorify Him.  Amen