Visitation Sisters - Thoughts & Sayings of St. Margaret Mary

Thoughts and
Sayings of St.
Margaret Mary

For Every Day of The
Year

St. Margaret Mary

Nihil Obstat:	Michael L. Dempsey, S.T.D., Censor Theol. Deput.
Imprimatur:		Eduardus,
Archiep. Dublinen.,
Hibernia Primas
Dublini, die 13 Martii, anno 1935

Copyright 1935 by the Sisters of the Visitation of Roselands, Walmer, Kent, England.

First published in 1935 by the Sisters of the Visitation, Roselands; reprinted by the same in June, 1954. Retypeset and republished in 1986 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., by permission of the Sisters of the Visitation, Partridge Green, Horsham, West Sussex, England (formerly of Roselands, Walmer, Kent).

The extracts given in this book have been taken from the 3-volume Vie et Oeuvres de Sainte Marguerite Marie , 1920 edition.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 86-50852

ISBN: 0-89555-302-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Brief selections may be quoted without permission.

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

1986

"... thou shalt possess the treasures of My Heart... and I will permit thee to distribute them as thou wilt, in favor of souls that are ready to receive them ." Words of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
1647-1690
Nun of the Order of the Visitation
of Holy Mary

"I constitute thee heiress of My Heart and of all Its treasures, for time and for eternity, allowing thee to dispose of them according to thy desire; and I promise thee that My assistance will not fail thee as long as My Heart fails not in power. Thou shalt be forever Its beloved disciple."

Words of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary

CONTENTS

.

VIVE JESUS!

FOREWORD

S T . M ARGARET M ARY never had any other Master than her Lord and God, Whom with the greatest love and reverence she called "my Sovereign." Not only did she listen to and meditate on the lessons that He gave her, but she also put them into practice. That is why she was perpetuallyeven at times simultaneouslydrawn to extraordinary heights and depths. "Abyss calleth on abyss." True, such heights and depths are not for everyone. Nevertheless, many souls may derive great spiritual profit from meditating on what the Sacred Heart of Jesus taught His beloved disciple. This opinion has led us to present the reader with selected passages from the instructions our Lord gave the Saint for her personal direction. It will be seen with what solid spiritual food He nourished her soul, and how, by the firm molding of her inner powers, He made her perfectly supple in His adorable hand. Thus He could use her as He pleased for His great and loving designs, and could confide to her an unparalleled mission in His Church. Let us listen to the following words: "My divine Heart is so inflamed with love for men, and for thee in particular that, being unable to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must needs spread them abroad by thy means." (II, 70).

St. Margaret Mary dedicated and sacrificed herself wholly to the work her divine Master had given her to do, and performed it in the spirit that He had pointed out to her in the following words: "In imitation of Me, and without any other interest than the glory of God, thou must act and suffer in silence, for the establishment of the reign of My Sacred Heart in the hearts of men, to whom I wish to reveal It by thy means." (II, 87).

This insistence of the divine Heart of Jesus, in declaring that He wished to communicate Himself to souls by means of His chosen disciple, is a great consolation to those who enter into supernatural contact with the Saint.

In the second part of this booklet, the reader will find an echo of the preliminary pageswords addressed by our Lord to St. Margaret Mary. The Saint always reverted to the Source whence she had drawn her own spiritual life, viz., to the teaching of that sovereign Master Whose voice vibrated unceasingly within her; therefore, when she is asked for advice, she, of necessity, communicates to the souls of others something of what she herself has heard. Moreover, there is nothing that savors of exaggeration in the advice that she gives. Her words are simple and true, prudent but energetic. Guided by the Holy Spirit she remains faithful to that sound, traditional doctrine which founds the basis of all sanctity upon the hatred of sin and the shunning of willful faults, before making any attempt to rise to the perfection of divine love. But, knowing the cost to nature of the constant struggle needful to be detached from creatures, die to self, embrace the Will of God and accept sufferings and crosses, St. Margaret Mary lights up this rugged path with the vivifying rays emanating from the Sacred Heart. May many souls experience this consolation.

F ROM OUR M ONASTERY OF
P ARAY-LE- M ONIAL

J ULY 22 , 1929

282ND A NNIVERSARY OF THE B IRTH OF S T. M ARGARET M ARY

GOD BE PRAISED!
DIEU SOIT BENI!

VIVE JESUS!

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

T HIS booklet has been compiled from the Life and Writings of St. Margaret Mary with a view to making the Saint better known. Most clients of the Sacred Heart are more or less familiar with our Saint, whom our Lord Himself constituted "Heiress of His Heart and of all Its treasures" (Life and Writings , I, 173), but many have not free access to her writings, nor perhaps leisure to study them closely.

The extracts which follow are preceded by quotations from the words of our Lord to the Saint, and have been carefully classified and suitably arranged for the different months of the year.

The writings of St. Margaret Mary, impregnated as they are with implicit trust in the Sacred Heart, cannot fail to be a source of encouragement to souls. From her earliest childhood our Lord became the sole Master and Director of her spiritual life; referring on one occasion to the graces with which He had loaded her, He said, "Thou must not keep these graces to thyself, nor be sparing in distributing them to others, for I have willed to use thy heart as a channel for conveying them into souls according to My designs." (Life and Writings , II, 35). St. Margaret Mary ever insisted on the salutary and sanctifying effects of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and frequently repeated these words: "Remember that your perfection consists wholly in conforming your life and actions to the sacred maxims of the Heart of Jesus, especially to His patience, His meekness, His humility, and His charity." (II, 667). This should be an incentive to all to read and follow the spiritual counsels given by St. Margaret Mary.

The life-long and ardent wish of our Saint was to see the Kingdom of Christ established in all hearts, and on one occasion she wrote: "I can hardly express my joy at seeing the increase of devotion to the Sacred Heart of my Saviour. I seem to live for that alone. Sometimes such an ardent desire to make It reign in all hearts is kindled within me, that there is nothing I would not do or suffer to bring this about." (II, 304).

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