This December 27, 1673, in a small town in Charollais in Burgundy, Paray-le-Monial, Sister Marguerite-Marie Alacoque prays in the chapel of the Visitation convent. Nothing surprising for this nun, whose vocation is to worship for long hours before the Blessed Sacrament. But on this day of the feast of Saint John, the disciple whose tradition recalls that he rested on the chest of Jesus during the Last Supper, the nun lives a mystical experience which will transform her existence. Like John, “Marguerite-Marie rests for a long time on the heart of Jesus. The Lord said to him: “My divine Heart is so passionate with love for men, and for you in particular, that, no longer able to contain within itself the flames of its ardent charity, it must spread them through your way” »says Father Étienne Kern, rector of the Sacred Heart sanctuary in Paray-le-Monial.
The saint also has a vision of the heart of Jesus surmounted by a cross on a throne of flames, surrounded by thorns. Finally, Christ asks for his heart, plunges it into his, and returns it to him all aflame. Following this appearance, two other majors will take place. In 1674, Jesus asked Marguerite-Marie to love him for those who did not love him, through two acts of reparation: communion, on the first Friday of each month, and prayer of the holy hour, on Thursday evening. , in union with his agony in Gethsemane. Finally, in June 1675, the “Great Apparition” took place, during which Christ asked to establish a feast in honor of the Sacred Heart.
350 years later, Paray-le-Monial attracts thousands of pilgrims and the Emmanuel community in charge of the sanctuary launches a jubilee whose theme is “Return love for love” (read the benchmarks). But what is the relevance of this spirituality which can seem mawkish to some, dusty to others, even sad?
Its roots are in any case well before the apparitions to Saint Marguerite-Marie. Thus, in the 12th century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercians, exclaimed in a prayer: “How good it is to live in the Heart of Jesus! » Likewise, in the 17th century, Saint John Eudes, Oratorian priest and founder of the Eudists, developed worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary. But it is thanks to Marguerite-Marie Alacoque and her spiritual guide, the Jesuit Claude La Colombière, that this spirituality will radiate beyond the borders of France and Europe. Today, the Pope’s Global Prayer Network continues this mission.
Love and mercy in the face of Jansenist rigor
At the same time, another movement gave the Sacred Heart a political connotation. From the wars in Vendée to the construction of the famous Parisian basilica at the top of the Montmartre hill after the Commune, the Sacré Cœur symbolized the resistance of the royalists against the republicans.
This diversity should not elude the essence of the spiritual message and the scope of the apparitions of Paray-le-Monial. At a time marked by Jansenist rigor, spreading the spirituality of the heart of Jesus meant placing emphasis on mercy and love, rather than on sin and penances.
In the Gospels, doesn’t Jesus present himself as “meek and humble of heart”inviting his disciples to lay down their burden and rest on him (Mt 11:28-29)? Is it not also on this “side” of the crucified, pierced by the soldier’s spear, from which blood and water, that is to say, life, flow on the cross (Jn 19 , 34) ? Anne Michon accompanies people from Parcours Alpha in Paray-le-Monial. She confirms: while some come backwards, they discover that “the heart of Jesus is not at all a bloody heart, surrounded by thorns, but a heart of flesh, with immense sensitivity like the heart of a man”. They experience a close God who consoles them and offers them friendship.
“The Sacred Heart is experiencing a heart-to-heart with the Lord”underlines Father Benoît Guédas, of Emmanuel (1). To do this, it is enough to approach the Eucharist in communion or in prayer of adoration and to open oneself to God. “I hear what he says to Marguerite-Marie and to all the saints: ʺI am passionate about love for youʺ, and I respond: ʺI am thirsty to discover your love, Lordʺ. Then, at the foot of the Blessed Sacrament, I discover that Jesus comes to dwell in me. This companionship becomes the source of my life”he explains.
“Here is this heart which loved men so much”
“Living from the spirituality of the Sacred Heart means that the gateway to my relationship with Christ, with the world, the way of implementing my faith, my activities, my prayer… begins with this relationship to the heart”also testifies Noëlle Favet, nun of the Sacré Cœur, an Ignatian congregation focused on education and training (2). In his eyes, it is not only a question of carrying out practices to welcome the love of Christ and share it, but of “let us work through his spirit to learn from him his ways of doing things, of looking at our world, our relationships and our commitments. It’s much deeper than an emotional dimension. The image of the heart invites us to let ourselves be transformed in all our dimensions, our ways of thinking, of deciding…” To love too.
In 1957, at the conclusion of the World Congress of the Lay Apostolate in Rome, Cardinal Montini, future Pope Paul VI, had this prayer: “We will love those who are near to us, those who are far from us. We will love our friends(…) our enemies. We will love the Catholics, we will love the schismatics, the Protestants, the Anglicans, the indifferent, the Muslims, the pagans, the atheists. (…) We will love with the heart of Christ. »
The great message of Paray is the message of love of June 1875, recalls Father Étienne Kern: “Here is this heart which loved men so much that it spared nothing to the point of exhausting itself and consuming itself to show them its love. » In passing, the rector notes the audacity of Christ who appears to a woman to complain about “sacrileges, contempt, indifference towards the Eucharist”. God complains about the lack of love he receives, particularly from people devoted to him. Words and themes which have taken on new relevance in recent years, believes the rector of Paray-le-Monial: “My complaint and my torment can enter into the complaint of Jesus. I find peace there. »
(1) Author of In the Heart of Jesus. Saint Marguerite-Marie, teacher of spiritual lifeÉditions Emmanuel, 236 p., €20.
(2) Comments collected in A thousand questions at once on Radio Notre-Dame, June 17, 2023.
——
A jubilee for 350 years of apparitions
To celebrate the 350th anniversary of the appearances of the Heart of Jesus to Saint Marguerite-Marie in Paray-le-Monial, a jubilee is organized from Wednesday December 27, 2023, anniversary date of the first main apparition, to June 27, 2025, date of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, on the theme “Return love for love”.
Meetings, pilgrimages, sessions and forums are planned during this jubilee, and detailed on the site sacrecoeur-paray.org.
Parishes, churches, chapels or educational institutions placed under the patronage of the Sacred Heart will be invited to come on pilgrimage during the jubilee.
In addition, a competition aimed at the creation and production of lasting works of art for the Cité du Sacré Cœur is open, with the aim of creating a sculpture, two paintings or mosaics, and a musical work. Candidates must submit their application file before February 28, 2024. Rens. : sacrecoeur-paray.org/concours-artistique.
