The Church celebrates the feast of St. Margaret Mary on Monday, October 16
Before I was introduced to St. Francis de Sales, I was acquainted with one of his spiritual daughters, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Before I knew the centrality of the heart in the life of a devout Christian, I knew the image of the Heart of Christ and the call to conversion and consecration. Before I learned the Direction of Intention or the Spiritual Directory, I read the twelve promises that the Lord gave to those who honored His Sacred Heart.
I grew up in a family (and a diocese) where traditional practices, customs, and rituals were very much a part of my daily life. Rosaries, novenas, statues, and saints were as much a part of my childhood as record players, Atari consoles, Big Wheels, and the Brady Bunch. Devotion to the Sacred Heart was very visible if you walked around my house. Images of Jesus and His heart were found in the living room next to the palm leaves from the previous spring or hanging in the kitchen alongside the grocery lists and the clock on the counter.
When I graduated from college and entered the Oblate community, I realized that St. Margaret Mary was a French nun who was part of the Salesian family. She was a member of the Visitation Sisters of Holy Mary, the order of women religious founded by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. In 1672, Christ appeared to Sister Margaret Mary and, over a series of visits, revealed to her the importance of devotion to His Sacred Heart. Jesus called Margaret Mary “the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart” and the heiress “of all its treasures.”
As I learned more about the Oblates and Salesian Spiritualty, I came to understand the importance of the heart to the Salesian way of life. St. Francis and St. Jane had developed a practical, positive, and heart-centered way of living the Christian life that was passed onto their religious daughters. The Visitation Sisters, in turn, handed this way of living like Jesus onto their spiritual sons - the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. This living like the Savior, this Salesian Spirituality, this focus on heart speaking to heart, has been a part of the church for over 400 years. The more I learned about St. Francis, St. Jane, and St. Margaret Mary, the more I realized the reason Our Lord chose a Visitation sister to renew His message of love, mercy, and forgiveness.
One of the promises of the Sacred Heart states that the Lord “will imprint (His) love on the hearts of those who honor this image.” One hundred and fifty years after the death of Margaret Mary, a Visitation Superior (Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis), spoke to Rev. Louis Brisson about founding a religious order of men. She told Father Brisson that the Oblates must print the Gospel in the way they live their everyday lives. They must make Jesus present again in the modern world.
This is certainly still the call of the Oblates, but it is also the call of every baptized Christian.
As we recall Oblate Founders’ Day and the feast of Margaret Mary, we are surrounded by many witnesses of God’s love. We follow in the footsteps of Francis, Jane, and Margaret Mary in the way we live and the way we love. We learn from devotions and traditions. We seek perfection, we practice devotion, and we strive to become “beloved disciples of the Sacred Heart.”
Fr. Jack Kolodziej, OSFS
Provincial
Wilmington-Philadelphia Province
