The Letters of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Apostle of the Sacred Heart

Margaret Mary Alacoque

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1997
• Print ISBN: 9780895556059
• eBook ISBN: 9781505107418
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Reveals much about both the Heart of Our Lord and the heart of this great Saint! Shows her amazing ardor and the mysterious connection between suffering and holy love. The most powerful writings on the Sacred Heart devotion!

LETTERS

[1]

To Mother Marie-Françoise de Saumaise, at Dijon ¹

Vive † Jésus! ²

[End of June]³ 1678

MOST HONORED AND DEAR MOTHER,

It was not without mortification nor from lack of friendship that I chose to deprive myself of the sweet consolation of writing to you and telling you that I shall always have the same esteem for Your Charity. Since you are well aware that our good Master has intimately united my heart and yours, I am not at all afraid that they will ever be separated except by Himself. Since words fail me to express the gratitude I feel for your motherly tenderness, it must suffice to say that I shall continue to remember it in quite a special way before Our Lord. I beg Him to bestow on you His most precious graces and loving caresses during this wonderful time of retreat. I am sharing its delights with you.

A word about the blessings with which His goodness is favoring me at present. I can only describe them by saying that my whole life, body and soul, is nothing but a cross. Yet I cannot complain, nor do I desire any other consolation than that of not having any in this world and of living hidden away in Jesus Christ crucified, suffering and unknown, so that no one will have any compassion on me nor remember me except to increase my suffering. I flatter myself, dear Mother, that you are too interested in me not to rejoice at this. Thank Our Lord who, after Himself, has nothing more precious than His love and His cross. By His mercy He shares them with me. I know I am most unworthy of such precious gifts; unworthy, too, of the one He has given us in the person of our most honored Mother.⁴ I cannot sufficiently express my esteem and affection for her and my perfect confidence in her charity. I have already experienced this charity many times, and can assure you that I think Our Lord will fulfill His promise through her.⁵ I beg Him with all my heart to do so, in order that He may draw from this all the glory He desires. It was this dear Mother who told me to write at this time. Because of a slight indisposition, and also because you will be overwhelmed with letters just now, I would have put it off. Do not hurry to answer; for no matter how you treat me, I will not doubt your affection for me. In time and eternity, in the sacred love of Jesus, I shall be

Sister Margaret Mary

Blessed be God! ⁶

[2]

To Mother de Saumaise, at Dijon

July 10, 1678

MOST HONORED MOTHER,

May the sacred fire consume our hearts unhindered and make of them thrones worthy of a holy love. I have too often experienced your goodness to think that my silence makes you doubt the affection and respectful friendship I have for Your Charity. You have drawn me to love you in more ways than I can express. My silence will speak better, dear Mother, than my words.

I think you already know the occupation to which obedience has put me. May Our Lord be blessed in everything, since nothing can stop us from becoming wholly His. Yes, dear Mother, the Lord is indeed good in continuing always to show the same kindness and mercy towards me, His unworthy slave, regardless of my infidelities and weaknesses so well known to you. Help me to thank Him for these and for all His other gifts. The one I cherish most, after Himself, is the precious treasure of His cross. It accompanies me everywhere, interiorly and exteriorly. It is the only consolation I have in this life, a life too long and desirable only for the occasion it gives one to suffer, especially those precious humiliations which cause us to be forgotten and despised by men. Happy the souls thus blessed in the service of the Lord! I beg Him to accomplish His designs in you. When before Him I do not forget you, nor the very honorable Mother Boulier either. I have a very special esteem for her.⁷

Please recommend to Our Lord the Misses Bisfrand. They are much put out by not getting any more news of Reverend Father de la Colombière.⁸ I do not know whether you have forgotten to tell us in your letters what you promised you would or whether you simply thought it better not to do so. I shall always be satisfied and feel the same towards Your Charity no matter how you treat me. Rest assured of this and believe me entirely yours in His holy love.

[3]

To Mother de Saumaise, at Dijon

May, 1679

I assure you, dear Mother, that I was very consoled at the pleasure you have given the Lord by embracing His cross with joy and submission. He has completely covered it with roses, it is true, lest you be frightened by it. But what really ought to give you the greatest joy is to feel the pricks of the thorns hidden beneath the roses.⁹ Then it will please the Lord to make you like unto Himself. Then He will make you see that He is not less lovable in the bitterness of Calvary than in the sweetness of Thabor.

[4]

To Sister Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins ¹⁰

[1679 or 1680]

MOST HONORED SISTER,

I beg the Sacred Heart of Jesus to deign to consume ours in the flames of His holy love. This love I think it is that induced you to honor with your acquaintanceship one whose great wretchedness constantly urges her to live unknown and forgotten by men. But if our sovereign Master wills it otherwise, I consider it a great privilege to have a little remembrance from you before Our Lord. He grants me the favor of returning in a very special way the affection which Your Charity shows me, though I am very unworthy of it. God can, however, draw glory from our least actions when He so wishes, and I trust He will obtain glory from the desire His goodness has given you that we share in a special way each other's spiritual goods. I can assure you that I never do anything good, but God in His goodness lets me appropriate the treasure of the truly poor, that is, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Its infinite riches can amply satisfy our great indigence. We must associate ourselves with this precious Good, placing in this Sacred Heart all the good we can do with the help of His grace, then exchange our hearts for His and offer His to the eternal Father in place of our own.

This adorable Heart, then, beloved Sister, must be the center of our true friendship and our place of retreat. There we can live safe from all storms, and will see and learn to know each other. I assure you that I have already paid you some visits there. I think love has already given you a place of preference in It. I myself am aspiring to one surely, but I have not yet fulfilled the conditions required for entering. These are: a heart that is pure, free from all desire and affection, humble and completely given over to doing perfectly what pure love demands. This love wants to be in full possession so that it can dispose of a heart at will. I beg Him never to let us resist Him, and that our friendship be completely in Him and for Him.

I hope, most honored Sister, that you will be so good as to excuse me for talking to you this way. I cannot but tell you frankly what I think. I have the greatest esteem and affection for Your Charity, and am completely and unreservedly yours, most honored Sister, in His holy love.

As for what you asked me to recommend to Our Lord, I trust He will be glorified by it in proportion as you are submissive and abandoned to His good pleasure, which should strip us of all self-interest if we really want to do His will. If God is satisfied, we ought to be content. I am sure you desire nothing else. Neither do I. So let us love Our Lord and give Him everything without reserve. By this same love I conjure you, beloved Sister, to undeceive yourself in my regard and not to think me to be what I am not.

[5]

To Mother de Saumaise, at Moulins

Around 1680

I am afraid, dear Mother, that because of my continual resistance to grace I am an obstacle to the glory of the Sacred Heart. I think He gave me to understand how much I shall have to suffer for this same love, and that the graces He has given me were not so much for myself as for those He would send to me. These I must tell simply what He inspires me to. He will add to my words the unction of His grace and draw many hearts to His love. I am always conscious of this when I resist Him.

I am not forgetting you before the Lord. He takes from me the power of writing as I would wish, so that, when I take up my pen, I do not know what to write. I therefore let Him do it and abandon myself to Him. Life is such a heavy cross for me that I have no consolation but that of seeing the Heart of my adorable Savior reign. He gives me the pleasure of suffering something special whenever this devotion makes some new advance. But there is nothing I would not be willing to suffer for that. Even the most bitter sufferings are sweet in this adorable Heart, where everything is changed into love. I would like to be able to avenge on myself all the injuries done my Savior Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. I am, as you know, wholly yours in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

[6]

To Mother de Saumaise, at Dijon

1680

MOST HONORED MOTHER,

To me it is a sweet consolation to receive news of you, though I seem to be indifferent to news from others. You are always my good Mother, for whom the Lord gives me an inexpressibly great affection. Neither can I forget you before God. I beg Him to see to it that all His designs on us are carried out. May it be the same with regard to Madame de N., who is now with us with the view of becoming a religious in accord with her earnest desire of doing God's will. I recommend her to your holy prayers, together with Reverend Father de la Colombière, of whom you ask news from us. He informs Madame de L. that his health is not yet restored. I myself, though, have had no letter from him. It is not that I have not given myself the privilege of writing to him; he simply has not judged fit to answer me. But no matter how he treats me I am always satisfied, because I know we wish only the will of God, to which he is very submissive. This is all the news I can give you of him for the present.¹¹

With regard to Communions, I shall under obedience do what Your Charity asks. Would that I could show you my concern in everything that concerns you, for the interests of Our Lord. I know these are dearer to you than anything else.

I leave to others the consolation of sending you the news. I am not good at that. Beg the Lord to make me worthy of accomplishing His will in everything, and that we may be able to love Him above all things. In this love I am completely yours.

[7]

To Sister Louise-Henriette de Soudeilles, at Moulins

From our monastery in Paray,
June 6, 1680

MOST HONORED AND BELOVED SISTER,

I pray the divine Spirit of love to fill your dear soul with His most precious graces, and our hearts with the most ardent flames of His love, so that we may act only according to His inspirations. He would give me an especially strong impulse to respond to your kind attentions, beloved Sister, if my unworthiness did not always dishearten me. I cannot understand how anyone can continue to remember such a wicked creature. I do, none the less, cherish you and love you in the Sacred Heart of Jesus more than I can say. Since I can do you no good, I thought you would not think of me any more. I do not forget you before Our Lord. I complain to Him lovingly about your coming from so far away to visit me every day between the two elevations of holy Mass. I then find you present to my spirit, and after we have told our divine Master what you want, you gently disappear again, saying as you did in your cherished letter: "Do not be angry with me." But how could I be angry with you, beloved Sister? You know so well how to win hearts that, if I was not sure it was to make them wholly God's, I would certainly beg Him to defend me against you. But there is nothing to fear in this union of our hearts, for the Lord is the author of it. May He ever be glorified by it!

I have commended to His mercy this dear Sister Your Charity mentions. Do not worry about her. I hope that, if you pray over her to our sovereign Master, He will not allow this plant to take root in His garden, that is, in the religious life, unless His heavenly Father has planted it there. It is true that the responsibility of leading souls to God is an inexpressibly fearful and important one. But why are you afraid, since He who has given it to you has all power to make you act according to His holy will? There is never any resistance in us against it, no matter in what way He wishes to dispose of us. We must give all in order to possess all. Divine love admits of no alloy. Come to my aid, then, in this regard. Since Your Charity honors me with her friendship, let her show this friendship by procuring for me the love of my God through her holy prayers. For this end, let us visit each other often, dear Sister, in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. When you do not find me there, importune Him until His mercy brings me there. There we will make our little spiritual visits without fear, and express most tenderly our true love for this adorable Heart, in which I am respectfully and wholly yours.

My dear Sister Marie Aimée and Sister de Lyonne send you their most cordial respects and sincere affection.–O, I was mistaken! It is to your most honored Mother (Mother de Saumaise) that they send them.

Good-bye, beloved Sister. I would think I had said nothing if the cross of Our Lord had found no place in our conversation. O, how to cherish and love it for the love of Him who has so loved it for love of you as to wish to die in its arms. Let us not try to do anything any more except love and suffer in this love. After we have learned to do this perfectly, we shall know and do all that God wants of us.

[8]

To Mother de Saumaise, at Moulins

1680

MOST HONORED MOTHER,

I can no longer refuse my heart the sweet satisfaction it finds in conversing with Your Charity. You assure me that Our Lord wants that. Nor do I doubt it, since it induces you constantly to manifest the same kindness and charity towards me which you have shown in my regard ever since I had the honor of becoming your unworthy daughter. I want to satisfy the desire of your maternal heart to have news of me.

Never has God shown His love and mercy towards me more, and never have I been more ungrateful, unfaithful, and wicked. I am just a combination of pride and malice and constantly oppose His goodness. I resist His will, show coldness in return for His love. That coldness makes me so tepid in His holy service that I am simply horrified when I consider the life I lead, a life altogether sensual and sinful. Ah, dear Mother, how much I need your prayers, in order that His goodness may not grow weary waiting for me to repent, but still more that he may not deprive me of loving Him for all eternity because I did not love Him during life! This is the severe punishment I fear. Everything else makes no impression on me. How good God is, though, dear Mother, for not depriving me of the precious treasure of His cross, although I lead a life so offensive to Him. Although the cross is my just lot as a great sinner, still it is the cross which makes bearable the length of my exile, in which there can be no pleasure for me but to love God and suffer for this love. What, alas, would I do if the cross were taken from me, since it is that which makes me hope in His mercy! That is my whole treasure in the adorable Heart of Jesus Christ.

In it consists all my pleasure, all my delight, all my joy. But if you only knew what poor use I make of it, especially of these precious humiliations and embarrassments, and of the heartaches and anguish of almost every kind that go with them. Sometimes my heart seems to be in agony and reduced to the last extremities, and that notwithstanding the pleasure it takes in being submerged in this ocean of bitterness, which I consider to be the most tender proof of the love of my divine Spouse. That is why I feel myself so very unworthy of these inestimable favors. Pray that I may profit by them in the future, that I may put no obstacle in the way of the divine good pleasure. I need strength from God to bear with myself.

Write a few words to this unworthy daughter of yours, dear Mother, when God inspires you to. I do not know what to say to those I love. All I can do is speak to them of the cross of Jesus Christ. And when anyone asks me what favors Our Lord grants me, an unworthy sinner, I can speak only of the happiness of suffering with Jesus Christ. I know of nothing more precious than to suffer for His love, in which I am wholly yours.

[9]

To Mother de Saumaise, at Moulins

July 10, 1680

I assure you, most honored Mother, that I am glad to comply with our beloved Mother's order and give you news on the state of my health. I must tell you, then, that Our Lord, on the feast of Corpus Christi [June 20, 1680], did me the favor of removing all of a sudden the great weakness ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• INTRODUCTION
• CONTENTS
• TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
• THE LETTERS OF ST. MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE
• NOTES