The Heart of Jesus in the apparitions of Mary

In June 1675, during the octave of Corpus Christi, Jesus appeared to Sister Margaret Mary, a nun in the convent of the Visitandines at Paray-le-Monial (Saône-et-Loire, in central France), and revealed his Heart to her, delivering this famous message:

"Behold the Heart that has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to prove Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me that treat Me thus."

That is why the Lord asked for the institution of a feast to honor his Heart. He also made another request: that King Louis XIV, whose birth had been obtained through prayers and had prompted his father Louis XIII to consecrate France to the Virgin Mary in 1638, would now consecrate France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We do not know if the king was made aware of the message, but we know that he never responded. Neither did his successors - who very likely knew about God’s request - ever make that consecration.

There were more appeals from the Hearts of Jesus and Mary through the apparitions of the 19th century and St Therese of Lisieux. Even though Church officials did not respond, the faithful took Jesus’ call seriously: many congregations were founded under the patronage of the Sacred Heart. This movement, begun under Napoleon Bonaparte, grew from 1820 onwards: 73 congregations dedicated to the Sacred Heart were founded in the Catholic world between 1820 and 1850, 144 between 1851 and 1900, many of them in France.

It was also a time when Marian spirituality was in full revival in France, with founders such as Guillaume Joseph Chaminade, founder of the Marianists, Jean Claude Colin, founder of the Marists, Fr. Libermann, renovator of the Spiritans, Fr. Desgenettes, initiator in 1836 of the devotion to the "Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary, refuge of sinners" at Notre Dame des Victoires, Bishop Eugene de Mazenod, founder of the Oblate Sisters of Mary Immaculate, etc.

It was also the time of the great Marian apparitions. The symbolism of the two hearts is present from the beginning through the "Miraculous Medal" asked by the Virgin to Catherine Labouré during the apparitions of the Rue du Bac (1830). This symbolism of the two Hearts is found again in Pontmain (1871) where a small red Cross appeared on the Virgin's chest, in the place of the Heart, and in Pellevoisin (1876), where the Virgin recommended the scapular of the Sacred Heart to the little Estelle Faguette and said to her in the seventh apparition: "The Heart of my Son has so much love for mine that it cannot refuse my requests."

Father Martin Pradère

Adapted from an article published in the weekly France Catholique of September 16, 2020