THE BLEBSED MARGARET MARY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 29, 17 April 1891, Page 20

THE BLEBSED MARGARET MARY.

(From the Catholic Review.) Thr words of Holy Writ, MinbilU Deut in Sanctit Sttit, were nerer more strikingly verified than in the life of Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, the Visitandine of Paray-le-Monial.

In obedience to the wish of her director, Father Ignatius Rolin, S.J., who, be it said in passing, went to Paray strongly prejudiced against her, he wrote a memoir of her spiritual experience, npon which the life of Blessed Margaret Mary, by Father Ticket (Catholic Publication S>ciety), is in great pirt bised. The story of her interior life as thus disclosed is simply astounding. From her fourth or fifth year she Mved in the most intimate communion with God, so tbat she is considered to bo the greatest contemplative that hat appeared in the Church since tbe days of St. Teresa of Jesus. No sooner did she come to know herself than Goi began to prepare her for the miision wnich his made her natn» for ever memorable, the mission of initiating the devotion to the Sacred Heart of our Saviour.

After a childhood saddened by a long and grievous illness, and by the harshness of ccitain persons who somehow assumed authority in her mother's house, and after a particularly long and trying struggle, the severest that could be imagined for oDe of her pious and affectionate nature, ebe, iv her twenty-fourth year (Father Tiakell says in her twen y. third year), despite the tears of her mother, tbe appeals of her brother, the representations of friends and the counsel of worthy ecclesiastics, who warned her that ia carrying out her resolve the was sinning against filial affection, entered the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monul. Taough her intentions were evidently of the best, her method of prayer was so foreign to what her Superiors insisted upon that they hesitated to admit her to profession. Meanwhile they lo9t no opportunity of trying her humility so as to discover whither her extraordinary gifts were from God or not. However, she was, after a probation of some months longer than was ordinarily required, permitted to make her profession in 1672. As a religio J9 sha was di9tiogaiahei by her spirit of obedience silence, voluntary mortification, love of prayer, anc*. regard for the rule, which lei her in spite of tier precarious health to conform to the ordinary piovisiocs thereof. She was, said one who knew her we'l, a woman of considerable understanding, solid, clear and penetrating judgment, noble soul and large heart. A gieat trial of her life was ihe fear that "he extraordinary spiritual favours shown her might possibly be illusion?. The si nguar graces wMch she was continually receiving she disclosed to her superior, much to the perplexity of ihat good pious houl. Eventually Oar Lord made known in prayer to her the grandeur, the charity and the sirsows of His tacred Heart. Thea Le appearei to her when she was praying in the convent chapel and commissioned her to labour lor the establishment of a special festival for the honouring of His Heart on the first Fiiday after the Oc'ave of Corpus Christi. Without going further into the dt tails of her life and the revelations vouchsafed her it ia sufficient to say that no gieiter proof of the reality of these revelations could be given than is given in the establishment and progress of the cultus of the Divine Heart. Speaking of this nutter, Father de Galhffel, SJ, aUpts the vor.ls of Gitnaliil. "If this work had been of meu it would havu come to naugh' ; but as it is of God nothing ever could or ever will destroy it."

It is not the le»st charm of th s book that tbe author has related Blessed Margaret Vlary'n life, <so far hs h- could in her own words. His citations from her letters and the memoir already mentioned are frtquent and sometimes lengthy. The " Life " brca'hes a devotional spirit trom first to bst, so that we mignt say of it what Abbe Fouard says of his " Life of Jesus," it is sn act of faith.