Margaret Mary Alacoque, Religious

Born the fifth of seven children to the family of an official in France, Margaret was a good child, but she was not particularly smart or clever. When she was old enough, she entered a convent of the Visitation nuns. At the time, this order had two classes of nuns. The choir nuns were the cultivated, educated nuns who did the teaching and sang in the choir, while the lay nuns were the unschooled women who did the menial chores in the convent. Margaret Mary was a part of this second group. Hers was not an easy life, and she suffered the scorn and ridicule of some of the learned nuns because of her piety. Strongly devoted to Christ, Margaret Mary accepted her suffering in the name of Jesus. The Lord made himself know to her several times throughout the years, and based on this, she promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart which we still have in the Church today.

Many of the saints were scorned because of their lives of devotion and prayer; Margaret Mary was one of these, although her sanctity was eventually recognized by those in her community. Likewise, we may experience the same reaction when we try to live out our Christian beliefs. Jesus encourages us to persevere, however, as he did in his visions to Margaret Mary.