Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines)

He was a Burgundian nobleman's son, a brilliant preacher, a gentle and educated man, and he had no idea that the most important appointment of his life was waiting for him in a convent parlor.

Within days, he was invited to preach to the Sisters of the Visitation and to hear their confessions.

Margaret, in the cold of her endless doubt, had been told in prayer, so she wrote, that a servant of God was being sent to her.

As the priest crossed the convent threshold, she heard the words inside her, "This is he whom I send to you." She did not rush forward.

Praise be Jesus and Mary.

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the saint and mystic of the 17th century, of the Visitation Order, and who has given the mission to spread the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

As a young girl, St. Margaret Mary suffered from paralysis for four years before she begged the Blessed Virgin Mary for a miraculous cure and had promised that if she was granted this cure, she would dedicate herself to the religious life and to a religious order.

And the Virgin Mary granted her request and she instantly was restored to perfect health.

And he rebuked her for having put off her vow of entering into religious life.

especially after he had given her so many proofs of his special love for her with his various apparitions, etc.

And so St. Margaret Mary repented and then made a firm resolve to enter religious life, and she entered, of course, the visitation order.

And actually it would be for the rest of her life she would regret two particular things that she did during this time.

Once Margaret Mary's family understood that she had made up her mind to become a nun, they tried to get her to join the Ursulines, which a relative had joined.

She desired, however, to embrace the more rigorous life of the Visitation Sisters.

Though it seemed that everyone opposed her, she persevered, and on May twenty-first, fifteen seventy-one, she entered the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial.

As soon as she entered the parlor for her initial visit, she interiorly heard Jesus say, "It is here that I would have thee be." After some doubts by her superiors as to whether she was a good fit for the Visitation Sisters, she received the habit and took her vows on November sixth, fifteen seventy-two.

During Margaret Mary's novitiate, Jesus revealed to her that he had a special mission for her.

She was to become a blank canvas on which Jesus' sufferings would be written and revealed.

Now, they also had four others, uh, two boys and two girls, who died at an early age, so there are nine in all.

So, um, Pauline was in the monastery of Lisieux, so was Marie, and so was Therese, whereas Leonie would later join the Visitandine nuns in Caen nearby, and, uh, Celine would later join the monastery in Lisieux.

So Celine in, on the left and Leonie in the middle were at home with their father, Louis, and the maid, Maria.

He thought there was a battle raging in Lisieux, so he took out his revolver to defend his children.

Pauline became Mother Agnes of Jesus in the Lisieux Carmel.

Leonie became Sister Françoise-Thérèse, Visitandine at Caen.

Her life of saintly virtue is currently under study for possible canonization.

Celine also became a Carmelite in Lisieux, taking the name Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face.