Thank You
from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart

First of all, I must thank Father Daniel Augié, Missionary of the Sacred Heart, rector of the Basilica of Issoudun.  I know his attachment to this place and even more the spiritual heritage that it represents for all the members who from now on will be called the “Chevalier Family.” Under this title we are bringing together: Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and Laity associated with our spirituality and mission. Father Daniel shares with us his vision of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. He has assembled in this booklet important texts which we think important to read again on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the title of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

I hope that the booklet will help pilgrims and friends of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to better understand Mary invoked at Issoudun and in the entire world under the beautiful title of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.  In this anniversary year, this booklet appears as the “Thank You” of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart concerning Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, that Father Jules Chevalier saw as the foundress of his young Congregation.  We know she is always present at the heart of our missionary activities.

Father Gerard Blattman, MSC
Provincial of France/Switzerland
March 25, 2009

1859/2009
150 Years of Prayer

The occasion of such an anniversary allows us to “revisit” the treasure handed down to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart by Father Jules Chevalier, their founder.

Devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart has been offered to the Church by Father Jules Chevalier (1824-1907), priest of the diocese of Bourges: he wished to “honor and make known all the relations of love which unite Mary to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”  In the Heart of Jesus, in fact, Father Jules Chevalier experienced the infinite tenderness of God for humanity: seeing in it a remedy for the evils of the time, he wished to honor the Heart of Jesus by going through Mary!

The year 2009 recalls two other anniversaries: one hundred fifty years ago, construction of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart began. This edifice comprises the Church of the Sacred Heart, and in its extension, the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The second anniversary officially marks the beginning of pilgrimages to Issoudun.  It is about one hundred forty years (September 8, 1869) since the crowning of the statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the name of Pope Pius IX by the Archbishop of Bourges.  This symbolic act marked the Church’s approval for the Marian devotion that was starting to develop in Issoudun. From then until now it has spread worldwide through the missionary dimension of the Congregations founded by Father Chevalier: Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,* Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.** Nearly 5,000 men and women religious throughout the world recognize their home base as this little village in the heart of France: Issoudun.

Millions of laity, members of the Fraternity (of prayer) of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, love to pray to Mary in the manner of Father Chevalier. According to his inspiration,  each one prays for the intentions of everyone. There resides, perhaps, the power of the prayer to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

Men and women, religious and lay, “see the Lord in speaking with Mary” as Cardinal Daneels put it.Our Lady of the Sacred Heart shows the way to the heart of Jesus.  The great Calvary scene of the Basilica of Issoudun says nothing else. Here we are formed together as participants and witnesses of the love of God revealed for us in the Heart of Christ pierced on Calvary.  

* Founded with the help of Madame Marie-Louise Hartzer.
** Father Chevalier asked Father Hubert Linckens, MSC, to found the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Germany.

We Call Her Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

It was some weeks before the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception that Father Chevalier was named Vicar at Issoudun.  Being open in his missionary project with his parish priest (Father Crozat), with his companion from seminary days, Emile Maugenest, he invoked Mary during the course of a novena that ended on December 8, 1854.  

At the end of this time of prayer that prepared their hearts to welcome the new dogma’s definition, someone came to offer a sum of money for a missionary foundation.  Father Chevalier recognized in this gift, the response he had asked of heaven before discerning the authenticity of his project to found the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Having received the endorsement of the Archbishop of Bourges, the first Missionaries of the Sacred Heart were officially installed in September 1855 in the locale of the actual sanctuary that was nothing but a modest barn.

Later it became known that Father Chevalier had promised to honor Mary in a special manner.  In the middle of recreation, he asked his companions to guess the name he would give to the Virgin Mary in the new church.Several names were suggested but no one guessed Father Chevalier’s idea. “She will be called:  Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.” They were astonished and surprised—no one had heard of such a name

Historians do not agree on the year when this occurred.  Some say 1857, some 1859.  To celebrate the anniversary of this event, the current Superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Father Mark McDonald, decided to adopt 1859.  For him, 2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the name, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

In May, 1863,  Father Chevalier  wrote an article in the review of P. Ramiere, a Jesuit.  It was called the Messenger of the Sacred Heart but is known today as Christ, Source of Life.  Here is the essential text:
The child of Mary, in invoking her by the sweet title of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, proposes:
1.to thank and glorify God for having chosen Mary from among all creatures to form within her own womb and from her own substance the adorable Heart of Jesus
2.to honor particularly the sentiments of love, obedience, and filial respect that Jesus nourished in his Heart towards his Most Holy Mother
3.    to recognize and to glorify by a special title (…), the power He has given her over his divine Heart
4.to beg this holy Virgin to lead us herself to the Sacred Heart of her Son, to open to us the treasures of his love and mercy contained there, and to make us draw more abundantly from this source of all grace.”
If some expressions appear dated, it is not less true that this text bears power and theological force even today.

Mary, chosen by God, is understood in her relationship with Christ.  The Second Vatican Council expressed this in a balanced way saying: “She introduces us into the mystery of Christ and of the Church” (Lumen Gentium VIII).  I like to think that Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical The Mother of the Redeemer, explains the same sense that Father Chevalier evoked when he said:  “She will be called Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.” She leads us to Christ and helps us understand him, so to speak.

According to a formula attributed to St. Ephrem the first companions of Father Chevalier spoke of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart as the “hope of the hopeless.” This expression has had its glorious hours. It indicates that Mary is such a mother that she knows how to intercede before Jesus with her maternal power. In the light of the Council, it is preferable to speak of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (of Mary) as a sign of hope assured as Lumen Gentium stated (No. 68). In fact, only Christ, according to St. Paul, is our hope.

She shall be called Our Lady of the Sacred Heart!
The article of Father Chevalier gives the date. Crowds came to Issoudun to pray to Mary under this new title and to thank God for the hope this name inspired.  At the request and with the help of pilgrims, Father Chevalier would create the “Fraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart” that would construct the actual Basilica.  Its walls are tapestries of votive offerings, as a sign of recognition for all the graces obtained by invoking Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

She shall be called Our Lady of the Sacred Heart!
It is not enough to give her a title, even if this one is a channel of great spirituality. Popular piety and our imagination also need to see.

For this reason Father Chevalier asked a sculptor from Tours to translate the new title into an image. Mary is represented with the stature that is hers in the Rue de Bac in Paris.  He borrowed from a painting of the Holy Family, the Child Jesus at twelve years of age.  The child shows his heart in his left hand and blesses with his right.  Instead of blessing, Father Chevalier wanted the hand turned in the direction of Mary. The combination of these two images also explains the relationship between Jesus and Mary.  Mary seems to be saying to us:  “Here is my Son” and Jesus shows his Heart to his mother: “Here is my Heart!  Here is my Mother…she is the way to my Heart.” In keeping the same symbolism, there are two other representations of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.  One evokes the classical motherhood of Mary.  She is above and carries the child in her left arm.  Jesus shows his mother his heart.

The third representation is the fruit of a reflection published after the Second Vatican Council. The Church had asked at that time that Congregations “return to their roots.” It was in fact a question of plunging anew into the spiritual inspiration of the founder.  Several Missionaries of the Sacred Heart began to work in the realm of history, theology, and liturgy. The Calvary of the Basilica was conceived for the chapel of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart’s major seminary in Strasbourg.  When this closed, the Calvary Scene was transferred to the Basilica during the Marian year 1987/1988.

The Calvary speaks of renewing the ties that unite Christ and his Mother. Mary’s hand turned toward us invites us to enter into this relationship with Jesus to benefit in our turn from the gifts of the Heart of Jesus.

From this same research came the prayer of the Fraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart: the new “Memorare to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.” It replaces the old  “Memorare.” More Bibical than the latter, it restates the initial inspiration. It helps us to:

♥ Thank and glorify God for choosing Mary (He chose her for his mother, he wanted her to be near the Cross, he wants her to share in his glory, he listens to her prayer…)

♥ Honor Mary who leads us to the Heart of Christ (the second part of the “Memorare to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart”). This liturgical research found its successful conclusion in the Mass of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart approved by the Holy See in 1973.

Following Father Chevalier, we have the great joy of praying to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Our Lady of the Love of God: the Mother of the Redeemer, masterpiece of the love of God.  Today, she still sings in us of the Love of God like a perpetual Magnificat!

The Spirit of Devotion

Devotion suggests practices, a way of praying, but it is sustained by spirituality. At Issoudun, it is the spirituality of the Heart that Father Chevalier offered to his missionaries. Jesus is contemplated under the aspect of his Heart that takes into account his whole person in the Biblical tradition.  If Mary invites us to live close to the heart of Jesus, it is only natural that she should be called Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

Father Chevalier’s contemplation may be summed up as follows:

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
♥ She is the woman in whom we contemplate the most beautiful realization of the love of God.  By her “Yes” on the Day of the Annunciation she gave flesh (Heart) to Jesus, the Word of God.  
♥ She is the one with whom we give thanks to God for our salvation in Jesus Christ.  The Well-Loved of God, the Immaculate, shows us the way and the life.
♥ She is a mother who shows us the Heart of her Son and presents us to Him.  She helps us enter (says the council: Lumen Gentium VIII) into the mystery of Christ and of the Church.
♥ She is the Mother of the Church, who invites us to work for the salvation of everyone by our prayer and the witness of our lives.

To pray to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart means this:
♥ to thank God who saved us in his Son
♥ to unite our love and our efforts in the Christian life to the offering of Jesus on the Cross
♥ to receive the Spirit transmitted by Jesus so that (in the Church) we might give Him to the world of today!

Enlivened by the spirituality of the Heart, our devotion expresses itself in ordinary life by imitating Our Lady of the Sacred Heart:

♥ in her praise and gratitude.  We have traces of her prayer in the Magnificat.Her prayer shows us how to echo the Word of God in our lives.
♥ in her service to God who gave himself in service to others. We see it illustrated in the Visitation (Lk. 1: 39-45). Mary set out and went in haste to serve.
♥ in her daily fidelity during her life at Nazareth and her courageous, hope-filled heart despite the trials announced by the aged Simeon well before Calvary (Jn. 19).
♥ in her union with the forgiveness of Jesus on Calvary and his offering for the salvation of all of us. In that decisive hour (said John Paul II) the promises made to her on the day of the Annunciation may have seemed foolish but she stood there in hope (on Easter morning). Cf. Mother of the Redeemer, no. 18.
♥ in her maternal charism (of service) in the womb of the Church. On the day following the Resurrection Mary participated in the gathering of the bewildered disciples. Luke tells us of her prayerful presence among the apostles as they waited for the Spirit.

The devotion expresses itself also in the prayer of Christians:

♥ praising God for Mary: an occasion for thinking about what He has done for her and what she has done for Him.
♥ praising the Lord with Mary (Magnificat) for who He is, for what He still does for us
♥ praising Mary (the first part of the “Hail Mary”)
…for what the Lord has done in her
…for her responses to that love
…for her motherly actions in the Church and in our lives
♥  praying to Mary and to the Lord with Mary (second part of the “Hail Mary”): in all our needs, for all of our families and friends, for all others to do better, all that the Lord expects from us, according to the instruction at Cana (Jn. 2: 1-11).

In the Light of the Word of God

According to the spirit of Father Chevalier, one can go deeper into the title “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart” by glancing through the Books of the Bible. The following lines appear in the Annales for March 1981. They deserve to be repeated here. It is desirable to read the references given.

The masterpiece of the Love of God…
Jesus Christ wished to be born of a woman (Gal. 4: 4), the Virgin Mary, filled in advance with gifts showered from the Cross from the streams of the Savior (Is. 12:3).

A perfect response to this Love…
Responding to the Love of God in faith and service (Lk.1: 38), giving her humanity to Christ, then learning at the school of his Heart (Mt.11:29) even to contemplating it wounded by a spear (Jn. 19:34), Mary surrendered totally to the person and the work of her Son.

A mother for everyone…
In giving us Mary as our mother (Jn.19:27), Christ extended her motherhood to the whole Church and to every human person. She continues to exercise her motherhood each day, giving birth to the brothers and sisters of the First-born (Rom. 8:29) by her example and her prayer so that all might be with her.

Towards the Source of Life…
Following Father Chevalier we love to call Mary: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, because she has known the unfathomable riches of Christ (Eph. 3: 8-19), because she has been captured by his Love (2 Cor. 5:14), because she leads us to his Heart and reveals it to us as the source of his universal Love (Lk. 12:49) and of a life given to make a new world emerge (Jn. 7:37ff).

All of us are also sharers and witnesses…
Celebrating with Mary the wonders of God (Lk.1:46-55), attentive to do as she did, whatever He asks (Jn. 2:5), we wish to be captured by Him who died for all (2 Cor. 5:14).
We wish to serve, with love and tenderness (Ph. 1:8): to announce the Good News to the poor (Lk. 4:18), to build a new world, to lead humanity to the “heart” of love (Is.12:3) and to Hope.

With the Church in prayer…
The Mass of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart provides rich texts worthy of attentive rereading and meditation.  The first reading taken from the Book of Isaiah (66: 10-14), on the return from exile, is full of maternal images of God’s prodigal love for Jerusalem, that is, for His people, and promises a future of grace: Christ will accomplish this promise for the Church!

The second reading, the letter of the apostle Paul to the Galatians (4:4-7), places us at the heart of the mystery of the Incarnation.  Christ is “born of a woman”: the Virgin Mary, so that all of us, children of women, might become children of God, enlivened by the universally fraternal spirit of Jesus himself.

The Gospel according to St. John (19:25-37) is the foundational text of the Marian spirituality proposed at Issoudun. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart : she is the first (with St. John) to “contemplate the One who is pierced” and to give him thanks.  Jesus having declared her our Mother, she invites us “to the source of living water which flows from the Heart” of her Son.  The Church has always drawn from this source to evoke the gift of the Spirit and the life-giving sacraments.  In this supreme moment, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart became the Mother of the Church, the Mother of all those who belong to Christ.

Recalling the opening prayer of the Mass, we are made sharers and witnesses of the mystery of love which changes how we view God and ourselves. “Lord our God, you have willed that the Virgin Mary be associated with the mystery of the Heart of Jesus Christ, in whom You have revealed all the riches of your Love: grant that we may be each day in the Church, sharers and witnesses of your Love.”

The Spiritual Climate of Our Encounter with Christ

Such is the vocation of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart: to strengthen and guide our encounter with Christ.  She who was, in a certain sense, the first disciple, introduces us into the unique relationship that she had with her Son.  Even more, she has been given to us as our mother by Jesus himself.Her mission qualifies her presence at our side to orient our outlook and our hearts toward the unique Lord of our lives.Note that the first statue (in the chapel) and also the Calvary (in the Basilica) presents Mary as not looking at those who look at her.  Her eyes are turned toward her Son whom she presents to us (in the chapel) and whom she shows us (in the Basilica).  This representation shows clearly that Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is not centered on herself but on her Son.

Her mission close to Jesus becomes the same for each of us, her children. To pray to Mary, to pray to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, is a sure unfailing way to be placed in relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Calvary of the Basilica of Issoudun has a special place in the sanctuary where the Eucharist is celebrated.  Between the two figures—Mary and the cross of Christ—is the altar.  The Eucharistic table is always the meeting place par excellence.  Our Lady of the Sacred Heart shows us the One who allows us in the future to share in the bread. She invites us to live as linked with all the Church whose Mother she is.

A child amid a group of catechists who were visiting the Basilica remarked that in this depiction of Calvary someone was missing: St. John.  Having confirmed his observation, he added: “Undoubtedly John is myself, as Mary is my heavenly Mother.” With surprising understanding and integration of the place of Mary in the mystery of Christ and the Church, this reflection of the child contains everything and expresses the essential in a few words.

After the gift of Jesus to his beloved disciple:  “Here is your Mother,” the Evangelist says precisely: “from that moment on, the disciple took her (Mary) to live in his home.” Let us be convinced that she helps us to live our way of faith in prayer and service.

The spiritual climate of our meeting with Christ is also expressed at the feast of Cana where Mary intercedes for the newlywed husband who has run out of wine. Today’s pilgrims are especially touched by a Marian spirituality that opens the missionary dimension of the Church. The “Do all that He tells you” of Cana sounds like a gospel instruction that echoes the motto Father Chevalier gave to his missionaries: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere.” History is witness on several occasions that Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (by a statue, an image of prayer) has often preceded the arrival of missionaries to a new apostolate confided to the sons and daughters of Father Chevalier.

She Leads Us to the Source of Love!
(Excerpt from the Annales of Issoudun, December 2003)

A woman according to the Heart of God
A woman among women: created by God like all of us…redeemed by Jesus Christ like all of us. But a woman fashioned by God according to his Heart, his love, and his project of salvation: filled with grace (and graces) preserved from the effects of original sin, called to become for all humanity the “type” and the exemplar of what God wishes to realize (in each human person) to accomplish the “plans of his Heart.” (Ps. 32/33:11).

A woman who fashioned the Heart of the God-Man
Mary guarantees the truth of the Incarnation of God. For the “Son of God is born of a woman!” (Gal. 4:4). We can say of her, as the woman in the gospel, did:  “Happy the woman who bore you and nursed you!” (Lk. 11:27).The Evangelist underlines the love with which Mary fulfilled the tasks of all mothers:  she clothed Jesus: she guided his first steps as a baby, she carried him to the Temple, and accompanied him to Jerusalem for the Paschal pilgrimage (Lk. 2). She taught him how to pray the psalms, she was not afraid to complain that he caused her pain (Lk. 2:48); she knew how to speak with him about the worries of a young couple (at Cana: Jn. 2:3); she taught him to “love with a human heart”!

A woman who lived according to the Heart of God
She called herself “Servant of the Lord” (Lk. 1:38): she was so troubled in learning that her son would be a king (Lk.1: 31) that she went to help her aged, pregnant cousin! And when that woman marveled that the “Mother of the Lord” had come to visit, Mary herself marveled that God favored the lowliness of his servant…(Lk. 2:39).  Fulfilling all the Lord’s commandments, Mary lived with Jesus at Nazareth, a village scorned as producing “nothing good”! (Jn. 1:46)…  During the public life, we find Mary from time to time in the crowd that surrounded Jesus (e.g. Mt. 12:46-50) but above all present at the “foot of the Cross of Jesus” (Jn. 19:25) and at the Heart of the newborn Church (Acts 1:12-15).

A woman who contemplated the Pierced One
On his cross (Jn. 19:25-37), to “fulfill everything,” Jesus confided Mary to his beloved disciple and handed over his Spirit. Each of these legacies is important.And to better understand them, it is necessary, with Mary, to “lift up one’s eyes toward (contemplate) the One who has been pierced” (19: 37) and therefore from that Sign of the opened Heart we must go with Mary to the source of living water and recognize in Jesus the “love that God has revealed to us from which no one can separate us”! (Rom. 8:39). Jesus has loved “to the end” since “there is no greater love than to give up one’s life,” and He has “freely” surrendered his life…(Jn. 13:1; 15:13; 10:18).  It is this love of the Father in giving us his Son and of the Son giving his life (Jn. 3:16 and 10:18) that Mary invites us to contemplate with her [Jesus before our eyes] that we might have, like her, “Jesus in our hearts”…

The Mother who has the Church in her heart
When Jesus confided his mother to the disciple and the disciple to his mother, it was a matter of declaring maternity and sonship: we are not born without an identity, abandoned, and given up for adoption. Together we form the “Body of Christ that is the Church” as St. Paul writes (Col. 1:24).This Church/Body must have a heart! This is why we see Mary in the primitive Church giving the disciples “one heart and one soul” so they might soon manifest this in their daily lives and in their mission to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:14; 2:42-47; 4:32). The Mother of the Church is the mother of the mission, of missionaries, and of all those whom Jesus called to be his witnesses for the world by giving them the strength of his Spirit (Acts 1:8).

The Mother in glory: heart to heart with God, Mother of us all
Mary shares the glory of the Resurrection.As she shared his suffering, she is the first to experience in the totality of her being that which is “salvation in Jesus Christ”!  And that to which we are all destined.  She is the great sign of our hope!(Lumen Gentium VIII).Thanks to her Assumption, Mary shares in the knowledge and the love that God has for each and every one of us.Each of us can, therefore, claim her as “my Mother” and even say (like an eleventh century hymn) “Show yourself a mother…like God, like Christ” raised up to heaven to intercede on our behalf” (Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34).Our Lady—in God and in Christ—knows and loves each one of us personally: we can tell her everything…so she can “offer to the Lord our praises and our graced actions, and present to Him our requests”… But this privileged interpersonal relationship should enlarge our heart to the dimensions of the heart of Mary and the Heart of God:each one of us should become attentive to others, seeking to know them (without judging) and to love them…the way God and Our Lady love them, that is, “for their greater good”—human and spiritual (St. Thomas Aquinas).

A Certain Way of Seeing!
[extract from the booklet now out pf print:
“Issoudun Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,”
Cap Theojac edition]

On the centenary of the pilgrimage (September 8, 1969) Cardinal Joseph Lefebvre, Archbishop of Bourges, declared that, for him, devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was not one devotion among several others, but the devotion par excellence…” Because it concentrates our sights on Jesus and on Mary, and makes us focus on the essential: the heart…the devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart leads us to know better (and share) the love of Jesus—and that of Mary—for God and humanity… By associating Christ and his Mother in our prayer we are filled with hope and can better love and serve God and our brothers and sisters…” Cardinal LeFebvre gave several reasons for this.  Our Lady of the Sacred Heart means a certain way of seeing God; a certain way of looking at humanity; a certain manner of being; a certain way of looking at history; a certain way of living:  in communion and service and with hope…

Formed by the whole tradition of her people, Mary rediscovered God especially at the moment when the angel came to bring her the astonishing news. The Jews did not dare to name God because that would mean penetrating his grandeur. The Bible calls Him “The Lord”; the thrice Holy; the Creator of the universe…  But Mary was going to receive—and give us—“God-with-us,” the God of Love, what a great discovery—that God had a Heart!  Devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart brings us nearer to God the Father and to God-made-man, to God whose Spirit can accomplish wonders in us—conversion, forgiveness, and life always made new…

A certain way of seeing humanity
The Ancients said:  “Man is a wolf to man.” One can often say that in our day! But Christ places on each human a look of Divine Love and invites to a new rapport among all whom He calls brothers and sisters. But Mary, in whom the Heart of Jesus has beaten, helps us to treat each one like Jesus himself. Sin never blossomed in Mary. She is one of us, however, and her fullness of grace does not distance her from us—far from it.  The flower of our race and of love, daughter of Anne and Joachim, wife of a carpenter in a poor village, incomparable spouse and housewife, mother who has known the joys and sorrows (even to following her Son to Calvary) Mary lived only for others…

A certain way of being
One might say it is “attention to others and service…with an extraordinary sensitivity.”  From the day after the Annunciation, instead of relying on the grace received and the dignity of the Mother of God, Mary journeyed over the hills to be of service to her elderly cousin in the last weeks of her pregnancy…  At Cana it was Mary who first noticed the embarrassment of the newly wed couple and she found so simply, so delicately, the best words to point out, “They have no more wine.” At the Cross Mary was there, silent (as is said of certain dramatic moments) but so present, offering her grief for us and her Son… In the Upper Room, then in the newborn Church, Mary was there, discreet, unnoticed, prayerful, ready to serve.  Her life, like that of Christ, shows us how we should love…

A certain way of looking at history
Mary has been placed at a turning point, in the “fullness of time,” as St. Paul says.  Human beings came from God, but would have been wiped out like desert dwellers if they did not return to God, and they could not go towards God without Christ, the Man-God and the God-Man, our priest (who bridges the gap). Mary helps us to see that the plan of God for the salvation of humanity by Christ, is always to be put into effect, is yet to be fulfilled, and leads to the end: the Heart of the Father. We are not on the earth by chance.  We come from love and we have a task to accomplish: to make a world worthy of the human beings God loves…

A requirement of commitment
As the Council said, “Mary engaged with a full heart and with love in the work of her Son.” And the work of her Son is our salvation… Like Mary, the Servant of the Lord, we have a task to accomplish:  what must we do ourselves, each one, to make the world worthy of the people whom God loves?  Devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart leads to that commitment since she leads us to love. For true love is proven not in words but in deeds, as St. John says. And those who lack love cannot perform deeds of love.

A will toward communion
Mary had only one son:  Jesus.  But this Only Son represents all of us since he is the “type” (“the first-born” says St. Paul) of humanity according to the Heart of God. And when Mary, at Calvary, received St. John as her son, it was a sign: she is the mother of us all…  She wants us to be united.  And because she is our mother, she knows that according to the word of Jesus, God wants us to be one, so that the world may believe. Tensions are unavoidable and choices are diverse.  But Jesus said that the sign by which one recognizes his disciples (enlivened by the one Spirit) is love, is unity. It is the Church, ultimately.  If we would make it without ceasing a place—not of division, but of community, this heart where the world of today can encounter God…

A certain hope
Christ is risen and Mary shares his glory.  We too, we live in God. We are living in Him already. In a secular world, of globalization, in a world of violence, of drugs, of anguish or absurdity, hope is here today! If little by little, transformed by prayer to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart we show what God is (a God of Love), we translate his tenderness toward all, we unite ourselves to act, we can build today a world where in each heart beats a dance!

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
repeat to our anguishing hearts
that God is Love,
that every person is a brother or sister
to love,
to serve with our heart,
that the world is a building site
open to artisans of peace,
that the church is a community
of love and hope…
Until everyone has but one heart and a soul!

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart,
a disciple according to the Heart of her Son
[Homilies of Father Mark McDonald,
Superior General of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, September 1, 2007]

On relationships brought to the Light…
For Father Chevalier this new title—Our Lady of the Sacred Heart—and the Marian devotion flowing from it, has as foundation: Mary considered in her relationship with the Heart of Jesus. “How sweet to acknowledge, to exalt this unique woman in her relationship with the Heart of Jesus” he wrote in 1884. In fact, we know that for Father Chevalier the relationship between Mary and Jesus was always a relationship of love. Father Chevalier put the accent on the “power” of Mary’s prayer of intercession.  “He listens to your prayer,” we say today in the prayer “Remember…” In the eyes of Father Chevalier, Jesus listens to the prayer of Mary because she is his mother. Above all it was this relationship of the mother with her Son that attracted our Founder. In our world, the relationship between a woman and her son and between the child and its mother is one of the strongest relationships possible.  Undoubtedly, Father Chevalier saw this as the chief bond between Mary and Jesus.  But he also spoke of other relationships.  Often, he maintained that Mary leads us to the Heart of her Son.  She shows us the way that leads to Him. She herself follows Jesus and invites us to accompany her. That is one aspect of the vocation of Our Lady that Father Chevalier did not dwell on very much. Be that as it may, without perhaps giving account, Father Chevalier saw there another profound relationship between Mary and Jesus; she was his disciple, the first of his disciples.  Thus, a double relationship: “mother–son” and “disciple-teacher.” This way of representing Mary is nothing new. Even in his day, St. Augustine had written: “Has she not done the will of the Father, this Virgin Mary who has believed, who has conceived by faith, who has been chosen, so that from her salvation would come to humanity, who has been created by Christ before Christ was created in her? Yes, Mary who is holy has done the will of the Father, and consequently it is more glorious for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than mother of Christ. Therefore, Mary was happy to carry the Teacher in her heart before bringing him into the world (St. Augustine, Sermon 72/A, 7). For St. Augustine, to be the mother of the Messiah was a great privilege for Mary, a unique privilege. But he insists on the fact that this privilege was possible because Mary was first a disciple of Jesus, because she did the will of God. This is the way that St. Augustine understood the text of St. Luke:  My mother and my brothers, they are those who listen to the Word of God and who put it into practice” (Lk. 8:21).

The gospel reveals many examples of this relationship: “Mary-disciple” and “Jesus-Teacher”:

♥ Mary listened to the voice of her Son and pondered in her heart the events of his life
♥ She followed Jesus in his ministry in Galilee
♥ She followed Him to Calvary, even to the Cross.

Among all the disciples of Jesus, Luke singles out two: Simeon and Joseph of Arimathea, as being the best. About Simeon, who was present at the Temple when Jesus was presented there, Luke writes: “This man was just and pious; he was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit rested on him” (Lk. 2:25). Of Joseph, he says: And there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a man righteous and just. He had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God” (Lk. 23:51).

Why did Luke the Evangelist mention these two disciples—one present at Jerusalem when Jesus came there for the first time, and the other, present the day Jesus died? Why were they so important in the eyes of St. Luke?  Because the two had the same privilege.  They could receive Jesus into their arms: Simeon took the infant Jesus in his arms.  Joseph took the body of Jesus down from the Cross. So, Luke draws our attention to that which is most important for a disciple of Christ:  to be close to Jesus.  But, if anyone was close, it was surely Mary—her closeness on the way to Bethlehem where Jesus was born, and to Jerusalem, the place of Crucifixion. Clearly, among all the persons who followed Jesus, she was closest to Him.

Mary, disciple of Jesus according to our spirituality of the heart

What is truly proper to our spirituality of the heart, the legacy that Father Chevalier bequeathed to us, is the care to reproduce the same sentiments in ourselves, the same attitudes, that we find in the heart of Jesus. And here we can ask a question; Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, is she a model for us in the spirit of this spirituality that is ours? And, from all evidence, the answer is positive.  In the Heart of Jesus, there is a series of sentiments and attitudes in relation to God the Father: adoration, graced action, love, union, obedience… There is also a relation with us: love, pity, mercy, compassion…  The perpetual cult—a proper practice for the Chevalier family, and our contribution to the devotion to the Sacred Heart—outlines several of these sentiments of the Heart of Christ. I think that, in the Gospel, and in our popular devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, we can rediscover all the sentiments in the heart of Mary.

I will give two examples. In the spirituality of Father Chevalier, the sentiment or the attitude of obedience has a special place. Jesus is obedient when He is open to the will of the Father, when he accepts his human condition with all its limitations, when he says on the Cross: “Father, into your hands I surrender my spirit” (Lk. 23:46). This obedience is also related to us.  Father Chevalier loved to cite this text of St. Paul: “The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me: (Gal. 2:20).

In the gospel of St. Luke, we see the same attitude of availability in Mary at the moment of the Annunciation: “I am the servant of the Lord, let it happen according to your word” (Lk. 1:38). As the son of God accepted his role as Messiah (for his love toward God and us), Mary accepted her role as mother of the Messiah (for God and us). Liturgically, we celebrate the YES of Jesus and that of Mary together on March 25th. Without any doubt, at the Annunciation, the YES of Mary allowed the YES of Jesus to be realized in the mystery of the Incarnation. She is truly a disciple of Jesus. Another sentiment of the heart of Jesus that has special importance in our spirituality is the sentiment of compassion. Father Chevalier wrote: “Jesus was happy to pour out the tenderness of his Heart on little ones and the poor, on those who suffered, on sinners, on all persons in misery. The sight of an unfortunate one touched his Heart with compassion” (Constitutions, no. 6). In my view, we rediscover the same sentiment in the heart of Our Lady at the wedding in Cana, in the second chapter of St. John’s gospel.  We know that for St. John it was the sign chosen by Jesus to announce the moment of salvation that is the Passion. The abundance of wine at Cana is a sign of the abundance of life which spilled from the opened side of Jesus on the Cross. It is a very theological text and we can ask if Mary thought of all this when she said to Jesus: “They have no more wine” (Jn. 2:3) and when she said to the servants:  “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn. 2:5). No, I think we need to see Mary as a person preoccupied with the embarrassment of the young couple. The sight of misfortune touched with compassion the heart of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.  And I would add this:  when Mary said to Jesus: “They have no more wine,” it was his mother speaking, it was our mother who intercedes for us.  When Mary says: “Do whatever He tells you,” is the disciple speaking, it is our sister showing us how to follow Jesus.

The “Mary-disciple” relationship in light of St. Luke’s gospel

It is well known that in the gospel of John, the role of Mary as mother of Jesus and our mother is well illuminated.  It is above all the Evangelist Luke who develops the idea of the role of disciple as much for Mary as for all of us Christians.

In fact, St. Luke presents us with the classical image of a disciple when he speaks of Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus: “Mary, who was seated at the feet of the Lord, was listening to his words” (Lk. 10:39). In the same way, St. Luke presents the mother of Jesus after the visit of the shepherds in these terms: “As for Mary, she carefully kept all these things in her heart” (Lk. 2:19). Later, after the visit to the Temple when Jesus was twelve and after the return to Nazareth, Luke says something new:  “And his mother kept all these things faithfully in her heart” (Lk. 2:51). A disciple must listen to the voice of the teacher and meditate on his words. This is exactly the attitude of Mary in the account of the infancy in St. Luke’s gospel. In other places, St. Luke gives many examples of men and women who followed Jesus. There also we have a characteristic of a disciple: they must always follow the Teacher. There where Jesus is found should also be found the person who wishes to be his disciple.  Luke gives us the names of several women with those of the twelve apostles who followed Jesus and who were his disciples. Often, to invite someone to be a disciple, Jesus simply said, “Follow me.” A share in the passion of Jesus was part of the invitation: “If anyone wishes to follow me, he must deny himself, take up his cross each day, and follow me” (Lk. 9:23). To sum up, the best disciples of Jesus are those who follow him to the end…as far as Calvary and the Tomb. In the third gospel, there is only a small group of women who later would become witnesses of the Resurrection. Even the apostles were not in this group, but Luke does not want to say that they had completely abandoned their role as disciples, above all St. Peter, the leader of the group: “As for Peter, he followed at a distance” says St. Luke (Lk. 22:54).

Another question merits our attention in understanding this “Mary-disciple” relationship: Is the Virgin Mary following Jesus with the other disciples? Some signs indicate that this was the case and are present all through the public life of Jesus. In fact, Luke speaks of her presence in Galilee and of her presence with the other disciples on the day of Pentecost. And Simeon had announced the sharing of Mary in the passion of Jesus when he said: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Lk. 2:35).

Two relationships (mother-disciple) that are really one

The magnificent Calvary of the Basilica of Issoudun shows us Our Lady of the Sacred Heart as a disciple of Jesus.Different from so many other representations of Our Lady, in the Basilica, Mary is not looking at us. She is turned toward the Cross and she is looking at Jesus. Her eyes are fixed on Him, on Him who has been pierced. She has the attitude of a disciple.  She is at the feet of the Teacher, she is attentive to all that He says. As I just said, at the Calvary of the Basilica of Issoudun, Our Lady is not looking at us.  But she is conscious of our presence. In her right hand, she invites us to come beside her and look on Him who has been pierced. She invites us equally to take on the attitude of a disciple. With her, we contemplate the opened Heart from which flows good news for humanity. With her, we see the new world being born. Here is the richness of Father Chevalier’s inspiration and the depth of the title, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Mary has diverse relationships with Jesus: she is his mother; she is also his disciple. The scene of the crucifixion in St. John, and I dare to affirm it, in the vision of Father Chevalier, these two relationships of love are only one. Mary is simultaneously the mother and the disciple of Jesus.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart also has similar relationships with us. At the foot of the Cross, she becomes our mother. Jesus gives her to John and to us so she can play in our lives and in the Church the same role that she played in the life of Jesus. Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, witnessing to the presence of God in our world. Beginning at Bethlehem and for all time, she gives the Messiah to the world. At the same time, Our Lady is close to us as our guide and model. She shows us how to become a disciple of Jesus. She accompanies us on the way. She is the first disciple among multitudes of Christians. She is our mother and she is also our sister. In faith, it is clear that she plays this double role in the vision of the spirituality of Father Chevalier. She has a mission as mother who leads to the Heart of God in the heart of the world. She has, as our sister, the mission to lead us to the heart of the world in the Heart of Christ. Mary, the first Christian, is united with Jesus in his Paschal mystery. With Him at the foot of the Cross, she shares from then on his glory in heaven.

Prayers

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, our Mother
make us understand
in the sign of his wounded Heart
the love God has for us.
Make us respond as you did
and truly spend all our days in love
from life to death.
Obtain for us his Spirit
from the opened spring in his side,
and all the graces which, you know,
we need.
Help us to do “whatever He tells us.”
place in us the sentiments of his Heart
and make his mission ours! Amen.

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
most loved of God and the most loving,
faithful servant of the Lord,
through whom the Savior came to us,
lead us to the Heart of Jesus.
Teach us to love as you do,
and to do “whatever He tells us.”
Unite our offering with that of your Son,
for our salvation and that of the entire world.
Draw us by your virtues and your glory:
that the Lord may receive us to follow in his service,
so that with you we might extend his salvation
and sing his glory throughout the ages! Amen.

(freely adapted from a prayer of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart)

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at the Crucifixion
[Meditation before the Calvary Scene in the Basilica]

Beneath the cross, Mary, first of the redeemed, “ponders in her heart” (Lk. 2:19) the love of God manifested in the offering of His Son (Rom. 5:5 and 8:39) and she “exults in God her Savior” (Lk. 1:46-55).

Underneath the Cross, despite her sorrow, Mary is at the summit of her fidelity in response to the love of God: the servant of the Lord, even she, “up to the end” (Lk. 1:38 and Jn. 13:1).

Beneath the Cross, Mary is given by Jesus to be Mother of the Church and every human person: (Jn. 19:25-27). She proposes to us all, a life like hers of fidelity, love, and service…

Beneath the Cross Mary is turned simultaneously toward Jesus and toward us: her actions invite us to “contemplate (with her) the One who has been pierced” (Jn. 19:37); to receive (with her) “the Spirit that the Son has sent forth in dying (Jn. 19:30); to draw (with her and in joy) from the riches of the Savior poured forth in the water and the blood flowing from the Heart of Christ and signifying the sacraments confided to the Church…(Is. 12:3).

Beneath the Cross and continuing into future glory, Mary “shines for us as a sign of firm hope” (Council). When we pray to her, she unites our prayer to that of Christ. She continues to show us the Heart of her Son, full of mercy and tenderness, offered full of love. She continues to say to us as at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you!” (Jn. 2:5). She continues to invite all of us to engage in the mission of the Church so that Christ “raised from the earth may draw all people to Himself!” (Jn. 12:32).

Prayer to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

Today as always, prayer to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart can be a prayer that is individual or communal, in keeping with the tradition of the Church. Father Chevalier held especially to the fact that in the midst of the Fraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, we are united in prayer. Each one, in praying for one’s own intentions, prays also for the intentions of everyone.

The daily prayer, the “Memorare,” becomes a common tie among us and honors Mary according to the title chosen by Father Chevalier.

The novena (nine consecutive days of prayer) allows us to meditate on the “Memorare” and offers a support for each day. Each month, the Annales of Issoudun offers a prayer theme connected with the greater intentions of the Church.

The Marian prayer of Issoudun: each day from 5 – 5:30pm, is prayed by the community in the sanctuary of Issoudun. It is inspired by the liturgical texts of the day that suggest “lectio divina” (spiritual reading) of the Word of God with Mary (she kept all those events in her heart and pondered them).

The translation of the “Hail, Mary” in use, allows us to value the fact that Our Lady of the Sacred Heart invites us to contemplate Christ. The first part of the Hail Mary concludes with the word “Jesus,” to which we can add a little phrase that emphasizes the theme of the contemplation.  For example: “Jesus, the good shepherd who gives his life for his sheep… Or, Jesus handed over on Calvary… Jesus who healed the paralytic…

This manner of praying renews the prayer of the Rosary and connects us with the larger family of the Church. By way of example:

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus:

…Jesus who chose you as his mother
(Joyful mysteries but also
mysteries of FAITH)
…Jesus who associates you with his work of salvation
(Luminous mysteries but also
mysteries of CONFIDENCE)
…Jesus who wanted you close to the Cross
(Sorrowful mysteries but also
mysteries of HOPE)
…Jesus who shares with you his glory
(Glorious mysteries but also
mysteries of CHARITY)

Holy Mary, mother of God,
PRAY for us, sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The prayer to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart thus becomes a prayer WITH Our Lady. With her, we contemplate Christ and we live in the heart of the Church forever attentive to the gift of the Spirit poured out from the pierced Heart of Christ. As in the past with the apostles in the Cenacle, Our Lady is present with the apostles of today who wish to work out their mission in witnessing to the Good News. Paul VI loved to say that our world has more need of WITNESSES than theorists (Evangelii Nuntiandi no. 41).

Beginning Marian Prayer

The Marian Prayer: a holy reading of the Word of God linked with all the members of the Fraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
At home, in a prayer group or alone in one’s room…

The place of prayer can be important for creating a favorable climate for the encounter. On the table there might be a Bible, a statue of Our Lady, a candle, a crucifix…

One might recall the mysteries of the Rosary using the prayers on page 16.

In your missal (Praying with the Church or Magnificat) or in the Bible take the text proposed for the liturgy of the day.  Read it, calmly reread it, patiently…be silent and ask a question: what aspect of the face of Jesus does this word make me think of. Sometimes the image is obvious, suggested by the text itself. For example, the gospel of the Good Shepherd…Jesus is contemplated then as a shepherd…the Good Shepherd who guides our steps and leads his people.
Or it is the Lord in the “parable of the sower,” but He is at the same time the seed, the good word that falls on our stony ground, overgrown, and the good earth which gives 30, 60, 90 for one.

At other times, it demands a little reflection. We must take into account the context of the passage or the introduction of the missal or the notes in the Bible. This effort will be rewarded, for to read the Bible is to confront oneself with the text before one’s eyes allowing the Holy Spirit to speak with our heart so the Word may come to life in us. As soon as one finds what aspect of the face of Jesus one wants, be attentive…calmly, patiently, in a repetitive mode say the “Hail Mary” with the phrase chosen. This slow repetition…this contemplation with Mary will help to taste the Word of God and above all: “with Mary you will enter into the mystery of Christ” who comes to dwell within you by his Word that nourishes you.

Now is the time to present to the Lord, with Mary, your prayer intentions that introduces the second part of the “Hail Mary.”

You can end this time of prayer with the “Memorare” which is like a summary of the time offered. This manner of praying unites you with the whole Church, with the Fraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.  Above all, it will help you to appropriate the Word of God, to integrate it into your life. Experiment so that the Word of God may nourish you. The Word will become alive for you today.

A Week with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

Prayer in the school of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart gives
♥ color to each day of the week
♥  a climate of prayer
♥ music for the heart!

Sunday
Lord Jesus,
Mary brought you to the temple
in expectation of another offering
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to offer
a true Eucharist…
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of adoration.

Monday
Lord Jesus,
Mary called herself Servant,
translated also as love…
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to serve
God and our brothers and sisters…
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of love and service.

Tuesday
Lord Jesus,
Mary sang the wonders
of God who loves the poor…
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to sing
the joy of being saved!
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of praise.

Wednesday
Lord Jesus,
Mary knew how to say
what we need and lack…
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to
carry the burdens of others…
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of intercession.

Thursday
Lord Jesus,
Mary was always there
in times of trouble…
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to
be near to you and near to our brothers and sisters…
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of compassion.

Friday
Lord Jesus,
Mary stood beneath the Cross
united with your offering…
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to
be offered with you for the world…
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of consecration.

Saturday
Lord Jesus,
Mary kept everything
in her heart united with yours…
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to
remain in the school of your Heart…
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of the Beatitudes.

Saturday
Lord Jesus,
Around Mary
the disciples gathered…
and you gave her to us as Mother:
that she might help us always to
be of one heart and one soul…
We pray with her, Lord:
Give to your Church today
your Spirit of Unity.

Before You, Lord!…

Here we are before You, Lord,
available
like Mary on the day of the Annunciation:
May she teach us to
say YES every day!

Here we are before You, Lord,
servants
like Mary on the day of the Visitation:
May she teach us to
serve You in our brothers and sisters!

Here we are before You, Lord
marveling
like Mary on the day of the Nativity:
May she teach us to
welcome You into our lives!

Here we are before You, Lord
with open hands
like Mary on the day of the Presentation:
May she teach us to
offer ourselves to You!

Here we are before You, Lord
full of confidence
like Mary at the wedding feast of Cana:
May she teach us to
“do whatever You tell us”!

Here we are before You, Lord,
like Mary at the foot of the Cross:
May she teach us to
believe, hope, and love!

All powerful and eternal God,
you loved the world
so much that you gave us your Son
born of the Virgin Mary.
Hear our prayer: that all nations might
be gathered in Your Church
with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Pour upon us the living water
that flowed from the side of our Savior,
that we might be his people,
in the joy of renewed hearts.
Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Filled with your love,
Lord Jesus,
and contemplating in the Virgin Mary
a sign of hope
for all your pilgrim people,
we pray again:
Help us to live according to your Heart
in placing ourselves with love
at the service of our brothers and sisters.
You who live and reign
with the Father and the Holy Spirit
forever and ever.
AMEN.

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