Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1690 A.D.)

 

Incorrupt Body of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque 

SAINT MARGARET MARY ALACOQUE
Virgin

DOUBLE / WHITE
After a girlhood marked by painful illness and even more painful family discord, Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90) entered the Visitation convent of Paray-le-Monial, France, at the age of 22. She was ignorant, sickly, and clumsy, but she had great charity and humility. Our Lord chose her to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart, at a time when rebellion without (Protestantism) and heresy within (Jansenism) were doing their best to separate Catholics from their faith and their God. "I will make you so poor and vile and abject in your own eyes, and I shall destroy you so utterly in the thought of your own heart, that I shall be able to build Myself up in the void," Jesus Christ said to the lowly nun. After violent opposition, the devotion to the Sacred Heart triumphed and is now one of the most beloved in the Church.

INTROIT Cant. 2:3
I sat down beneath the shadow of Him whom I desired; and His fruit was sweet to my palate.
Ps. 83:2-3. How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul yearns and faints for the courts of the Lord.
V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
Lord Jesus Christ, You wondrously revealed all the deep treasures of Your Heart to the blessed virgin Margaret Mary. May her merits and example win us the grace to love You above all things and in all things, so that we may make our abode in Your own Sacred Heart; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .

EPISTLE Eph. 3:8-9, 14-19
Brethren: To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ: And to enlighten all men, that they may see what is the dispensation of the mystery which hath been hidden from eternity in God who created all things: For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named: That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might unto the inward man: That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts: that, being rooted and founded in charity, You may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge: that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

GRADUAL Cant. 8:7; Ps. 72:26
Many waters cannot extinguish charity, nor can the floods drown it. Though my body and my spirit waste away, You are the God of my heart, my portion, O God, forever.

Alleluia, alleluia! V. Cant. 7:10
I am my beloved's, and He turns toward me. Alleluia!

GOSPEL Matt. 11:25-30
At that time, Jesus answered and said: "I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father: for so hath it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth the Son but the Father: neither doth any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal him. Come to me all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: And you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Zach. 9:17
What is the good we receive from Him, and what fair gift? Is it not the bread of the elect and the wine from which the purity of virgins springs forth?

SECRET 
Accept the gifts of Your people, O Lord. Inflame our hearts with the same divine fire that radiated from the Heart of Your Son and burned so brightly in blessed Margaret Mary. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Cant. 6:2
I am my beloved's, and all mine is my beloved, who feeds among the lilies.

POSTCOMMUNION 
May the prayers of the blessed virgin Margaret Mary expel the desire for worldly pleasures from our hearts, which have received the sacrament of Your Body and Blood, so that they may be filled with the meekness and humility of Your own Heart; who lives and rules with God the Father . . .