The Twelve Promises
|
 |
St. Margaret Mary was born in 1647 in France. She was an invalid, but the Blessed Virgin Mary cured her. To thank God for the cure she promised to give her life to His service. When she was seventeen, Jesus appeared to her just as He looked after He was scourged. At once, she entered into the Order of the Visitation.
Sister Margaret Mary loved our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament very much. Jesus showed her His Sacred Heart in four visions. The flames that come forth from His Heart remind us of His burning love for us and His desire that we love Him in return. The crown of thorns around His Heart reminds us of sacrifice to make up for sin.
Jesus made at least twelve promises to her telling her how he would help those who honor His Sacred Heart.
Jesus said to her: “Look at this Heart which has loved people so much, and yet they do not want to love Me in return. Through you My divine Heart wishes to spread its love everywhere on earth.”
St. Margeret Mary wrote: “And He showed me that it was His great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin into which Satan hurls such crowds of them, that made Him form the design of manifesting His Heart to men, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification and salvation which it contains, in order that those who desire to render Him and procure for Him all the honour and love possible, might themselves be abundantly enriched with those divine treasures of which this Heart is the source. He should be honoured under the figure of this Heart of flesh, and Its image should be exposed ... He promised me that wherever this image should be exposed with a view to showing it special honour, He would pour forth His blessings and graces. This devotion was the last effort of His love that He would grant to men in these latter ages, in order to withdraw them from the empire of Satan which He desired to destroy, and thus to introduce them into the sweet liberty of the rule of His love, which He wished to restore in the hearts of all those who should embrace this devotion.”
St. Margaret Mary died in 1690. Her feast day is October 16.
Since we all like choices, the following are some options that we're free to choose if we so desire.
On a scale of 1 through 10 (1 meaning “None of the graces being offered” and 10 meaning “All of the graces I can get”), please circle the relative percentage of graces that you think you need.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
If you don't need this promise, then give thanks and praise to God, and please pray for the rest of us. On the other hand, if you are in need of this promise, then a little help from Jesus (or for that matter maybe a lot of help) sure couldn't hurt.
How about giving God a try. He may not take away all of your troubles, but He can certainly help you deal with them.
It's a nasty world out there. And sometimes it seems to be getting nastier. Assuming that you have a choice (which you do), who would you choose to walk through life with?
Please Circle One
Let's see: sinners. As far as anybody can tell, there are a total of two people who have never sinned: Jesus and His mother Mary. And they're both in Heaven. That leaves the rest of us. Since we can't earn our way into Heaven, we're all dependent upon the mercy of God. Hey, if you're just a little sinner, maybe all you need is a few drops of that ocean of mercy. On the other hand, it's nice to know that that ocean of mercy is infinite. So what's the catch? There's an implication that we need to look to His Heart in order to find that infinite ocean of mercy. Even if all we need is a drop or two.
 |
Tepid = lukewarm = not ardent = indifferent. |
Hmmm, to get to heaven requires perfection (there are no imperfect people in heaven). Thus, whatever isn't perfected here on earth must of necessity be perfected in the flames of Purgatory. Have you ever heard the phrase “I just need to be good enough to make it into Purgatory, because then I'll eventually make it into Heaven?” Just how long is eventually anyway? While pondering that, picture yourself with a lit candle while holding your finger in the flame for a while. Maybe one of the choices that we get to make in life is whether or not we're on fire for Jesus here on earth, or on fire for Jesus there in Purgatory.
This one speaks for itself.
Most of us like to think that deep down, we're pretty soft-hearted. How about being soft-hearted for the people who aren't by obtaining this gift for our priests?
If you'd like your name etched someplace permanent for posterity, what better place than in the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
Jesus saves the biggest and best for last, just for receiving Him in Communion on First Fridays.
The grace of final repentance. Interesting. If final repentance were so easy, why would Jesus need to promise it? After all, you'd think that given the choice between going to Heaven or going to Hell, the answer would be intuitively obvious. Who in their right mind would choose to go to Hell? Could it be that we need to repent while we're still alive and can still exercise our free will? If we wait until we're dead, maybe we'll have waited just a little bit too long. Perhaps Jesus knows something here that we don't.
The second part of this promise is that “they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments.” Ok, let's see a show of hands. Who wants to die under the Lord's displeasure, and who would prefer not to receive the Sacrament of Final Reconciliation, Communion, and the Sacrament of the Sick before standing in front of the Judgment Seat of God?
“My Heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.” The key word here is refuge, which means shelter or protection from danger or distress. Protection from what danger? If you're sure your going to Heaven, why be distressed? Just what exactly does happen during that last hour, and why are most of us afraid of dying?
Maybe during that last hour, God lets us see ourselves from His point of view. Things do have a way of adding up throughout the years. For some people, it might be so overwhelming that despair sets in. They tell themselves that God could never forgive them for what they've done. These people never ask God for forgiveness. Hence, they also never receive it, since God won't violate their free will. They never give Him a chance. These poor souls die without the grace of final repentance. That's one kind of danger.
Then, there's the other extreme. Some people figure that they don't have anything to repent. They presume that they've been so good throughout their lives that they're on the fast track to heaven. These people also don't ask God for forgiveness. They figure that they don't need to.
Most of us are probably somewhere in between. However, maybe Jesus knows something that we don't about our needs during that final hour of life. Do any of us really want to wait until then to find out for ourselves?
 |
This website was developed by Streaming Light Design, Inc. www.streaminglightdesign.com |