In the week we celebrate the feast day of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, we have compiled for you the 12 promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus made to the Saint in 1675.

1. My blessing will remain upon the homes where the image of My Sacred Heart is displayed and venerated.
2. I will give to the devotees of My Heart all the graces necessary for their state in life.
3. I will establish and maintain peace in their families.
4. I will comfort them in all their troubles.
5. I will be a safe haven in life and especially at the hour of death.
6. I will bestow abundant blessings upon your work and endeavors.
7. Sinners will find in my Heart an inexhaustible source of mercy.
8. Lukewarm souls will become fervent through the practice of this devotion.
9. Fervent souls will, in a short time, rise to a high degree of perfection.
10. I will give to the priests who especially practice this devotion the power to touch the hardest hearts.
11. Those who spread this devotion will have their names inscribed forever in My Heart.
12. To all who receive Holy Communion on the first Fridays of nine consecutive months, I will grant the grace of final perseverance and eternal salvation.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque: life and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque was born into a wealthy family in Burgundy on July 22, 1647. Despite her parents' devout Catholicism, they initially opposed Margaret entering religious life. However, from the age of five, Margaret consecrated herself to the Lord with a vow of chastity, demonstrating her profound connection to spirituality from a very young age. At 24, she overcame her parents' resistance and joined the Order of the Visitation, founded by Saint Francis de Sales. She added the name "Mary" when she took her vows, due to visions she had begun to have. These visions, however, made her the object of rumors and skepticism, leading many nuns and superiors to doubt her and mock her experiences, suggesting she was ill or even insane.

For more than twenty years, she continued to receive extraordinary graces, but also endured enormous penances and mortifications. Her spirituality remained strong despite the adversities. The Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, her spiritual director, recognized Margaret's charism and encouraged her to recount her mystical experiences in her autobiography. At first, she resisted, but out of obedience, she agreed to do so. She did not realize, at the time, the value of what she was writing.

Beginning in 1673, Margaret began receiving visits from Jesus, who asked her to promote devotion to His Sacred Heart. She described Jesus as appearing “radiant as a sun, with an adorable wound, surrounded by thorns and surmounted by a cross, lying on a throne of thorns.” From her experience emerged the iconography of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that we know today.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque played a fundamental role in the institution of the liturgical feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated on the eighth day after Corpus Christi. She also received a promise from Jesus: those who received Holy Communion for nine consecutive months on the first Friday of the month would receive the gift of final repentance, that is, they would die receiving the sacraments and without sin.

Margaret Mary Alacoque continued to receive apparitions of Jesus for 17 years, until the day of her death. She passed away on October 17, 1690. Her work and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had a lasting impact, leading to the construction of a shrine dedicated to the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, Paris, and the promotion of its devotion throughout the world. Beatified by Pius IX in 1864, Margaret Mary Alacoque was canonized by Benedict XV in 1920. Her story is an inspiring example of devotion and perseverance in faith.