A Catholic Quest for the Holy Grail by Charles A. Coulombe

Author:Charles A. Coulombe [Coulombe, Charles A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781505109689
Amazon: 150510968X
Publisher: TAN Books
Published: 2017-11-15T23:00:00+00:00

Perhaps ironically, perhaps not, Helfta was the very first monastery to be closed by Martin Luther; it was reopened as a monastery of Cistercian nuns in 1994.

Although St. Catherine of Siena made reference to the Sacred Heart, after the sisters of Helfta, mentions of it would be few and far between until the seventeenth century. St. Francis de Sales spoke of Christ’s Heart from time to time in his writings and his correspondence with St. Jeanne Francoise de Chantal, with whom he cofounded the Order of the Visitation. As the century wore on, Sts. John Eudes and Claude de la Colombiere began preaching about the Sacred Heart. In 1671, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque entered the monastery of the Visitation Order at Paray-le-Monial. Two years later, she received her first vision of Christ. She is most closely identified today with the devotion.

This is not the place to detail the entirety of the history and practice of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Suffice to say that—spurred by the work of Sts. John Eudes and Claude de la Colombiere (the latter by now chaplain of the Visitation Monastery at Paray and confessor to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque), and the latter’s successor at Paray, Fr. Jean Croiset—it spread through the Order of the Visitation and among court circles in Paris. But to that point it remained a private practice for devout individuals.

However, just as the health or weakness of the Grail King in the tales affected his entire realm, so Jesus desired royal homage. In June of 1689, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque wrote to her superior:

He desires, then, it seems to me, to enter with pomp and splendor into the palaces of princes and kings. He wants to be honored there as much as He was outraged, contemned, and humiliated in His Passion; and to receive as much pleasure at seeing the great ones of the Earth abased and humiliated before Him as He felt bitterness at seeing Himself spurned at their feet. Here are the words I heard with regard to our king [Louis XIV]:

“Make known to the eldest son of My Sacred Heart that, as his temporal birth was obtained by devotion to My Holy Infancy, so will he obtain his birth into grace and eternal glory by consecrating himself to My adorable Heart. It wants to triumph over his and, through him, over the hearts of the great ones of the Earth. It wants to Reign in his palace, be painted on his standards, and engraved on his arms, so that they may be victorious over all his enemies. It wants to bring low these proud and stubborn heads and make him triumphant over all the enemies of holy Church.” (Vie et Ouevres de Bienheurese Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, Vol. II. pp. 199–200)

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