Homily on Friday, 28th Week in OT, Memorial of St Margaret Mary Alacoque, 16 Oct 2026, Divine Mercy Chapel Estancia Mall
Today we celebrate the memorial of St Margaret Mary Alacoque, a member of a religious order called the Visitation Nuns. She is known to be the promoter of the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
St. Margaret Mary was born in Burgundy, France in the year 1647. She was still a little girl when she started showing signs of being good and prayerful. Mas gusto niyang magdasal sa harap ng Blessed Sacrament kaysa maglaro tulad ng nakararaming mga bata kung saan sila nakatira. And surprisingly after receiving her first Holy Communion she promised to do penance secretly. Unfortunately, because of this she got seriously ill with rheumatic fever that she had to rest for a very long time.
Now, after four years of being confined to her bed, she decided to turn to our Blessed Mother and made a vow before her image that she would enter the religious life. Miraculously after that, she got cured and was restored to perfect health. However, as she grew up, she forgot about the vow she made and lived like any other girl of her age. She often went out partying and dancing and socializing with her peers.
One night after coming from a festive ball, she suddenly encountered Christ who appeared to her. He looked like he was scourged and filled with blood. Then, he spoke reminding her of the vow she had taken when she was still a child. Moreover, he revealed to her how much his heart was filled with love for her. Amazingly, that mystical experience – the first of many succeeding ones – made a big impact on her and changed the course of her life. And so, by the time she was 24 years old, she made a decision to enter the religious life as a Visitation Nun.
In the convent she faced many trials including those coming from her very own superior. However, she chose to remain humble, simple, patient and kind. It was on her second year in the convent that a series of mystical experiences would set her apart from all the rest. On the one hand, as she was blessed with the singular gift of having visions of the Divine Savior, on the other hand, she also received a share of the Lord’s sufferings in reparation for the sins of the world.
In fact, doubts and suspicion from her superiors had made her suffer all the more. Worst of all, a group of theologians sent by the bishop remained unconvinced of the validity of the Lord’s apparitions to her. And apart from failing to convince her very own fellow nuns of what she was graced with, she suffered terribly but quietly at their hands.
The good news, however, is that after some time, she eventually received the support of her confessor, Fr Claude de la Colombière, who declared that her visions were genuine. And in 1683, her community’s opposition finally ended when another superior, named Mother Melin, was elected. She had Margaret Mary appointed as her assistant. Later on, when Margaret Mary was entrusted the important role of Novice Mistress, she made sure that the monastery would observe the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus every year, beginning in 1686.
Two years later, a chapel was built at Paray-le-Monial to honor the Sacred Heart. And from then on, devotion to the Sacred Heart gradually and steadily spread all over the world. In 1880, Pope Leo XIII commissioned St. John Bosco to build the Basilica del Sacro Cuore in Rome. It was completed and consecrated on 14 May 1887. Two Popes wrote their own encyclical letters on the Sacred Heart devotion: Pope Pius XII wrote Haurietis Aquas in 1956 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the apparition of the Sacred Heart to Margaret Mary Alacoque, and just a couple of years ago, Pope Francis who wrote Dilexit Nos in 2024.
Margaret Mary Alacoque died on 17 October 1690. And many years later, in 1920, she was canonized by Pope Pius XI. Her life was a fulfillment of what Jesus said in today’s gospel, “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be made known.”
Through our daily participation in the Eucharist, may we grow every day in our devotion to Jesus who loves us very dearly with his Divine Mercy flowing from his Most Sacred Heart. Let us keep this in mind. Through her mystical experiences, Margaret Mary may have suffered here on earth the most terrible kind of rejection, making her a victim like Jesus. But it was precisely these painful trials that had purified her heart, making her offering the most pleasing sacrifice to God in heaven. GiGsss!