“He opened to me his Divine Heart in a manner so real and sensible as to be beyond all doubt…. “My Divine Heart,” He said, “is so inflamed with love for men, and for thee in particular that, being unable any longer to contain within Itself the flames of Its burning Charity, It must needs spread them abroad by thy means, and manifests Itself to them (mankind) in order to enrich them with the precious treasures which I discover to thee, and which contain graces of sanctification and salvation necessary to withdraw them from the abyss of perdition.  I have chosen thee as an abyss of unworthiness and ignorance for the accomplishment of this great design, in order that everything may be done by Me."

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After this He asked me for my heart, which I begged Him to take. He did so and placed it in His own Adorable Heart where He showed it to me as a little atom which was being consumed in this great furnace, and withdrawing it thence as a burning flame in the form of a heart, He restored it to the place whence He had taken it saying to me:  “See, My well beloved, I give thee a precious token of My love, having enclosed within thy side a little spark of its glowing flames, that it may serve thee for a heart and consume thee to the last moment of thy life….. I have closed the wound in thy side, the pain will always remain. If hitherto, thou hast taken only the name of My slave, I now give thee that of the beloved disciple of My Sacred Heart.”

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The First Friday of each month, the above-mentioned grace connected with the pain in my side was renewed in the following manner: The Sacred Heart was represented to me as a resplendent sun, the burning rays of which fell vertically upon my heart, which was inflamed with a fire so fervid that it seemed as if it would reduce me to ashes. It was at these times especially that by Divine Master taught me what He required of me and disclosed to me the secrets of His loving Heart, On one occasion…… Jesus Christ, my sweet Master, presented Himself to me, all resplendent with glory, His Five Wounds shining like so many suns. Flames issued from every part of His Sacred Humanity, especially from His Adorable Bosom, which resembled an open furnace and disclosed to me His most loving and most amiable Heart, which was the living source of these flames. It was then that He made known to me the ineffable marvels of His pure love and showed me to what an excess He had loved men, from whom He received only ingratitude and contempt. ‘I feel this more,’ He said, ‘then all that I suffered during My Passion. If only they would make Me some return for my love, I should think but little of all I have done for them and would wish, were it possible, to suffer still more. But the sole returned they make for all My eagerness to do them good is to reject Me and treat Me with coldness. Do thou at least console me by supplying for their ingratitude, as far as thou art able.…….. In the first place thou shalt receive Me in Holy Communion as often as obedience will permit …… Thou shalt, moreover, communicate on the First Friday of each month. Every night between Thursday and Friday I will make thee share in the mortal sadness which I was pleased to feel in the Garden of Olives, and this sadness, without thy being able to understand it, shall reduce thee to a kind of agony harder to endure then death itself. And in order to bear Me company in the humble prayer that I then offered to My Father, in the midst of My anguish, thou shalt rise between 11 o’clock and midnight, and remain prostrate with Me for an hour, not only to appease the divine anger by begging mercy for sinners, but also to mitigate in some way the bitterness which I felt at that time on finding Myself abandoned by My apostles, which obliged Me to reproach them for not being able to watch one hour with Me.’ (TAoSMM  pp. 53-57)

‘Behold this Heart, Which has loved men so much, that It has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify to them It’s love; and in return I received from the greater number nothing but ingratitude by reason of their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt which they show Me in this Sacrament of Love. But what I feel the most keenly is that it is hearts which are consecrated to Me, that treat Me thus. Therefore, I ask of thee that the Friday after the Octave of Corpus Christi be set apart for a special Feast to honor My Heart, by communicating on that day and making reparation to It by a solemn act, in order to make amends for the indignities which It has received during the time It has been exposed on the altars. I promise thee that My Heart shall expand Itself to shed in abundance the influence of Its divine love upon those who shall thus honor It, and cause It to be honored’ (TAoSMM pp. 95-96)

As yet I had been unable to find means to begin the devotion to the Sacred Heart for which alone I lived. The first opportunity which His goodness afforded me occurred on the Feast of St. Margaret which, having fallen on a Friday, I asked our Sister Novices, of whom I then had the charge, that, instead of giving me the little marks of honor which they had intended to offer me on my feast, they should pay them to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. To this they willingly agreed, arranging a little altar whereon they placed a small ink etching representing the Divine Heart. We then endeavored to pay It all the homage with which It inspired us.” (TAoSMM  p. 97)

Taken from “The Autobiography of Saint Margaret Mary” published by TAN Books, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2012