servant of the Lord, Father de la Colombiere (1678). Her Divine Master seemed anxious to assure her that this holy priest was indeed one of His elect, who would aid her in all her undertakings, and to whose assistance she might look in every difficulty. Our Lord specially designated him "His servant." Could any higher honour be given him? Does not such an appellation make his name for ever great? So marked were the teachings of Providence which led to his appointment as director to Margaret Mary that many saintly people, his contemporaries, recognized the special nature of the call. One of his spiritual daughters, Mdlle. Rosalie de Syonne, asked Father Forest, at that time Prefect of the College, how it was that so distinguished a man as Father de la Colombière had been banished to Paray. If we may believe the anecdote, Father Forest's answer will go far to explain the residence of Father de la Colombière at Paray. "He has been sent there," replied the prefect, "in the interests of a saintly person needing his direction." GOD had so arranged that the assistance she so much required reached his handmaid at the critical moment. When all human help had failed, and GOD was her only refuge, Father de la Colombière appears to soothe her sorrows and calm her anxieties, and by his sensible and pious advice to reassure the Mother Superior, greatly troubled by the responsibilities of the situation. And now his mission to Paray accomplished, and the wonderful work of mercy the Lord is carrying out in that convent revealed to him, he is removed from this to another sphere of labour. But later, when the Saint, rudely assailed by the evil one, is about to fall into despair, Father de la Colombière is again sent to Paray, and permitted, during a visit of a few days, to console and edify her.

It seems, indeed, that to members of the Society of JESUS the grace necessary for her direction was specially given. After the departure of Father de la Colombière she found in Father Ignatius Rollin a faithful depositary of

the Divine marvels of which she was the recipient. The Jesuits always held her in the highest veneration, and she gave them her fullest confidence.

But it was not only to minister to the saintly Margaret Mary that Father de la Colombière had been called to Paray; the duties of a great and holy apostolate were, as we shall presently see, to be there confided to him.

CHAPTER XI.

FATHER DE LA COLOMBIERE THE APOSTLE OF THE DEVOTION OF THE SACRED HEART. HIS ZEAL AND INFLUENCE (1674–6).

IT was the intention of our Lord that Father de la Colombière should be not only the guide and consolation of the Blessed Margaret Mary, but also her fellow-worker in the development of the devotion of the Sacred Heart, and the words in which the Church honours St. John, the beloved disciple, may well be applied to the subject of our memoir, "O blessed Apostle, to whom are made known the secrets of the Most High."

It was on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of MARY, whilst he was celebrating Mass in the Chapel of the Visitation, that a fresh revelation was vouchsafed to her, announcing the Divine intention that he should have part in this mission. She had just drawn near the altar when our Lord showed her His heart, burning as it were in a furnace, and with it two other hearts, which seemed about to melt and lose themselves in it.

"It is thus," said He, "that My love will knit these three hearts together for ever." She was then commanded to reveal to Father de la Colombière the treasures and glories of the Sacred Heart, for the increase of Whose honour this union was to be effected, and whose spiritual gifts were henceforth to be impartially divided between the Father and herself.

When upon hearing this she took exception to her own poverty and the spiritual inequality which existed between so saintly a man and a wretched sinner like herself, our Lord answered, "All deficiencies shall be supplied, and all inequalities equalized, from the infinite riches of My Heart; address yourself, therefore, to My servant without farther hesitation."

What was the surprise of Père de la Colombière when at their next interview she carried out these instructions, and he learnt that GOD had chosen him as an instrument for the future glorification of the Sacred Heart of JESUS. The consciousness of his own unworthiness overwhelmed him, and Margaret Mary declared that no sermon she had ever heard affected her so deeply as the profound humility with which the Rev. Father received her communication.

Our Lord had not yet spoken openly of the Institution of the feast of the Sacred Heart. He had indeed already established the Heure Sainte, the Communion of the first Friday in the month, and was now about to give permission for the public and special adoration of His Sacred Heart. "It was indeed a touching and noble thought that the joyous strains of the Lauda Sion should be succeeded by the notes of the Miserere, and that the public worship of the Divine Host should conclude with a solemn act of reparation."

Our blessed Lord, before entering on this subject, vouchsafed to the Saint two revelations, in which He particularly dwelt on the ardent love of His Heart for man, but such love, He explained, exists not without suffering; hence it was that in farther revealing its depths He bared the desire of His Heart for consolation, and Its need of expiation. But we should prefer relating the vision in Margaret Mary's own words :

"Whilst kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament during the octave of the 16th June, 1675, I received from my GOD the most lively expressions of His love. He inspired me with a tender desire to return love for

love, and said to me, 'You can in no way more fully express your feelings towards Me than by doing that which I have so often begged you to do.' Then, discovering to me His Heart, 'Look,' He said, 'at this Heart, which so loved men that It shrank not from shedding in their behalf the last drop of Its blood, and in return receives nothing from them in general but ingratitude. They cease not to outrage Me by irreverence and sacrileges, and what adds tenfold to the bitterness of their ingratitude is the coldness with which such as are specially dedicated to My service treat Me in this sacrament of My love.

"It is therefore in reparation for the indignities to which the Sacred Heart has been subject when exposed on the altars of the Church that I have commanded the faithful to communicate on the first Friday after the octave of the Blessed Sacrament, and that that day be kept as a festival in honour of My Sacred Heart. In return, I promise that from that fountain of My love shall come forth on that day an abundance of Divine grace on all such as observe this feast, and induce others to do so.""

When the Saint in her humility represented to our Lord that she was too insignificant a person to carry out these designs, He replied, "Do you not know that it is My custom to choose the poor and those of small account to confound the mighty; that it is through the poor in heart that My Spirit effects the greatest triumphs, that they therein may take no honour to themselves?" "Show me then, O Lord," she cried, "in what way I may accomplish that which Thou hast commanded." "Put yourself in communication," He replied, "with the Jesuit Father de la Colombière, and bid him from Me exert all his influence to establish this devotion, and thus give consolation to My Divine Heart. Let him not be discouraged by the difficulties he will meet with in this enterprize, for he who puts his confidence in Me is indeed all-powerful."

We hope to be forgiven the length of this quotation. Can we ever weary of our Lord's ardent expressions of love to man? Again and again with touching earnestness He entreats the holy Margaret Mary to labour for the establishment of the feast of the Sacred Heart. For the moment, indeed, He engages her to nothing but enlisting in the enterprize the services of Father de la Colombière.

When this vision was communicated by Margaret Mary to her director, no shadow of hesitation with regard to it crossed his mind. A man of infinite discernment, he was not given to believe anything on insufficient evidence, but the personal holiness of his penitent made it in his opinion impossible that she should be the victim of any unholy delusion.

He desired her to commit the vision to writing, that he might study it at his leisure, and indeed preserved the document to the end of his life. Having examined it in prayer before GOD, Father de la Colombière, guided by the light of the sanctuary, solemnly declared to Blessed Margaret Mary that he could entertain no doubt as to its Divine origin, or of her obligation implicitly to obey it. From that moment she willed herself without reserve to the service of the Sacred Heart, offering It a purer homage than it will often again receive on earth.

Father de la Colombière, wishing to be united in this holy consecration, dedicated himself to a life of devotion on the morrow of the octave of the feast of the Blessed Sacrament, Friday, June 21, 1675. This was the day the Lord had selected to be for ever the feast of the Sacred Heart. Thus, in the persons of a saintly priest and a holy virgin, did the Heart of JESUS receive the first fruits of the universal adoration so soon to be offered It by the Church.

Father de la Colombière was now fully invested with the high and holy mission of establishing the devotion of the Sacred Heart, and became the apostle of a service of love and reparation, whose chiefest obligation was to make