She spent four years unable to walk. She dressed a wound in a house that no longer felt like hers. She came home from a ball and saw Christ as He was in the scourging.
In 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial, a small house in a small Burgundian town. On 27 December 1673, the feast of St John, the Lord made her rest upon His Heart and asked whether she would make up for the coldness with which He was repaid. He later showed her a Heart on fire, wounded, wrapped in thorns, with the Cross already planted in it from the first beat. He asked for a Thursday hour in Gethsemane, a Friday feast, and a love that would answer His.
Most of the sisters doubted her. A Jesuit named Claude La Colombière listened, tested, and believed. The devotion that left that parlour is now on walls across the world. This little book is not a catalogue of promises. It is time spent with a woman who was often unwell, often doubted, and who learned that Jesus wanted to be loved in return.
Look again at the next Sacred Heart you pass. Notice what it is actually asking.
A Silent Homilies booklet. Written to be read in one or two sittings.