Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart

Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart

Main article: Mary of the Divine Heart

Sister Mary of the Divine Heart Droste zu Vischering
Another source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was Sister Mary of the Divine Heart (1863–1899), the countess of Droste zu Vischering and nun from the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, who reported to have received several interior locutions and visions of Jesus Christ. The first interior locution Maria Droste zu Vischering reported was during her youth spent with the family in the Castle of Darfeld, near Munster, Germany, and the last vision and private revelation was reported during her presence as Mother Superior in the Convent of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Porto, Portugal.

Based on the messages she said she received in her revelations of Christ, on June 10, 1898, her confessor at the Good Shepherd monastery wrote to Pope Leo XIII stating that Sister Mary of the Divine Heart had received a message from Christ, requesting the pope to consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart. The pope initially attached no credence to it and took no action. However, on January 6, 1899 she sent another letter, asking that in addition to the consecration, the first Fridays of the month be observed in honor of the Sacred Heart.

Her second letter included:

One might find it strange that Our Lord should ask for this consecration of the entire world and not content Himself with [that of] the Catholic Church. But His desire to reign, to be loved and glorified, and to set ablaze all hearts with His love and His mercy is so ardent that He wants Your Holiness to offer Him the hearts of all those who belong to Him by Baptism to facilitate their return to the true Church, and the hearts of those who have not yet received spiritual life by Holy Baptism, but for whom He has given His life and His Blood, and who are equally called to be one day children of the Holy Church, to hasten by this means their spiritual birth.

In the letter she also referred to the recent illness of the pope and stated that Christ had assured her that Pope Leo XIII would live until he had performed the consecration to the Sacred Heart. Theologian Laurent Volken states that this had an emotional impact on Leo XIII, despite the theological issues concerning the consecration of non-Christians.[17][18]

Sister Mary of the Divine Heart died in her monastery in Portugal when the Church was singing the first vespers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 8, 1899. The following day, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.