A long time ago I needed a church. I needed a place to grow in ... spiritually, a place to satisfy my deep longing for God, for the Holy Spirit of God and for Jesus Christ the Son of God. I was saved at a Lutheran Mission Station a couple of years before and the Pastor said to me stay in your own church and become the flame of revival in your own church. I tried and tried but always I wanted something deeper, something richer and that afternoon when I walked into Saint Peter's Catholic Church in Nelspruit, I knew that I have found what my heart was yearning for all this time. "Mum" said my eight year old son who was kneeling at the altar next to me ... " this is the church for us".
When I walked out of the church that afternoon I picked up the autobiography of Saint Margaret Mary Allacoque and that book changed the entire course of my life and the lives of my whole family.
Like all saints, Margaret Mary had to pay for her gift of holiness. Some of her own sisters were hostile. Theologians who were called in declared her visions delusions and suggested that she eat more heartily. Later, parents of children she taught called her an impostor, an unorthodox innovator. A new confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, recognized her genuineness and supported her. Against her great resistance, Christ called her to be a sacrificial victim for the shortcomings of her own sisters, and to make this known.
After serving as novice mistress and assistant superior, Margaret Mary died at the age of 43, while being anointed. She said: “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”
Early pioneers originally named the town Mellemskov, which means “Heart of the Forest”. This name was eventually discarded in favour of 'Eketahuna', a Maori word which means to “run aground on a sandbank” (this name originated because Maori canoes could not paddle beyond this part of the Makakahi River.On December 27, probably 1673, Margaret Mary reported that Jesus permitted her, as he had formerly allowed St. Gertrude, to rest her head upon his heart. He then disclosed to her the wonders of his love, telling her that he wanted the whole world to know of his goodness, and that he had chosen her for this work.
In probably June or July, 1674, Margaret Mary claimed that Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of his heart of flesh, also claiming that, when he appeared radiant with love, he asked for a devotion of love: frequent reception of the most holy Eucharist and especially Communion on the First Friday of every month, and the observance of the Holy Hour.
Is it a coincidence then that we are living out the last years of our lives serving, worshipping, praying and adoring the most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Sacred Heart Catholic Curch of Eketahuna ... or is this the love of God in action?
