A Reading from the Autobiography of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

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; its ardor will never be exhausted, and thou wilt be able to find some slight relief only by bleeding. Even this remedy I shall so mark with My Cross, that it will bring thee more humiliation and suffering than alleviation.  Therefore I will that thou ask for it with simplicity, both that thou mayest practice what is ordered thee as also to give thee the consolation of shedding they blood on the cross of humiliations. As a proof that the great favor I have done thee is not imagination, and that it is the foundation of all those which I intend further to confer upon thee, although I have closed the wound in thy side, they 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.”