St. Michael’s Church in Gainesville will hold a parish mission from Monday, March 13, through Sunday, March 19, focusing upon the mercy and the power of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Missionaries from the Emmanuel Community, a worldwide Catholic association of the faithful, will lead the mission. The relics of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom Jesus appeared in the 1600s and revealed his heart burning with love for all people, will be venerated during the mission.

Daily Mass will be celebrated, along with eucharistic adoration, programs for children and adults, the sacrament of reconciliation, teachings, and evangelization in the Gainesville community.

The Emmanuel Community is a Catholic association of Christians in all states of life: lay people, married and single, men and women consecrated in celibacy, and priests. In 1998, there were 6,000 committed members in nearly 50 countries, including Spain, Chile, France and the United States. A layman, Pierre Goursat, founded the community in Paris, France, in 1976. In 1992 the Vatican officially recognized the community statutes. Members share the desire to live out in a radical way a call to holiness. The mission of the community is to reveal to every man and woman the presence of the God of love in their lives, Jesus Christ, who is “Emmanuel,” “God with us.”

Every summer the community organizes a series of international sessions on Christian life in Paray-le-Monial, France, which is the location of the monastery of the Visitation Sisters which St. Margaret Mary entered in 1671. Through the apparitions of Jesus she experienced, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the feast of the Sacred Heart was established.

The relics of St. Margaret Mary will be at the church throughout the week. All are invited to the mission. The church is located at 1440 Pearce Circle, NE, Gainesville. For information call Richard and Danelle Borgman at (678) 622-9173 or (678) 622-9174.