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THE CATHOLIC PACIFIC NORTHWEST
By The Immaculate Heart Of Mary
Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament |
A Catholic Christian Millennial Renaissance 
The Immaculate Heart Of Mary
"Tell everybody that God
gives graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
Act of Consecration to THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
(For Religious & Laity) |
THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
The Devotion – its nature, and its history.
The Nature of the Devotion
Just as devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is only a form of devotion to the adorable Person of Jesus, so also is devotion to the Holy Heart of Mary but a special form of devotion to Mary. In order that, properly speaking, there may be devotion to the Heart of Mary, the attention and the homage of the faithful must be directed to the physical heart itself. However, this in itself is not sufficient; the faithful must read therein all that the human heart of Mary suggests, all of which it is the expressive symbol and the living reminder: Mary's interior life, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for her God, her maternal love for her Divine Son, and her motherly and compassionate love for her sinful and miserable children here below. The consideration of Mary's interior life and the beauties of her soul, without any thought of her physical heart, does not constitute our devotion; still less does it consist in the consideration of the Heart of Mary merely as a part of her virginal body. The two elements are essential to the devotion, just as soul and body are necessary to the constitution of man.
All this is made sufficiently clear in the explanations given elsewhere, and, if our devotion to Mary must not be confounded with our devotion to Jesus, on the other hand, it is equally true that our veneration of the Heart of Mary is, as such, analogous to our worship of the Heart of Jesus. It is, however, necessary to indicate a few differences in this analogy, the better to explain the character of Catholic devotion to the Heart of Mary. Some of these differences are very marked, whereas others are barely perceptible. Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is especially directed to the Divine Heart as overflowing with love for men, and it presents this love to us as despised and outraged. In the devotion to the Heart of Mary, on the other hand, what seems to attract us above all else is the love of this Heart for Jesus and for God. Its love for men is not overlooked, but it is not so much in evidence nor so dominant. With this difference is linked another. The first, act of the devotion to the Heart of Jesus is the love eager to respond to love, in devotion to the Heart of Mary there is no first act so clearly indicated: in this devotion, perhaps, study and imitation hold as important a place as love. For, although this study and imitation are impregnated with filial affection, the devotion presents itself with no object sufficiently conspicuous to call forth our love, which is, on the contrary, naturally awakened and increased by the study and imitation. Hence, accurately speaking, love is more the result than the object of the devotion, the object being rather to love God, and Jesus better by uniting ourselves to Mary for this purpose and by imitating her virtues. It would also seem that, although in the devotion to the Heart of Mary the heart has an essential part as symbol and sensible object, it does not stand out as prominently as in the devotion to the Heart of Jesus; we think rather of the thing symbolized, of love, virtues, and sentiments, of Mary's interior life.
The History of the Devotion
The history of the devotion to the Heart of Mary is connected on many points with that to the Heart of Jesus; nevertheless, it has its own history, which, although very simple, is not devoid of interest. The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The Gospel itself invited this attention with exquisite discretion and delicacy. What was first excited was compassion for the Virgin Mother. It was, so to speak, at the foot of the Cross that the Christian heart first made the acquaintance of the Heart of Mary. Simeon's prophecy paved the way and furnished the devotion with one of its favourite formulae and most popular representations: the heart pierced with a sword. But Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the Cross; "she cooperated through charity", as St. Augustine says, "in the work of our redemption".
Another Scriptural passage to help in bringing out the devotion was the twice-repeated saying of St. Luke, that Mary kept all the sayings and doings of Jesus in her heart, that there she might ponder over them and live by them. A few of the Virgin's sayings, also recorded in the Gospel, particularly the Magnificat, disclose new features in Marian psychology. Some of the Fathers also throw light upon the psychology of the Virgin, for instance, St. Ambrose, when in his commentary on St. Luke he holds Mary up as the ideal of virginity, and St. Ephrem, when he so poetically sings of the coming of the Magi and the welcome accorded them by the humble Mother. Little by little, in consequence of the application of the Canticle of the loving relations between God and the Blessed Virgin, the Heart of Mary came to be for the Christian Church the Heart of the Spouse of the Canticles as well as the Heart of the Virgin Mother. Some passages from other Sapiential Books, likewise understood as referring to Mary, in whom they personify wisdom and her gentle charms, strengthened this impression. Such are the texts in which wisdom is presented as the mother lofty love, of fear, of knowledge, and of holy hope. In the New Testament Elizabeth proclaims Mary blessed because she has believed the words of the angel; the Magnificat is an expression of her humility; and in answering the woman of the people, who in order to exalt the Son proclaimed the Mother blessed, did not Jesus himself say: "Blessed rather are they that hear the word of God and keep it", thus in a manner inviting us to seek in Mary that which had so endeared her to God and caused her to be selected as the Mother of Jesus? The Fathers understood His meaning, and found in these words a new reason for praising Mary. St. Leo says that through faith and love she conceived her Son spiritually, even before receiving Him into her womb, and St. Augustine tells us that she was more blessed in having borne Christ in her heart than in having conceived Him in the flesh.
It is only in the twelfth, or towards the end of the eleventh century, that slight indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by St. Bernard (De duodecim stellis), from which an extract has been taken by the Church and used in the Offices of the Compassion and of the Seven Dolours. Stronger evidences are discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard; and also in the large book "De laudibus B. Mariae Virginis" (Douai, 1625) by Richard de Saint-Laurent. Penitentiary of Rouen in the thirteenth century. In St. Mechtilde (d. 1298) and St. Gertrude (d. 1302) the devotion had two earnest adherents. A little earlier it had been included by St. Thomas Becket in the devotion to the joys and sorrows of Mary, by Blessed Hermann (d.1245), one of the first spiritual children of St. Dominic, in his other devotions to Mary, and somewhat later it appeared in St. Bridget's "Book of Revelations". Tauler (d. 1361) beholds in Mary the model of a mystical, just as St. Ambrose perceived in her the model of a virginal soul. St. Bernardine of Siena (d.1444) was more absorbed in the contemplation of the virginal heart, and it is from him that the Church has borrowed the lessons of the Second Nocturn for the feast of the Heart of Mary. St. Francis de Sales speaks of the perfections of this heart, the model of love for God, and dedicated to it his "Theotimus".
During this same period one finds occasional mention of devotional practices to the Heart of Mary, e.g. in the "Antidotarium" of Nicolas du Saussay (d.1488), in Julius II, and in the "Pharetra" of Lanspergius. In the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth, ascetic authors dwelt upon this devotion at greater length. It was, however, reserved to St. Jean Eudes (d. 1681) to propagate the devotion, to make it public, and to have a feast celebrated in honor of the Heart of Mary, first at Autun in 1648 and afterwards in a number of French dioceses. He established several religious societies interested in upholding and promoting the devotion, of which his large book on the Coeur Admirable (Admirable Heart), published in 1681, resembles a summary. Pere Eudes' efforts to secure the approval of an Office and feast failed at Rome, but, notwithstanding, this disappointment, the devotion to the Heart of Mary progressed. In 1699 Father Pinamonti (d. 1703) published in Italian his beautiful little work on the Holy Heart of Mary, and in 1725 Pere de Gallifet combined the cause of the Heart of Mary with that of the Heart of Jesus in order to obtain Rome's approbation of the two devotions and the institution of the two feasts. In 1729 his project was defeated, and in 1765 the two causes were separated, to assure the success of the principal one.
In 1799 Pius VI, then in captivity at Florence, granted the Bishop of Palermo the feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the churches in his diocese. In 1805 Pius VII made a new concession, thanks to which the feast was soon widely observed. Such was the existing condition when a twofold movement, started in Paris, gave fresh impetus to the devotion. The two factors of this movement were first of all the revelation of the “miraculous medal” in 1830 and all the prodigies that followed, and then the establishment at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners, which spread rapidly throughout the world and was the source of numberless graces. On 21 July, 1855, the Congregation of Rites finally approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary without, however, imposing them upon the Universal Church.
The feast of the Heart of Mary is observed in many places on the Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption and in others on the third Sunday after Pentecost or in the beginning of July.
THE FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
The Saturday after the feast of Corpus Christi is devoted to the
Blessed Mother and focuses our attention on the mystery of her
Immaculate Heart. This feast began to be celebrated during the
seventeenth century bringing together centuries of devotion to the
heart of Mary. St. John Eudes spent much of his life working to
spread devotion to this feast.
The Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a feast day devoted to
Mary and especially examines her life of purity. Many times the heart
is used to symbolize the inmost depths of our humanity. This feast
emphasizes the fact that Mary's whole being was pure and free of
the stain of sin for the whole of her life. Through her love and
devotion to God, Mary was chosen as the resting-place of the Holy
Spirit mother of the Most High.
The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a counterpart of the
feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we celebrated yesterday.
Both feasts serve as an example to the faithful by showing us fellow
human beings so devoted to the love and will of God that they
overcame every temptation to sin.
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary has gained wide appeal in
this century. At Mary's apparition at Fatima, this theme was
expressed by the Blessed Mother to the three children. In 1942,
Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary and added today's feast to the liturgical calendar of the Church.
In 1996 this feast was elevated to the status of an obligatory
memorial.
"Even while living in this world, the heart of Mary was so filled with
tenderness and compassion for men, that no one ever suffered so
much for his own pains as Mary suffered for the pains of others."
(St. Jerome)
VIRGIN IMMACULATE, OUR LADY OF THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT, WE PRAY...
Virgin Immaculate, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, we invoke you under the title of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament because you are the Mother of the Savior who lives in the Eucharist. It was from you he took the flesh and blood with which He feeds us in the Sacred Host. We also invoke you under that title because the grace of the Eucharist comes to us through you, since you are the Mediatrix, the channel, through which God's graces reach us. And, finally, we call you Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament because you were the first to live the Eucharistic life. Teach us to pray the Mass as you did, to receive Holy Communion worthily and frequently, and to visit devoutly with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Virgin Immaculate, you were present at the death of your Divine Son on Calvary, and you offered your immense sorrow in union with His Sacrifice. Again after the Resurrection you were present at the real, but unbloody, Sacrifice of your Son in the Holy Mass. Teach us to unite ourselves with Jesus at the Consecration as you did; obtain for us the grace to understand the reality of the Mass; and awaken in us the desire to assist at Mass often, even daily.
Virgin Immaculate, your Communions were the most fervent and the most holy ever made. When you received your Divine Son into your heart, you loved Him with a love exceeding that of any other creature for his God. Teach us to make Holy Communion the center of our life, as it was of yours, so that our lives may be entirely spent in preparing for the coming of Jesus in Communion and in thanking Him for the gift of Himself to us.
Virgin Immaculate, after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, you found consolation in your separation from Him by visiting Him often in the Blessed Sacrament. Obtain for us the grace to be always conscious of His presence in the tabernacle and to visit Him often as you did especially when we are troubled, lonely, afraid and in pain of body or mind. Teach us to remember that He is always there to listen to us, to guide, protect and console us.
Virgin Immaculate, you are the perfect model of adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. You adored Jesus in the little white Host with the same faith, reverence and wonder with which you adored Him on the first Christmas night and during all the years you lived with Him. Teach us not to forget the small white Host is truly our God, infinite, eternal and omnipotent. Help us to conduct ourselves at all times in His presence, with the modesty and reverence we owe to our God.
Virgin Immaculate, you gave to Jesus the most perfect thanksgiving for the institution of the Eucharist. Teach us to thank your Divine Son for the gift of Himself in the Blessed Sacrament. Teach us also to thank Him after we have received Him in Communion. And since our best thanksgiving can never equal yours, permit us to offer Him your thanksgiving after Communion, your fervor, your love, your devotion.
Virgin Immaculate, you gave to Jesus in the Sacred Host perfect reparation. We desire to accept our daily trials for love of Him and with you, to console Him for the ingratitude of men and the slights and outrages He suffers daily in the Blessed Sacrament both from those who believe in Him and those who do not.
Virgin Immaculate, while the apostles preached the Gospel, you stayed close to your Divine Son in the tabernacle and prayed to Him for the graces they needed to convert the world. Teach us to pray before the tabernacle where Jesus waits day and night to hear and grant our petitions. Teach us to pray not only for ourselves, but also for those who do not know Him in the Sacrament of His love, so that the gift of faith may be given to them, and His Eucharistic Kingdom may be spread throughout the world.
Virgin Immaculate, perfect lover of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we ask you to obtain for us the graces we need to become true adorers of our Eucharistic God. Grant us, we beg of you, to know Him better, to love Him more, and to center our lives around the Eucharist, that is, to make our whole life a constant prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Amen.
V Pray for us, O Virgin Immaculate, Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
R. That the Eucharistic Kingdom of Jesus Christ may come among us!
Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ, our King and our God, who are true God and true Man in the Bread of the Eucharist, we beg of You, that, in venerating so great a mystery, we may be mindful of Your Blessed Mother, in whose body You were conceived by the Holy Spirit. Grant also that we may imitate her manner of worshipping You in the Sacred Host, her adoration, her thanksgiving, her reparation, her prayer, so that we may see Your Eucharistic Kingdom spread and flourish throughout the whole world. Amen.
Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Most Holy Sacrament, glory of the Christian people, joy of the universal Church, salvation of the world, pray for us and grant to all the faithful, true devotion to the most Holy Eucharist, so that we may become worthy to receive It daily.
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Created: 4/22/2000 - - - Modified: 6/21/2005