The Immaculate Heart of Mary
Today, the day after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On my Benedictine Ordo (and the Extraordinary Form calendar), we’ll have to wait for August 22nd, the Octave Day of the Assumption, for this feast.
The veneration (not worship!) of Mary’s Immaculate Heart consists in the devotion to and imitation of that love she bears for Jesus.
Saint Luke in his Gospel writes that “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart”1. The first time was when the shepherds came to worship the infant Jesus, and the second time after the finding in the Temple.
And there is a certain analogue to the Seven Sorrows of Luke 2:34-35. Indeed, the image is sometimes depicted as being pierced by a sword.
While it is certainly tempting to write a long theological and Biblical defense of this feast and this attribute of the Blessed Virgin – and I’ve certainly done that sort of thing before – I think I’d rather have somebody way smarter than me talk about it.
Happy feast day!
There are some references to the heart of the Mother of God in the commentaries upon the Scriptures by the Fathers of the Church, but for the most part it was not until the seventeenth century that under the influence of Saint John Eudes this devotion became widespread. In our own century we see that the message of Our Lady at Fatima, the consecration of the world in 1942 to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by my predecessor Pope Pius XII, and theological initiatives such as your own have helped us to appreciate the importance of this devotion.
It is worthy of note that the Decree by which Pope Pius XII instituted for the universal Church the celebration in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary states: “With this devotion the Church renders the honour due to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, since under the symbol of this heart she venerates with reverence the eminent and singular holiness of the Mother of God and especially her most ardent love for God and Jesus her Son and moreover her maternal compassion for all those redeemed by the divine Blood”. Thus it can be said that our devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart expresses our reverence for her maternal compassion both for Jesus and for all of us her spiritual children, as she stood at the foot of the Cross. …
We see symbolised in the heart of Mary her maternal love, her singular sanctity and her central role in the redemptive mission of her Son. It is with regard to her special role in her Son’s mission that devotion to Mary’s Heart has prime importance, for through love of her Son and of all of humanity she exercises a unique instrumentality in bringing us to him.
