IMMACULATE HEART OF THE VIRGIN MARY
Joshua, Chapter 10, Verse 8
God was stronger than Adonizedek,
king of Jerusalem and his posse. God
is stronger than the Devil and his entire posse. God is stronger than all the
communists, atheists, politicians, and propaganda ministers of our age. Our
Lady tells us to not fear them, but fear God and pray.
The wrath
of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and
wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. For what can be
known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever
since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and
divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As
a result, they have no excuse; for although they knew God they did not accord
him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their
reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. While claiming to be wise,
they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness
of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of
snakes. Therefore, God handed them over
to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of
their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and
worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
(Rom. 1:18-25)
Immaculate
Heart of Mary[1]
The Feast of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary is a devotional name used to refer to the interior
life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden
perfections, and above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal
love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all persons. Two
elements are essential to the devotion, Mary’s interior life and the beauties
of her soul, and Mary’s virginal body. According to Roman Catholic theology,
soul and body are necessary to the constitution of man. It was in 1855,
that the Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary formally became a part of the
Catholic practice. Traditionally, the heart of Mary in artwork is
depicted with seven wounds or swords, in homage to the seven sorrows of
Mary. Also, roses or another type of flower may be wrapped around the
heart. Veneration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary generally coincides
with the worship of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
However, there is a
difference that explains the Roman Catholic devotion to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is especially directed to
the “Divine Heart”, as overflowing with love for humanity. In the devotion
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on the other hand, the attraction is the love
of her Immaculate Heart for Jesus and for God.
A second difference is the
nature of the devotion itself. In devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of
Jesus, the Roman Catholic venerates in a sense of love, responding to
love. In devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, love is formed from
study and imitation of Mary’s yes to God as the mother of Jesus. In this
devotion, love is more the result, than the “object” of the devotion; the object
being rather to love God and Jesus by uniting oneself to Mary for this purpose
and by imitating her virtues, to help one achieve this. History of the devotion
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is connected in many ways to that of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. Christians were drawn to the love and virtues of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary, and this paved the devotion from the beginning.
Early Christians had compassion for the Virgin Mary, and the Gospels recount
prophecy delivered to her at Jesus’ presentation in the temple, and that her
heart would be pierced with a sword. The image of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary with the pierced heart is the most popular representation. St.
John’s Gospel further invites us to the attention of Mary’s heart with its
depiction of Mary at the foot of the cross at Jesus’ crucifixion. St.
Augustine tells us that Mary was more blessed in having born Christ in her
heart, than in having conceived him in the flesh.
Things to Do:[2]
·
Read
the entire article from the Catholic Encyclopedia about the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
·
Read
this article about Saturdays and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
·
Irish Pilgrim Journey 2023 – June 17th to 24th.
Apostolic Exhortation[3]
Veneremur Cernui – Down
in Adoration Falling
of
The Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
My beloved
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Conclusion
110. I wish to conclude this
exhortation by turning to Mary, Our Mother, whom Saint John Paul II called “‘a
woman of the Eucharist’ in her whole life” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia,
no. 53). Let us entrust our Eucharistic life of her Son’s gift of Himself to
her solicitude and care. She lived her faith at the moment of the Annunciation
when she was asked to believe that the One whom she conceived through the Holy
Spirit was the Son of God. For us, before the Eucharistic mystery we are also
asked to believe that the same Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Mary,
becomes present in His full humanity and divinity under the appearances of
bread and wine. Her faith-filled consent allowed God to be born in her, making
her the Ark of the New Covenant. “With her ‘yes’ she opened the door of our
world to God Himself; she became the living Ark of the Covenant, in whom God
took flesh, became one of us, and pitched His tent among us” (cf. John
1:14). (Spe Salvi, no. 49). She was the first to receive Jesus in her
heart. She became the first tabernacle where God dwells in the fullest possible
sense. After Pentecost but before her Assumption into heaven, surely she
regularly received the Eucharist from the hands of the Apostles.
111. Who more than Mary is a
star of hope for us so that we can see the way to go as followers of Jesus
Christ, since we have never been this way before? Who more than Mary can help
us renew our faith and fortify our love and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist?
Confident in her maternal care and intercession, let us invoke and imitate Our
Lady, woman of the Eucharist:
Blessed Mother, who with your generous
“Fiat” unleashed the Fountain of all graces in our world, intercede for us who
desire ever greater faith and devotion in your Divine Son that we might
cooperate with His work of Redemption.
May the Eucharistic Lord always find
in our hearts a welcome dwelling as He did in yours.
Be our refuge and companion on our
pilgrim way to the heavenly home where with you and all the Saints we enjoy
eternal communion with your Son who is our rock of refuge in all of life’s
storms.
Amen.
Promulgated on Holy Thursday of the
Lord’s Supper, April 1, 2021.
+Thomas J. Olmsted
Bishop of Phoenix
Catechism of the
Catholic Church
PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION ONE-"I
BELIEVE" - "WE BELIEVE"
CHAPTER THREE-MAN'S
RESPONSE TO GOD
Article 2-WE
BELIEVE
II. The Language of Faith
170 We do not believe in formulae, but in those
realities they express, which faith allows us to touch. "The believer's
act [of faith] does not terminate in the propositions, but in the realities
[which they express]." All the same, we do approach these realities
with the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith
and to hand it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it
more and more.
171 The Church, "the pillar and bulwark of
the truth", faithfully guards "the faith which was once for all
delivered to the saints". She guards the memory of Christ's words; it is
she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles' confession of faith. As a mother who teaches her children to
speak and so to understand and communicate, the Church our Mother teaches us
the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the
life of faith.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Individuals
with Mental Illness
· Saturday Litany of the Hours
Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1]http://www.newmanconnection.com/faith/saint/feast-of-the-immaculate-heart-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary
[2]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2020-06-20
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