Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - August 22nd

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August 22 – The Octave of the Assumption (Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

He alone who could understand Mary’s holiness could appreciate her glory. But Wisdom, who presided over the formation of the abyss, has not revealed to us the depth of that ocean, beside which all the virtues of the just and all the graces lavished upon them are but streamlets. Nevertheless, the immensity of grace and merit, whereby the Blessed Virgin’s supernatural perfection stands quite apart from all others, gives us a right to conclude that she has an equal supereminence in glory, which is always proportioned to the sanctity of the elect. Whereas all the other predestined of our race are placed among the various ranks of the celestial hierarchy, the holy Mother of God is exalted above all the choirs, forming by herself a distinct order, a new heaven, where the harmonies of Angels and Saints are far surpassed. In Mary, God is more glorified, better known, more loved than in all the rest of the universe. On this ground alone, according to the order of creative Providence, which subordinates the less to the more perfect, Mary is entitled to be Queen of earth and heaven. In this sense, it is for her, next to the Man-God, that the world exists. The great theologian, Cardinal de Lugo, explaining the words of the Saints on this subject, dares to say: “Just as, creating all things in his complacency for his Christ, God made him the end of creatures; so, with due proportion, we may say he drew the rest of the world out of nothing through the love of the Virgin Mother, so that she too might thus be justly called the end of all things.”

As Mother of God, and at the same time his first-born, she had a right and title over his goods; as Bride she ought to share his crown. “The glorious Virgin,” says St. Bernardine of Sienna, “has as many subjects as the Blessed Trinity has. Every creature, whatever be its rank in creation, spiritual as the Angels, rational as man, material as the heavenly bodies or the elements, heaven and earth, the reprobate and the blessed, all that springs from the power of God is subject to the Virgin. For he who is the Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin, wishing, so to say, to make his Mother’s principality in some sort equal to his Father’s, became, God as he is, the servant of Mary. If then it be true to say that every one, even the Virgin, obeys God, we may also convert the proposition, and affirm that every one, even God, obeys the Virgin.”

The empire of Eternal Wisdom comprises, so the Holy Spirit tells us, the heavens, the earth, and the abyss: the same then is the appanage of Mary on this her crowning day. Like the divine Wisdom to whom she gave Flesh, she may glory in God. He whose magnificence she once chanted, today exalts her humility. The Blessed one by excellence has become the honor of her people, the admiration of the Saints, the glory of the armies of the Most High. Together with the Spouse, let her, in her beauty, march to victory; let her triumph over the hearts of the mighty and the lowly. The giving of the world’s scepter into her hands is no mere honor void of reality: from this day forward, she commands and fights, protects the Church, defends its head, upholds the ranks of the sacred militia, raises up Saints, directs Apostles, enlightens doctors, exterminates heresy, crushes hell.

Let us hail our Queen, let us sing her mighty deeds; let us be docile to her; above all, let us love her and trust in her love. Let us not fear that, amidst the great interests of the spreading of God’s Kingdom, she will forget our littleness or our miseries. She knows all that takes place in the obscurest corners, in the furthest limits of her immense domain. From her title of universal cause under the Lord, is rightly deduced the universality of her providence; and the masters of doctrine show us Mary in glory sharing in the science called of vision, whereby all that is, has been, or is to be, is present before God. On the other hand, we must believe that her charity could not possibly be defective: as her love of God surpasses the love of all the elect, so the tenderness of all mothers united, centered upon an only child, is nothing to the love wherewith Mary surrounds the least, the most forgotten, the most neglected of all the children of God, who are her children too. She forestalls them in her solicitude, listens at all times to their humble prayers, pursues them in their guilty flights, sustains their weakness, compassionates their ills, whether of body or of soul, sheds upon all men the heavenly favors whereof she is the treasury.

Let us then say to her in the words of one of her great servants: “O most holy Mother of God, who hast beautified heaven and earth, in leaving this world thou hast not abandoned man. Here below thou didst live in heaven; from heaven thou conversest with us. Thrice happy those who contemplated thee and lived with the Mother of life! But in the same way as thou didst dwell in the flesh with them of the first age, thou now dwellest with us spiritually. We hear thy voice; and all our voices reach thine ear; and thy continual protection over us makes thy presence evident. Thou dost visit us; thine eye is upon us all; and although our eyes cannot see thee, O most holy One, yet thou art in the midst of us, showing thyself in various ways to whosoever is worthy. Thy immaculate body, come forth from the tomb, hinders not the immaterial power, the most pure activity of that spirit of thine, which, being inseparable from the Holy Ghost, breathes also where it wills. O Mother of God, receive the grateful homage of our joy, and speak for thy children to him who has glorified thee: whatsoever thou askest of him, he will accomplish it by his divine power; may he be blessed for ever!”

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Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Taken from here.

O Almighty and Everlasting God, Who hast prepared a worthy dwelling-place for the Holy Ghost in the heart of the blessed Virgin Mary: mercifully grant that we who celebrate with a devout mind the festival of the same Immaculate Heart, may be able to live according to Thy Heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. R. Amen

V. Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O holy Virgin.

R. Give me strength against thy enemies.

Ant. My hear has exulted in the Lord, and my horn has been exalted in my God, for I have rejoiced in thy salvation.

(Roman Breviary)




St. John Eudes was responsible for activating the devotion to Our Lady's Heart and giving it the stimulus which grew into this modern feast. Pope Pius VII, at the beginning of the nineteenth century instituted a Feast of the Most Pure Heart of the Virgin Mary for optional use. In 1942, Pope Pius XII confided the whole human race to the care of Mary's Immaculate Heart in a solemn act of dedication, and established the feast celebrated today. The devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the homage paid by the faithful to Our Lady's Heart as the symbol of her complete and entire fidelity to God.

It was from the Gospels that the early believers gleaned the account of Mary's inner life. Her spirit of recollection is seen in the words: "Mary kept all these words in her heart pondering over them"; her fidelity to duty in the tribute paid to her by Christ: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it"; her self-effacing charity in the trust given to her at the foot of the Cross: "Mother, behold thy son"--all these have been the background of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart since the early days of the Church. From her own words also as chiefly recorded by St. Luke, which tell of the dispositions of her heart at the Annunciation, at the loss of the Boy Christ in the Temple, at the marriage feast and, above all, in the glorious Magnificat spoken before Elizabeth, devout souls have grown to admire and love the Immaculate Heart which prompted them.

The apparition to Catherine Laboure in 1830, authorizing a medal with a representation of the Immaculate Heart, furthered the devotion; in our day, the wonders at Fatima in Portugal in 1917 have enhanced it; the renewal of the First Saturday devotion in honor of Mary Immaculate has added to its popularity.

Reflection--The Heart of Mary is the perfect image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Therefore she is our model and patron. Only through her can we hope to have our cold hearts changed into the likeness of the Heart of Jesus.

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Fr. Hewko's Sermons for the Feast of the Most Immaculate Heart of Mary



2019




2022




2023






Fr. Hewko's Sermons on the Topic of the Most Immaculate Heart of Mary


First Saturday February 2022 - "Immaculate Heart of Mary"

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The Pure Heart of Mary
by Rev. Arthur Ryan, 1877



"Cor mundum crea in me Deus."--PS. 90.

The Church, dear brethren, places before us to-day, as the object of our devotion on this feast, the Heart of Mary in what may be called its characteristic virtue--its purity. Purity has been called "Mary's virtue," not because she had it in fuller measure or in greater brightness than the other virtues contained in the absolute fulness of her grace, but because it best suits our view of the Virgin Mother, and because it has been ever held the special grace and charm of womanhood. But this is not the feast of Mary's Purity (that is kept on another day), but of Mary's most pure heart: that is, it is the feast of that wondrous union and interdependence, in the character of our Holy and Immaculate Mother, of purity and love. It will instruct us to-day, and also help us to honour our Lady in the spirit of her feast, if we reflect for a few moments on this union. We shall find that Mary's purity of heart came from the love of her heart, and the sorrow perfecting that love; and we shall learn that in love and in sorrow are to be found the surest foundation and the lasting protection of our own purity of heart.

We say anything is pure or clean when there is nothing of a lower or coarser nature mixed with it or resting on it. In this way we speak of a pure spirit as one not made for union with a material body; pure water, again, that is not mixed with any foreign matter that will dull its brightness. Remark that purity does not mean coldness or stiffness. If snow is the emblem of purity, it is because of its heaven-born whiteness and stainlessness--not because of its coldness. Once let the clay and soilure of earth be mixed with the drift, and though it has not ceased to be cold it has ceased to be pure. The icicle which the poet has made the emblem of chastity is no fitting emblem either in its coldness or sharpness--but (if it be a fit emblem at all) in its transparent clearness. To-day, however, we see the true emblem of purity, better than snow or ice, however spotless; for we see a human heart, warm with the warmest human love, throbbing and yearning as with the love of all hearts in one, and yet, nay by very reason of its vehement love, the home and emblem of purity--the most loving of the loving, and the purest of the pure.

For think, brethren, how could it be otherwise. Loving Jesus as Mary did, how could her love know that mixture of other love which alone could make her love impure? What drop of tainted earthly love could find room in the crystal vessel of her heart, full to the very brim of the heavenly love of Jesus? Her warm, womanly heart, so gentle and tender, so fitted and attuned to the finest pulsations of love--made by the Eternal God to be, next to the Heart of Jesus, the most perfect instrument of love, that heart had found complete and perfect rest in the love of God--in the love of its Jesus, and what more could it hold? Love filled that inner house, occupied every chamber and stood at the door, so that no other love could enter. Thus was Mary's love the cause and the guard of Mary's purity--enough of itself to be the full account of Mary's stainlessness.

But yet another cause we seem to see. I say "seem," brethren, for in a perfect work, such as Mary's heart is, we find that the virtues are not separable in themselves or in their causes, as they are in works less perfect. In fact, the unity of God's holiness, in Whom all perfections are as one, seems thus reflected in His most perfect creatures. It is, then, only as of another phase of Mary's love that I would speak of Mary's sorrow. She sorrowed because she loved, and for her love; and the purity that was founded in that love takes, in our eyes, its lustre and refinement from that sorrow. The Holy Scriptures speak, as men have in every land and literature spoken, of sorrow typified by fire. Prophet and poet are one in telling of the fire of affliction, the furnace of pain; and when the passing woes of earth shall find their awful and eternal home in Hell, they shall dwell there as in a pool of fire. But it is in the purifying qualities of sorrow that has been found the fitness of its comparison with fire. Not to mention many passages in the Old Testament, St. Peter speaks of the soul made sorrowful in divers temptations like the precious gold which is tried by the fire: and St. John commends gold fire-tried, and in the next verse explains this by the words: "Such as I love I rebuke and chastise." You know that gold, though so precious, is seldom (if ever) found pure. It has to be made pure by the process of fire: the dross is thus taken from it, and nothing but the bright ore remains.

So is it with the human heart. Precious as is that heart and dear to God, it is yet mixed up with much that is of earth--with sin and the effects of sin. Jesus Christ Himself has told us of the defilements of the heart of man. "From the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man." Such an admixture of what is impure makes the purifying of the heart a necessity: and the fire that loosens this dross, and makes the heart an offering acceptable to God, is the fire of sorrow--sorrow as it is sent us by our loving Father in the chastisement of His love--sorrow as it meets us at the hands of our fellow-men--sorrow as we embrace it ourselves and choose it freely as our lot in the generosity of Penance. The example of this sorrow, if not the example of its work, we behold in the pure and sorrowing heart of Mary. She needed not that fire for herself. No smallest atom of earthly defilement was on that pure heart for the furnace of pain to burn away. Love had done all, and left sorrow nothing to do. But, brethren, for your sakes and mine Mary plunged her heart down into that fire, deeper than any heart has ever gone, save only the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Man of Sorrows.

And shall we refuse to enter our fiery furnace? Shall we refuse to purchase our purity at the price of our pain? Ah no! Our love will make that pain bearable, and will make its work less.

To love and to suffer--be this our lot with the loving, suffering hearts of Jesus and Mary--if only by that love and by that sorrow we may come to something of that purity!

"Who, then, shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or the sword? For in all these things we overcome because of Him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

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The following is gratefully reprinted from the Oratory of the Sorrowful Heart of Mary Bulletin [click here to subscribe]. 
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The Immaculate Heart of Mary
Feast Day - Today, August 22nd

“God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart ... I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. 

If what I ask is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.” - July 1917

Today is the Octave Day of our Blessed Lady's Assumption and we celebrate the sublime feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1942, Pope Pius XII instituted this festival by entrusting the world to the Blessed Virgin, through a public, solemn Act of Consecration to her Immaculate Heart. Although the consecration was not done in accord with Our Lady’s specific request, this papal solemnity did obtain very special graces.

Even the Church's relatively recent institution of today's great feast is highly significant, for Almighty God wills the devotion to His Mother's Heart as a final remedy for our modern, apostate world. The Immaculate Heart is heaven's special gift; a sure refuge to protect and guide souls through the diabolical confusion which afflicts us all.

As the perfect reflection of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Mary's Immaculate Heart is more closely united to her Son’s Divine Heart than any two things which exist. According to St. Peter Damian, this perfect union with God is the true source of immense grace and merit whereby the Blessed Virgin's perfection stood apart from all creation. Simply put: any grace that God freely gives us, is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is most fitting then, that Holy Mother Church crowns our Blessed Lady's triumphant Assumption into heaven, with the festival of her Immaculate Heart.

At the dawn of the Twentieth Century, the Immaculate Heart's greatest manifestation in history took place at Fátima when the Blessed Virgin presented her Heart encircled by thorns which were piercing it from all sides. The young children seers understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, afflicted by all the sins of the world, which demanded reparation. Our Lady explained to them:

“Jesus wishes to use you to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion I promise salvation; these souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by me to adorn His throne.”

God wishes to grant us certain special graces so vital and so necessary today, so to strengthen, sustain and preserve our holy Catholic Faith - whole and entire. This is why He wants our love and devotion to the Heart of His Mother. This is why He established the First Saturdays Communion of Reparation. Because it is through reparation to the Immaculate Heart, a devotion especially reserved and prescribed for these apostate times, that so many will be saved. If only souls would practice this simple devotion as Our Lord so lovingly wills for them to do, then, just as the little Fátima seers, they too will find that sure refuge and the way that leads them to God. 


THE LAST REMEDY

After the Immaculata's revelations at Fátima, the eldest seer, Lucia, entered the convent and lived to become a fervent apostle for the Immaculate Heart. Throughout her mission, there were many difficult hours for Sr. Lucia. Most especially as the time passed, and the Immaculate Heart's message became more ignored and suppressed by Church authorities; a tragic disregard that is the root cause of our present-day confusion and apostasy.

In Sr. Lucia’s last public interview, she explains how Our Lady told her that the very last means God gives to the world for its salvation are the Holy Rosary and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

This important interview took place in 1957 with her nephew, Fr. Augustín Fuentes. What is most intriguing is that immediately after its publication, the Vatican refused permission for any further interviews with Sr. Lucia, and she was effectively silenced.

In retrospect, it is clear that with this interview, Sr. Lucia was warning souls about an imminent revolt against God and His Church. How the decisive battle between the Woman and the Serpent would be cunningly waged; about the satanic plan of attacking first of all, the consecrated souls of priests and religious; and the necessity for the faithful to do penance without waiting for the call from the Holy Father or their diocesan bishops.

In other words, just three years before the Fátima Third Secret was meant to be revealed, and plans for the modernist revolution by way of the Second Vatican Council were well under way, Our Lady's Messenger sounds the alarm and foretells the great Crisis of Faith we currently endure.

Read Sr. Lucia’s Last Interview

“Jesus wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. To whoever will embrace this devotion, 

I promise salvation. These souls will be dear to God, like flowers placed by me to adorn His throne”

Let's jump back a minute and think about these astounding words from our Blessed Lady. We're told that devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the will of Her Divine Son. If this is a condition for obtaining salvation, who would still dare to say that heaven is too hard to gain?

Since heaven's key has been entrusted to the Immaculata, how vain and perilous it would be to want to enter through any other door. Furthermore, to disregard this last excess of Our Lord's mercy would mean to simply ignore the offers of the Immaculate Heart of His Mother. What a great insult to God!

Since Our Lord has decided to attach such important promises to His Mother’s Heart, the greatest sin in His eyes would be a lukewarm indifference, or even scorn towards this merciful devotion; through which the Blessed Trinity wishes to grant us the greatest of blessings; the grace of final perseverance in our holy Catholic Faith.

Besides being one of the last remedies God offers us, devotion to the Immaculate Heart also stands out as the surest and most rapid road to sanctity. The lives of the three young shepherd seers are a striking and fascinating proof of this.

Still, some will say, what if I do not have this devotion? Understand first, that there is nothing extraordinary in acquiring the devotion; but it doesn’t come just of itself. Like all graces, it can be obtained by prayer - especially the Rosary. We can also obtain this grace by answering Our Lord’s request for reparation to His Mother’s Heart, by making the Five First Saturdays.

However, the surest means of obtaining a tender and true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is by making a personal Act of Consecration. This is truly the best solution!

It is also the secret to interior peace, tranquility, and confidence amidst the diabolical confusion which currently surrounds us on virtually every level. It has been well documented that those who are consecrated (be they individuals, cities, or even whole nations) are preserved from countless dangers, no matter how grave, dire, or desperate the situation may be. The protection that our Blessed Mother gives to those who entrust themselves to her Immaculate Heart is what she means by “your refuge, and the way which will lead you to God.”

From a purely practical point of view, the Mother of God wants us to consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart for two reasons:

• To protect us and our families in the momentous days ahead
  
• To gain help from us to save sinners from the fires of hell
  

When we consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we are, in effect, placing ourselves, our homes and our families under Our Lady's protection; admitting that we need her help in all things - be they spiritual or temporal. At the same time, we give to her all the merits of our prayers, sacrifices, and good works, so that she may use them to help save many souls, including our own.

And depending upon how completely we live this entrustment, all our thoughts, words and deeds; all our prayers, crosses and turmoil; even our good works and the fulfillment of our daily duty, take on a stupendous increase in merit and virtue. Thus, Our Lady can use our total consecration as the means of obtaining the grace of salvation for many other souls.

In living our consecration, we might not see any change, but we will definitely notice the effects it has on our souls. For, just as Our Lady assures us, she is able to transform our hearts, and powerfully enhance all we give her both for our salvation and the conversion of sinners.

The question now becomes, how does one consecrate oneself to the Immaculate Heart?

St. Louis de Montfort created the most effective method of both preparing for and making the consecration. He tells us that, when we consecrate ourselves to Our Lady, we really consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary - ad Jesum per Mariam.

Now, there are many good souls who do not like the idea of going to Jesus by way of Mary! They want to go directly to "headquarters" - to Jesus, Himself - with their petitions and offerings. But such souls don't seem to realize that, when they approach Our Lord directly, they are going on their own merits alone; and no matter how good they may be, their prayers and offerings cannot possibly have the same value as would be the case if they were offered to Our Lord by way of His very own Mother.

And who but Our Lady knows more about the best way to the Sacred Heart of her Son? In proportion to a soul's love and devotion, Mary purifies their prayers and offerings with her own special merits, then presents them to her Son; knowing what is necessary to make them most pleasing and acceptable to His Divine Heart. And likewise, if we have ever received any grace from God, we can be certain that it first passed through the Heart of our Immaculate Mother.

This then, is the essence of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is the underlying reason why Our Lady said that God wishes for it to be established. This is THE devotion God wills for souls to practice today; especially given to us for these days of confusion and apostasy. For along with the daily recitation of the Rosary, it's our last remedy.

Total Consecration: To Jesus Through Mary

St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary explains simply and completely what consecration and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is all about. In this short book, the saint spells out the best way to live our consecration, so that it will make our devotion both sincere and fruitful.

From the list of Marian feast days, choose a consecration date that is meaningful. Begin the 33-day Preparation on the appropriate date. Then, make your personal Act of Consecration on the feast day selected.

Once we have given ourselves to Jesus through Mary, it is helpful to remind ourselves of this dedication by renewing it with short, sincere and even daily aspirations. Another good reminder is to have a certain special picture or statue of Our Lady displayed in our home or room. Finally, wearing the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is a constant and visual sign of our consecration; a reminder that we have given ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of our Mother and Queen; and that we especially enjoy her powerful intercession and protection.

Our Lady, herself, best describes what total consecration to her Immaculate Heart is like in her words to Juan Diego at Guadalupe, Mexico:

"Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you; let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also, do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who is your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?"



Recommended Reading

Consecration To The Immaculate Heart of Mary
by Rev. Fr. Nicholas A. Norman

Published in 1949, Father Norman was the founding Director of the Confraternity Mary Queen of All Hearts, an association especially dedicated to the Marian spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort. This concise little booklet explains better and, in less space, the principal reasons and motives for consecrating ourselves to the Immaculata using St. Louis de Montfort's method. He also perfectly summarizes the Fátima message on Consecration to the Immaculate Heart. An absolutely beautiful little paperback that’s a very quick read. An invaluable reference resource for any Catholic library. 

Available from TAN Books