Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary [Catholic/Orthodox Caucus]

Devotion to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary

Luke 2:19: But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.

Luke 2:35: And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed.

Luke 2:51: And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus focuses mostly on His divine love for mankind and encourages our humility, gratitude, obedience, and adoration; devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary focuses on Mary's love for God and encourages our emulating her humility, gratitude, obedience, and adoration. Mary as loving Mother of Jesus Who suffered for us; Mary as Mother of the Church; Mary as obedient daughter, Mary as our Gevirah (Queen Mother of Israel) -- we ponder her interior life in each of these roles, consecrate ourselves to Jesus through her, make reparations for offending her as our Mother, ask her intercession for us with her Son, and emulate her as the model of Christian perfection.

The Feast of Candlemas, which commemorates Mary's ritual Purification and her Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, sheds special light on the nature of devotion to her Immaculate Heart. The old man, Simeon, foretold that "a sword" shall pierce Mary's heart, and meditating on the sorrows symbolized by that sword helps us to understand what Our Lord went through for us. We do this not only on Candlemas, but on the Feast of the Seven Sorrows, during all of Passiontide, as we make the Stations of the Cross, during August, which is devoted to the Immaculate Heart, during September, which is devoted to the Seven Sorrows, etc.

While, early on, of course, the Church Fathers wrote of Mary's blessedness, purity, and sorrows, and our Saints -- Dominic, Gertrude, Thomas Becket, Bridget, Bernardine of Siena, Louis de Montfort -- have always had deep Marian devotions, it was after the apparitions of Mary experienced by St. Catherine Labouré at Rue Du Bac, Paris in 1830 that devotions specifically to Mary's Immaculate Heart became formalized.

Specific Devotions

St. Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal Mary appeared to St. Catherine Labouré standing on a globe, rays of light streaming from her fingers, enframed in an oval frame inscribed with the words, "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." The whole vision "turned" showing the back of the oval inscribed with the letter "M" entwined with a Cross, and the hearts of Jesus and Mary, the former surrounded with thorns, the latter pierced with a sword. 12 stars circled this oval frame. Mary told her to strike a medal in this form -- a medal now known as the "Miraculous Medal" -- and that all who wore it properly after having it blessed would receive graces. The wearing of the Miraculous Medal has become one of the most common devotions to the Immaculate Heart.

Our Lady of Fatima Devotion to the Immaculate Heart became even more popularized after Mary's appearing to the three young shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 (before the Russian Revolution), when she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart to prevent the spread of "the errors of Russia." Eight years later, in 1925, Mary appeared to one of the visionaries -- Lucia, who'd since become a nun -- and requested reparations for the various ways in which her Immaculate Heart was offended -- such as attacks against her Immaculate Conception, virginity and divine maternity, and for those who teach their children contempt of Mary or who insult her by desecrating her images.

To make these reparations, she asked that we do 5 things, all with the intention of making reparation to her Immaculate Heart:

recite at least Five Decades of the Rosary every day
wear the Brown Scapular
offer our daily duty to God as an act of sacrifice (ie., make the Morning Offering)
make Five First Saturdays of Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart (see below)
the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world, must consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. Russia would be converted through this means, and a period of peace to be given to the world. If this is not done (and it hasn't been done), Russia will "spread her errors throughout the world." This consecration must be of Russia -- not "the world," but Russia by name.

The "First Saturdays of Reparation" was not a new devotion, but it was even more popularized after Our Lady appeared at Fatima. It consists of, on the first Saturday of each month for five consecutive months:

going to Confession (may be 8 days before the Saturday as long as one stays in a state of grace)
receiving the Eucharist
praying 5 decades of the Rosary, including the Fatima Prayer
"keeping her company" for 15 minutes while meditating on all of the Mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation to her. This can be done by reading Scripture or other writings relevant to the Mysteries, meditating on pictures of the Mysteries, or simple meditation.

The promise given by Mary to those who make the First Saturday devotion is her assistance at the hour of their death.

Morning Offering

The Morning Offering is an aspect of the League of the Sacred Heart of Jesus' "Apostleship of Prayer," born in 1844 in a Jesuit seminary in Vals, France. The seminarians were destined to evangelize in Indian and American missions and, anxious to get on with their work, were reminded by their spiritual Father, Fr. Francois Xavier Gautrelet, that salvation is supernatural and that they can also get on with their apostleship through prayer and by offering up their sufferings, joining them with Christ's: Colossians 1:23-24: "I Paul am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church."

Later, another Jesuit, Jesuit Father Ramiere, began to publish the "Messenger of the Sacred Heart" to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This helped to spread the "Morning Offering Prayer," encouraging the faithful to begin each day by offering that day and its sufferings to the Lord for the good of the Church and the Holy Father's intentions -- i.e., the Pope's General Intentions for each month and his Mission Intentions for each month. (You can read the Holy Father's monthly prayer intentions here at EWTN's website. Will open in new browser window.)

At first, the "Morning Offering" included offering up "prayers, works and suffering," but a nun urged Pope Pius XII to include the concept of joy. The Holy Father agreed, and so some forms of the Morning offering now include offering up "our prayers, works, joys and suffering."

The Offering is meant to be prayed first thing in the morning, consecrating the day to the Lord and preparing one to focus all on Jesus and give to Him all that one does during the day. There are a few variations of the Morning Offering, some offering our oblations to Jesus in imitation of Mary's Immaculate Heart. Here is a common form:

Lord Jesus Christ, in union with that divine intention wherewith on earth Thou didst offer to God Thy praises through Thy Most Sacred Heart, and dost now offer them in the Sacrament of the Eucharist everywhere on earth even to the end of time, I most gladly offer Thee throughout this entire day, all my thoughts and intentions, all my affections and desires, all my words and deeds, in imitation of the most sacred Heart of the blessed and ever Virgin Mary Immaculate. Amen.

Latin version:
Domine Iesu Christe, in unione illius divinae intentionis, quia in terris per sanctissimum Cor tuum laudes Deo persolvisti et nunc in Eucharistiae Sacramento ubique terrarum persolvis usque ad consummationem saeculi, ego per hanc diem integram, ad imitationem sanctissimi Cordis beatae Mariae semper Virginis immaculatae, tibi libentissime offero omnes meos intentiones et cogitationes, omnes meos affectus et desideria, omnia mea opera et verba. Amen.

Now, throughout the day, offer up your harships and sacrifices to Jesus, uniting them with His sufferings and merits so that our works gain the merit they can never have apart from Him. It is especially beneficial to offer them to Mary to give to Jesus so that her intercession as Queen Mother of Israel renders them more pleasing.

The Morning Offering can be renewed throughout the day with simple short prayers (called "ejaculations" or "aspirations"), for ex., "All for Thee, Jesus!"

Prayer Ping as well as Discussion Ping!

The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Memorial
Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost

from a traditional prayer card

The devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is connected on many points with that to the Heart of Jesus; nevertheless, it has its own history. The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary, symbolized by her heart.
Simeon's prophecy in Luke 2:33-34 paved the way and furnished devotion with one of its favorite formula and most popular representations: the heart pierced with a sword. Saint Luke's Gospel says that Mary kept all the sayings and doings of Jesus in her heart, that she might ponder them and live by them.
Indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by Saint Bernard (d. 1180), De duodecim stellis, from which extract has been taken by the Church and used in the Offices of Compassion and of the Seven Dolors. Stronger evidence is discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, usually attributed to Saint Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or Saint Bernard.
Saint Jean Eudes (d. 1681) propagated the devotion to make it public, first in Autun in 1648 and afterward in a number of French dioceses. He established religious societies interested in upholding and promoting devotion. His efforts to secure a feast failed in Rome but the devotion 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. In 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

(Principal source - Catholic Encyclopedia - 1913 edition)

Collect:
Father,
You prepared the heart of the Virgin Mary
to be a fitting home for Your Holy Spirit.
By her prayers
may we become a more worthy temple of Your glory.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. +Amen.
First Reading: Isaiah 61:9-11
Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Gospel Reading: Lk 2:41-51
Now Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing Him to be in the company they went a day's journey, and they sought Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; and when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. And when they saw Him they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, Your father and I have been looking for You anxiously". And He said to them, "How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house?" And they did not understand the saying which He spoke to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and His mother kept all these things in her heart.

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