Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - August 22nd
#1
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)

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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!”
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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#2
Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Taken from here.

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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.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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#3
Fr. Hewko's Sermons on the Feast of the Most Immaculate Heart of Mary



2019




2020




2021




2022






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


December 9, 2019 - "The Future Is In Catholic Tradition & Triumph Of The Immaculate Heart!"





Passion Sunday 2020 - Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary





First Saturday June 2021 - "Heart of Mary, Our Refuge!"





August 27, 2021 - "The Heart of Jesus So Closely United To The Heart of Mary!"





First Saturday February 2022 - "Immaculate Heart of Mary"


"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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#4
The Pure Heart of Mary
by Rev. Arthur Ryan, 1877

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"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."
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
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