Deeper Into The Mystery
Mary’s Immaculate Heart points us to a deeper love…a love that goes deeper than any other love in this world…that is the love of God.
The Church wisely places the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary together. This shows us that the devotion to the Two Hearts is meant to help us enter more deeply into God’s love for us.
Pope Pius XII in 1944 consecrated the whole world to the patronage and protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We can imagine the significance of this, because this was during the time of World War II. War is a time where we discover how much evil man is capable of causing…and it is also a time where we discover that we need God…we need God’s grace!
Some people wonder…what is the significance of the Immaculate Heart? We already have Devotion to the Sacred Heart. There is always a deep connection between a mother and her child. We cannot deny that there is a deep connection between our Lord and Our Blessed Mother. When we think of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we think of her interior life: her joys, sorrows, her virtues, her deep love for God as Father and her motherly love for Jesus and all people. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary makes us ask the Lord: “Help me Lord to have a deeper interior life.” It is so easy for us to live on exteriors, and to want people to look at us…to affirm us in our goodness. Mary’s life was so interior, so focused on the Lord, that there was no room for self-righteousness. She just surrendered herself to love. We want that kind of freedom, where we are able to just surrender ourselves in love to the Lord so that everyone who encounters us really is encountering Christ.
Also, many of the Saints and theologians encouraged promotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially St. John Eudes in the 17th Century, and sources say that he was very influential in spreading the liturgical devotion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We are also told that St. Augustine once said that Mary was more blessed having born Christ in her heart, than having conceived Him in the flesh. This is an amazing thought! Each of us is so blessed to have born Christ in our hearts, and we can remember this every time that we receive Communion.
