After the feast of the Sacred Heart, the Church immediately celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (This year, today’s feast of the Immaculate Heart falls on the same date as the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, which takes precedence.) These two hearts are inseparable, and devotion to the Heart of Mary naturally leads to the Heart of her Son, Jesus.
The devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a beautiful one with a great deal of history behind it. Many saints have urged Christians to consecrate their heart to Mary, firmly believing that a deeper relationship with Jesus is made possible through her heart.
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How to make a consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The St. Vincent Prayer Manual offers a beautiful meditation on this spiritual reality.
For, you have two hearts here united in the most strict alliance and tender conformity of sentiments; so that it is not in nature to please the one, without making yourself agreeable to the other, and acceptable to both. Go then to the Heart of Jesus; but let your way be through the Heart of Mary, The sword of grief which pierced her soul, opens you a passage: enter by the wound love has made; advance to the Heart of Jesus, and rest there even till death itself. Presume not to separate and divide two objects so intimately united together; but ask for aid in all your exigencies from the Heart of Jesus, and ask this favor through the Heart of Mary.
In this same manual, published in 1856, there is also a brief prayer to consecrate your heart to Mary. For those seeking a more intimate friendship with Jesus, consider going through Mary and do so by offering her your heart. She will in turn present your heart to Jesus and bring you deeper into his love.
O Holy Mother of God, glorious Queen of heaven and earth, I choose thee this day for my mother, and my advocate at the throne of thy Divine Son. Accept the offering I here make of my heart: may it be irrevocable. It never can be out of danger, whilst at my disposal; never secure but in thy hands.Ye choirs of Angels, witnesses of my oblation, bear me up in the day of judgment, and next to Jesus and Mary, be ye propitious to me, should the enemy of my salvation have any claim upon me. Obtain for me at present the gift of a true repentance, and those graces I may afterwards stand in need of, for the gaining of life everlasting. Amen.
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Why the Immaculate Heart follows the Sacred Heart, and what that means for us
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The symbolism behind Mary’s Immaculate Heart
And today we celebrate...