Thin Edge of the Wedge Part C - Eucharistic Devotions of Reparation - Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Nature of the Devotion
Devotion to the Holy Heart of Mary is a special form of devotion to Mary. While the devotion is focused on the physical heart of Mary, the devotion extends beyond this to include all that the human heart of Mary symbolizes her:
- interior life,
- joys,
- sorrows,
- virtues,
- hidden perfections,
- virginal love for her God,
- maternal love for her Divine Son,
- and her motherly and compassionate love for her sinful and miserable children here below.
There are some key differences between the Devotion to the Sacred Heart and that of the Immaculate Heart. Devotion to the Heart of Jesus is especially directed to the Divine Heart as overflowing with love for men, and it presents this love to us as despised and outraged. Devotion to the Heart of Mary, on the other hand, is primarily focused on the love of this Heart for Jesus and for God and to a lesser extent its love for men.
While the primary act of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is the our love responding to the love that Our Lord Jesus Christ holds for us, in devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary it is less clear which aspect is the most important. It seems that study and imitation of Our Lady hold as important a place as love. While the study and imitation of Our Lady contains filial affection, there is no object that explicitly spurs on our love, a love that is "awakened and increased" by the study and imitation of Our Lady, the model of all virtues.
So, love is more the result than the object of the devotion, the object being rather to love God, and Jesus better by uniting ourselves to Mary for this purpose and by imitating her virtues. From this it follows that in the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the focus is more on the element symbolized, (love, virtues, and sentiments of the Blessed Virgin Mary's interior life) by the heart than the heart itself as symbol and sensible object.
Adapted from: Catholic Encyclopedia
While the Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary didn't start with Fatima, the devotion took on a new prominence in the life of the Church in the combat with the forces of darkness that seek to extinguish the life of Grace in this world.
Our Lady of Fatima - July 13, 1917
Our Lady answered:
"I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to continue to pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you."
...
"Continue to come here every month, In October, I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle for all to see and believe."
...
"Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice:
O Jesus, it is for love of You,
for the conversion of sinners,
and in reparation for the sins committed
against the Immaculate Heart of Mary."
As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more, as she had done during the two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw as it were a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. (It must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me.) The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. Terrified and as if to plead for succor, we looked up at Our Lady who said to us, so kindly and so sadly:
"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.
To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation of the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, several entire nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved; etc...
When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery:
O my Jesus, forgive us!
Save us from the fire of hell.
Lead all souls to heaven,
especially those who are most in need."
Source
Alternate Source
In this time of a crisis in the Church, what is the path forward given by Our Lady: That of prayer and the devotion to her Immaculate Heart. At this point Our Lady indicates that she will come to ask for two things: The consecration of Russia, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. The former can be done only by the Pope, however the latter falls to the entire Catholic Church.
Apparition in Pontevedra
Our Lady gave the details on the Communion of Reparation of the First Saturdays in an apparaition to to Lucia in 1925:Lucia, who was now 18, had become a postulant with the Sisters of St Dorothy at Pontevedra in Spain, and on Thursday 10 December, the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by the Child Jesus on a little cloud, appeared to her in her cell. Lucia recounted that Mary rested her hand on her shoulder, while showing her a heart encircled by thorns in her other hand.
The Child Jesus spoke first:
"Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation."
Then Mary said:
"My daughter, look at My Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me, and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."
The Child Jesus again appeared to Lucia in February 1926 to encourage her to propagate this devotion, and additionally on the night of 29-30 May 1930, as she was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, she received an interior locution from him explaining why it was necessary to have a communion of reparation on five Saturdays.
She explained later that she had been given to understand that this related to the five main types of blasphemies and offences committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary: that is against the Immaculate Conception; against Mary's Virginity; against her Divine Maternity and her spiritual motherhood of mankind; for the offences of those who encourage in the hearts of children indifference, contempt and even hatred of her, and finally as reparation for those who outrage her in her holy images.
The setting aside of the first Saturday of the month as a special day of reparation to Mary did not originate at Fatima, but had been practised since the time of St John Eudes in the seventeenth century. The practice was given a further boost by an Italian nun, Sr Dolores Inglese, in the late nineteenth century, and was indulgenced by both popes St Pius X and Benedict XV. It was the message of Fatima though which gave it is present form. In return for complying with this request concerning the Five First Saturdays devotion, Mary promised "all the graces necessary for salvation."
Source
The devotion to the Immaculate Heart, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of Marian devotion as it incorporates one of the most ancient devotions of Our Lady: The Holy Rosary.
Our Lady made fifteen promises to Christians who recite the Rosary:
- Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the rosary, shall receive signal graces.
- I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to those who shall recite the rosary.
- The rosary shall be a powerful armour against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies.
- It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
- The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the rosary, shall not perish.
- Whoever shall recite the rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life.
- Whoever shall have a true devotion for the rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
- Those who are faithful to recite the rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise.
- I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the rosary.
- The faithful children of the rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven.
- You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary.
- All those who propagate the holy rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
- I have obtained from my Divine Son that ll the advocates of the rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death.
- All who recite the rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son Jesus Christ.
- Devotion of my rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Taken from a book mark printed by Tan.
Imprimatur: Bishop Partick J. Hayes, D.D. Archbishop of New York
Conclusion
The devotion to the Immaculate Heart is the weapon of choice in this war. It incorporate all of the best weapons available to us (communion of reparation, the rosary, meditation) and leads us to the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Let us take up these weapons and join in the battle, a battle that we know we will win!
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