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

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

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 — Luke 2:51

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, mother of the King)—we ponder her interior life in each of these roles, consecrate ourselves to Jesus through her, make reparations for having offended her as our Mother, ask her intercession for us with her Son, and emulate her as the model of Christian perfection. While, early on 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, John Eudes—have always had deep Marian devotions, it was after the apparitions of Mary experienced by Saint Catherine Labouré at Rue Du Bac, Paris, in 1830 that devotions specifically to Mary’s Immaculate Heart became formalized.

Mary appeared to Saint 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. Saint Catherine Labouré said that Mary told her to strike a medal in this form—a medal populary 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 in the Catholic Church.

The feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is celebrated on Friday 22 August. Mass will be offered at Holy Family Church at 7:30 am and 7:30 pm.