THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

The idea of the liturgical worship of "the most pure Heart of Mary" was suggested by the commentaries of the Fathers of the Church upon the book of the Bible, the Canticle of Canticles. The honoring of the Immaculate Heart was first joined to the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the 17th century, by St John Eudes; however, it was only at the beginning of the 19th century that Pope Pius VII allowed some places to keep a feast in its honor, on the Sunday after the octave of her Assumption. Pope Pius IX granted it a proper Mass and Office (Mass Omnia gloria). However, in the 1920 edition of the Roman Missal, made in the spirit of Pope St. Pius X, it was then celebrated on the Saturday after the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

On December 8th 1942, during the terrible Second World-War, Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole mankind to the "Immaculate Heart of Mary."  Consequently, he extended the feast to the Universal Church and gave it a new Mass and Office, by a decree of May 4th 1944. That feast of the Immaculate Heart" is fixed, not to a Sunday, but to the very Octave-Day of the Assumption. Mary, in Heaven, goes on interceding lovingly on our behalf. Her Heart is the symbol of the ardent love, which she fosters first for God and for her divine Son (Epistle), but also of her maternal care for all human souls, which Jesus entrusted her when He died (cf. Gospel, Communion). We exalt the particular holiness of her Heart (cf. Gradual, Offertory), and we pray her (Introit, Collects) to obtain "peace for all nations, freedom for the Church, conversion for the sinners, and for all faithful, love for chastity and the practice of all virtues" (Decree of May 4th 1944).

The feast of the Immaculate Heart takes on an even more special role in view of Our Lady's pronouncement at Fatima, in 1917, when she said to the three children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, that God wanted to establish, in the whole world, devotion to her Immaculate Heart. This desire of God's, should make us raise her Immaculate Heart to an even higher pedestal in our own hearts, and lead us to promote devotion to her Immaculate Heart in our family, amongst our friends and relations, and all those whom we come into contact with in our daily lives. At Fatima, in 1917, Our Lady promised salvation to all those who would embrace this devotion to her Immaculate Heart.