By Joseph Pronechen, Courtesy National Catholic Register

We know that traditionally May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. October to the Holy Rosary, and Our Lady of the Rosary. Now it’s time to also remember something little realized or often forgotten. August is the month traditionally dedicated by to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.



In fact, August once saw the celebration of the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In 1944 Venerable Pope Pius XII set this feast to be celebrated on Aug. 22 as the Octave of the Assumption. Two years earlier he had consecrated the Christian family and whole human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the 25th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions.

Then in 1969, St. Pope Paul VI moved the date to the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (celebrated on the Friday before; the celebrations are next to each other). It means the Immaculate Heart of Mary feast falls on the third Saturday after Pentecost.

For the record, August still has three Marian feasts —the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major (also remembering Our Lady of the Snows) on Aug. 5; the Assumption on Aug. 15; the Queenship of Mary on Aug. 22.

This might seem all rather recent, but well before August came to be dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary she was celebrated as such for centuries. Let’s take a quick peek at a few highlights.

“The real roots of the devotion to Mary’s Heart are in Scripture, where on two occasions reference is made to Mary’s heart by St. Luke,” points out Father Johanm Roten, a Mariologist at the University of Dayton. He refers to Luke 2:19 “Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart,” and Luke 2:51 “His mother (Mary) meanwhile kept all these things in memory, meaning in her heart.”

He also explained, “The most beautiful biblical text about Mary’s heart is the Magnificat because it reveals to us the wondrous riches of Mary’s humble and regal heart. Her heart sings the praises of God, but it is not a solitary song, my song about the history of my soul, but the Magnificat is the song of the history of salvation for all God’s people.”

Let’s fast forward to the early 15th century and St. Bernardine of Siena who, as Father Roten notes, has the title, the Doctor of the Heart of Mary. “In that Heart he sees, as it were, seven burning furnaces that give rise to seven flames which are the seven acts of love expressed in the seven ‘words’ of Our Lady found in the Gospel.”

Then in the 17th century, St. John Eudes broadcast the devotion and promoted a feast in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Soon several dioceses in France did so.

Devotion continued and surged in 1830 with the Miraculous Medal. Among the images Our Lady told St. Catherine Labouré to place on the medal was one of her Immaculate Heart placed next to the Sacred Heart.

Our Lady continued to bring devotion to her Immaculate Heart to the forefront, next at Fatima. There, and also later to Sr. Lucia, she made several specific mentions to her Immaculate Heart.

Mary Herself Tells Us

After the revelations at Fatima and those later to Lucia, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary spread rapidly and in even greater climes.

A short reminder: Our Lady mentioned her Immaculate Heart in her second apparition in June. She told Lucia she would stay on the earth after her cousins went to heaven since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart.

Our Blessed Mother also told her, I will be with you always, and my Immaculate Heart will be your comfort and the way which will lead you to God.

Jesus, her Son, wants to make her known and loved with devotion established in the world to her Immaculate Heart. And the Immaculate Heart will not only be our comfort, but the way that will lead us to God. It’s a perfectly clear reason or instruction why we should be devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Then during the July apparition Our Lady told the children in detail about her Immaculate Heart, the reparation she asked for, and the results if people ignored this request.

She gave the children in this short prayer to say often especially while making a sacrifice to save sinners: O Jesus, this is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for offences committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In July she also told the children after she showed them hell where poor sinners go — To save them that God wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.

Let’s remind ourselves who it was who asked for this devotion: her Son Jesus.

Our Blessed Mother continued, telling the children, in part, about punishments and another war (World War II) if people didn’t listen and repent. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

That was not all. Our Lady made it very clear, If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, then Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, bringing new wars and persecution of the Church; the good will be martyred and the Holy Father will have much to suffer; certain nations will be annihilated. But in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.

The triumph will come through her Immaculate Heart. No way or no one will prevent this. The question is, will we practice devotion to her Immaculate Heart. We have the month of August to remind us.

More Proofs

The Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy makes clear “the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a celebration of the complex visceral relationship of Mary with her Son's work of salvation: from the Incarnation, to his death and resurrection, to the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

That’s one explanation why Jesus wants devotion to his Mother’s Immaculate Heart spread.

The same Directory also has this to say about receiving Holy Communion on the Five First Saturdays. “This pious practice should be seen as an opportunity to live intensely the paschal Mystery celebrated in the Holy Eucharist, as inspired by the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Jesus and Mary are brought together here too.

Her Heart and Ways to Honor

First, the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia explains “what seems to attract us above all else is the love of this Heart for Jesus and for God.” And we’ve got to look at all the human heart of Mary suggests including her “joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for her God, her maternal love for her Divine Son, and her motherly and compassionate love for her sinful and miserable children here below.”

Father Roten has great insight for us into what it means when we speak of Mary’s heart.

“The expression ‘Mary’s heart’ is to be understood in a biblical sense: it denotes the person of the Blessed Virgin herself, her intimate and unique being; the center and source of her interior life, of her mind and memory, of her will and love; the single-mindedness with which she loved God and the disciples and devoted herself wholeheartedly to the saving work of her Son.”

Start in August

Now that we’ve looked at a bit of the history of the devotion and reasons isn’t this month of August a good time we begin, or increase, our honor and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

One way is to make or renew our individual consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope Pius XII explained that this consecration “tends essentially to union with Jesus, under the guidance of Mary.”

He consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Oct. 31, 1942. Pope St. John Paul II renewed it twice, the second time in communion with the bishops of the Church, on Mar. 25, 1984. And Pope Francis did so at a Vatican ceremony on Oct. 13, 2013.

“By our consecration we promise to become dependent on Mary in all things: to offer all our prayers and oblations to God through Mary, and to seek every gift from God through Mary,” teach the Dominicans at The Rosary Center.  “And we do this with the greatest confidence. Since she is our mother, she knows our needs better than we; and since she is Queen of Heaven, she has immediate access to the infinite treasury of graces in the Kingdom of her Divine Son.”

No wonder we’re advised to consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Jesus chose that we go to him through Mary — “both the mystery of God coming to us through Mary, and our being led to God through Mary, is a work of the Holy Spirit.”

If we make the consecration and honestly try to live it, what the Blessed Mother promised Lucia applies to us too: I will never leave you; my Immaculate Heart will be your refuge, and the way that will lead you to God.

Use St. Louis de Montfort’s method, Father Michael Gaitley’s 33 Days to Morning Glory (more than one method in this book), or other suitable consecration prayers.

Next, the Rosary. “In our devotion to Mary’s Heart there is no more effective prayer than the Rosary which is about the mysteries of her Son’s life and hers. There is no better way to obtain through Mary’s intercession the help we desperately need to learn how to be loving and selfless,” reminded Servant of God Father John Hardon.

Also, since it’s already past for August, aim for September to begin the Five First Saturdays. Or continue to do First Saturdays if you’ve already completed the five. We don’t have to stop at five. We really can and should do them continuously because they honor Our Lady and continuously fulfill her requests.

Finally, during August we should do something extra, something special, something extra special for Our Lady. Get enrolled in the brown scapular, wear a Miraculous Medal, begin praying the Angelus daily, or the Memorare, or why not both? Why not all? To Jesus through Mary.

By Annabelle Moseley, Courtesy Aleteia

Did you know that in the Catholic Church, each of the 12 months of the year has a devotional theme? August is the beautiful month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Continuing our series on ways to showcase each month’s Catholic theme in your life, here are 10 ways you can more closely align your life to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Wear the Miraculous Medal for the entire month

This is one devotion that may just stick around even after the month is over! The back of the Miraculous Medal depicts Mary’s Immaculate Heart, pierced by a sword. If you don’t have a medal, it’s a great time to get one and have it blessed, or get one for a family member or friend. Wear as an act of great devotion and a testimony to the power of prayer.

Create a home altar honoring the Immaculate Heart

Choose a painting, holy card, or statue depicting the Immaculate Heart of Mary and place it in the center of your dining table or mantle. Have the children help to pick out the flowers that will adorn your humble home altar. Ask them to pick blooms in red or pink (whether from your home garden, or the local store) that will remind you of Mary’s beautiful heart.

Engage children by making heart-shaped cookies or cake

Decorate with pink and red icing. Have a simple home prayer service for the Immaculate Heart of Mary by saying favorite Marian prayers together as a family, playing a beautiful Marian song like “Ave Maria” (and even singing along as a family) and then enjoying the dessert in celebration of Mary. To make it even more meaningful, make enough cookies or an extra cake and bring to someone who could use a good cheering up!

Have children make Immaculate Heart greeting cards

Fold construction or computer paper in half to make a card. On the cover, have kids draw a heart. Then surround the heart with roses. Finally, include the depiction of the sword of sorrows. If children are too little to draw well, you can draw the heart, have the kids color it in and then get rose stickers or using a glue stick, paste rose petals around the heart. Help them compose a message of love inside the card, and give as a gift to a grandparent, relative, or friend to whom you want to send love.

Begin the First Five Saturdays devotion

This devotion is also called the Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was requested by Our Lady of Fatima. Here’s how to do it.

Pray the Fatima Morning Offering

Celebrate the Immaculate Heart of Mary by praying the Fatima Morning Offering daily this month, as it conclude with these words, invoking the Immaculate Heart:

Precious Blood of Jesus, save us!
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Amen.

Spend time in prayer with the Prophecy of Simeon

The beautiful scripture of Luke 2:35 reminds us of the sword that would pierce Mary’s heart. Spend time reading, meditating, praying on and contemplating this scripture. This prophecy of Simeon is also the first sorrow of Mary.

Pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary

Here are the prayers for a Rosary that helps you meditate on the seven sorrows.

Go to Mass on August 15, the feast of the Assumption 

Mark your calendar now for this holy day of obligation (on a Thursday) and attend Mass, praying to the Immaculate Heart on the Feast of the Assumption. Another special day to honor the Immaculate Heart by attending daily Mass (though not a holy day of obligation) is Thursday, August 22, the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why not stop after Mass to light a candle for your intention at the Marian altar in your parish?

Consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart 

This would be a great month to begin a consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary using this prayer or this total consecration to Mary as taught by St. Louis de Montfort.