The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Memorial)

Hail Mary, full of grace.

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is also known as The Sacred Heart of Mary. This memorial or feast always fall on the Saturday the next day after the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus or 20 days after Pentecost Sunday. The title Immaculate Heart of Mary symbolises the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all persons.

It has always been the role of Mary, as Mother of the faithful, to draw her spiritual children into the same docility to the Holy Spirit as she herself so perfectly manifested. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary opens the way for us, just as her womb opened the way of salvation for humankind. What she could not do on earth as a mother of mankind who's love surpasses time and space, by the grace of the Heavenly Father, she has been granted the joy of doing it from Heaven. In all her apparations around the world to chosen blessed ones, her motherly message of love has been to renounce Satan, to pray continuously, to do penance, and to go to Church. By following all her request, she promised to intercede before her beloved Son Jesus  for the grace of God to shine upon the world. 

"My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God."

~ Our Lady's promised to Lucia during her second apparition at Fatima, 13 June, 1917 ~

On this day Our Lady, holding Her Immaculate Heart in Her Hand, appeared to Lucia, and by Her side stood the Child Jesus on a luminous cloud. The Child Jesus said: "Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them."

Then the Blessed Virgin Mary said to Lucia: "Look, my daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me 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 the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Me."

On another occasion the Child Jesus reappeared to Lucia and asked that those who practice this devotion, receive Him in Holy Communion when in the state of grace.

~ Our Lady's apparation to Lucia on 10 December, 1925 ~

"Let us honor her for the purity of her body, the holiness of her life. Let us marvel at her fruitful virginity, and venerate her divine Son. Let us extol her freedom from concupiscence . . . Let us proclaim her to be reverenced by the Angels, desired by the nations, foretold by the patriarchs and prophets, chosen out of all and preferred before all"

~ St. Bernard ~

Let us be thankful to God for the priceless gift of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the world, to the Catholic Church and to each and everyone of us. To many, the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the only comfort in these needy days of the Church and in times of personal needs.

Indulgenced Aspirations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

"Blessed be the Holy and Immaculute Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary"

(300 days each time. )

" Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us "

(100 days each time.)

" Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, pray for us"

(100 days each time.)

"Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation"

(300 days each time, Plenary once a month.)

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

Saturday, 08 June, 2013
The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Memorial)

1st Reading

Tobit 12: 1, 5 - 15, 20
1	Tobit then called his son Tobias and said to him, "My son, see to the wages of the man who went with you; and he must also be given more."
5	So he called the angel and said to him, "Take half of all that you two have brought back."
6	Then the angel called the two of them privately and said to them: "Praise God and give thanks to him; exalt him and give thanks to him in the presence of all the living for what he has done for you. It is good to praise God and to exalt his name, worthily declaring the works of God. Do not be slow to give him thanks.
7	It is good to guard the secret of a king, but gloriously to reveal the works of God. Do good, and evil will not overtake you.
8	Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold.
9	For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who perform deeds of charity and of righteousness will have fulness of life;
10	but those who commit sin are the enemies of their own lives.
11	"I will not conceal anything from you. I have said, `It is good to guard the secret of a king, but gloriously to reveal the works of God.'
12	And so, when you and your daughter-in-law Sarah prayed, I brought a reminder of your prayer before the Holy One; and when you buried the dead, I was likewise present with you.
13	When you did not hesitate to rise and leave your dinner in order to go and lay out the dead, your good deed was not hidden from me, but I was with you.
14	So now God sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah.
15	I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One."
20	And now give thanks to God, for I am ascending to him who sent me. Write in a book everything that has happened."

Psalm

Tobit 13: 2, 6 - 8
2	For he afflicts, and he shows mercy; he leads down to Hades, and brings up again, and there is no one who can escape his hand.
6	If you turn to him with all your heart and with all your soul, to do what is true before him, then he will turn to you and will not hide his face from you. But see what he will do with you; give thanks to him with your full voice. Praise the Lord of righteousness, and exalt the King of the ages. I give him thanks in the land of my captivity, and I show his power and majesty to a nation of sinners. Turn back, you sinners, and do right before him; who knows if he will accept you and have mercy on you?
7	I exalt my God; my soul exalts the King of heaven, and will rejoice in his majesty.
8	Let all men speak, and give him thanks in Jerusalem.

Gospel

Luke 2: 41 - 51
41	Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.
42	And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom;
43	and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it,
44	but supposing him to be in the company they went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances;
45	and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him.
46	After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions;
47	and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
48	And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously."
49	And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
50	And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them.
51	And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

The Blessed Virgin Mary revealed to three shepherd children,Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia to whom she appeared at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, requesting that the devotion on the first Saturday in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which is intended for the reparation of the sins of mankind.

Our Lady repeated this in the July 13th apparition when, after the vision of Hell that was granted to the three children, she said: "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." Our Lady asks for reparation. "There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation;" reparation to this Heart for the sins of mankind, in particular the five kinds of offenses and blasephemies against theImmaculate Heart of Mary:

1. Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception

2. Blasphemies against her perpetual virginity

3. Blasphemeies against the divine and spiritual maternity of Mary

4. Blasphemies involving the rejection and dishonoring of her images

5. The neglect of implanting in the hearts of children a knowledge and love of this Immaculate Mother

Sacrifice Prayer

O my Jesus, 

I offer this for love of Thee, 

for the conversion of sinners, 

and in reparation for the sins committed 

against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Prayer of Reparation 

O Most Holy Trinity, 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 

I adore thee profoundly. 

I offer thee the most precious 

Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, 

present in all the tabernacles of the world, 

in reparation for the outrages, 

sacrileges and indifferences 

by which He is offended. 

By the infinite merits of the 

Sacred Heart of Jesus, 

and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 

I beg of thee the conversion of poor sinners.

Amen.

The following first Saturday devotions are efficacious in honouring the Immaculate Heart of Mary: 

1. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

2. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. 

3. Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 

4. Act of Reparation. 

5. The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

6. The Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, 

and tender Mother of all people,

I consecrate myself to you 

and to your Immaculate Heart, 

and recommend to you my family, 

my country, and the whole human race. 

Please accept my consecration, 

dearest Mother, 

and use me as you wish, 

to accomplish your designs 

upon the world. 

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, 

Queen of Heaven and Earth, 

rule over me, and teach me 

how to allow the Heart of Jesus to rule 

and triumph in me and around me, 

as it has ruled and triumphed in you. 

Amen.

Act of Reparation 

Most Holy Virgin 

and our beloved Mother, 

we listen with grief 

to the complaints 

of the Immaculate Heart, 

surrounded with the thorns 

which ungrateful men 

place therein at every moment 

by their blasphemies and ingratitude. 

Moved by the ardent desire 

of loving thee as our Mother 

and of promoting a true devotion 

to thy Immaculate Heart, 

we prostrate ourselves at thy feet 

to prove the sorrow we feel 

for the grief that men cause thee 

and to atone by means 

of our prayers and sacrifices 

for the offenses 

with which men return 

thy tender love.

Obtain for them 

and for us the pardon 

of so many sins. 

A word from thee 

will obtain grace 

and forgiveness for all.

Hasten, O Lady, 

the conversion of sinners 

that they may love Jesus 

and cease to offend God, 

already so much offended, 

and thus avoid eternal punishment. 

Turn thine eyes of mercy 

towards us so that henceforth 

we may love God 

with all our heart 

while on earth 

and enjoy Him 

forever in Heaven. 

Amen.

I promise to help at the hour of death, with the graces needed for salvation, whoever on the First Saturday of five consecutive months shall:

1. Confess and Receive Holy Communion.

2. Recite five decades of the Holy Rosary.

3. Keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.