Feast Day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - 8 June
8th June 2024
“O Mary, may all nations glorify your Immaculate Heart! May the whole earth invoke and bless your Immaculate Heart!" - St John Vianney
Today we honour the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Rosary will be prayed at 8.30am, followed by Holy Mass at 9.00am. Please come and join us in observing this most holy and blessed feast day.
The feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary immediately follows the feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Not many know or understand the nuptial meaning of these two great feasts. The Catholic author Christopher West put it beautifully when he wrote:
"Certainly popular devotion recognises that the consummate moment of the love shared between these two hearts takes place at the Cross. It’s when Christ’s heart is pierced by the lance that Simeon’s prophecy – 'a sword shall pierce your heart also' – comes true. But few realise that when Christ says 'It is consummated' from the Cross, he is speaking of his marriage to the Church, symbolised by 'the woman' below him.
"Archbishop Fulton Sheen summarises the teaching of countless saints and mystics when he proclaimed:
'Now we’ve always thought, and rightly so, of Christ the Son on the cross and the mother beneath him. But that’s not the complete picture. That’s not the deep understanding. Who is our Lord on the cross? He’s the new Adam. Where’s the new Eve? At the foot of the cross. … If Eve became the mother of the living in the natural order, is not this woman at the foot of the cross to become another mother? And so the bridegroom looks down at the bride. He looks at his beloved. Christ looks at his Church. There is here the birth of the Church. As St. Augustine puts it, and here I am quoting him verbatim, ‘The heavenly bridegroom left the heavenly chambers, with the presage of the nuptials before him. He came to the marriage bed of the cross, a bed not of pleasure, but of pain, united himself with the woman, and consummated the union forever. As it were, the blood and water that came from the side of Christ was the spiritual seminal fluid.’ And so from these nuptials ‘Woman, there’s your son’ this is the beginning of the Church.'
"Christ gave himself up for her, the Church, his Bride, “that she might be immaculate” (see Eph 5:27). Mary’s Immaculate Heart is the certainty that what Christ did on the Cross had its effect. These two feasts, then, celebrate the fact that divine love has not only been perfectly poured out of a human heart, but also perfectly received by a human heart, and perfectly returned. The nuptial mystery is consummated! This is our hope! Let us enter these feasts celebrating this “great mystery” anew!"
Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
O Mary, full of goodness, under the protection of your Immaculate Heart, we seek refuge. Holy Mother of God, hear our prayers and deliver us from all dangers. Help us overcome our trials, and be faithful to your teachings, so that we can remain, Glorious and Blessed Virgin, true children of God. Amen. 🙏💖💐
Solemn Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Venerable Pope Pius XII
Most Holy Virgin Mary, tender Mother of men, to fulfill the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the request of the Vicar of Your Son on earth, we consecrate ourselves and our families to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and we recommend to You, all the people of our country and all the world.
Please accept our consecration, dearest Mother, and use us as You wish to accomplish Your designs in the world.
O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of the World, rule over us, together with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, Our King. Save us from the spreading flood of modern paganism; kindle in our hearts and homes the love of purity, the practice of a virtuous life, an ardent zeal for souls, and a desire to pray the Rosary more faithfully.
We come with confidence to You, O Throne of Grace and Mother of Fair Love. Inflame us with the same Divine Fire which has inflamed Your own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. Make our hearts and homes Your shrine, and through us, make the Heart of Jesus, together with your rule, triumph in every heart and home. Amen. 🙏💖💐