Thought for the Day – 22 August – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Interior Life
“The daily struggle for existence, gradually wears down both the [physical and the intellectual life. The same can happen to the supernatural life. The long process of self-denial, acceptance of crosses and efforts to achieve perfection, can be very difficult and very tiring. Often, we feel weary and discouraged but, on these occasions, we must recall the words of Jesus, “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).”
Quote/s of the Day – 22 August – Month and Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Octave Day of the Assumption)
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
Our Lady of Fátima 1917
“Let us decide to become one, with all the faithful, in offering the prayers and actions and sufferings of each day to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of His Mother Mary. We shall certainly receive showers of graces, both for ourselves and for the salvation of the souls of our neighbours.”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
Prayer to the Two Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary
O Heart of Jesus pierced for our sins and giving us Your Mother on Calvary! O Heart of Mary pierced by sorrow and sharing in the sufferings of your divine Son for our redemption! O sacred union of these Two Hearts! Praised be the God of Love who united them together! May we unite our hearts and every heart so that all hearts may live in unity and in imitation of that sacred unity which exists in these Two Hearts. Triumph, O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Reign, O Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! – in our hearts, in our homes and families, in the hearts of those who as yet do not know You and in all nations of the world. Establish in the hearts of all mankind the sovereign triumph and reign of your Two Hearts so that the earth may resound from pole to pole with one cry: Blessed forever be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary! Obtain for me a greater purity of heart and a fervent love of the spiritual life. May all my actions be done for the greater glory of God in unions with the divine heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Hear and answer our prayers and intentions according to Your most merciful will. Amen
One Minute Reflection – 22 August – Month and Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Octave Day of the Assumption) – Ecclesiasticus 24:23-31, John 19:25-27
“Behold, thy mother” – John 19:27
REFLECTION – “Woman, this is your son. This is your mother.” By what right is the disciple whom Jesus loved, the son of the Lord’s mother? By what right is she his mother? By the fact that, without pain, she brought into the world the salvation of us all, when she gave birth in the flesh to the God-man. But now she is in labour with great pain as she stands at the foot of the Cross.
At the hour of His Passion, the Lord Himself rightly compared the Apostles to a woman in childbirth, when He said: “When a woman is in labour she is in anguish because a child is born into the world” (cf. Jn 16:21). How much more, then, might such a Son compare such a Mother, the Mother standing at the foot of His Cross, to a woman in labour? What am I saying? “Compare?” She is indeed truly a woman and truly a mother and, at this hour, she is truly experiencing the pains of childbirth. When her Son was born she did not experience the anguish of giving birth in pain as other women do; it is now that she is suffering, that she is crucified, that she experiences sorrow like a woman in labour because her hour has come ( Jn 16:21; cf.13:1; 17:1). …
When this hour has passed, when the sword of sorrow has completely pierced her soul in labour (Lk 2:35), then, no more shall she “remember the pain because a child has been born into the world” – the new Man who renews the entire human race and reigns forever over the whole world, truly born, beyond all suffering, immortal, the firstborn from the dead. If the Virgin has thus brought the salvation of us all into the world, in her Son’s Passion, then she is indeed the Mother of us all!” – Rupert of Deutz (c 1075-1130) Benedictine Monk, Theologian, Exegete and Writer – Commentary on Saint Johns Gospel, 13 ; PL 169, 789.
PRAYER – Almighty, everlasting God, Who in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, prepared a dwelling place worthy of the Holy Spirit, graciously grant, that we, who are devoutly keeping the Feast of her Immaculate Heart, may be able to live according to Thy Heart.Through esus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).
Our Morning Offering – 22 August – Month and Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Octave Day of the Assumption)
O Immaculate Heart of Mary By St Gertrude the Great (1256-1302)
O Immaculate Heart of Mary, I have nothing in myself to offer thee which is worthy of thee but what thankgiving I ought I to pay thee, for all the favours which thou hast obtained for me from the Heart of Jesus! What reparation ought I to make thee for all my tepidity, in thy service! I desire to return thee love for love, the only good which I possess, is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which thou, thyself hast given me. I offer thee this Treasure of Infinite Price, I cannot do more and thou dost not deserve less, at my hand but, receiving from me, this Gift most Precious in thy sight, be pleased, I beseech thee, to accept too, my poor heart, which I here offer to thee and I shall be forever blessed. Amen.
22 August – Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Octave Day of the Assumption).
Pope Pius XII instituted the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1944 to be celebrated on 22 August, coinciding with the traditional Octave Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.
In the midst of the second world war Pope Pius XII placed the whole world under the special protection of our Saviour’s Mother by Consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart and in 1944, he decreed that in the future, the whole Church should celebrate the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In the seventeenth century, St John Eudes, preached it together with that of the Sacred Heart. In the nineteenth century, Pope Pius VII and Pope Pius IX, allowed several Churches to celebrate a Feast of the Pure Heart of Mary. Pope Pius XII instituted today’s Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession, “peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue” (Decree of 4 May, 1944).
The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The Gospel itself invited this attention with exquisite discretion and delicacy. What was first excited was compassion for the Virgin Mother. It was, so to speak, at the foot of the Cross that the Christian heart first made the acquaintance of the Heart of Mary. Simeon’s prophecy paved the way and furnished the devotion with one of its favourite formulae and most popular representations – the heart pierced with a sword. But Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the Cross; “she co-operated, through charity.” as St. Augustine says, “in the work of our redemption“.
It is only in the twelfth, or towards the end of the eleventh century, that indications of a regular devotion are perceived in a sermon by St Bernard (De duodecim stellis).
Stronger evidences are discernible in the pious meditations on the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina and also in the large book De laudibus B Mariae Virginis (Douai, 1625) by Richard de Saint-Laurent.
In St Mechtilde (died 1298) and St Gertrude (d.ied1302) the devotion had two earnest adherents. A little earlier it had been included by St Thomas Becket in the devotion to the joys and sorrows of Mary, by Blessed Hermann (died 1245), in his other devotions to Mary and somewhat later it appeared in St Bridget’s Book of Revelations.
St Ambrose perceived in her the model of a virginal soul. St Bernardine of Siena (died1444) was more absorbed in the contemplation of the virginal heart and it is from him, that the Church has borrowed the lessons of the Second Nocturn for the Feast of the Heart of Mary. St Francis de Sales speaks of the perfections of this heart, the model of love for God and dedicated to it, his Theotimus.
In the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth, ascetic authors dwelt upon this devotion at greater length. It was, however, reserved to St John Eudes to propagate the devotion, to make it public and to have a feast celebrated in honour of the Heart of Mary, first at Autun in 1648 and afterwards, in a number of French Diocese.
In 1799 Pope Pius VI, then in captivity at Florence, granted the Bishop of Palermo the Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary for some of the Churches in his Diocese. In 1805 Pope Pius VII made a new concession, thanks to which the Feast was soon widely observed. Such was the existing condition when a twofold movement, started in Paris, gave fresh impetus to the devotion. The two factors of this movement were first of all the revelation of the “Miraculous Medal” in 1830 and all the prodigies that followed and then, the establishment at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, of the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of Sinners, which spread rapidly throughout the world and was the source of numberless graces. On 21 July 1855, the Congregation of Rites, finally approved the Office and Mass of the Most Pure Heart of Mary, without, however, imposing them upon the Universal Church.
O Heart most pure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, obtain for me from Jesus, a pure and humble heart.
(1943 Raccolta–Indulgence 300 days)
Hail Mary! Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary By St John Eudes (1601-1680) “The Apostle of Two Hearts”
Hail Mary! Mother of God the Son. Hail Mary! Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary! Temple of the Most Blessed Trinity. Hail Mary! Pure Lily of the Effulgent Trinity. Hail Mary! Celestial Rose of the Ineffable Love of God. Hail Mary! Virgin pure and humble, of whom the King of Heaven willed to be born and, with thy milk to be nourished. Hail Mary! Virgin of Virgins, Hail Mary! Queen of Martyrs, whose soul a sword transfixed. Hail Mary! Lady most blessed! unto whom all power in Heaven and earth is given. Hail Mary! My Queen and my Mother! my Life, my Sweetness and my Hope, Hail Mary! Mother Most Amiable, Hail Mary! Mother of Divine Love, Hail Mary! Immaculate! Conceived Without Sin! Hail Mary! Full of Grace! The Lord is with Thee! Blessed art thou among women! And blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus! Blessed be thy spouse, Saint Joseph, Blessed be thy father, Saint Joachim, Blessed be thy mother, Saint Anne, Blessed be thy guardian, Saint John, Blessed be thy holy Angel, Saint Gabriel, Glory be to God the Father, Who chose thee, Glory be to God the Son, Who loved thee, Glory be to God the Holy Spirit, Who espoused thee.
O Glorious Virgin Mary, may all people love and praise thee.
St Andrew of Fiesole St Anthusa of Seleucia St Antoninus of Rome St Arnulf of Eynesbury St Athanasius of Tarsus Bl Bernard Perani St Dalmau Llebaría Torné St Epictetus of Ostia St Ethelgitha of Northumbria St Fabrician of Toledo St Felix of Ostia
St John Kemble (1599 – 1679) Martyr, Priest. Ordained in 1625, he returned to Monmouthshire and served more than 50 years as an itinerant Priest, winning admirers even among Protestants. After being dragged on a hurdle to Widemarsh Common, Kemble declared on the scaffold that he died for the religion that had made this country Christian and that he forgave all his enemies. He was then obliged to encourage the executioner, who had no stomach for his task. Biography: https://anastpaul.com/2018/08/22/saint-of-the-day-22-august-st-john-kemble-1599-1679-martyr/
St John Wall St Josep Roselló Sans St Julio Melgar Salgado St Maprilis of Ostia St Martial of Ostia St Maurus of Rheims St Narciso de Esténaga y Echevarría St Philibert of Toledo Bl Richard Kirkman St Saturninus of Ostia Bl Simeon Lukach St Sigfrid of Wearmouth St Symphorian of Autun
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