Tag: immaculate heart

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 26 August – Strength and Power of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Strength and Power of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary

The principal and most common appellations given to God in Sacred Scripture are the words strong and mighty. He says of Himself: “I am the most mighty God? and “I am God Almighty.” If you should ask how these two attributes differ from each other, I would answer that in God power and strength are one and the same perfection; yet there is some difference between their effects. It belongs to all-powerfulness to work great and admirable wonders and the characteristic of strength is to accomplish all things easily, without pain or fatigue.

Let us now see the strength and power operate in the Heart of our august Queen. I visualize their image engraved on her pure Heart most perfectly. Consider the power which the Heart of the Mother of the Almighty exerts over Him Who has chosen to obey her as His Mother: “And he was subject to them.” The maternal authority and power God has given Mary over Himself will never be separated from her divine maternity, for the Son of Mary will never relinquish the nature He assumed in His Beloved Mother’s womb and never will He withdraw the privileges He once conferred upon her.

If the heart of the faithful Christian, who believes in Jesus Christ, finds everything possible according to His holy word: “All things are possible to him that believeth,” what can be impossible for the maternal Heart of Mary who conceived the Son of God in her sacred womb, gave Him birth, nourished Him, took care of Him in childhood, accompanied Him in all labors and sufferings, and loved Him more than all the hearts of Heaven and earth put together?

“If all things are possible to him who believes, how much more must this be true of her who loves Him?” says Gerson. “And of her who bore Him,” adds St. Bernardine of Siena.

Hers is the Heart of the valiant woman spoken of by Solomon, always inspired with vigorous and manly virtue, through which she accomplished all things with sovereign perfection and without the least defect. This valiant woman’s Heart bore the sharpest pain and the most violent anguish with marvellous constancy and unshakeable fortitude. Her intrepid Heart crushed the infernal dragon’s head, that is, sin, prefigured by Holofernes, and the powers of hell fear the Immaculate Heart even as an army in battle array’ because Our Lady fought courageously against all God’s enemies and obtained a glorious Victory.

But what is more, she vanquished, so to speak, the Almighty Himself, for I hear an angel saying to Jacob: “Thou shalt no longer be called Jacob, but thy name shall be Israel,” which means according to St. Jerome and the Septuagint “strong against God.” This interpretation agrees with the Angel’s own explanation, for after having said: “Thy name shall be Israel,” he adds; “for if thou hast been strong against God, how much more shalt thou prevail against men?” Jacob had overcome only an angel, but that angel represented God; hence he was told he had overcome God Himself,

Jacob’s holy daughter, the worthy Mother of Christ, has, in a way really overcome God Himself. How often has she not, through the efficacy of her prayers and merits, and by the power of her love, disarmed the anger of God and arrested the torrent of His indignation, which would otherwise have flooded and destroyed the world because of its innumerable crimes? How many times has Our Lady besought divine vengeance to lay aside the thunderbolts ready to be hurled against criminal mankind? How often has her Heart’s incomparable charity clasped the hands of God’s terrible justice and stopped Him from punishing men as they deserve? “How powerful is her love,” says Richard of St. Victor, “since it overcomes the Almighty.” Yes, the love and charity of Mary’s Heart are powerful, and have as it were vanquished God Himself!

History is filled with instances where Our Lady has shown her incomparable power on behalf of those who invoke her protection, manifesting publicly to armies and nations the strength that she also extends to each Christian in his own inner struggle against sin. But her strength is for those who invoke, love, honor and venerate her heart. O Glorious Queen of the World, make us sharers in the divine power which fills thy holy Heart and give us strength against the enemies of thy Divine Son, who is all and does all in thee!

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Quote/s of the Day – 19 August – St John Eudes

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – 19 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – and the Memorial of St John Eudes (1601-1680) Confessor, “The Apostle of Two Hearts”

“The crosses with which our path
through life is strewn,
associate us with Jesus
in the Mystery of His Crucifixion.”

“No-one who shall invoke
this Mother of Grace,
with devotion and perseverance,
can possibly perish forever.”

“Let infidels and heretics,
let the relatives and the friends
of bad Catholics,
weep without consolation
and weep unceasingly,
for the death of their departed ones!”

Thy royal heart is our pure light, our refuge safe. Why should I fear? Her goodness is firm support of our lives, Nothing can trouble our hearts.

Consider how strange it is! The world offers nothing but crumbs and dregs of feasting, empty fame, wealth and fleeting pleasure, but it sells you these stale crumbs and dregs at the costly price of worry, pain, bitterness, restlessness, anguish, often even at the price of your very life. On the other hand, the Divine Son of God and of Mary offers you the refreshment and rapture of the fountain of the fulness of the House of God, of which you are free to drink forever. O what blind, blind folly it is to choose the goblet of sin instead of the chalice of Our Saviour!

Blessed indeed are the hearts of the true children of Mary, who strive to live in conformity with the most holy Heart of their Mother most admirable!

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 19 August – Mary’s Heart, the Temple of Jerusalem

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, the Temple of Jerusalem Part Two

St. Epiphanius and St. John Damascene, together with several other Doctors, tell us that the golden candlestick is a figure of the Holy Mother of God. Next to Jesus, her beloved Son, Mary is the most luminous torch and the brightest light of the House of God. “O virginal candlestick,” says St. Epiphanius,” which enlightened those who sat in the shadow of death! O virginal torch, which dissipated the gloom of hell, and caused the brilliance of heaven to shine in our souls! O radiant lamp, ever filled with the oil of grace and light, with the fire of divine love, lighting our minds and inflaming our hearts! This virginal light has spread its splendour throughout the world!”

The remarkable table in Solomon’s temple, described in the twenty fifth chapter of Exodus, was made by divine command from the wood of Setim, not a common variety of cedar, but according to the Septuagint, a most rare and altogether incorruptible wood. The table was completely covered with gold-plate and edged with a gold-plated cornice or border surrounding it like a crown while two additional golden crowns embellished it. It was designed to hold the loaves of proposition that were offered to God daily by the priests, and were thus named because they lay in the temple as a perpetual sacrifice proposed or exposed to the Divine Majesty. Afterwards they were consumed by the priests.

The Fathers of the Church all agree that the loaves of proposition were a figure of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the royal bread that came down from Heaven. Christ is the bread of the angels, the bread of God, the bread of the children of God, a bread which is the nourishment and life of the Christian soul, and all Christians are called priests in Sacred Scripture: Fecisti nos Deo nostro sacerdotes. Some are priests by office and bear the special character of consecrated priesthood; others share it by participation. What is the table bearing this divine bread, prefigured by the table carrying the loaves of proposition? St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, answers that it was the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Epiphanius confirms his words.

Is not the table designed to receive the bread and food laid on it? Is it not true that the Heart of the Mother of God was the first to receive Our Lord as He came forth from the bosom of the Eternal Father? Did she not receive Him in order to give Him to us? Is it not true that the Eternal Father carries His Beloved Son in His all-glorious Heart from all eternity and that the Blessed Virgin will carry her Son in her Heart for all eternity? Hence we hear the words which the Holy Ghost puts on Mary’s lips: “I was with him,” that is, with the Eternal Father, “forming all things.” In the Hebrew version this passage reads: “I was with Him and near Him as a nurse,” which reveals Mary’s role as the Mother who gives nourishment to mankind.

Several learned interpreters of Sacred Scripture teach us that the altar of perfumes of the Mosaic temple represents the hearts of the faithful, which are symbolized as altars on which each one should offer a perpetual sacrifice of prayer and praise to God. Now if the hearts of the children of God were figured by this altar, how much more truly does it symbolize the Heart of the Mother of God, which is after the Heart of Jesus, the first and holiest of all altars? It is “the golden altar, which is before the throne of God,” mentioned in the eighth chapter of the Apocalypse. On this altar the Mother of the Saviour offered to God a sacrifice of love, adoration, praise, thanksgiving and prayer far more to His Divine Majesty than all the sacrifices that ever were or ever shall be offered on all other altars.

If we consult the Fathers of the Church we learn particularly from St. Ambrose that the Ark of the Covenant was a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and therefore of her most holy Heart, the holy Heart, the first and noblest part of her person. “Yes,” exclaims the seraphic St. Bonaventure “the Ark of Moses was merely a reflection of the Virgin’s Heart. Her Heart is the true ark containing within itself the secrets of the divine Word and the treasure of the law of God.” A holy Abbot of the Cistercian Order calls Mary the Ark of Sanctification, containing revelations written by the hand of God. She is the holy Ark of the Covenant, the Covenant by which God reconciled us with Himself and pledged His alliance with us forever. Next to God, Mary’s Heart should be the first object to which we look up when we pray.


But let us remember that the Heart of Mary is a tower of ivory, zurris eburnea, which does not suffer within its precincts anything defiled and unclean. It is the tower of David, open only to those who follow the meekness of Jesus Christ, the true David.

St. Gregory of Nyssa states that the Tables of the Mosaic Law kept in the temple of Solomon were a figure symbolic of the hearts of the Saints. Now, if the hearts of the Saints are real tables of the evangelical law, what shall we say of the holy Heart of the Queen of Saints, who is the Mother of the Saint of saints? Her glorious Heart is the first and holiest table of the Christian law. It is not made of stone, but of gold, or better still, of diamond; it is not dead but living; not breakable like the tables of Moses but indestructible. On it the Holy Ghost, the finger of God, has written and engraved in golden letters, not merely the will of God and His laws, but all the counsels, maxims and-truths of the gospel as well. They are so deeply engraved that the united forces of hell and of earth could more easily snatch the sun from the sky and-destroy the world than remove a single iota or tarnish a single letter of this sacred writing.

The Propitiatory is regarded as another figure symbolic of the glorious Virgin because by her intercession the flame of God’s wrath was extinguished, His Divine Majesty was turned to look upon mankind with favor and His infinite mercy moved Him to compassion for our infirmities. For this reason St. Ildephonsus calls the Mother of Grace; Propitiatio humanae salutis. “The propitiation of man’s salvation.” St. Andrew of Crete styles Mary: Universi mundi commune propitiatorium. “The universal propitiatory of the entire world.”

St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, and several other Fathers say that the Altar of Holocausts also symbolized the hearts of all the Saints, who are the real altars on which God is honored by the spiritual sacrifices offered day and night to His Divine Majesty. Yet much more truly can this be said of the Holy Heart of Mary. “Her Heart is the true altar of holocaust,” says the illustrious John Gerson, “and on it the sacred fire of divine love blazed day and night.” The Mother of the Sovereign Priest constantly offered to God sacrifices of love, praise, thanksgiving, expiation for the sins of the world and every possible sacrifice. On the altar of her Heart Mary sacrificed to God all the things of the world and every creature of the universe as so many different victims. She sacrificed her being, life, body, soul, all her thoughts, words and actions, the employment of her senses and faculties, and in general, all that she was, all that she possessed and every power of her soul. She offered to the Divine Majesty the very sacrifice that her Son Jesus Christ offered on Calvary. Our adorable Saviour offered Himself to the Eternal Father only once on the altar of the Cross, but His holy Mother immolated Him ten thousand times on the altar of her pure Heart.

What veneration is then due to this sacred altar! Be thou blessed, O God of my heart, for having consecrated this most worthy altar to the glory of thy most adorable majesty. Deign to transform our cold hearts into glowing altars on which we may offer Thee an unremitting sacrifice of praise and love.

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 16 August – Mary’s Heart, the Harp of King David

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, the Harp of King David

The mysterious harp of King David, mentioned in several passages of Sacred Scripture, is another symbolic picture of the Holy Heart of Mary. It is an excellent representation because her pure Heart was indeed the harp of the true David, namely Our Lord Jesus Christ. He fashioned it with His own hands; He alone always possessed it. No other fingers but His ever evoked its melodies, because her virginal Heart never vibrated with sentiments, affections or impulses other than those inspired by the Holy Ghost.

The strings of this royal harp are the virtues of Mary’s Heart, especially her faith, hope, love of God, charity towards her neighbor, religion, humility, purity, obedience, patience, mercy, hatred of sin, love of the cross. On these twelve strings the Divine Spirit played with wondrous harmony melodious canticles of love which so greatly charmed the ears of the Eternal Father that He forgot His anger against sinners, He laid aside the thunderbolts wherewith He vowed to destroy mankind and gave His own Son to be the Saviour of humanity.

Sacred Scripture tells us that King David employed his harp specially on four great occasions and we see Jesus, the Son of David, using His mystical harp to accomplish four infinitely greater achievements. In the first instance, David, the man of God, by the mere sound of his harp, put to flight the evil spirit which possessed Saul. Similarly, the new David used the Heart of His loving Mother as a sublime harp and consequently freed by its divine music the human race that grovelled under the evil dominion of Satan.

The prophet David also employed His harp to sing many psalms and canticles to the honor and glory of God. Our true David, likewise, sang with His instrument five types of canticles in praise of the Most Blessed Trinity. The first were canticles of love, the strongest, purest, most perfect love that ever was or shall be. The second were canticles of praise and thanksgiving for the benefits of divine goodness on behalf of all creatures, for the Blessed Virgin Mary did not limit herself to thanking God for the infinite favors she received from His hand, but she praised Him unceasingly for the graces He pours on all created beings. The third were canticles of sorrow, of anguish and bereavement at the time of the sufferings and death of her beloved Son. The fourth were canticles of triumph for all the victories won by herself as general of the great King’s armies over His enemies and, we may truly say, over Himself, having so often disarmed divine vengeance when it stood ready to destroy the world and punish its innumerable crimes. The fifth were canticles of prophecy to announce the great designs of God for the future, many of which were foretold by the Queen of Prophets in the wonderful canticle she composed when greeting her cousin St. Elizabeth.

The third purpose for which King David used his harp was to praise God and especially to praise Him with joy. In like manner, Christ the second David, not only attuned His holy Mother’s Heart to praise and bless His divine Majesty in every way, but He also induced Mary to seek her joy and bliss exclusively in His praises, and in all the acts she performed for His glory and in His service.

King David chose as the fourth function of his harp to excite and attract other men to the praise of God, with hearts full of joy and gladness like his own. So too Christ the King attracts innumerable souls to the love and praise of His heavenly Father by the sweet sound of His precious harp, that is, by means of the blessed Heart of His glorious Mother. The extraordinary virtues of her vibrant Heart resound so loudly and harmoniously throughout the entire Christian Church that numberless persons of all ranks and conditions find themselves urged to imitate the perfections which adorn it, thus beginning to carry out on earth what the angels and saints achieve in Heaven. In other words, they place their entire contentment and felicity in all that concerns the sovereign Monarch in Heaven and earth.

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 10 August – Mary’s Heart, The Inexhaustible Fountain

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, The Inexhaustible Fountain Part 1

The fourth symbolic picture of Our Lady’s most blessed Heart is the wonderful fountain that God caused to spring from the ground at the beginning of the world, as described in the second chapter of Genesis. “A spring rose out of the earth, watering all the surface of the earth.” St. Bonaventure tells us that this fountain was a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “She was prefigured in the fountain that sprang from the earth.” But we have equal reason to say that this represented her Heart, which is truly a living fountain whose heavenly waters irrigate not only the whole earth, but every created thing in Heaven as well as on earth. Mary is the sealed fountain of the holy Spouse, which her divine Bridegroom calls “a fountain sealed up,” for it remained sealed not only against the world, the devil and every kind of sin, but it was closed even to the Cherubim and Seraphim, who could not penetrate the marvellous secrets or comprehend the inestimable treasures hidden by God in Our Lady’s pure Heart.

All we can say is that Mary’s immaculate Heart is a fountain of light, a fountain of holy and blessed water, a fountain of living and life-giving water, a fountain of milk and honey and a fountain of wine. It is the source of a great river, nay, of four miraculous streams, and finally, it is the source of an infinity of blessings and goodness.

The Heart of Mary, as well as her name, which means “enlightened” or “the one who enlightens,” and also “star of the sea,” is indeed a true fountain of light. Holy Church considers and honors her as the resplendent door of pure light; Tu porta lucis fulgida, and salutes her as the portal through which divine Light entered the world: Salve porta, ex qua mundo lux est orta. Truly the Heart of Mary is the fountain of the sun, because Mary is the Mother of the Sun of Justice, and this divine Sun is the fruit of Mary’s Heart.

Mary’s Heart is a fountain of water, but one of blessed, holy and precious water. I here speak of the innumerable tears that poured from this sacred fountain and, united with those of the Redeemer Himself, cooperated in our redemption. O Mary, how many streams of tears have flowed from thine eyes, with their source in thy loving, charitable, devoted and merciful Heart! Tears of love, tears of charity, tears of joy, of sorrow and of compassion! How often did not the ardent love of the maternal Heart for thy infinitely lovable Son cause thee to shed bitter tears, beholding Him so little loved, so much hated, offended and dishonored by the majority of men, although it was the duty of man to serve Him? How often thy burning charity for souls caused thee to weep because through their own malice, millions of precious souls would be lost, notwithstanding all that He did and suffered in order to save them? How many times have the holy angels witnessed tears of sublime devotion coursing down thy beautiful face, as thou wast absorbed in holy communion with the Divine Majesty? All the saints were granted the gift of tears, which could not possibly have been wanting in the Mother of Sorrows who has assured us that she possesses the fulness of gifts bestowed on all the saints.

The most pure Heart of Mary is also a fountain of living water, which means a fountain of grace. This ought not to astonish us, for the Archangel Gabriel declared long ago that the Mother of the Saviour was full of grace, gratia plena, and the Church calls her Mater gratiae, Mother of Grace, and Mater divinae gratiae, Mother of Divine Grace. The Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, affirms that Our Lady is so full of grace that out of her abundance she can dispense graces to all men.

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 8 August – Mary’s Heart, The Sun

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, The Sun

The sun is the second symbolic picture which God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has deigned to give us of the Immaculate Heart of the Queen ~ of heaven and earth. God did not create the natural sun, our wonderful luminary, merely to enlighten our material world; He made it also to be a representation of the excellent perfections which shine in the luminous Heart of the world’s Sovereign Lady.

We should remember that the infinite power of God has divided this great universe into three different states or orders, namely the state of nature, the state of grace and the state of glory. His divine wisdom has nevertheless established such a perfect bond, relationship and resemblance among these three states and among the beings existing in these orders that whatever is in the order of nature is an image-of the things belonging to the order of grace, and whatever belongs to the order of nature and grace is a figure of what is to be seen in the state of glory.

Hence, the sun, which is truly the heart of the visible world, and the most beautiful and glowing gem of nature, gives us, in spite of its dazzling light, only a very faint shadow of our heavenly Sun, the Heart of the Mother of God.

Sacred Scripture calls the sun an admirable vessel, the work of the Sovereign Lord. “An admirable instrument, the work of the Most High. Great is the Lord that made him,” But we can say of the most excellent Heart of the Mother of God that it is an incomparable masterpiece of God’s almighty hand. It is a compendium of all the marvels He has worked in pure creatures, and will be the eternal object of the admiration and delight of angels and men. Great indeed is He who made it, because His divine magnificence appears in her admirable Heart more clearly than in all the other wonderful things of nature, grace and glory.

Mary’s Heart is surrounded, filled, penetrated by light, and her light is incomparably more brilliant and radiant than all the lights of the celestial spaces. It is all light, and after God, it is the first source of the lights which shine in the firmament of the Church. “I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth.”

Yes, hers is indeed the heart of the entire world, the heart of Heaven and earth, the heart of the Church Militant, Suffering and Triumphant, since the Holy Spirit bids us sing: Vitam datam per Virginem, gentes redemptae plaudite. “All ye nations, redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, rejoice, sing the praises of your Redeemer and His glorious Mother! You were condemned to eternal death, and the Son of Mary has made you free; the Mother of Jesus has restored life to you, even eternal life, by giving you her Son, who is Life essential and the source of all life.”

The solar sun has been in perpetual motion since its creation in space, and it travels so rapidly that mathematicians calculate its speed to be over one million leagues an hour. Similarly, the holy Heart of Mary, from the moment of her Immaculate Conception, has been completely kept in motion by love for God and charity towards mankind. As long as Mary, the admirable Sun of Light and Purity, was on earth, she sped or rather flew with such celerity on the path of sanctity that the speed of our material sun is simply a shadow and a figure by comparison. For this holy Sun, Mary’s immaculate Heart, progressed incomparably farther in the mystical and supernatural way of the world of grace than the material sun which revolves around our visible world.

St. Germanus of Constantinople calls the Heart of Mary the happiness of the entire world. Commune mundi gaudium. And St. John Damascene says that it is an ocean of inexhaustible delight: Gaudii pelagus inexhaustum.

“Take away the sun that enlightens our material world,” says St. Bernard, “what will become of day or light? Take away Mary, the Star of the Sea, or take away the Heart of Mary, the true Sun of the Christian World, and what would be left? Without Mary’s radiance, nothing is left but enveloping darkness, the shadow of death and the frightful night of the grave.”

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 7 August – Mary’s Heart, the Heavens

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, the Heavens

The first symbolic picture of the Admirable Heart of Mary which the Eternal Father has given to us is the heavens. Mary’s pure Heart is truly a heaven of which the sky over our heads is a mere shadow and image. It is a heaven exalted above all others, of which the Holy Ghost speaks when He says that the Saviour of the World went out from a heaven surpassing all others in excellence, when He came on earth to redeem mankind.

The heavens are called the special work of God’s hands: “The heavens are the works of thy hands,” but the Heart of the Mother of God is the unequalled masterpiece of His omnipotence, His unfathomable wisdom and His infinite goodness. The Admirable Heart of Mary is an empyrean heaven, that is, a Heaven all fire and flames, ever burning with the fire and flames of celestial love, holier and more ardent than the love of the Seraphim and of the greatest Saints who dwell in the empyrean heaven.

Yes, the most holy Heart of the Queen of Angels is the Heaven of Heavens for three significant reasons.

First of all, Jesus Christ is truly the Heaven of the Blessed Trinity. The Holy Ghost assures us that the fulness of the Divinity abides in Him: “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead,” and this same Jesus has forever fixed His dwelling in the Blessed Heart of His most worthy Mother. This must not surprise us, for Sacred Scripture reveals that even in this present life, He maintains His dwelling in the hearts of all who believe in Him with a firm and perfect faith. We can therefore conclude that, as our most lovable Saviour is Himself a Heaven, possessing no abode more glorious and delightful, next to the adorable bosom of His Eternal Father, than the Heart of His holy Mother, which is itself a Heaven, He is truly Heaven dwelling within a heaven. In this way, the Heart of the Mother of Jesus can be said to be the Heaven of Heaven.

Secondly, Mary’s Immaculate Heart is the Heaven of Heaven because the spotless Virgin is really a heaven considered in her own person. This is the quality ascribed to her by the Holy Ghost, according to a learned and holy writer: “From heaven the Lord hath looked upon the earth.” As this commentator explains it, “the Lord, dwelling in the Blessed Virgin Mary, as in a heaven, has turned the eyes of His mercy towards the earth, that is, towards sinners.” Then the same author goes on to say that this marvellous Virgin is a heaven because, as all living things in the order of nature receive their life from the influence of heaven, so does Holy Church teach us that the life of grace is given to us through the Blessed Virgin Mary: Vitam datam per Virginem.”

Thirdly, the Admirable Heart of Mary is the Heaven of Heaven, because, as St. Bernard says, it contains the entire Church, which is called in Sacred Scripture the Kingdom of Heaven, and because all the children of the Church receive through Mary the life of grace. Who will contradict me if I add that Our Lady will forever carry all the inhabitants of heaven in her inmost Heart, which becomes the Heaven of Heaven, and a true Paradise of the Elect, in which they find the fullness of delight and joy, due to the inconceivable love for each soul which consumes her maternal Heart? Thus the blessed will forever sing: Sicut laetantium omnium nostrum habitatio est in corde tuo, sancta Dei Genetrix. O holy Mother of God, thy boundless charity has so vastly extended thy maternal Heart that it has become like a great city, or rather an immense heaven, full of ineffable consolations and unspeakable joys for thy beloved children, whose happy dwelling it shall be for all eternity.

Present our requests to the Mother of grace and mercy. Through the intercession of her Heart, most exalted, yet most tender, we shall obtain the graces that we need to become pleasing in the sight of the celestial majesty of God,

Rejoice, O readers, rejoice, you whose great happiness it is to be numbered among the true children of the Mother of pure love, for your names are written in her maternal Heart! Lift up your eyes and your hearts to that beautiful heaven! It is there that your hearts will find light, strength, powerful aid in the battle of life, guidance and succor, and above all inspiration to love your Creator and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven, strongly, purely and above all things.

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 6 August – God the Father, Delineator of the Admirable Heart of Mary

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

God the Father, Delineator of the Admirable Heart of Mary

The first foundation and the primary source of the devotion to the most holy Heart of Mary is the adorable Heart of the Eternal Father and His unfathomable love for the Blessed Mother of His Only-begotten Son. This infinite love induced our Heavenly Father to give us many beautiful images and figures of the most worthy Heart of His holy Mother.

The Eternal Father lovingly prefigured, both in the visible world and in the rites of the Mosaic Law, Mary, the woman chosen from all eternity to be the Mother of the adorable Redeemer. “It was she whom the Prophets foretold long before her birth,” says St. Jerome. “It was she whom the Patriarchs described in many figures; it was she who was announced by the Evangelists.”

St. John Damascene says that the earthly paradise, Noe’s ark, the burning bush, the Tables of the Law, the Ark of the Covenant, the golden vessel containing the manna, the golden candlesticks in the Tabernacle, the table with the loaves of proposition, Aaron’s rod, the furnace of Babylon, were all figures of the incomparable Virgin Mary.

The Eternal Father did not content Himself with prefiguring the person of His Son Jesus in His prototypes, Abel, Noe, Melchisedech, Isaac Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Josue, Samson, Job, David and many other holy persons who lived under the Old Law, which preceded His Son’s appearance on earth. God also wished to give us several beautiful representations of His mysteries in detail, such as His divine espousal of human nature in the Incarnation, His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. In like manner, God the Father was not satisfied to foreshadow and represent the person of the Mother of His Beloved Son merely in the person of Mary, sister of Moses, in the Prophetess Debbora, wise Abigail, chaste and generous Judith, beautiful and compassionate Esther, and many other valiant women.

But above all else, Our Heavenly Father has willed to place before our eyes a wealth of beautiful figures and marvellous representations of Mary’s most holy Heart. He has done this to show us how much He values and cherishes this lovable Heart and because the rare and wondrous perfections that fill it are well-nigh innumerable and can be represented and described only through a great number of figures and symbolic pictures.

Among the many images and representations of the Admirable Heart of Mary I can distinguish twelve of surpassing beauty. Six of them are found in the principal divisions of the universe; namely, the heavens, the sun, the center of the earth, the inexhaustible fountain of Genesis, the sea and the Garden of Eden. The six others appear in six of the most important manifestations witnessed by the world from the time of Moses to the death of Our Lord. They are the burning bush of Mount Horeb, the mysterious harp of David, the magnificent throne of Solomon, the marvellous Temple of Jerusalem, the miraculous furnace of Babylon, and the Holy Mount of Calvary.

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary, franciscan OFM, MARIAN TITLES, SAINT of the DAY

The Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Octave Day of the Assumption) and Memorials of the Saints – 22 August

Posted on by AnaStpaul

The 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 1969, after Vatican II, the Feast was moved to the Saturday, immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.).
https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/24/the-feast-of-the-immaculate-heart-of-mary-24-june-2017-the-saturday-following-the-feast-of-the-sacred-heart/
AND:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/09/feast-of-the-immaculate-heart-of-mary-8-june/

St Timothy and Companions – they were + St Hippolytus of Porto and + St Symphorian of Autun. The three died at different times in different places – Martyrs:
Their Lives and Deaths:
https://anastpaul.com/2024/08/22/sain-s-of-the-day-22-august-st-timothy-and-companions-st-hippolytus-and-symphorian/

The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ing

St Andrew of Fiesole (Died c880) Archdeacon, Monk, Missionary, Miracle-worker. Andrew was the Irish-born disciple and assistant of St Donatus (Died c874). He served as Archdeacon of Fiesole, Italy under Bishop Donatus – about St Donatus here: https://anastpaul.com/2020/10/22/saint-of-the-day-22-october-st-donatus-of-fiesole-died-874/:
His body is incorrupt.
A life of Boundless Charity:
https://anastpaul.com/2023/08/22/saint-of-the-day-22-august-st-andrew-of-fiesole-died-c880-archdeacon/

St Anthusa of Seleucia
St Antoninus of Rome
St Arnulf (9th Century) Hermit of Eynesbury Information regarding this Saint have been lost but he has long been venerated in Arnulphsbury, Cambridgeshire, England.
St Athanasius of Tarsus

Blessed Bernard Perani OFM. Cap (1604-1694) Lay Brother

St Dalmau Llebaría Torné
St Epictetus of Ostia
St Ethelgitha of Northumbria
St Fabrician of Toledo
St Felix of Ostia

+ St Hippolytus of Porto

Blessed Giacomo/James Bianconi OP (1220–1301) Confessor, Priest and Friar of the Order of Preachers, Spiritual Advisor, founder and restorer of Convents and Churches. Pope Urban VIII Beatified the Blessed Giacomo in 1641.
Holy Giacomo:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/08/22/saint-of-the-day-22-august-blessed-giacomo-bianconi-op-1220-1301/

St Gunifort
St Joan Farriol Sabaté

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. The hanging was horribly botched, so that Kemble took half an hour to die.  Subsequently he was beheaded and his left hand cut off, this may still be seen at the church of St Francis Xavier in Hereford.
Life and Death:
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 Philibert of Toledo
Bl Richard Kirkman
St Saturninus of Ostia
Bl Simeon Lukach
St Sigfrid of Wearmouth
+ St Symphorian of Autun

Blessed Timoteo da Monticchio OFM (1444-1503) Priest of the Order of the Friars Minor, he ws endowed with mystical gifts, especially of the Blessed Virgin and of St Francis of Assisi. On 10 March 1870, his Beatification was confirmed by Pope Pius IX. His body is incorrupt.
His Holy Life of Miracles:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/08/22/saint-of-the-day-22-august-blessed-timoteo-da-monticchio-ofm-1444-1503/

St Thomas Percy
Bl William Lacey

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary, DECEMBER - The DIVINE INFANCY and The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, HYMNS, IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Prayers and Novena, IMMACULATE HEART PRAYERS, MARIAN DEVOTIONS, MARIAN POETRY, MARIAN PRAYERS, The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Our Morning Offering – 1 August – INVIOLATA!

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 1 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”

INVIOLATA!
INVIOLATE!
Unknown Author
(11th Century)

Thou art inviolate, undefiled and chaste, O Mary.
Thou has been made the resplendent Gate of Heaven,

O loving and dearest Mother of Christ,
Accept our devout acclamations in praise of thee.

That our minds and bodies may be pure,
Devoted hearts and lips now implore thee.

Through thy sweet sounding prayers,
Gain us pardon forever.
O kind one, who alone didst remain inviolate.

The Hymn Inviolata has been claimed by the Carmelite Order, as a Traditional Hymn originating within their ranks. The Hymn is also used by Dominican Friars in the chanting of Compline. Its origins trace to the 11th century. It appears in Hymnals from 1860 to 1920.

Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria,
quae es effecta fulgida caeli porta.

O Mater alma Christi carissima,
suscipe pia laudum praeconia.

Te nunc flagitant devota corda et ora,
nostra ut pura pectora sint et corpora.

Tua per precata dulcisona,
nobis concedas veniam per saecula.

O benigna! O Regina! O Maria,
quae sola inviolata permansisti.

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary, IMMACULATE HEART PRAYERS, IMMACULATE HEART PRAYERS, JUNE-THE SACRED HEART, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES on THANKSGIVING, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS, SACRED HEART PRAYERS

Our Morning Offering – 30 June – A Magnificat By St John Eudes

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 30 June – “The Last Day of the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” – Pentecost VI

A Magnificat
By St John Eudes (1601-1680)
A Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and to the Holy Heart of Mary

My soul doth magnify the admirable
Heart of Jesus and Mary
And my spirit rejoices in Thou great Heart.
Jesus and Mary have given me their Heart,
This immense Heart,
in order that all in me
May be performed in its love.

Infinite praise to them, for their ineffable gift.
This Heart infinitely merciful,
has done great things for me.
It has possessed me from the womb of my mother.
Infinite thanksgiving for Thou ineffable gifts.

The abyss of my misery has called
on the abyss of His Mercy.
Infinite thanksgiving for His ineffable gifts.
This Heart infinitely meek has presented me
With blessings of its sweetness.
Infinite thanksgiving for His ineffable gifts.
Amen