HENRITZE: The origin story of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

As a cradle Catholic, I never gave much thought to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From my early childhood, I remember seeing the images of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart side by side in my grandma’s house and in different meeting rooms around my parish.

In my mind, they were simply decorations. The images were never talked about, the symbolism was never explained, and as is often the case when things are left undiscussed, the power and purpose of images fade from memory.

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart is almost as old as the Church itself. It flows from the Gospel of Luke, where the author tells us first that “Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Later in the Gospel, Simeon tells her that her Child “is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:34-35). The heart of Mary is the source of her. In the 12th century, this devotion truly began to flourish due to the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Bernadine of Siena.

Understanding the history is good, but only if we also understand the purpose of the devotion. Mary’s heart is the place where her “yes” to God’s will originated. It is the place where her love for God finds its tangible source. It is the place where she holds and treasures each and every one of us, her children. It is from the heart of Mary that we can learn what it means to love to the full human capacity. The Immaculate Heart of Mary also teaches us how to be a vessel for the Holy Spirit, how to allow Him to move in us in untold ways.

The opening prayer for the Mass in honor of the Immaculate Heart helps us focus on the important message of this feast day. “God prepared the heart of Mary as a fitting home to the Holy Spirit. May we, His chosen people, become temples of His glory. We ask Mary to help us — her spiritual children so dear to her heart — to stay ever united in friendship with her Son and never separate ourselves by sin.”

An Act of Consecreation to the Immaculate Heart
O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy, Queen of Heaven and Refuge of sinners, we consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart.

We consecrate to you our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To you we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls; to thee we give our homes, our families, our country. We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to you, and may share in the benefits of your motherly benediction. And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting, we renew this day at your feet the promises of our Baptism and our first Holy Communion.

We pledge ourselves to profess courageously and at all times the truths of our holy Faith, and to live as befits Catholics who are duly submissive to all the directions of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him. We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church, in particular to keep holy the Lord’s Day. We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices of the Christian religion, and above all, Holy Communion, an integral part of our lives, in so far as we shall be able so to do.

Finally, we promise you, O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of all people, to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the service of thy blessed following, in order to hasten and assure, through the sovereignty of your Immaculate Heart, the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of your adorable Son, in our own hearts and in those of all people, in our country and in all the world, as in heaven, so on earth. Amen.

Brian Henritze is an associate director with the Office of Adolescent Catechesis and Evangelization.