The Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Immaculati Cordis Beatae Mariae Virginis
On this feast the Church honours the most pure Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that Heart wholly given to God and burning with love for him and for us, and the inward life of grace, charity, and sorrow which it signifies.
This feast lifts the eyes of the faithful to the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary — not the bodily organ alone, but, after the manner of Holy Scripture, the inmost soul of our Lady, the centre of her love, her thoughts, and her will. It is called her Immaculate Heart because, by the singular grace of her Immaculate Conception and her sinless life, that Heart was never touched by sin, but was from the first moment wholly pure, wholly given to God, and full of grace.
The Heart that pondered all these things
The Gospel itself draws our attention to the Heart of Mary. Saint Luke relates that, at the mysteries of Bethlehem, the Blessed Virgin “kept all these words, pondering them in her heart,” and again, after the finding of the Child in the temple, that she “kept all these words in her heart.” And the aged Simeon foretold that a sword of sorrow would pierce her very soul. From these words the Church has long contemplated the interior life of our Lady: her faith, her humility, her perfect love of God, and the sorrows she bore in union with her Son, above all at the foot of the Cross.
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary grew through the centuries, fostered by the saints, and is closely joined to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; for the Heart of the Mother was wholly conformed to the Heart of her Son. In the twentieth century this devotion received a new impulse, and the Sovereign Pontiff extended to the whole Church the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and consecrated the world to her Immaculate Heart, that through her intercession peace might be granted to mankind.
The meaning of the feast
In honouring the Immaculate Heart of Mary the Church honours the whole interior holiness of the Mother of God, and sets before the faithful a model of perfect love and a refuge of mercy. To this most pure Heart Christians are invited to entrust themselves and the world, confident in the maternal love of her who is also our Mother, and in the power of her intercession before God.
The collect of the feast asks that, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose most holy Heart the Holy Spirit prepared as a worthy dwelling for himself, we may be made worthy to be a temple of his glory. The feast is kept on the twenty-second of August, in close connection with the Assumption. In it the Church invites her children to imitate the Heart of Mary in purity, in love of God, and in union with the sufferings of Christ, and to find in that Heart a sure path to her Son.
The Collect
O almighty and everlasting God, who in the Heart of the blessed Virgin Mary didst prepare a worthy dwelling-place for the Holy Spirit: mercifully grant that we, devoutly keeping the festival of the same Immaculate Heart, may be enabled to live according to thine own heart.
Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui in Corde beátæ Maríæ Vírginis dignum Spíritus Sancti habitáculum præparásti: concede propítius; ut eiúsdem immaculáti Cordis festivitátem devóta mente recoléntes, secundum cor tuum vívere valeámus.
Patronage
The faithful are devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as a model of holiness and a refuge of mercy, and consecrate themselves to her Heart; the devotion is closely joined to that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar the Immaculate Heart of Mary is observed as a memorial on the Saturday following the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a movable date in June; on 22 August the modern calendar keeps the memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Common Questions
When is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal it is kept on 22 August as a Second Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed as a memorial on the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which falls in June.
What does the Immaculate Heart of Mary mean?
The feast honours the inmost soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary — her love, her thoughts, and her will — signified by her Heart, which by the grace of her Immaculate Conception was always pure and wholly given to God. It draws on the words of Scripture, which tell how Mary “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
How is this devotion related to the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
The two devotions are closely joined, for the Heart of the Mother was perfectly conformed to the Heart of her Son. As the Sacred Heart reveals the love of Christ, so the Immaculate Heart reveals the love and holiness of his Mother, and leads the faithful through her to him.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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