Mary's Immaculate Heart - Introduction

In connection with the extension of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the universal Church, our Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, pointed out that beyond serving as a memorial and reminder of his solemn consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart in the Basilica of Saint Peter, 3 December 1942, the feast might, with the assistance of her in whose honor we celebrate it, be instrumental also in preserving peace among all nations and liberty for the Church of Christ; and further, with the repentance of sinners, it might be a strengthening of the faithful in the love of purity and the practice of virtue.

Without question the observance of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart is today a highly significant celebration in the liturgical year. In view of the dogmatic implications of the feast, the various statements of the Holy See, and the response everywhere on the part of the faithful to the devotion to Mary's Heart, the significance of both the feast and consecration of the world, and the importance of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart itself are readily recognized.

It was the devotion to the Sacred Heart which in previous decades guided a cold and erring world back toward the love of Christ and the acknowledgment of the Kingdom that is rightfully His. It would seem that again the grace of God is poured forth abundantly on a war-torn and pagan world, and men, through a devotion to the Mother of God, the "Hope of the World," are once more oSered an opportunity for eternal salvation in the love and service of Mary and her divine Son.

In the devotion to the Immaculate Heart which prompts men to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Mother we see a true blending of love and sacrifice, the very core and spirit of the Christian life. Through a devotion to her Immaculate Heart Mary will certainly form in us the likeness and virtues of her Son, and seeing more perfectly His image in us, she will love Him anew in us; and we, resembling our blessed Lord the more, will profit greatly from this closer union with Him.

Our nearness to Mary is a measure of our union with Christ and an indication of the supernatural value of our lives. In uniting ourselves to Mary we necessarily draw near to our blessed Lord.

As in her mortal life, so also in the science of Sacred Theology the Mother of God is associated always with Christ. She forms with Him the foundation and cornerstone as well as the capstone of the economy of salvation. She not only brought the Incarnate Word into the world, she intimately shared in the work He came to accomplish, the redemption of men. Because of the full implications of her relationship with God and men she occupies a unique and exalted place in the dogma and liturgy of the Church and in the entire divine plan of Creation.

Down through the centuries the best minds of Christianity have sung the praises and excellencies of Mary, "...all generations shall call her blessed, the Mother of God, the Mistress of the world, the Queen of Heaven...who has given life and glory to all generations. For in her the angels find joy, the just grace, and the sinners forgiveness. Deservedly the eyes of all creatures are turned toward her, because in her, by her, and from her the benign hand of the Almighty re-created that which He had already created."

To Mary, indeed, men have turned for their greatest inspiration. It is she who has occasioned our greatest art and much of our best literature. But immeasurably greater than all these things, it is she who has inspired our greatest saints and who as Mother of all men and Refuge of sinners has led countless souls to Christ. Without question, after the example of Christ she is the greatest external grace the human soul encounters throughout life. But more than this, she is the Mediatrix of all graces.

To us Mary is our Mother and our Queen. Christ has given her to us as among His greatest gifts and it is His wish that we honor her as He honors her and love her even as He loves her. As Mary among all creatures held and will hold forever the first place in the Sacred Heart of Christ, so also Christ wishes that next to our love for Him and our worship of the triune God His Blessed Mother should be the principal object of our devotion. To honor Mary is not simply to do Christ's will, for because of the union of Mother and Son, to honor Mary is to honor our Lord Himself. To know, love, and serve Mary is to know, love, and serve Christ.

The human will, however, is not moved to sincere acts of veneration unless the intellect first presents reasons for respect, esteem, and love. In the veneration of Mary's Immaculate Heart then, before we can render our Lady the full honor and love our Lord wishes, we must understand the excellencies and significance of her Heart.

Some of the external and more obvious reasons why this devotion is today of great significance are readily understood. The Christian world turns instinctively to Mary in time of tribulation. Further, the will of God in the spreading of the devotion is clearly manifest in the teaching authority of the Church.

The innumerable reasons for a new particular veneration of Mary's Immaculate Heart will unfold themselves as we consider this devotion in the body of the ensuing study. However it will be well to mention two things preliminary to our discussion first, what justifies our present treatise and, secondly, how we shall develop it.

Truly, in cases of sound devotional or theological writings the adage "de Maria nunquam satis" will be challenged by none of her children; however, beyond this, one of the principal reasons for our present emphasis is the fact that God in His providential goodness has instilled in the souls of many of the faithful the desire to venerate His Blessed Mother in the devotion to her Immaculate Heart. Especially in English-speaking countries, where this veneration is seen as one of the great forces counteracting secularism, there is need for further explanation of the doctrinal basis of the growing devotion. It would be most unjust to say Mary's Heart is less honored by Catholics in these countries than elsewhere, yet it must be admitted that we find in the English tongue no excess of devotional, and a definitely limited amount of doctrinal explanations and treatises on the Immaculate Heart.

Therefore in partial answer to a very evident need we shall endeavor to supply an explanation of the doctrinal and dogmatic foundations of this great devotion.

In making our work a scientific study we shall logically proceed to consider the devotion in its fundamental causes. De facto the devotion exists and is flourishing; we will examine its nature therefore by a consideration of its causes.

The principal efficient cause of the devotion is of course the providence of God. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in whose wisdom and under whose guidance this particular veneration has been brought about, we find a devotion both supernaturally efficacious and humanly appealing. As a secondary efficient cause, however, we acknowledge the fostering of the devotion through the efforts of men. Therefore in the first part of our discussion we shall make a brief but relatively complete survey of the origins and development of the devotion as effected through the instrumentality of various saints, theological writers, and Church authorities. Thus we shall investigate the history of this devotion.

In the second part of our study we shall consider the devotion in itself, examining its intrinsic nature. We shall investigate the meaning of cult, devotion, and hyperdulia, and in the light of the papal instruction on how in this devotion we honor Mary's Heart, we shall see what distinguishes this particular Marian veneration from all others - namely, the recognition of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the symbol of our Lady's extraordinary sanctity and especially her love. We shall investigate also, in connection with the heart, the nature of symbolism and how in our devotion the symbol of the heart is to be understood.

In the next section of our work we shall investigate the devotion in its final cause, which ultimately is of course to glorify God, but more proximately to unite us to Him through Mary's Heart. We honor Mary as the image of her Creator, reflecting in her Heart the glory of Christ's own Sacred Heart. The meaning and purpose of our devotion to Mary and imitation of her in this particular veneration is best realized in the Acts of Consecration and Reparation which we shall consider in the last part of this section of our treatise.

That our procedure is logical is perhaps better shown from the fact that devotion is, as we shall see, an act, an attitude, of will. Nothing however is willed unless it be known. Hence, in explaining devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we must know not only the object of this devotion and its end, but we must also consider the existence of this object. Hence we will treat of the history of the devotion (an sit), and of its object and end (quid sit). In concluding our work we shall point out the excellence of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart as the synthesis of Marian doctrine and the crown of Marian devotions (quomodo sit).

In view of such a consideration we hope that the place of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart in Marian veneration and in the entire Christian pattern will be made more evident, and that with a fuller understanding and deeper love men might say: "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary...we...consecrate ourselves forever...to Thee and to Thy Immaculate Heart, our Mother, Queen of the World, that thy love and patronage may hasten the triumph of the Kingdom of God, and that all nations, at peace with one another and with God, may proclaim thee blessed and with thee may raise their voices to resound from pole to pole, in the chant of the everlasting Magnificat of glory, love, and gratitude to the Heart of Jesus, where alone they can find truth and life and peace."

- from Mary's Immaculate Heart by Father John F Murphy; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Moses Elias Kiley, Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 22 November 1950