Immaculate Heart of Mary: Heart of a Compassionate Mother

When we truly realize the love the Immaculate Heart of Mary holds for us, what she endured in her life, and the harsh pain she felt as she stood before the cross and witnessed her Son brutally put to death for our sins, there is an intense sense of humility and gratitude that flows from the depths of our own hearts. 

Glade Park, CO (Catholic Online) - In the opening paragraph of his Letter on the Blessed Virgin Mary (Signum Magnum), Pope Paul VI reminded the faithful of the reality of the Blessed Mother's position as the mother of all men: "The great sign which the Apostle John saw in heaven, 'a woman clothed with the sun,' is interpreted by the sacred Liturgy, not without foundation, as referring to the most blessed Mary, the mother of all men by the grace of Christ the Redeemer."

Some twenty-centuries ago, it was this most blessed Mother of ours who, concerned for those who attended the marriage feast at Cana, turned to her Son and simply mentioned "They have no wine." Although Jesus responded, "My hour is not yet come," the Mother of our Lord, of course, knew her Son would listen to her, and, in a display of complete confidence, advised the servants to "Do whatever he tells you" (see Jn 2:1-5). Those were the final words of Our Lady recorded in the New Testament, and, with those words, the Immaculate Heart of Mary continues to reach with warm love into the future, speak to her children, and imprint upon them an everlasting profession of what it means to be Christian.

Paul VI, in his Apostolic Exhortation (Marialis Cultus), reminds us devotion to the Virgin Mary is an integral aspect of Christian worship: "This devotion [to the Virgin Mary] fits . . . into the only worship that is rightly called 'Christian,' because it takes its origin and effectiveness from Christ, finds its complete expression in Christ, and leads through Christ in the Spirit to the Father. . . . And the increased knowledge of Mary's mission has become joyful veneration of her and adoring respect for the wise plan of God, who has placed within His family (the Church), as in every home, the figure of a Woman, who in a hidden manner and in a spirit of service watches over that family 'and carefully looks after it until the glorious day of the Lord.'"

Yes, our Mother, the sweet Virgin is ever-vigilant and watches over her family of humankind, that they may not stray from the path of Love her Son has set before us. She is the "Woman clothed with the Sun" who, illumined in the divine light of her Son, beckons us toward our eternal salvation by urging us with motherly care to embrace with mind, heart and soul the Truth, the Way, and the Life (Jn 14:6) that is Jesus Christ.

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is concerned for her children

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Pope Pius XII observed that "the greatest sin of our generation is that it has lost all sense of sin." How much greater the magnitude of disorder today. In this age of moral and spiritual implosion, where it is no longer "fashionable" to live an ascetic life; where it is no longer "prudent" by the standards of secularist "wisdom" to submit in obedience to the authority of the Catholic Church God willed should exist; and where that heedless "critical thinking" which, at the urging of an inflated ego, eagerly embraces the way of dissent, it is our caring Mother who unfailingly continues to open her prayerful hands and gently nudge us away from worldly perils.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that the Immaculate Heart is a caring heart of spiritual motherhood which extends to all men: "Jesus is Mary's only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: 'The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother's love'" (CCC No. 501).

It is the Immaculate Heart that calls us to a secure refuge, and its pace is quickened by virtue of Mary's clear and exacting comprehension of reality as it is. Let us understand that the Virgin Mary has, in a profound sense, a divinely infused view of the world and its perils; for she stands before God in the face to face vision of Truth. She is therefore intimately aware of the consequences of unrepentant sin, apostasy, the many errors of disordered self-love, and the widespread disobedience and relativism that so plagues modern man.

As the blessed Mary witnesses within the depths of her tender, Immaculate Heart what is so often a steady march toward destruction, she constantly intercedes for those in need not simply as any mother would do for her children, but with a strength and urgency that only the Mother of God could possess. Further, not only does she intercede for us by her powerful prayers, but also by speaking to those whom God has chosen to receive her compassionate words.

Less than a century ago, the Immaculate Heart of Mary reached out to the world through three peasant children at Fatima. On October 13, 1917, just prior to noon of the day on which the miracle of the dancing sun would occur, the Mother of our Lord appeared to Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta, and said, "I am the Lady of the Rosary. I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and to ask pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for he is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it every day."

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And just a short time ago, in an oral message given to Fr. Gobbi on July 3, 1987, the tender and caring Immaculate Heart pleads with humanity that it abandon its state of depravity and return along the path of repentance and conversion: "Come back, O humanity so far away and depraved; come back along the road of conversion and of a return to the Lord of your salvation! . . . Come back immediately to the God of salvation and of peace! The time that is granted to you for your conversion is almost over; the days are counted. Walk along the road of return to the Lord if you want to be saved." (To The Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons, The Marian Movement of Priests, 518).

Mary calls her children to her Immaculate Heart for refuge

On December 10, 1925, the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child Jesus appeared to Sr. Lucia, one of the visionaries of Fatima, who at this time was a nun at the Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, Spain. She was eighteen years old. The Christ Child first spoke, saying: "Have compassion on the heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them."

The Mother of God, holding in her hand a heart encircled with thorns, said to Sr. Lucia: "My child, behold my heart surrounded with the thorns which ungrateful men place therein at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me. Announce in my name that I promise to assist at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to Confession and receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."

From that time on, millions of Catholics around the world have engaged in the Five First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The devotion consists in: 1) going to Confession, 2) receiving Holy Communion, 3) reciting 5 decades of the Rosary, and 4) spending 15 minutes with our spiritual Mother meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary -- all with the intention of making reparation to her.

Pope Leo XIII reminds us to unhesitatingly fly to the Immaculate Heart: "It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary, and to seek for peace in her maternal goodness; . . . [the Immaculate Virgin] has a favor and power with her Son greater than any human or angelic creature has ever obtained, or ever can gain. And, as it is her greatest pleasure to grant her help and comfort to those who seek her, it cannot be doubted that she would deign, and even be anxious, to receive the aspirations of the universal Church" (Supremi Apostolatus Officio, 2).

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In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is necessary to mention that there are some who would accuse Catholics of worshipping the Blessed Mother. However, such is not the case, for we worship the Triune God alone. Yet Catholics give to Mary a place of great honor as the Mother of God. We love her for all that she has done, for it is through her that our Savior came into the world and salvation became a reality. Catholics fully embrace that Tradition recorded in Sacred Scripture in which we hear Mary say: "From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name" (Lk 1:48-49).

When we truly realize the love the Immaculate Heart of Mary holds for us, what she endured in her life, and the harsh pain she felt as she stood before the cross and witnessed her Son brutally put to death for our sins, there is an intense sense of humility and gratitude that flows from the depths of our own hearts. For we cannot say we deserve the love of such a pure and compassionate Mother. And, if we love her as we should, our hearts too are pierced; for she, with sweet tenderness, removes some of those piercing thorns from her Immaculate Heart and gently places them upon our own, that we may fruitfully share in her sorrow and concern, and offer what is now our own suffering back to her. Then, gathering up the fragrance of love born of our efforts, she presents to her Son what only suffering can produce: a pure and untainted love for that Love beyond all loves.

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F. K. Bartels is a Catholic writer who knows his Catholic Faith is one of the greatest treasures a man could ever have. He is managing editor of catholicpathways.com, and a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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