Immaculate Heart of Mary

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Immaculate Heart of Mary, statue of Our Lady in the Church of St. Francis in Bilbao

Worship of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is an expression of Catholic spirituality. It manifests itself in liturgical feasts, the patronage of churches and religious orders and in ordinations.

Theological core idea

The devotion to the Heart of Mary is directed towards Mary, the mother of Jesus as a person, who devoted her innermost being, understanding, memory, will and ability to love God and men and who subordinated herself to the saving work of her son.

“You [God Almighty Father] gave the Blessed Virgin Mary a wise and understanding heart, ready to listen to you and to follow your instructions in everything; a new and gentle heart in which you yourself wrote the law of the new covenant; a simple and pure heart with which she received your son as a virgin and with which she may look at you in eternal joy; an alert and strong heart that fearlessly endured the sword of suffering and faithfully awaited the resurrection of the Son. "

- Preface for Marian masses

The basic texts from the Gospel are ( Lk 2.19  EU ) or ( Lk 2.51   EU ): "Mary kept everything that had happened in her heart".

Formation and formations

Devotional image

Even among the Church Fathers there were elements of devotion to the Heart of Mary, for example in the works of Augustine , John Chrysostom , and Ephrem the Syrian . There are also references in Prudentius , Fabius Claudius Gordianus Fulgentius and Leo the Great .

In the 13th century, impulses for the devotion of the Heart of Mary came from the Spaniard Ricardo de San Lorenzo († after 1254), from Mechthild von Hackeborn and her book of spiritual graces, and from Gertrud von Helfta and her work Envoy of Divine Love . Ernst von Pardubitz was particularly important in the 14th century ; and Bridget of Sweden wrote about the Heart of Mary; in the 15th century it was Lorenzo Giustiniani († 1456) and Bernardine of Siena ; in the 16th century Johannes Justus von Landsberg , Louis de Blois , Fray Luis de Granada , Petrus Canisius and Francis de Sales .

In the 17th and 18th centuries the devotion to the Heart of the Virgin could develop. Pierre Cardinal de Bérulle and his École française de spiritualité inspired many for this form of devotion. She received a special impulse from Johannes Eudes , a student of Bérulles, and his main work Le Cœur admirable de la très Sainte Mère de Dieu . The importance of Eudes for the adoration of the Heart of the Virgin Mary was particularly emphasized by Popes Leo XIII. (January 3, 1903) and Pius X. (April 11, 1909) highlighted. Writings by the Jesuits Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti , Jean Croiset and Joseph de Gallifet also contributed to the spread. In the 17th century, devotion to the Heart of Mary was rejected and opposed, especially by Jansenism .

The adoration of the Heart of the Virgin Mary was entered into the liturgy in 1643 through Johannes Eudes and the "Congregation of Jesus and Mary" (Eudists) founded by him, and through a festival of ideas introduced by the Bishop of Autun in 1648. A devotional was approved in 1668 by the cardinal legate Louis I de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme . Pope Pius IX introduced a votive mass , an office and a separate feast of the purest heart of Mary on July 21, 1855 .

Depiction of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on a devotional picture

Pope Pius XII introduced the Feast of the Heart of the Virgin Mary on May 4, 1944, as a second class feast for the whole Church, which was celebrated on August 22nd. In the general calendar according to the Second Vatican Council , the required day of remembrance is set for the day after the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus , i.e. the third Saturday after Pentecost .

In the 20th century, the veneration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary received an impetus in 1917 through the visions of St. Lúcia dos Santos in Fátima . From this the devotions on the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the so-called Atonement Saturdays developed. On October 31, 1942 and again on December 8, 1942, the feast of the Immaculate Conception , Pope Pius XII consecrated the church . the Church and humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

iconography

In iconography, the Heart of Mary, analogous to depictions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus , is usually shown wrapped in a wreath of roses and pierced by a sword. The roses symbolize the virginity and purity of Mary, the sword illustrates Simeon's promise to Mary from the Gospel of Luke ( Lk 2,35  EU ), according to which a sword will pierce her soul. A similar depiction, in which the heart of Mary is pierced by seven swords, symbolizes the memory of Mary's pain .

Patronage

For churches see Herz-Mariä-Kirche

Religious communities with the patronage of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The whole world has been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary repeatedly by various Popes:

“Rosary Queen, you help of Christians, refuge of humanity and victor in all battles of God! We prostrate ourselves in supplication before your throne. We are sure of mercy and grace and effective help in the present calamity. We do not presume to expect this on the basis of our merits, but only hope it from the immeasurable goodness of your maternal heart.

We entrust ourselves to you, your immaculate heart, in this fateful hour in human history; to you we consecrate ourselves in union with the holy church, the mystical body of your Jesus, who suffers and bleeds in so many of his members and is tortured so many times; to you we consecrate ourselves with the whole world, which, torn by wild discord, burns in the blaze of hatred, a victim of its own wickedness.

Let yourself be moved by the sight of so much material and moral misery, of so much pain and fear from fathers and mothers, husbands, siblings and innocent children, so many lives that are broken in the prime of the years, so many bodies that so many tormented and suffering souls were torn apart in this terrible bloodbath, so many who are in danger of being lost forever! O Mother of Mercy, obtain peace for us from God! "

- Pope Pius XII: Radio address to the Portuguese people, October 31, 1942

Lands consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Several nations have been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by their respective bishops, in particular:

Cities dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Dioceses consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Holy See

Europe

Germany

Austria

Portugal

  • All 21 Portuguese dioceses (May 13, 2016, Cardinal Manuel Clemente together with all the Bishops of Portugal)

Poland

  • All 42 Polish dioceses (September 9, 2017, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki together with all Polish bishops)

Netherlands

  • All Dutch dioceses (May 13, 2017, Cardinal Willem J. Eijk together with all the bishops of the Netherlands)

Italy

France

Spain

England

Scotland

Finland

North America

United States

Canada

South America

Mexico

Venezuela

Colombia

Uruguay

Brazil

Oceania

Australia

New Zealand

Samoa

Asia

Philippines

  • All 89 Filipino Dioceses (May 4, 2018, Cardinal Romulo Valles along with all the Bishops of the Philippines)

India

Africa

Angola

literature

  • Theodor Maas-Ewerd : Heart of Mary. I. Adoration . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 5 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, Sp. 60 f .
  • Johannes (Jean) Eudes: Le Coeur admirable de la très Sainte Mère de Dieu. (online: Books I – IV PDF 4.78 MB; Books V – IX PDF 3.65 MB; Books X – XII PDF 3.98 MB)
  • Joseph de Gallifet: L'excellence et la pratique de la dévotion à la Sainte Vierge. Lyon 1750.
  • Charles Lebrun: La dévotion au coeur de Marie. Étude historique et doctrinale. Paris 1918. * Nikolaus Nilles : De Rationibus Festorum Mobilium Utriusque Ecclesiae Occidentalis Atque Orientalis Commentarius usui Clericorum Accomodatus: Accedunt Breves Quaedam Animadversiones in Novam Kalendarii Rationem A Cl. Maedler Propositam. 1868.
  • Hermann Josef Nix SJ: Cultus ss. Cordis Jesu et purissimi Cordis BV Mariae.
  • Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti: Il sacro cuore di Maria Vergine. ( online at Google books (Italian))
  • E. Puyolras: Cultus purissimi Cordis BM Virginis. Milan 1942.

Web links

Commons : Immaculate Heart of Mary  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Maas-Ewerd: Heart of Mary. I. Adoration . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 5 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, Sp. 60 .
  2. ^ Theodor Maas-Ewerd: Heart of Mary. I. Adoration . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 5 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, Sp. 60 .
  3. ^ Theodor Maas-Ewerd: Heart of Mary. I. Adoration . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 5 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, Sp. 60 .
  4. ↑ http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1986/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19860922_simposio-maria-gesu.pdf
  5. ↑ Freiburg belongs to the Mother of God . ( kath.net [accessed on August 5, 2018]).
  6. ↑ 'Mary asked in Fatima to consecrate the world to her Immaculate Heart' . ( kath.net [accessed on August 5, 2018]).