Contents

History of the Feast
Cultus Liturgicus
Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Reflections on the Immaculate Heart of Mary
God's Peace Plan

History of the Feast

CULTUS LITURGICUS

 The liturgical cultus of the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, concerning which we find remote traces in the commentaries of the Fathers on the Spouse in the Canticle of Canticles and for which many holy men and women of the middle ages and of more recent days have prepared the way, was approved for the first time by the Apostolic See at the beginning of the 19th century when Pope Pius VII instituted the Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary to be celebrated with filial love and devotion on the Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption by all those dioceses and religious communities which had asked for this permission. In the middle of that same century at the command of Pius IX and through the work of the Sacred Congregation of Rites the Feast of the Most Pure Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which year by year was being celebrated more popularly throughout the Catholic world, was given its own proper Office and Mass.

Moreover by this liturgical cultus the Church gives the honor that is due to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary since under the symbol of her Heart we venerate the excellent and singular sanctity of the soul of the Mother of God, but more specifically her most ardent love for God and for Jesus,. her Son, as also her maternal tenderness toward men who have been redeemed by the Divine Blood.

As time went on there developed in the souls of both pastors and the faithful an eager desire--the very one hoped for--that the Feast of the Most Pure Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary should be made a Feast of the universal Church. Thereupon our Most Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception [December 8], in the year 1942, having been moved to pity at the most grievous afflictions under which the Christian peoples lie crushed because of this inhuman war, dedicated forever to the Immaculate Heart of our Blessed Virgin and Mother the universal, holy Church and the entire human race, which Pope Leo XIII had already dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In order that the memory of this consecration be preserved he decreed that the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with its own proper Office and Mass, be extended to the universal Church and be celebrated each year on August 22nd in place of the Octave Day of the Assumption of the same Blessed Virgin Mary; furthermore, he decreed that this Feast should be elevated to the rank of a double of the second class: and all this, in order that, with the help of the Blessed Mother of God, peace might be given to all nations and liberty to the Church of Christ, and also that sinners once freed from the guilt of their sins, and all the faithful, might be made strong in the love of purity and in the exercise of the virtues.

In obedience to the commands of our Most Holy Father, the undersigned Charles Cardinal Salotti, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, presented the proper Office and Mass of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary to His Holiness in an Audience granted on December 10, 1943. His Holiness approved both, and commanded that they should be used by the universal Church on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart Of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Brief of Charles Cardinal Salotti [b.  ?   -  d.  at Rome, Italy on Friday, October 24, 1947]
Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites
(From AAS, XXXVII 1945), 50-51.)

Signed by:
Charles Cardinal Salotti Prefect;
and by:
A. Carinei, Secretary;
on Thursday, May 4, 1944 in The Vatican, Rome, Italy

On Tuesday, December 8, 1942, Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli
[Thursday, March 2, 1939 - Thursday, October 9, 1958],
solemnly consecrated the entire world to
the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy.

ACT OF CONSECRATION
TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

(Please Note: For use by a Parish Church Congregation,
e.g. during the First Saturday Devotions,
the front slash, "/", indicates a brief pause.)

Prayer of Pope Pius XII dedicating the world
to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
References to the war then raging are deleted

All (Priest and Congregation): Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, / Refuge of the Human Race, / Victress in all God's battles, / we humbly prostrate ourselves before Thy Throne, / confident that we will receive / mercy, grace and bountiful assistance and protection / in the present calamity / not through our own inadequate merits, / but solely through the great goodness of thy Maternal Heart.

To thee, to thy Immaculate Heart / in this, humanity's tragic hour, / we consign and consecrate ourselves / in union not only with the Mystical Body of thy Son, / Holy Mother Church, / now in such suffering and agony in so many places / and sorely tried in so many ways, / but also with the entire world, / torn by fierce strife, / consumed in a fire of hate, / victim of its own wickedness.

O Mother of Mercy, / obtain peace for us from God / and above all procure for us those graces / which prepare, establish and assure the peace.

Queen of Peace, pray for us / and give to the world / the peace for which all people are longing, / peace in the Truth, Justice and Charity of Christ. / Give peace to the nations / and to the souls of men, / that in the tranquillity of order / the Kingdom of God may prevail..

Extend thy protection to the infidels / and to all those still in the shadow of death; / give them peace / and grant that on them also / the sun of truth may shine, / that they may unite with us / in proclaiming before the one and only Saviour of the world / "Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good will."

Give peace to the people separated by error or discord, / and especially to those / who profess such singular devotion to thee / and in whose homes an honoured place was ever accorded / thy venerated ikon / (today perhaps often kept hidden to await better days): / bring them back to the one fold of Christ under the One True Shepherd.

Obtain peace and complete freedom for the Holy Church of God; / stay the spreading flood of modern paganism; / enkindle in the faithful the love of purity, / the practice of the Christian life, / and an apostolic zeal, / so that the servants of God may increase / in merit and in number.

Lastly, as the Church and the entire human race / were consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, / so that reposing all hope in Him, / He might become for them / the sign and pledge of victory and salvation; / so we in like manner consecrate ourselves forever / also to thee and to thy Immaculate Heart, our Mother and Queen, / so that thy love and patronage / may hasten the triumph of the Kingdom of God / and that all nations, / at peace with one another and 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 peace. Amen.

LITANY OF THE
IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Pray for our dear country.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Make our family life holy.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Sanctify our clergy.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Make our Catholics more fervent.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Guide and inspire those who govern us.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Cure the sick who confide in thee.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Console the sorrowful who trust in thee.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Help those who invoke thy aid.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Deliver us from all dangers.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Help us to resist temptation.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Obtain for us all we ask of thee.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Help those who are dear to us.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Bring back to the right road our erring brothers.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Give us back our ancient fervor.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Obtain for us pardon of our many sins and offenses.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Bring all men to the feet of thy Divine Child.
Priest:	Immaculate Heart of Mary,	People:	Obtain peace for the world.

Priest: Let us pray.

 All (Priest and Congregation): O God of infinite goodness and mercy, / fill our hearts with a great confidence in Thy Most Holy Mother, / whom we invoke / under the title of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, / and grant us by her most powerful intercession / all the graces, spiritual and temporal / which we need, / through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Reflections on
The Immaculate Heart of Mary

In this devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which prompts everyone to imitate the virtues of Our Blessed Mother, you may see a true blending of love and sacrifice which are the very heart and spirit of the Catholic way of life.

It is by devotion to her Immaculate Heart that Mary will form in each of us who are sincere the likeness and virtues of her Divine Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and seeing more perfectly His sacred image in us, Mary will love Him anew in us. In this way do we thereby have an opportunity to more greatly resemble Our Divine Lord and hence to more greatly profit from this closes union with Him.

Your nearness to Mary is a measure of your union with Christ and an indication of the true supernatural value of your life. When you unite yourself with the Immaculate Heart of Mary you necessarily draw near to Jesus Himself in His Hypostatic Union of God and Man.

Although some of you may consider this to be a new devotion, it is really very ancient. The Bible itself speaks of the seven swords of sorrow which pierce the Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Saint John Eudes, in the 17th Century, preached devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary along with devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In the 19th Century, Pope Pius VII and Pope Pius IX permitted several churches to celebrate the feast then known as the Pure Heart of Mary, first fixed on the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption ("octave" = 8 days), and later on the Saturday following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
 

In the 19th Century, Archbishop Saint Anthony Mary Claret, C.M.F., D.D., a.k.a. Antonio Maria Claret y Clara [b. Sallent, Catalonia, Spain, Thursday, December 24, 1807 A.D. - d. Fontfroide, Narbonne, France at 8:45 A.M. on Monday, October 24, 1870 A.D.; Feast Day October 23] had great devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.  This great apostle of the Immaculate Heart of Mary received many apparitions of Our Blessed Mother.  Mary commissioned him to propagate devotion to the Holy Rosary.  He added the name "Mary" to his baptismal name because of his great devotion to Our Lady and consecrated his work to her, made her the head of his Cuban Archdiocese and performed many practices of devotion to the Holy Theotokos, the Mother of God. In Vich, Spain, on Monday, July 16, 1849, the glorious feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, along with five Priests, he founded a Missionary Congregation to spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The formal title of this Religious Congregation is Cordis Mariae Filius (Sons of the Heart of Mary).

God's Peace Plan From Heaven
Which The Blessed Virgin Mary
Gave to the World at Fatima in 1917

1. Penance

This means that all people must amend their lives, give up their easy lives of sin, ask pardon for their sins, receive the Sacrament of Penance, say some extra prayers for the conversion of sinners, and make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, so grievously offended by the sins of mankind.

2. Reparation

This means:

1) offering up your daily tasks as a sacrifice in reparation to atone for our sins;

2) fulfilling our daily duties and responsibilities to the best of our abilities;

3) accepting the responsibilities of our state in life;

4) obeying the Ten Commandments of God.

3. Daily Recitation of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Rosary is like a sword or weapon the Holy Theotokos, Mother of God, can use to cut down heresy and the forces of evil. It is most powerful and many times it has saved the world from situations as bad as, if not worse than, the ones facing us today.

4. Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

There are two parts to this consecration.

First Part

The first part consists in wearing the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel as a sign of one's actual consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Second Part

The second part consists in the recitation, on these same Five Consecutive First Saturdays, of an Act of Personal Consecration to the Heart of Mary.

For your convenience, We offer you the following Consecration:

Personal Consecration to the Sorrowful & Immaculate Heart of Mary 

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, dwelling pure and holy, cover my soul with thy maternal protection so that being ever faithful to the voice of Jesus, it responds to His love and obeys His Divine Will. I wish, O my Mother, to keep unceasingly before me thy co-redemption in order to live intimately with thy Heart which is totally united to the Heart of thy Divine Son. Fasten me to this Heart by thy own virtues and sorrows. Protect me always. Amen.

5. Making the Five First Saturdays

This devotion consists in:

1. Receiving the Sacrament of Penance within 8 days before or after receiving the Holy Eucharist on Five Consecutive First Saturdays.

2. Receiving the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on these same Five Consecutive First Saturdays.

3. Saying 5 decades of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary on these same Five Consecutive First Saturdays.

4. Meditating for 15 minutes with Our Lady on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary on these same Five Consecutive First Saturdays.

A sermon of whatever length can take the place of this meditation on either one or all of these same Five Consecutive First Saturdays.