Ordinary Time: June 8th: Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Catholic Culture, June 8, 2024

MASS READINGS

June 08, 2024 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: O God, who prepared a fit dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, graciously grant that through her intercession we may be a worthy temple of your glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

In the midst of the second world war Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of our Savior’s Mother by consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that in the future the whole Church should celebrate the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Memorial is celebrated on the Saturday following the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

This is not a new devotion. In the seventeenth century, St. John Eudes preached it together with that of the Sacred Heart; in the nineteenth century, Pius VII and Pius IX allowed several churches to celebrate a feast of the Pure Heart of Mary. Pius XII instituted today’s feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the whole Church, so as to obtain by her intercession “peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue” (Decree of May 4, 1944).

The Immaculate Heart of Mary

The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. …

Continue reading  >>>>>>>>>>>>>