Part one, Chapter V: The Divine Heart of Mary

The Divine Heart of Mary

JESUS CHRIST, the Heart of the Eternal Father, is the Heart of His Holy Mother.(1) Is not the heart the principle of life? And what is the Son of God to His dear Mother? He always was and will be forever the heart of her heart, the soul of her soul, the spirit of her spirit, and the sole principle of all the movements, uses and functions of her most holy life. St. Paul tells us that it. is not himself who lives but Jesus Christ who lives in him? (2) Our Lord is the life of all Christians:(3) so who could doubt that He abides in His holy Mother, and that He is the life of her life, the heart of her heart, in a union incomparably more excellent even than with St. Paul and the o&r faithful saints?

Let us listen to what Our Lady revealed to St Brigid: "My Son was (1). Between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary there exists a union so perfect that there never has been and never will be "a closer one aside from the hypostatic union." St. John Eudes calls both Jesus and the Holy Ghost the Divine Heart of Mary. We must remember, however, that no matter how close is the union between Jesus and Mary it does not destroy the distinction of persons. Jesus Christ, the Divine Heart ol Mary, so closely united to her corporeal and spiritual hearts, i s nevertheless extrinsic to her person. It therefore cannot belong to the immediate object of the devotion to the Holy Heart of Mary because the devotion concerns Mary herself and cannot have any object other than whatever belongs properly to her person. Thus it is that the particular object of the devotion to the Holy Heart of Mary must be limited to her corporeal and spiritual hearts.

Nevertheless, it must be noted that the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Saints, when it is well understood, never confines itself to their persons; it ascends to God Who is the author of their holiness and Who is no less adorable in what He effects in His saints than in what He is i n Himself. Without this consideration, devotion to Mary and to the saints would not be an act of religion, for religion relates to God and if now and then the acts which it inspires are addressed to creatures, it is because of their special union to the Divinity. "The devotion we have for the Saints," says St. Thomas, "never ends with them; it passes to God, for it is God Himself whom we honor in the saints." Sum. Theol. 2a 2ae, cl. 82, an. 2, ad 3.

St. John Eudes was convinced and rightly so that all honor rendered to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the Saints in the Catholic Church implies homage to the person of Jesus Christ, who is the final object, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Cf. Lebrun, La Dévotion au Coeur de Marie (Paris, 1917); P. 312 ff. (2). Gal. 2, 20. (3). Col. 3, 4.

truly my Heart to me. When He left my bosom to be born, it seemed as though half of my Heart were going forth from me. When He suffered, I felt His pain as though my Heart endured the identical sorrows and torments that He endured. When my Son was being Scourged and torn with whips, m y Heart was scourged and whipped with Him. When He looked at me from the Cross, and I at Him, two streams of tears gushed from my eyes; and when He saw me oppressed with sorrow, He experienced such violent anguish at my desolation that the pain caused by His sorrow was my sorrow as His Heart was my Heart. Because Adam and Eve together betrayed the world for one, single forbidden fruit, so did my beloved Son wish that I should cooperate with Him in redeeming it with one Heart, quasi cum uno Corde. ( 4 )

You See, therefore, how the Son of God is the Heart and life of His holy Mother, in the most perfect union conceivable. The Holy Ghost, speaking by St. Paul, proclaims that our adorable Saviour must so live in all His servants that His life be manifested in their bodies. "That the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh." (5) Who could consequently understand with what abundance and perfection Our Lord communicates His divine life to her from whom He received a divinely human and a humanly divine life because she conceived and begot the God-Man?

Jesus lives in her soul and in her body, and in each faculty of her body and soul. He lives i n her entirely, which means that whatever is in Jesus is also in Mary, His Heart abides in her heart, His soul in her soul, His spirit in her spirit. 'The memory, intellect and will of Jesus are alive in the memory, intellect and will of Mary; his interior and exterior senses in her interior and exterior senses. His passions in her passions; His virtues, mysteries and divine attributes are living in her Heart. Nay, more than living, they hold sovereign sway, producing inconceivably marvellous effects and impressing a living image of themselves as her Heart mirrors His Sacred Heart.

So it is that Jesus is the principle of life in His most holy Mother. So it is that He is the Heart of her Heart and the life of her life. St. Brigid once heard her say: "Every homage rendered to my Son is likewise rendered to me, and who dishonors Him dishonors me. We have always had such perfect mutual love that we seemed to have as it were but one Heart for both. Quasi cor unum ambo fuimus. " (6)

This admirable Heart it is, which receives our respect and praise, which (4). Revel. Lib. 1, Cap. 35 (5). 2 Cor. 4, 11. (6). Revel. Lib. i, cap. 8.

must be esteemed an object of veneration for all Christians, for to honor Mary's marvellous Heart means to honor countless holy and divine mysteries deserving of the eternal veneration of angels and men. It also means to honor all the functions of the corporeal and material life of the Queen of Heaven, of which the Heart is the principle, that life superlatively holy in itself and in every use she made of it. It means honoring the perfect functions of her memory, her will, her intellect, and the highest part of her spirit. It means honoring innumerable great and ineffable mysteries which were perfected in the superior part of her soul.

It means above all to honor the great love and ardent charity of this Mother of Fair Love toward God and men, together with the effects which that love and charity produced in her thoughts, words, prayers, actions, sufferings, and in the exercise of every virtue.

This veneration of Mary means honoring the corporeal Heart, the spiritual Heart and the divine Heart of Jesus, who are also the Hearts, or rather, the one and only Heart of Mary. It means giving glory to Our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the Heart of the Eternal Father, and has willed to become the Heart of His Holy Mother.

It means honoring and glorifying all the effects of light, grace, and sanctity which this divine Heart of Mary, who is Jesus Christ Himself, has effected, and all the movements of the heavenly life of which He was the principle in her soul, and also the great fidelity with which she cooperated, on her part, with all that His grace accomplished in her heart during so many years. What tongue could proclaim, what mind could conceive, what heart could worthily honor so many great and admirable wonders of grace!

If Holy Church celebrates an annual feast in honor of the chains of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, how great a solemnity does not the august Heart of the Queen of Apostles deserve ! If the holy name of Mary is so greatly venerated by all the faithful, if the oracles of the Holy Spirit, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, like St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, St. Anselm, St. Bernard and many others, have said such wonderful things concerning the name of Mary, if one of them(7) assures us that "after the adorable name of Jesus, Mary's name is above every name, so all creatures in heaven, on earth, and in hell must bend their knees to honor it, and that every tongue must proclaim the holiness, glory and virtue of this holy name"; if the Church celebrates its feast annually in many places what must we say, what must we think of the marvellous Heart of our holy Mother, that Heart far more precious than her name? What should we do to honor it? Indeed every heart, every pen and every tongue should be employed in loving, in writing and in (7). Raym. Jordan. Contempt. B. Virg., Part 4, Contempl. 1.

speaking of the incomparable Heart of Mary. The entire universe should therefore celebrate the Feast of Mary's Immaculate Heart.

You all know that in various great churches throughout the Christian world there are venerated constantly, with special feasts, treasured relics of the most holy Mother of God, for example her veil. If Holy Church has proclaimed feasts in veneration of the least and smallest objects traditionally belonging to Our Lady, how much more should we not celebrate the praises of her most exalted and most sublimely honorable Heart?

To conclude the first put of my treatise, I would have you realize, dear Reader, that Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Heart of the Eternal Father, willed to become the Heart or life-principle of His Most Blessed Mother, and He likewise wills to become the Heart of your own life.

Having granted you the grace to become one of the members of His mystical body, He seeks to share your life so that you may my with St. Paul: "Christ liveth in me!" )8) Such is the infinite plan of God, such His burning desire. Our Lord seeks to establish His life, not only in your soul, but i n your body, that His spirit may become your spirit and His heart your heart, united in all its love, thoughts and actions, by self-surrender. render, even as His Heart was completely and perfectly the heart of His Admirable Mother.

If the will of God is to become your will, and if the spiritual and corporeal faculties of the sacred humanity of Our Lord are to animate the faculties of your soul and body, what must you do? You must cooperate.

First, you must seek the death of every activity of your soul and body that is displeasing to God, bearing in your body the mortification of Christ.(9) Then, having mortified your faculties, their powers and exercise must be turned towards virtue.

Above all, offer yourself frequently to the Son of God. Beg Him to deign to exercise the almighty power of His arm to destroy within you everything that is contrary to His Holy Will, and to establish over you the reign of His divine Soul and His Crucified Body.

Especially useful is the most devout prayer of St. Augustine, the Anima Christi, Sanctifica Me. "Soul of Christ, sanctify me." (10) It will help you to attain your purpose at all times, but particularly after you have received (8). Gal. 2, 20. (9). 2 Cor. 4, In. (10). St. John Eudes attributes this prayer to St. Augustine, but does not give any reasons for doing so. Although St. Ignatius places it at the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises, he is not looked upon as the author of the prayer. The Anima Christi was first indulgenced in 1330 by Pope John XXII, who i s thought to have written it. Cf. Dreves, Laacher stimmen, 1898. To this well-known prayer St. John Eudes adds the invocation: Cor Jesu, purifica me, accende me. "Heart of Jesus, purify me, enlighten me, inflame me."

ceived Our Saviour within Your heart, either during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or in Holy Communion. When you are speaking to the Divine Heart of Jesus, if you realize His actual and veritable presence within you, you will pronounce this prayer with greater fervor and receive greater blessing for its recitation.

But I tpilst return to thee, 0 Mother Most Admirable, to exclaim that in thee,,are accomplished all things most perfectly, most gloriously, in union with thy Divine Son. Whether it be corporeal, spiritual or divine, His Heart is thine, He is the life of thy life and the heart of thy Heart. May He be blessed, praised and glorified forever by all creatures, because of the graces imparted to thee, 0 Mary, and all the greatness of His humanity and His divinity! 29-