“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” This is the promise which Mary made to the children, and the world, at Fatima, Portugal on 13 July 1917. It is this triumphant heart which we commemorate every year on the Saturday following the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Currently in the United States, we are living in a time where Christ’s promise that His Church would be persecuted is unfolding before our eyes in a way which was once unimaginable in this country. Christ said, “If the world hates you, be sure that it hated me before it learned to hate you. If you belonged to the world, the world would know you for its own and love you; it is because you do not belong to the world, because I have singled you out from the midst of the world, that the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). There are so many examples of this persecution in the current social and political climate. Just yesterday, “activists” and “protestors” tore down a statue of Saint Junípero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan known for his missionary activity in early America, in San Francisco. Catholic Churches across the United States have been suffering vandalism, supposedly in the name of racial justice. To top it all off, there is now a petition in Saint Louis, MO not only to tear down the statue of the saintly King of France but to completely rename the city because he condemned Islam and Judaism, therefore making him a dangerous and bigoted figure. Ironically, these groups of people who call themselves “anti-fascist” are doing exactly what so many fascist regimes sought to do in censoring history and the opinions of those who disagree with them. In times like these, it is more and more crucial that we call upon Our Queen Mother and implore the coming of the triumph of her Immaculate Heart.
If you read my article yesterday, found here, you know that I wrote on the importance of burning with love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus and making reparation for the ungratefulness to which this Sacred Heart is subject by so many. Why, then, do I write promoting the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary? Well, in short, the triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart IS the triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the two are intimately and inseparably united. In his Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius of Loyola wrote, “The names of Jesus and Mary live always united in the hearts and the songs of the faithful. Their temples and their altars are always near together, and nothing is more inseparable in their pious remembrances, their confidence, their invocation, their love, than Jesus and Mary.” In the Old Testament, we see that, in the kingdom of Jerusalem, the mother was given a role of queenship. An example of this is in the book of the Prophet Jeremiah where it is written, “This was after King Jechoniah had left Jerusalem with the Queen mother, the eunuchs, the chief men of Judah and Jerusalem, and the blacksmiths and metalworkers” (Jeremiah 29:2). Therefore, when we pray for the coming of the triumph and reign of the heart of Mary, we are, in fact, praying for the coming of the triumph and reign of the heart of Jesus, the King Son of the Queen Mother. Furthermore, Mary has been given a special role in bringing about the reign of Christ by forming the hearts those who love and honor her heart. When Jesus came to dwell as man upon the earth, he received his humanity and his body from the womb of Mary. As a result, he received his Sacred Heart from her. Mary can form a heart like that of Jesus in us as well, that we may not only dwell within the Sacred Heart of her Son but, that the likeness of His Heart may dwell in us! By forming in the hearts of the faithful ones like that of Jesus, Mary brings about the triumphant reign of her Son by building up within the world an army of soldiers with hearts burning with ardent love and passion for their Lord who hold nothing back, exhausting themselves for the coming of the Kingdom. Therefore, if one is to seek the kingdom and to give return for the love of the Sacred Heart, one must trust themselves to Mary to form his or her heart in the likeness of Jesus. To further this point, I turn to Saint Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary where he writes, “If Jesus Christ, the head of mankind, is born of her, the predestinate, who are members of this head, must also as a necessary consequence be born of her. One and the same mother does not give birth to the head without the members nor to the members without the head, for these would be monsters in the order of nature. In the order of grace likewise the head and the members are born of the same mother. If a member of the mystical body of Christ, that is, one of the predestinate, were born of a mother other than Mary who gave birth to the head, he would not be one of the predestinate, nor a member of Jesus Christ, but a monster in the order of grace” (Saint Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, 32). Therefore, if we wish to be members of the triumphant Kingdom which is the very Body of Christ, we must be born of Mary as Christ willed himself to be. Finally, Mary has been granted special strength by God to bring about the Kingdom and vanquish evil. This is a result of her lowliness and humility before her God. In fact, Saint Louis de Montfort would say that, in some ways, Satan fears Mary more than the Lord. He writes, “From the time of the earthly paradise, although she existed then only in his mind, he gave her such a hatred for his accursed enemy, such ingenuity in exposing the wickedness of the ancient serpent and such power to defeat, overthrow and crush this proud rebel, that Satan fears her not only more than angels and men but in a certain sense more than God himself. This does not mean that the anger, hatred and power of God are not infinitely greater than the Blessed Virgin's, since her attributes are limited. It simply means that Satan, being so proud, suffers infinitely more in being vanquished and punished by a lowly and humble servant of God, for her humility humiliates him more than the power of God. Moreover, God has given Mary such great power over the evil spirits that, as they have often been forced unwillingly to admit through the lips of possessed persons, they fear one of her pleadings for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats more than all their other torments” (Montford, True Devotion to Mary, 52). In addition, not only has nobody loved God more than Mary, nobody has been more cooperative with the will of God than her. From the very beginning of her life to the very end, she echoes those words she uttered to the angel; “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.” “Be it done unto me according to thy word.” Mary, in her humility, trusted all to God and made herself subject to His will. As a result, God raised her up and made her mighty as we see in the Magnificat when she says, “He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed… He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted them humble” (Luke 1:48,52). As a result of his pride, God cast Satan out of the kingdom and into the abyss of Hell. As a result of her humility, God raised Mary up to the greatness of Queen and gave her great power. Because of this, Satan and the forces of evil greatly fear her and those who honor her by seeking to imitate her humility. Amidst this time of persecution, we take comfort, first of all, in the fact that Christ himself has promised this persecution as a sign of our belonging to Him and being singled out from the midst of the world. Furthermore, this time of the tearing down of the monuments of saints, the vandalism of churches, and the calling for the wiping of the names of holy men from cities by degenerates, who, in their pride and obstinance, refuse to submit to the Kingdom of God, we call upon the reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We ask her to come to our aid by bringing about the triumph of her Son to which her triumph united, forming in us the likeness of the Sacred Heart of her Son which burns with true, self-giving love, and casting out the powers of evil and darkness with her great power which she received from God by the virtue of her great humility. Amidst this time of persecution, we take comfort, first of all, in the fact that Christ himself has promised this persecution as a sign of our belonging to Him and being singled out from the midst of the world. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters in the holy Church of God, let us entrust ourselves to the reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as we give ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, knowing that, even should we suffer bodily destruction and death, we need not fear for, if we are true and devoted members of the reign of the hearts Jesus and Mary, the degenerates cannot take our souls for the battle has been won and the triumph is soon to come! An Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart O Most Holy Virgin Mother, we listen with grief to the complaints of your Immaculate Heart surrounded with the thorns placed therein at every moment by the blasphemies and ingratitude of ungrateful humanity. We are moved by the ardent desire of loving you as Our Mother and of promoting a true devotion to your Immaculate Heart. We therefore kneel before you to manifest the sorrow we feel for the grievances that people cause you, and to atone by our prayers and sacrifices for the offenses with which they return return your love. Obtain for them and for us the pardon of so many sins. Hasten the conversion of sinners that they may love Jesus and cease to offend the Lord, already so much offended. Turn your eyes of mercy toward us, that we may love God with all our heart on earth and enjoy Him forever in heaven. Amen.
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“Voilà ce Cœur qui a tant aimé les hommes. Il n’est qu’amour et misericorde.” This saying is found on so many French prayer cards dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It means, “Behold this heart which has so loved men. It is all love and mercy.” Today, and the entire month of June, we contemplate this Heart of Our Lord which has loved men so much. Throughout his earthly life, Jesus’ heart burned with love for the souls of those to whom the Father had sent him. Even further, he desired to spread that fire of love to the all the hearts in the world which is apparent when he says, “I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49). At the scene of the road to Emmaus, we see the two disciples saying after they finally realize it is Jesus and he vanishes from them, “Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way, and opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Jesus desires that our hearts, too, would be inflamed with the fire of his love as the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Sadly, few hearts burn with love for Jesus. In his apparitions to Saint Mary Margaret Alacoque, He said, “Behold the Heart that has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify to Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege.” Perhaps the world’s ingratitude and lack of love in return for the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is more apparent now than it ever has been. In the Church, we see so few souls going to confession before coming to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion and receiving Him irreverently, the authorities of the Church bowing to every wish of the secular state, and priests and bishops using their status to push a secular agenda in the Church contrary to the Gospel of Christ, therefore committing spiritual assault on the faithful in addition to the sexual assault which far too many have suffered at the hands of clergy, the one’s whose hearts are meant to burn the hottest for Heart of Christ through the gift of Holy Orders. In the world, the examples are far too great that I won’t even try to list them. However, it is no coincidence that the secular world, at the hand of Satan, has dedicated what was for Catholics the month of the Sacred Heart as the month of the first deadly sin, celebrating the perversion of love, and now even the perversion of the most basic human characteristic of gender. This is extremely telling of the society we now find ourselves in, a society which is no longer satisfied with denying the Sacred Heart of Jesus through living in sin, but which now must be “proud” of it and shout it to the whole world. Even further, the secular (or rather, Satanic) society wants to instill this same pride in you, and your children. Don’t believe me? Just look to the calls for “LGBTQIAXYZ History” education in schools or the library drag queen reading hours. The world is descending deeper and deeper into degeneracy and it is now not content with living in its disgusting state but it now seeks to pull even more souls into its cold abyss and away from the burning love of the Sacred Heart. As Catholics of good will, therefore, we must resist this degeneracy with all our strength and the strength of Our Lord. We need to do so by entering into and dwelling in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that our cold hearts hardened by sin will be warmed and melted by the fire of His self-giving love and our souls inebriated with faith by the Precious Blood which pumps through it. Even further, we need to seek to make up for the ingratitude to which the Sacred Heart is too often subject. Jesus said to Saint Mary Margaret Alacoque, “Do you at least console Me by supplying for their ingratitude, as far as you are able.” Our Lord faces so much torment at pouring out his love only for it to be denied by so many. Let us not, then, spurn His Love but instead accept it with deepest gratitude by consecrating ourselves to His Sacred Heart this day. Let us console him through fasting, penance, and making frequent acts of reparation for not only our own individual sins, but also the sins of the whole world. I implore you, not because I have so perfectly loved the Sacred Heart for, in fact, I have also failed in gratitude through my sinfulness. Rather, I implore you to join the battle that we all burn with love for Christ and one another and strengthen each other in the fight, united in a world which seeks to separate and devour us. Start today; consecrate (or reconsecrate) yourself to the Sacred Heart, make acts of reparation, and assist at mass and reverently receive Our Lord if you are able to, or make a spiritual act of communion before Our Lord in the tabernacle if you are not. And finally, us dwell in that beautiful and glorious Heart where is found true love and peace and which is our true pride and joy. Cor Jesu sacratissimum, miserere nobis. Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence, and contempt, behold us prostrate before you, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which your loving Heart is everywhere subjected. Mindful alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask your pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow you, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their Baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of your law. We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against you; we are determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in indecent dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays and for the shocking blasphemies uttered against you and your Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which your Vicar on earth and your priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of your divine love, and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which you have founded. Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of your divine honor, the satisfaction you once made to your Eternal Father on the cross and which you continue to renew daily on our altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of your Virgin Mother and all the saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of your grace, for all neglect of your great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending you and to bring as many as possible to follow you. O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to you, that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, for ever and ever. Amen. Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart Most Sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before Thine altar. We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united to Thee, behold each one of us freely consecrates ourselves today to Thy Most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known Thee; Many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart. Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful children, who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children, who have abandoned Thee; Grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that there may be but one flock and one Shepherd. Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them into the light and kingdom of God. Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of the race, once Thy chosen people: of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may it now descend upon them a laver of redemption and of life. Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry; praise to the Divine Heart that wrought our salvation; To it be glory and honor forever |
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