The Immaculate Heart of Mary
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Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary began as early as the twelfth century. During the seventeenth century in France, St John Eudes popularised this devotion along with that to the Sacred Heart. St Luke’s Gospel twice mentions that Mary ‘kept all these things in her heart’, pondering the word of God. Mary shows us how to listen to the words the Holy Spirit speaks to us in the depths of our hearts, and how to respond in faith.
Entrance Antiphon: Ps 12: 6
My heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, who has been bountiful with me.
Collect
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, one God, for ever and ever.
First reading: 2 Timothy 4:1-8
Before God and before Christ Jesus who is to be judge of the living and the dead, I put this duty to you, in the name of his Appearing and of his kingdom: proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, call to obedience – but do all with patience and with the intention of teaching. The time is sure to come when, far from being content with sound teaching, people will be avid for the latest novelty and collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes; and then, instead of listening to the truth, they will turn to myths. Be careful always to choose the right course; be brave under trials; make the preaching of the Good News your life’s work, in thoroughgoing service. As for me, my life is already being poured away as a libation, and the time has come for me to be gone. I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his Appearing.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 70(71):8-9,14-17,22
R/ My lips will tell of your justice, O Lord.
My lips are filled with your praise, with your glory all the day long. Do not reject me now that I am old; when my strength fails do not forsake me.
But as for me, I will always hope and praise you more and more. My lips will tell of your justice and day by day of your help (though I can never tell it all).
I will declare the Lord’s mighty deeds proclaiming your justice, yours alone. O God, you have taught me from my youth and I proclaim your wonders still.
So I will give you thanks on the lyre for your faithful love, my God. To you will I sing with the harp, to you, the Holy One of Israel.
Gospel Acclamation: cf.Lk2:19
Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed is the Virgin Mary, who treasured the word of God and pondered it in her heart. Alleluia!
Gospel: Luke 2:41-51
Every year the parents of Jesus used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual. When they were on their way home after the feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was with the caravan, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere. Three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the doctors, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have, you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’ ‘Why were you looking for me?’ he replied. ‘Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ But they did not understand what he meant. He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.
Prayer over the Offerings
Look, O Lord, upon the prayers and offerings of your faithful, presented in commemoration of Blessed Mary, the Mother of God, that they may be pleasing to you and may confer on us your help and forgiveness. Through Christ our Lord.
Communion Antiphon: Lk 2: 19
Mary treasured all these words, reflecting on them in her heart.
Prayer after Communion
Having been made partakers of eternal redemption, we pray, O Lord, that we, who commemorate the Mother of your Son, may glory in the fullness of your grace and experience its continued increase for our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.
Meditation
Imagine how Mary felt when she realised that Jesus was missing and nowhere to be found! What will she say to God when asked: «Where is my son?» As Simeon prophesied, Mary’s heart must have felt a sword pierce through it. This act must have been a prelude to the profound experience many years later at the foot of the cross. Mary’s heart is pierced even deeper. The Immaculate Heart of Mary understands how it feels to lose Jesus and to experience the human pain of not ‘hoarding’ Jesus but letting him go for a greater purpose of salvation for all. Let us invoke the Immaculate Heart for all who experience the emptiness of life without Christ and all who share in some ways the stigmata and excruciating pain associated with the mission of taking Christ to the world