Today is June 28, the Optional Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Mary.
We read at today’s Mass, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:51).
Today we celebrate the beautiful memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a feast that follows immediately after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Together, these feasts remind us that no one knew the heart of Christ better than his Mother. Her heart beat for him — literally and spiritually — from the moment of his conception until the foot of the cross.
St. John Eudes, a great apostle of this devotion, spoke of four glories, four prerogatives, of Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
Drawing us closer to Christ
Mary’s Immaculate Heart was the source of her sinlessness. It animated every part of her being and made her the pure vessel chosen to bear the Son of God. The love and purity of Mary’s heart prepared her to say “yes” to the angel — and to God’s plan.
From her heart, in the most natural biological sense, came the blood that formed the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her love was not abstract — it was physical, maternal, real. Her heart literally gave life to his.
Mary’s heart beat in rhythm with Christ’s as she carried him, fed him, raised him. Her maternal love nurtured the Redeemer. And as today’s Gospel reminds us, she “kept all these things in her heart.” Her heart was a treasury of the mysteries of Christ.
Finally, Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart was the first resting place of the Christ Child. Pure, virtuous and tender, it was a fitting abode for God-made-man. Her embrace became his home.
So today, we ask Mary to do what she has always done: to draw us closer to her Son. The more we ponder her Immaculate Heart, the more we come to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Let us pray,
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. Amen.
