Every month of the year is dedicated to an aspect of our faith worthy of pondering.
The month of AUGUST highlights the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In a special way this month we honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the seat of her love (especially for Jesus), virtue, and inner life. Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary focuses on Mary's love for God and encourages our emulating her humility, gratitude, obedience, and adoration.
Two recent apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary have increasingly popularized devotion to the Immaculate Heart: Mary's appearance to St. Catherine Labouré (which led to the making of the medal now known as the "Miraculous Medal") and her appearance to the three young shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. At Fatima she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Eight years later, in 1925, Mary appeared again to Lucia and requested reparations for the various ways in which her Immaculate Heart was offended.
To make reparation, she asked that we do 5 things, all with the intention of making reparation to her Immaculate Heart:
In honor of Mary's Immaculate Heart and as a sign of devotion, consider taking up one of these practices this month: daily rosary, praying the Morning Offering at the start of your day, or being enrolled in the Brown Scapular. Honoring Jesus' mother as he did, always helps us to grow more in our love for Jesus himself.
Two recent apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary have increasingly popularized devotion to the Immaculate Heart: Mary's appearance to St. Catherine Labouré (which led to the making of the medal now known as the "Miraculous Medal") and her appearance to the three young shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. At Fatima she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. Eight years later, in 1925, Mary appeared again to Lucia and requested reparations for the various ways in which her Immaculate Heart was offended.
To make reparation, she asked that we do 5 things, all with the intention of making reparation to her Immaculate Heart:
- recite at least Five Decades of the Rosary every day
- wear the Brown Scapular
- offer our daily duty to God as an act of sacrifice (ie., pray the Morning Offering)
- make Five First Saturdays of Reparation to Her Immaculate Heart
- the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world, must consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart.
In honor of Mary's Immaculate Heart and as a sign of devotion, consider taking up one of these practices this month: daily rosary, praying the Morning Offering at the start of your day, or being enrolled in the Brown Scapular. Honoring Jesus' mother as he did, always helps us to grow more in our love for Jesus himself.