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Embracing Our Lady's Heart On the first day of May, the traditional month dedicated to Our Lady, our new Holy Father Benedict XVI encouraged us to pray the rosary faithfully each day and to renew our dedication to Mary, the Mother of God. Now, as we enter into the summer months we celebrate yet another great feast in special honor of Our Lady: the triumphal feast of her Immaculate Heart! This feast appropriately follows the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart, June 3 this year. Both feasts are movable feasts each year, dependent upon when Easter and Pentecost fall. The Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of the Epiphany is a special source of joy for all Miles Jesu members, and the feast gives us all an opportunity to renew our consecration, casting ourselves ever deeper into the immensity of her Heart. “Totus Tuus!” The late John Paul II said to Our Lady at his inaugural Mass in 1978, “Totally Yours!” And so was his life, always totally devoted to Our Lady. In fact, i understand that in the prologue of his book, Daughter Sion, the man formerly known as Cardinal Ratzinger stated that he, like any practicing Catholic, had a certain devotion to Our Lady. Yet it was John Paul II who taught him, eminent cardinal though he was, what it really meant to love Our Lady, to be able to say to her, “Totus Tuus!”. So i think this can say something to all of us, no matter who we are: consecrated members, priests, laity, children, families, whatever our state in life. We all can take a look at our love of Mary and our dedication to her. We can look to her with tenderness, confidence and hope, giving her again our filial love and affection, and we can pray and work to deepen that love so that we can say, as did Pope John Paul II, “Totus Tuus!” and really truly mean it. In what ways might we renew this devotion and plunge our hearts ever deeper into the Immaculate Heart of our Mother? In the Epiphany Prayerbook one can find a Marian Examination of Conscience (p.100) which can be particularly helpful in this regard. A few of the items contained in it are included here: Have i done anything special today to please my Mother? Have i renewed every day my dedication to her, my commitment to her Son? Have i kept her present in the background of my thoughts all day? Is Mary the Queen of my Life? Have i commended all the members of Miles Jesu to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? Have i called on her Immaculate and Maternal Heart for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of the world? Another great way to enhance our devotion to Our Lady is by faithfully making or renewing our consecration to her. St. Louis de Montfort has left a beautiful book on devotion to Mary, and beloved John Paul II said that “Reading this book (St. Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to Mary) was to be a turning point in my life...This Marian devotion...has since remained a part of me. It is an integral part of my interior life and of my spiritual theology” (Preparation for Total Consecration, introduction). He continues, saying that the total consecration to Jesus through Mary is an “effective means for Christians to live faithfully their baptismal commitments”. Many people make this “Consecration of oneself to Jesus Christ, Wisdom incarnate, through the hands of Mary” annually as a way to renew their love for Mary and her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. One totally dedicated to Our Lady knows well that safe within her tender, loving heart we are always led to her Son, Jesus. Within her heart is a “school of prayer” (a common phrase of John Paul II). Could we wish to go any other way? This upcoming feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a good opportunity for each of us to return to that intimate school and to re-dedicate once again our hearts and lives to her triumphal Heart. Totus Tuus! Enraptured by the splendor of your heavenly beauty, (a portion of the Marian prayer found on page 171 of the Epiphany Prayerbook.) |