"Mary will introduce you to this adorable heart, and studying the heart of Jesus you will learn how we should love and honor Mary"
(Blessed William Joseph Chaminade)
What is the "heart" of Mary? St. John Eudes, master of the devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, explains that the heart designates the entirety of the person: his will, his intellect, his soul, his passions, and even incorporates his body.
The Father looks down upon the heart of his Immaculate Daughter and sees His greatest created masterpiece, second only to the sacred humanity of his incarnate Son. Far beyond the seven natural wonders of the world or even the heavens, the Immaculate Heart represents the greatest craftsmanship of the Creator. Full of grace beyond all other creatures.
The Son gazes at the Immaculate Heart and His heart leaps with infinite joy, reverence, and gratitude for His all-loving Mother. If sons instinctively honor and defend their mother by some code of natural law, how much more does a divine Son love his tender, compassionate human mother? Jesus also sees in the mystery of the Immaculate Heart the means by which He received his own human heart, as blood pumped from that sinless heart flowed into her spotless womb to form the human heart of the divine Redeemer.
This is why the saints never separate the Hearts of Jesus and Mary in their spirituality. St. John will add that their hearts are so united in perfect conformity to the Father's will that it is most accurate to speak about the one, single "Heart of Jesus and Mary."
Above, Brother Michael Joseph, Father Francis and Brother Peter pause after the celebration of the Eucharist in the Catacombs of Saint Priscilla in Rome, Italy. The three Marianists were in Rome to celebrate the Canonization of Saint Jeanne Jugan, the Foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
May the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit be glorified in all places through the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Amen.
