Growing up as a child, I recall having a special fondness for Mary. Mary is known by many titles such as: the Queen of Saints, the Blessed Mother, the Theotokos (God-bearer), Queen of Heaven, Virgin most renowned, Mystical Rose, the New Eve, etc. Such titles can be found in the Litany to Mary (https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/litany-of-loreto-246).
I recall both my grandmothers and mother having a devotion to Mary from memories of praying the rosary in reflecting on the scriptural accounts of our Lord’s life. In having lost a beloved maternal grandmother, Thecia (Mema) at an early age I turned to Mary for consolation. After all, what better way to seek the love of God in the Father & Son than through His mother who is full of grace (Lk. 1:28). My paternal grandmother, Evelyn (Grandma), prayed the rosary daily and fondly recall her cassette tapes with the rosary songs and meditations playing when I visited her house. My mother’s (Linda) pendant necklace she received from her mom after her passing is an image of Mary I fondly recall as she would wear it for special occasions at mass. Such moments where I saw the heart of the matriarchs of my family and their love for Mary deepened my faith life. It is Mary’s Immaculate Heart working through us that led this adopted son closer to wanting to seek God’s great love.
When my wife Angela & I pray the rosary together with our precious daughter, Abigail, it is a bond like no other. While our daughter is young and sometimes can’t meditate on the mysteries like adults, it is good practice for her learning the prayers as she knows something special is taking place. The family that prays together stays together.
The memorial of Mary’s Immaculate Heart after the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is one in which we unite behind our blessed Mother in seeing her sorrow for our Lord Jesus’s great love in that her heart was also pierced by a sword per Simeon’s prophecy at the presentation of Jesus in the temple. “Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Lk. 2:34-35). The white roses surrounding her heart symbolize her Immaculate Conception in which she knew no sin as affirmed by church dogma in 1854 with Pope Pius IX’s Infallibus Deus (https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm). Mary is the New Eve to which our hearts may unite to hers in doing God’s will. The fire surrounding her heart represent her deep love for humanity and of God in His Son, Jesus. Lastly, the glorious and illuminated rays of light symbolize a woman clothed by the sun as written in Revelation “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” (Rev. 12:1).
Let us consecrate ourselves to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, forever united in the redemptive and loving heart of our Lord Jesus.
Here is a helpful prayer for today’s memorial:
Act of Consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary
O Lord Jesus, Who on Calvary and in the Holy Eucharist hast shown Thyself to us as the God of love and mercy, kneeling humbly at Thy feet, we adore Thee and beg once more for Thy forgiveness and for Thy divine pity.
And, remembering that by Thine own act on Calvary, the human race, represented by Thy beloved disciple John, gained a Mother in the Virgin of Sorrows, we desire to honour the sufferings and woes of our Mother’s Heart by devoting ourselves to it in solemn consecration.
It is but just, O Mary, that our souls should strive henceforth to venerate thee with special homage under the title of thy Sorrowful Heart, a title won by sharing in the whole Passion of thy divine Son and thus co-operating in the work of our redemption, a title due to thee in justice, and dear, we believe, to Jesus and to thine own Heart wounded by the wound in His.
We consecrate, therefore, O Mary, to thy Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, ourselves, our families, and our country. Have pity upon us. See our tribulations and the anguish of our hearts in the midst of the mourning and calamities that lay waste the world. Deign, O Mother of God, to obtain mercy for us that, being converted and purified by sorrow and made strong in faith, we may henceforth be devoted servants of Jesus Christ and of His Church, for whose triumph we pray. O Mary Immaculate, we promise to be faithful clients of thy Sorrowful Heart. Intercede for us, we beseech thee, with thy Son that, at the very cry of thy Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, His divine Power may speedily bring to pass the triumph of right and justice. Amen.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have pity upon us.
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us and save us. (Prayer retrieved from https://traditionalcatholicprayers.com/2019/10/06/prayers-of-consecration-to-the-immaculate-heart-of-mary/).
StreetEvangelist 
