The Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary is celebrated the day after the celebration of the Heart of Jesus, Saturday after the Second Sunday after Pentecost.
In February of 2020, just as the pandemic began to take hold in Europe, I went on pilgrimage to the Heart of the Mother, to the Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy, which, in John Paul II’s words is: ”The authentic Marian Heart of Christianity.”
Found there is the House where the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Most Holy Virgin Mary Her divine maternity and where the Holy Family lived in Nazareth, in the Holy Land. During the Crusades and fearing for its destruction, the House was taken to Loreto.
While entering in turn in the Holy House, which is very small, we prayed the Rosary singing in the Basilica, curiously the Loreto Litanies were composed in honour of the Virgin of Loreto. I think it’s the closest I’ve ever been to the Heart of the Virgin Mary.
Walking in Rome during those same days, I entered one of her Basilicas and went to a Chapel where there was a small painting, with an oval frame of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, which sublimated me, for having been in the Mother’s heart.
I was raised as a child in a Seville parish of the district of Nervión, on whose Tabernacle there is an inscription that says: “Caro Christi, Caro Mariae” (Flesh of Christ, Flesh of Mary).
This phrase always helped me, I found it profoundly close and consoling that God was there in that small box (the Tabernacle) and that moreover, He has our flesh, that of one of our race, that of the Virgin Mary.
As every human heart, Jesus’ Heart has unique beats, a different pattern for each person, so much so that it seems to It will be the password of the future, and the Lord’s Heart was formed in Mary . . . then there are our prayers. How can they not be heard, having the Virgin pulling her Son’s tunic so that He doesn’t forget us, as She takes his Heart, our heart . . . We know that the password for Heaven is Mary’s Heart.
Mary kept everything in her heart. There she endured with fortitude the sword of the sorrow of the Passion and she waited there, full of faith, for her Son’s Resurrection. How can she not understand us . . . no matter how deep our pain is, our sword is . . . ?
When I was sixteen, and preparing to receive my First Communion, my parish priest asked me: “Who is the Virgin Mary for you?”, to which I answered: “My Mother,” ( I am an orphan, raised by my maternal grandparents). Our Mother is all Heart.
In these times of pandemic, I implore the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin for my dear friend and faithful Ana Maria, sick, blind (and, together with her, for all the sick), whom we visited weekly and who was admitted to Hospital, falling asleep in the Lord. She was consoled only by listening to Radio Maria on her portable radio; she spent the day and part of the night in bed attached to her transistor stuck to her ear. Her radio was the only thing she asked for, after receiving the Sacraments.
Now she only sleeps. How much good the Immaculate Heart of our Mother does.
I end with the words of Seville’s holy Bishop. Saint Manuel González: Mother of mine, may we not get tired!”
A strong embrace in Christ and my blessing.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
