Immaculate Heart of Mary
Feast Day: Saturday after the Feast of the Sacred Heart
Mothers remember everything.
Your first word.
Your first steps.
The time you got stitches.
The thing you said at Thanksgiving in 2014 that you wish everyone would forget.
A mother’s heart holds all of it.
St. Luke tells us Mary was the same.
She kept everything about her Son in her heart.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
“Pondering Them in Her Heart”
After the shepherds visited the newborn Jesus, Luke writes:
“But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.”
— Luke 2:19
And after finding the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple:
“And his mother kept all these words in her heart.”
— Luke 2:51
Mary did not understand everything right away.
But she held it all, prayed over it, and trusted God.
Her heart was the first place where the mysteries of Jesus’ life were treasured and prayed over.
A Heart Pierced
When Mary and Joseph presented the baby Jesus in the Temple, the old man Simeon blessed them.
Then he said to Mary:
“And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.”
— Luke 2:35
That sword came at the foot of the Cross.
Mary watched her Son suffer and die.
That is why images of the Immaculate Heart often show a sword piercing it.
Why “Immaculate”?
Mary’s heart is called immaculate because, by God’s grace, she was preserved from all sin from the first moment of her life.
(See What the Immaculate Conception Actually Means.)
Her heart was never divided.
It belonged completely to God.
Every desire, every choice, every love in her heart was directed toward Him.
Two Hearts
The Church celebrates the Sacred Heart of Jesus on a Friday, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the very next day.
That placement is intentional.
In the 1600s, St. John Eudes spread devotion to both Hearts and wrote:
“The Heart of Mary is so closely united to the Heart of Jesus that these two Hearts are but one Heart.”
— St. John Eudes
Mary’s heart was formed entirely around her Son.
To love her heart is to be led straight to His.
(See St. John Eudes.)
Fatima and the Immaculate Heart
In 1917, at Fatima, Our Lady spoke to three children about her Immaculate Heart.
She asked for prayer, penance, and devotion to her heart, including receiving Communion on the first Saturdays of the month in reparation for sin.
In 1942, during World War II, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In 1944, he extended the feast of the Immaculate Heart to the whole Church.
(See Our Lady of Fatima.)
When Is It Celebrated?
The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a movable feast.
It falls on the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is the Friday 19 days after Pentecost.
Because Pentecost depends on the date of Easter, the date changes every year, usually landing in June.
In 2027, it falls on June 5.
In 1996, Pope St. John Paul II made it an obligatory memorial for the whole Church.
What the Immaculate Heart Teaches Us
Mary’s heart teaches us how to listen to God.
She pondered.
She treasured.
She trusted even when she did not understand.
Her heart also teaches us how to suffer with love.
Her heart was pierced, but it never stopped loving.
And it teaches us where devotion to Mary always leads: to the Heart of her Son.
When Is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
The Catholic Church celebrates the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Prayer Inspired by the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Lord Jesus Christ,
You gave Your Mother a heart that belonged entirely to You.
Through her Immaculate Heart, teach us to ponder Your words,
to trust You in suffering,
and to love You with undivided hearts.
Lead us always through her heart to Yours.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us. Amen.
