THE HEART OF OUR LADY
2. The Will of God.
God has given us no explicit injunction to honor the Heart of Our Lady, yet it is evident that God wants it and ardently desires it. We know that He invites us to fix our abode in His loving Heart. Then how can we enter it? There is no other way than through the Heart of Our Heavenly Mother.
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the best road, the most fitting way to acquire a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
If it is God's Will that we should honor His Divine Heart, it is also His clear and precise Will, implicitly contained in the former, that we should honor the most pure Heart of His Mother. Behold this Heart that has so much loved men! says Jesus, inviting us to His love. The same, identical words may be applied also to Mary. There is no heart after that Heart of Jesus which has loved us so much; there is no heart which has taught us so well to love God, as the Heart of Mary. No heart can be our model so well as Her's.
The tender complaint of the Sacred Heart of Jesus where He deplores the ingratitude of men applies to us all. When the Lord complained of our want of correspondence He was thinking of every one of us. He was hinting at the behavior of us all. Your heart will certainly endorse this statement. But the Heart of Mary is not like that. The Heart of Mary was the only one which was excluded from God's loving reproach. Jesus has no complaint about the Heart of His Mother. Must we not regard this model and there learn how to love the Heart of Christ? Would God not wish it? Do not say that He has not ordered it expressly. Was there any need for Him to command such an obvious duty?
Your heart should be enclosed in the Heart of Jesus. Consequently you must enclose it in that of His Mother. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus presupposes a tender devotion to the Heart of Mary for this is the obvious Will of God.
But there is something more. God's Will in this regard has been manifested especially and precisely in these modern times. Life today has the hallmark of selfishness. Every day man's heart has become more self-centered, more self-seeking, more oblivious of God, more forgetful of his neighbor. Where are those today who would sacrifice themselves for the love of God and of souls? What are the chief pursuits of the modern world? Even those who are good and even think themselves rather holy, what fire of charity have they? Do we not see them daily pursue their own profit, fight for the triumph of their self-love and self-interest? Shame! How unpleasant must this appear in the sight of the angels!
God demands the heart of men. He seeks man's love, and finds instead nothing but selfishness everywhere. It is on account of this, in order to cure this sick world of its want of love, that He has in these days, torn open His breast, shown us His Heart and has through the example of His Divine Heart sent us an invitation to love.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the solution and the remedy which God has prepared to cure the modern sickness of the human heart. Be persuaded then; devotion to the Heart of Mary is an actual, urgent need; a pressing duty. We must waste no time. The heart of man cannot disregard this invitation which the Lord makes through His own Heart and through the Heart of His Heavenly Mother.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
God has given us no explicit injunction to honor the Heart of Our Lady, yet it is evident that God wants it and ardently desires it. We know that He invites us to fix our abode in His loving Heart. Then how can we enter it? There is no other way than through the Heart of Our Heavenly Mother.
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the best road, the most fitting way to acquire a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
If it is God's Will that we should honor His Divine Heart, it is also His clear and precise Will, implicitly contained in the former, that we should honor the most pure Heart of His Mother. Behold this Heart that has so much loved men! says Jesus, inviting us to His love. The same, identical words may be applied also to Mary. There is no heart after that Heart of Jesus which has loved us so much; there is no heart which has taught us so well to love God, as the Heart of Mary. No heart can be our model so well as Her's.
The tender complaint of the Sacred Heart of Jesus where He deplores the ingratitude of men applies to us all. When the Lord complained of our want of correspondence He was thinking of every one of us. He was hinting at the behavior of us all. Your heart will certainly endorse this statement. But the Heart of Mary is not like that. The Heart of Mary was the only one which was excluded from God's loving reproach. Jesus has no complaint about the Heart of His Mother. Must we not regard this model and there learn how to love the Heart of Christ? Would God not wish it? Do not say that He has not ordered it expressly. Was there any need for Him to command such an obvious duty?
Your heart should be enclosed in the Heart of Jesus. Consequently you must enclose it in that of His Mother. The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus presupposes a tender devotion to the Heart of Mary for this is the obvious Will of God.
But there is something more. God's Will in this regard has been manifested especially and precisely in these modern times. Life today has the hallmark of selfishness. Every day man's heart has become more self-centered, more self-seeking, more oblivious of God, more forgetful of his neighbor. Where are those today who would sacrifice themselves for the love of God and of souls? What are the chief pursuits of the modern world? Even those who are good and even think themselves rather holy, what fire of charity have they? Do we not see them daily pursue their own profit, fight for the triumph of their self-love and self-interest? Shame! How unpleasant must this appear in the sight of the angels!
God demands the heart of men. He seeks man's love, and finds instead nothing but selfishness everywhere. It is on account of this, in order to cure this sick world of its want of love, that He has in these days, torn open His breast, shown us His Heart and has through the example of His Divine Heart sent us an invitation to love.
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the solution and the remedy which God has prepared to cure the modern sickness of the human heart. Be persuaded then; devotion to the Heart of Mary is an actual, urgent need; a pressing duty. We must waste no time. The heart of man cannot disregard this invitation which the Lord makes through His own Heart and through the Heart of His Heavenly Mother.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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