Devotion to the Immaculate and Sacred Heart of Mary
The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Mary is as old as devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The two Hearts are inseparable. Where there is one, there is the other. Mary is the Mother, the Genetrix. The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Mary begins in response to the suffering of Mary at the foot of the Cross of Jesus.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary goes back to the beginnings of the Church, for it has its deepest roots in the Holy Scriptures. This event had already been prophesied by the old Simeon in the temple, saying that the Heart of Mary would be pierced by the sword. Another source of this devotion is in the Gospel of St. Luke which says: Mary kept all the words of Jesus in her Heart: "Mary kept all these words, meditating on them in her heart" (Lk 2:19). "Then he went down with them to Nazareth and was submissive to them. His mother kept all these things in her heart "(Lk 2,51).
The liturgical memory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is celebrated on the Sabbath following the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, placed on the second Friday after the solemnity of Corpus Christi.
The seed of the Gospel, planted by the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, germinated in the doctrine of the Holy Fathers and developed with the theologians and mystics of the Middle Ages.
In the following centuries, other great devotees of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and of the Heart of Jesus, such as St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, St. Bridget, St. Bernardine of Sena and St. John Eudes.
