June 20 2020
Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Reading 1 2 CHR 24:17-25
After the death of Jehoiada,
the princes of Judah came and paid homage to King Joash,
and the king then listened to them.
They forsook the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers,
and began to serve the sacred poles and the idols;
and because of this crime of theirs,
wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD,
the people would not listen to their warnings.
Then the Spirit of God possessed Zechariah,
son of Jehoiada the priest.
He took his stand above the people and said to them:
“God says, ‘Why are you transgressing the LORD’s commands,
so that you cannot prosper?
Because you have abandoned the LORD, he has abandoned you.’”
But they conspired against him,
and at the king’s order they stoned him to death
in the court of the LORD’s temple.
Thus King Joash was unmindful of the devotion shown him
by Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, and slew his son.
And as Zechariah was dying, he said, “May the LORD see and avenge.”
At the turn of the year a force of Arameans came up against Joash.
They invaded Judah and Jerusalem,
did away with all the princes of the people,
and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.
Though the Aramean force came with few men,
the LORD surrendered a very large force into their power,
because Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers.
So punishment was meted out to Joash.
After the Arameans had departed from him,
leaving him in grievous suffering,
his servants conspired against him
because of the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest.
He was buried in the City of David,
but not in the tombs of the kings.
Responsorial Psalm 89:4-5, 29-30, 31-32, 33-34
R. (29a) For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.
I will make his posterity endure forever
and his throne as the days of heaven.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“If his sons forsake my law
and walk not according to my ordinances,
If they violate my statutes
and keep not my commands.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
“I will punish their crime with a rod
and their guilt with stripes.
Yet my mercy I will not take from him,
nor will I belie my faithfulness.”
R. For ever I will maintain my love for my servant.
Alleluia LK 2:19
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed is the Virgin Mary who kept the word of God
and pondered it in her heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 2:41-51
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old,
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part Two: the Sacraments of Faith
15 The second part of the Catechism explains how God’s salvation, accomplished once for all through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, is made present in the sacred actions of the Church’s liturgy (Section One), especially in the seven sacraments (Section Two).
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
SATURDAY, JUNE 20TH Lk. 2:41-51 Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Second Apparition of Fatima and the Immaculate Heart of Mary…
- In the second Fatima apparition on 13 June 1917 Our Lady revealed her Immaculate Heart to the children. Lucia writes: “From that day onwards, our hearts were filled with a more ardent love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
- In this second apparition Lucia asked: “Will you take us to heaven?” “Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart.
- We can hear the sadness in Lucia’s next question: “Must I remain in the world alone?” “Not alone, my child, and you must not be sad. I will be with you always, and my Immaculate Heart will be your comfort and the way which will lead you to God.”
- Lucia: “The moment she said the last words, opening her hands, she transmitted to us, for the second time, the reflection of that intense light. In it we felt we were submerged in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which was rising to Heaven, and I in the part spreading over the earth. In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled with thorns which appeared to pierce it. We understood it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary offended by the sins of mankind, craving reparation.”
- After this apparition, Jacinta would at times exclaim to Lucia, “The Lady said that her Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. Don’t you love that? Her Heart is so good! How I love it!”
Sister Lucia, a professed religious Carmelite, on Our Lady and the Rosary in today’s world…
- Sister Lucia: Let people say the rosary every day. Our Lady stated that repeatedly in all her apparitions, as if to fortify us against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not allow ourselves to be deceived by false doctrines.
- Sister Lucia: The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Holy Rosary. She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations; that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.
Sister Lucia’s Exposition of the Rosary…
On September 16, 1970, Sister Lucia wrote to a friend, Mother Maria José Martins, who had been her companion at Tuy, in the novitiate of the Dorothean Sisters. Following is an excerpt from the letter. We can derive from this that Lucia does not think Mother Martins appreciates the Rosary as it deserves. By God’s Providence we have this beautiful exposition of the Rosary in Lucia’s own words!
J.M.J.T.
Coimbra, September 16, 1970
Dear Mother Martins,
Pax Christi.
(Personal greetings….)
Regarding what you said about the prayer of the Rosary, it is a pity because the prayer of the Rosary, or five decades of it, after the Sacred Liturgy of the Eucharist, is what most unites us with God by the richness of the prayers that compose it.
All of them came from Heaven, dictated by the Father, by the Son and by the Holy Ghost.
The Glory Be that we pray between the decades was dictated by the Father to the angels when He sent them to sing it near to His Word, the newborn Child. It is also a hymn to the Blessed Trinity.
The Our Father was dictated by the Son, and it is a prayer directed to the Father.
The Hail Mary is completely impregnated both with a Trinitarian and a Eucharistic sense. The first words were dictated by the Father to the Angel when He sent him to announce the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word: “Hail [Mary] full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” You are full of grace because in you dwells the fountain of grace, and also because of your union with the most Blessed Trinity.
Moved by the Holy Ghost, St. Elizabeth said: “Blessed art thou among women, and Blessed is the Fruit of thy womb” [Jesus].
The Church, also moved by the Holy Ghost, added, “Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” This prayer is directed to God through the mediation of Mary. Because you are the Mother of God, pray for us.
The Hail Mary is a Trinitarian prayer because Mary was the first living temple of the most Holy Trinity, evident from the words of the Angel: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and therefore the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of God.”
It is also Eucharistic. Mary is the first living Tabernacle wherein the Father enclosed His Son, the Word made flesh. Her Immaculate Heart is the first Monstrance to hold Him. Her breast and her arms were the first Altar on which the Father exposed His Son for adoration. There the Angels, the Shepherds and the Magi adored Him.
Mary is the first…who held in her pure and immaculate hands the Son of God. It was she who took Him to the Temple to offer Him to the Father as a victim for the salvation of the world.
If we give to the Hail Mary its full significance – all the beauty of these pious considerations – we see that it is indeed a Trinitarian and a Eucharistic prayer, even more than a Marian one. I do not know if we can find prayers more sublime or more appropriate to recite before the Blessed Sacrament.
Moreover, after the Sacred Liturgy of the Eucharist, the prayer of the Rosary is what best fosters within our spirit the growth of the mysteries of Faith, Hope, and Charity. It is the spiritual bread of souls. The one who does not pray weakens and dies. It is in prayer that we meet with God, and in this encounter, He imparts to us Faith, Hope, and Charity. Without these virtues we cannot be saved.
Unfortunately, we cannot hopefully expect a great number of souls to assist at daily Mass, but we can hope to bring a greater number of them to recite the daily Rosary. This practice will preserve and increase their faith, due to the prayer life it fosters and to the mysteries of our Redemption which are remembered in each decade.
The Rosary is the prayer of the poor and the rich, of the wise and the ignorant. To uproot this devotion from souls is to deprive them of their daily spiritual bread. The Rosary helps to preserve that flickering flame of faith that has not yet been completely extinguished from many consciences. Even for those souls who pray without meditating, the simple act of taking the beads in hand to pray is already a remembrance of God – of the supernatural. And just the simple recollection of the mysteries before each decade is still another ray of light sustaining the flicker of light in their souls.
That is why the devil is waging such a great war against it. And the worst of it is that he has deluded and deceived souls who bear a great responsibility because of their office. They are the blind leading the blind. They seek in Vatican Council II support for their positions, not realizing that the Holy Council ordered them to preserve all the practices that in the course of the years had been fostered in honor of the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God; that the prayer of the Rosary is one of the most important of these, and that, therefore, according to the decrees of the Holy Council and the recommendations of the Holy Father, [it] is one we must maintain.
I have great hopes that, in the not too far distant future, the prayer of the Holy Rosary will be proclaimed a liturgical prayer, because all its parts share in the Sacred Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Let us pray, work, and sacrifice and trust that “Finally my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Lucia, O.C.D.
To Honor Mary today, let us pray the Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary with great love for Mary and Jesus, and in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Christ, hear us, Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on us.
Heart of Mary, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, After God’s own Heart, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, In union with the Heart of Jesus, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Vessel of the Holy Spirit, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Shrine of the Trinity, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Home of the Word, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Immaculate in your creation, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Flooded with grace, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Blessed of all hearts, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Throne of glory, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Abyss of humbleness, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Victim of love, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Nailed to the cross, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Comfort of the sad, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Refuge of the sinner, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Hope of the dying, Pray for us.
Heart of Mary, Seat of mercy, Pray for us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us.
Immaculate Mary, meek and humble of Heart.
Conform our hearts to the Heart of Jesus. Let us pray,
O most merciful God, who for the salvation of sinners and the refuge of the wretched, has made the Immaculate Heart of Mary most like in tenderness and pity to the Heart of Jesus, grant that we, who now commemorate her most sweet and loving heart, may by her merits and intercession, ever live in the fellowship of the hearts of both Mother and Son, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
