Immaculate Heart of Mary, be our refuge

After yesterday’s Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of the Lord Jesus, today we remember the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We gather in our sanctuary to honor Her loving Heart and open our hearts before Her. We offer her everything: our joys and worries, our needs and sufferings. For: “Like children we flock to our Mother – in all our needs we yearn for grace…” Specifically, we desire to ask her for the gift of peace! Because so much depends on it. And there are so many different kinds of restlessness within us. This restlessness is born from different causes. We can ourselves be the cause of this restlessness through our wrong decisions and actions. Others can also be the cause of this restlessness. 

How much restlessness comes from others treating us badly? There is unrest in the heart of the husband/wife when true love is absent or lacking in the marital union. There is unrest in the hearts of children as a result of their parents’ mistreatment of them. How much unrest is there in the hearts of parents because of their children’s disobedience? How much unrest is in the hearts of women, mothers, children, and other household members, waiting for the return home of a husband, father, or son who often comes home drunk and makes mischief. How much unrest is in the heart when there is a lack of harmony and love in the home, in the neighborhood, at school, at work, in all communities and places where we meet others? We must remember that “love and harmony build up, but discord and discord destroy!” We need to go with our hearts, for the sake of our hearts, to the other person.

There is unrest in the hearts of children when they see in their parents that they do not care about higher values ​​and are excessively concerned with material things; when they see in their parents religious indifference. They are aware of the words of Christ: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Children – in many cases—would like more heart, love, and time from their parents. Remember, dear parents, that through your hearts God desires to love your children. And therefore let them not lack that love. Remember also, children, that this love on your part is replaced, because through your hearts God desires to love your parents; and He desires to replace their efforts and sacrifices for you.

How much restlessness is in the hearts of today’s parents, who desire to embrace their children with true parental love, who desire to provide their children with the necessary means for life and proper development. And they feel a deficiency in this area. They also fear the loss of work, through which they can provide for a living. How much restlessness is born in their minds and hearts when they think about their education and their future life? How much unrest there is in the hearts of farmers, artisans, miners, and others. And the causes of this unrest are various! There will be no unrest in our hearts when quarrels and strife disappear from among us. Harmony, kindness, mutual assistance – love will prevail.

We must ask ourselves! And each one of us! Do we remember all this? Because if we do not remember it, there will be no peace in our hearts, and by extension in the hearts of others. Every renewal begins with the renewal of man, the renewal of his mind and his heart – as the Church constantly reminds us.

If the heart of a good, earthly mother desires the good of all people, and knows how to show them how they can and should solve their needs and the needs of others, how much more will the Mother of God, who is the Mother of us all, help us to know how to meet our needs and the needs of our brothers and sisters?

And what does the Mother of God want to tell us and whom to show? What she said to the servants in Cana of Galilee: “Do whatever my Son tells you” (cf. Jn 2:5). And her Son, who has remained with us in his Church – in a spiritual and sacramental way – tells us: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (cf. 14:6). “He who follows me does not walk in darkness”. Let us therefore go on the path of our life, illuminated by the light of the Gospel of Christ. Let us strive to make our families: “Strong in God!” May peace reign in them! This peace will be in families if it is in each family member. If it reigns in the hearts of our parents, it will also dwell in the hearts of children. And with this peace in our hearts, let us go to others. Then, despite the various trials and difficulties that life brings, we will be able to maintain peace within ourselves; we will radiate it and give it to others.

We are living a Holy Year. A Jubilee Year. Let us align all the “paths” that lead us to God and to our neighbors. Let us remember the words of the song: “Tell people that I love them and that I always care for them. If they stray from my path, tell them that I am looking for them.” Let us revive devotion to the Mother of God! According to the song in which we are encouraged: “Since the morning, sing praises, soul, to Mary! Honor to her feasts, honor to her memorials”. Devotion of the First Saturdays – to the Immaculate Heart of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. Prayer and meditation on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Let us remember that Mary said, “The mysteries of the Holy Rosary will trample the enemy of our salvation. Then my heart will triumph. It will save all humanity. O Mary! Our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we flee! Amen.