St. John Eudes was responsible for activating the devotion to Our Lady's Heart and giving it the stimulus which grew into this modern feast. Pope Pius VII, at the beginning of the nineteenth century instituted a Feast of the Most Pure Heart of the Virgin Mary for optional use. In 1942, Pope Pius XII confided the whole human race to the care of Mary's Immaculate Heart in a solemn act of dedication, and established the feast celebrated today. The devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the homage paid by the faithful to Our Lady's Heart as the symbol of her complete and entire fidelity to God. It was from the Gospels that the early believers gleaned the account of Mary's inner life. Her spirit of recollection is seen in the words: "Mary kept all these words in her heart pondering over them"; her fidelity to duty in the tribute paid to her by Christ: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it"; her self-effacing charity in the trust given to her at the foot of the Cross: "Mother, behold thy son"—all these have been the background of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart since the early days of the Church. From her own words also as chiefly recorded by St. Luke, which tell of the dispositions of her heart at the Annunciation, at the loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple, at the marriage feast and, above all, in the glorious Magnificat spoken before Elizabeth, devout souls have grown to admire and love the Immaculate Heart which prompted them. The apparition to Catherine Labouré in 1830, authorizing a medal with a representation of the Immaculate Heart, furthered the devotion; in our day, the wonders at Fatima in Portugal in 1917 have enhanced it; the renewal of the First Saturday devotion in honor of Mary Immaculate has added to its popularity.

Reflection — The Heart of Mary is the perfect image Of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Therefore she is our model and patron. Only through her can we hope to have our cold hearts changed into the likeness of the Heart of Jesus.

Taken from Father Alban Butler's "Lives of the Saints for Every Day in the Year — With Reflections" Copyright 1955.