Double of the Second Class Feast of the IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Missa "Adeámus"
WHITE Vestments
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary always flourished in the Church, but its first
official approval did not come till the beginning of the 19th century when Pope Pius VI approved, for certain religious organizations, a Feast for the Most Pure Heart of Mary. The devotion was approved for the universal Church when
Pope Pius XII dedicated all mankind to the Heart of Mary in December, 1942, following this by the institution of the new Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the B. V. M.
We want to thank the Friends of Our Lady of Fatima for expediting these resources of the Propers. Sources: Saint Andrew Daily Missal and the Marian Missal , 1945

He alone who could understand Mary's holiness could appreciate her glory. But Wisdom, who presided over the formation of the abyss has not revealed to us the depth of that ocean, beside which all the virtues of the just and all the graces lavished upon them are but streamlets. Nevertheless, the immensity of grace and merit, whereby the Blessed Virgin's supernatural perfection stands quite apart from all others,gives us a right to conclude that she has an equal supereminence in glory, which is always proportioned to the sanctity of the elect. Whereas all the other predestined of our race are placed among the various ranks of the celestial hierarchy, the holy Mother of God is exalted above all the choirs, forming by herself, a distinct order, a new Heaven, where the harmonies of angels and saints are far surpassed. In Mary God is more gloried, better known, more loved than in all the rest of the universe. On this groaund alone, according to the order of creative Providence, which subordinates the less to the more perfect. Mary is entitled to be the Queen of earth and Heaven. In this sense, it is for her, next to the Man-God, that the world exists.
The great theologian, Cardinal de Lugo, explaining the words of the saints on this subject, dares to say: 'Just as creating all things in His complacency for His Christ, God made Him the end of creatures; so with due proportion we may say He drew the rest of the world out of nothing, through the love of the Virgin Mother, so that shee, too, might thus justly be called the end of all things.
As Mother of God, and at the same time His firstborn, she had a right an dtitle over His goods; as Bride, she ought to share His crown. 'The glorious Virgin,' says St. Bernardine of Siena, ' has as many subjects as thhe Blessed Trinity has. Every creature, whatever be its rank in creation, spiritual as the angels, rational as man, material as the heavenly bodies or the elements, Heaven and earth, the reprobate and the blessed, all that springs from the power of God, is subject to the Virgin. For He Who is the Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin, wishing, so to say, to make His Mother's principality in some sort equal to His Father's, became, God as He is, the servant of Mary. If, then, it be true to say that everyone, even the Virgin, obeys God, we may also convert the proposition, and affirm that everyone, even God, obeys the Virgin.'
The empire of Eternal Wisdom comprises, so the Holy Ghost tells us, the heavens, the earth, and the abyss: the same, then, is the appanage of Mary on this her coronation day. Like the divine Wisdom to Whom she gave Flesh, she may glory in God. He Whose magnificence she once chanted today exalts her humility. She who is blessed above all others has become the honor of her people, the admiration of the saints, the glory of the armies of the Most High. Together with the Spouse, let her, in her beauty, march to victory; let her triumph over the hearts of the mighty and the lowly. The giving of the world's sceptre into her hands is no mere honor void of reality: from this day forward she commands and fights, protects the Church, defends its [legitimate] head, upholds the ranks of the sacred militia, raises up saints, directs apostles, enlightens doctors, exterminates heresy, crushes hell.
Let us hail our Queen, let us sing her mighty deeds; let us be docile to her; above all, let us love her and trust in her love. Let us not fear that, amidst the great interests of spreading of God's kingdom, she will forget our littleness or our miseries. She knows all that takes place in the obscurest corners, in the furthest limits of her immense domain. From her title of universal cause under the Lord is rightly deduced the universality of her providence; and the masters of doctrine show us Mary in glory sharing in the science called of vision, whereby all that is, has been, or is to be present before God. On the other hand, we must believe that her charity could not possibly be defective: as her love of God surpasses the love of all the elect, so the tenderness of all mothers united, centered upon an only child, is nothing to the love wherewith Mary surrounds the least, the most forgotten, the most neglected of all the children of God, who are her children too. She forestalls them in her solicitude, listens at all times to their humble prayers, pursues them in their guilty flights, sustains their weakness, compassionates their ills, whether of body or of soul, sheds upon all men the heavenly favors whereof she is the treasury.
Let us then, say to her, in the words of one of her great servants: 'O most holy Mother of God, who hast beautified Heaven and earth, in leaving this world thou hast not abandoned man. Here below thou didst live in Heaven; from Heaven thou conversest with us. Thrice happy those who contemplated and livede with the Mother of life! But in the same way as thou didst dwell in the flesh with them of the first age, thou now dwellest with us spiritually. We hear thy voice; and all our voices reach thine ear; and thy continual protection over us makes thy presence evident. Thou dost visit us; thine eye is upon us all; and althought our eyes cannot see thee, O most holy one, yet thou art in the midst of us, showing thyself in various ways to whomsoever is worthy. Thy immaculate body and Heart, come forth from the tomb, hinders not the immaterial power, the most pure activity of that spirit of thine, which being inseparable from the Holy Ghost, breathes also where it wills. O Mother of God, receive the grateful homage of our joy, and speak for thy children to Him Who has glorified thee: whatsoever thou askest of Him, He will accomplish it by His divine power; may He be blessed forever.
Let us honor the group of martyrs which forms the rearguard of our triumphant Queen. Timothy, who came from Antioch to Rome, Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, and Symphorian, the glory of Autun, suffered for God at different periods and at different places; but they gathered their palms on the same day of the year, and the same Heaven is now their abofde. 'My son, my son,' said the valiant mother to Symphorian, 'remember life eternal; look up, and see Him Who reigns in Heaven; they are not taking thy life away, but changing it into a better.' Let us admire these heroes of our faith; and let us learn to walk like them, though by less painful in the paths, in the footsteps of our Lord, and so to rejoice, Mary, the Spotless Virgin. (The Liturgical Year, Volume 13, pages 451-54)
Missa "Adeámus"
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INTROIT: Hebrews 4: 16
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