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The Bell Ringer ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, HYANNIS + AUGUST 2020 The Immaculate Heart of Mary Benedict XVI provides “In the depths of your being, in your Immaculate Heart, you keep the joys of men and women as they journey to the thoughts on Heavenly Homeland. In the depths of your being, in your the meaning Immaculate Heart, you keep the sorrows of the human family, of Christ’s as they mourn and weep in this valley of tears. Transfiguration. “In the depths of your being, in your Immaculate Heart, adorn See page 3. us with the radiance of the jewels of your crown and Carlo Acutis, a make us pilgrims, even as you were a pilgrim.” 15-year-old Pope Francis offered this prayer to Mary at the beginning of his two- computer whiz, day pilgrimage to Fatima in Portugal May 12-13, 2017 to celebrate lover of the centenary of Mary's appearance to three shepherd children. This Eucharistic month’s liturgical theme is the Immaculate Heart of Mary and while miracles, to be beatified Our Lady was prayed to under this title at the Fatima centennary, in October. See page 4. the devotion to her under this title goes back much further. Historically, devotion to the Heart of Mary grew up in parallel, Cardinal Sarah but at a lesser intensity than that of devotion to the Heart of Jesus, on the only starting to become more prominent through St. John Eudes value of during the 17th century. St. John brought people to love Christ and Silence the Virgin Mary by speaking tirelessly about their hearts, the sign of & Prayer, page 5. the love God shows for us and the communion to which we are called. Without question the outstanding promoter of public devotion and veneration of Mary's Immaculate Heart, the Church has designated him as both “Author of the liturgical worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary" and "Father, Doctor and Apostle of this devotion.” St. John Eudes composed Masses and Offices in their honor to offer them liturgical worship. Humility, perfecting But it was not until after the apparitions at the Rue du Bac one’s life, & how well concerning the "Miraculous Medal" made to St. Catherine Labouré in God knows us, are 1830, and the establishment of a society dedicated to the Immaculate topics found on Page 7. Heart of Mary, at the Church of Our Lady of Victories in Paris in 1836, that this particular devotion became really well known. Since then devotion to the Immaculate Heart of (Continued on page 2) Heart of Mary Continued from page 1 Mary, has gradually grown more widespread in the Church, particularly since the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima. One of the three shepherds, Lucia, in her Heart as being full of love for mankind, but with Memoirs explained, “Our Lady told us, in the this love for the most part being ignored or July secret, that God wished to establish in the rejected, while devotion to Mary's heart is world devotion to her Immaculate Heart. Our essentially concerned with the love that her heart Lady said, ‘Jesus wishes you to make me known has for Jesus, for God. and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to Therefore, it is not an end in itself, so the love establish devotion in the world to my of her heart is meant to be a model for the way Immaculate Heart.’ Three times her Immaculate we should love God. The fact that her heart is Heart was mentioned in that July apparition, immaculate, that is sinless, means that she is the also referring to the conversion of Russia and only fully human person who is able to really the vision of hell. Our Lady said, ‘You have seen love God in the way that He should be loved. hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. It is to Honoring Mary's Immaculate Heart is really save them that God wants to establish in the just another way of honoring Mary as the person world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.’ who was chosen to be the Mother of God, “I see that from the very beginning Jesus recognizing her extraordinary holiness and the Christ united to his redemptive work the immense love she bestowed on Jesus as His Immaculate Heart of her whom He chose to be mother, the person who was called to share in His Mother,” Lucia says. and co-operate in his redemptive sufferings. St. John Paul II has written similarly. “The The aim of the devotion is to unite mankind work of our redemption began at the moment to God through Mary's heart, and this process when the Word descended from Heaven in order involves the ideas of consecration and reparation. to assume a human body in the womb of Mary. A person is consecrated to Mary's Immaculate From that moment, and for the next nine Heart as a way of being completely devoted to months, the Blood of Christ was the Blood of God. This involves a total gift of self, something Mary, taken from Her Immaculate Heart; the only ultimately possible with reference to God; Heart of Christ was beating in unison with the but Mary is our intermediary in this process of Heart of Mary.” consecration. Because of the strong analogy between Jesus Distinction in Devotion to the Two Hearts and Mary, the consecration to Mary's The Catholic News Agency’s resource area Immaculate Heart is closely linked to the offers an explanation of the distinction between consecration to Jesus' Sacred Heart, although it the devotion to Jesus’ and Mary’s Hearts: is subordinate and dependent on it. That is, The main difference between the devotions to although the act of consecration is ultimately the Hearts of Jesus and Mary is that the one addressed to God, it is an act that is made concerned with Jesus emphasizes His Divine through Mary. + The Pope’s August Prayer Intention The Maritime World We pray for all those who work and live from the sea, among them sailors, fishermen and their families. Prayer for the Holy Father Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon Thy servant, Pope Francis, our Supreme Pontiff, and direct him, according to Thy loving kindness, in the way of eternal salvation; that, of Thy gift, he may ever desire that which is pleasing unto Thee and may accomplish it with all his might. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen. Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be to the Father. The Transfiguration “For He revealed His glory in the presence of chosen witnesses and filled with the greatest splendor that bodily form which He shares with all humanity, that the scandal of the Cross might be removed from the hearts of His disciples and that He might show how in the Body of the whole Church is to be fulfilled what so wonderfully shone forth first in its Head.” — Preface of the Feast of the Transfiguration Mary. To listen to Him in the word, preserved in sacred Scripture. To listen to Him in the very We celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration on events of our lives, trying to read in them the Thursday, August 6, as well as meditating on it messages of providence. To listen to Him, finally, every time we pray the Luminous Mysteries of in our brothers, especially in the little ones and the Rosary. Pope Benedict XVI, noted that the the poor, for whom Jesus Himself asked our Transfiguration brings to our attention the need concrete love. To listen to Christ and to obey his to “listen” to the Lord. voice. This is the only way that leads to joy and “Astonished in the presence of the trans- love,’ the Pope emphasized. figured Lord, who was speaking with Moses and Elias, Peter, James and John were suddenly A Prayer Event, Too enveloped in a cloud from which a voice arose The Transfiguration is also a prayer event, that proclaimed: "This is my beloved Son, listen Benedict explains. “It displays visibly what to Him”. happens when Jesus talks with His Father: the “. For a moment they experienced ahead of profound interpenetration of His being with God, time something that will constitute the which then becomes pure light.” happiness of paradise. In general, it is brief “And He was transfigured before them,” Mark experiences that God grants on occasions, says quite simply, going on to add somewhat especially in anticipation of harsh trials. awkwardly, as if awed by the mystery: “And His However, no one lives ‘on Tabor’ while on earth. clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no “Human existence is a journey of faith and, as one on Earth could bleach them.” such, goes forward more in darkness than in full Matthew’s account is more vivid: “His face light, with moments of obscurity and even shone like the sun, and His clothes became white profound darkness. While we are here, our as light.” Luke begins his account by indicating relationship with God develops more with the purpose of Jesus’s ascent to Mount Tabor: He listening than with seeing; and even “went up on the mountain to pray.” It is in the contemplation takes place, so to speak, with context of Jesus’s prayer that he now explains closed eyes, thanks to the interior light lit in us the event that the three disciples are to witness: by the word of God.” “And as He was praying, the appearance of His Pope Benedict cited Mary, the Mother of God, face was altered, and His clothing became “the human creature closest to God, [who] walked dazzling white.” day after day as though on a pilgrimage of faith, Benedict says these garments speak of our keeping and meditating constantly in her heart own future.