Let us return love where it is most neglected, where it is most deserved. Through the daily prayer of the Rosary, through the offering of sacrifices, both fasting and the sufferings we cannot avoid — let us offer all of these to console Our Mother’s pierced Heart.
By Fr. Daniel Klimek
Why is August dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
At first glance, it sounds uncharacteristic. After all, even the preceding months would seem more appropriate. May is the “month of Mary,” and even June is the month when the memorial of the Immaculate Heart is celebrated. So how did August receive this Marian privilege?
A Feast is moved
There is a connection here to Pope Ven. Pius XII, who, responding to Our Lady’s message in Fatima, consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart in 1942 during World War II. Two years later, Pius XII instituted the universal Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Aug. 22, 1944, within the octave of the Assumption.
His decree articulated that the Marian feast was instituted to seek Our Lady’s intercession to bring peace among nations, the conversion of sinners, purity, and virtue. Thus, August came to be known as the month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council, however, changed the date of the celebration. Pope St. Paul VI revised the General Roman Calendar, moving the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which usually takes place in June, while August 22 became the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary.
The Feast of the Immaculate Heart was turned into a movable memorial, but captured the theological beauty of the inseparable unity between the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Thus the liturgical feast left August, but the popular devotion of associating the month with the Immaculate Heart of Mary remained. August, to this day, is commonly known as the “month of the Immaculate Heart.”
Patroness of the USA
A related interesting story, especially as we are in the midst of celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary, is how the United States of America came under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1846, the U.S. Catholic bishops gathered at the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore where they unanimously petitioned the Holy See to declare: “The Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, Patroness of the United States.”
The petition was granted, which was remarkable as the Immaculate Conception was not yet solemnly defined as a dogma until eight years later in 1854, when Bl. Pope Pius IX defined the dogma in his apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus.
Martyr of charity
No reflection on the month of August and its Marian connections would be complete without mentioning St. Maximilian Kolbe, the heroic Polish Franciscan martyr who had a profoundly deep Marian spirituality. Kolbe loved the Miraculous Medal and would pass the medals on to whomever he would meet. The saint saw them as an evangelical instrument that allowed him to speak about Our Lady, including her apparitions in 1830 in the Rue du Bac, Paris, to St. Catherine Labouré, from whose visionary experiences the Miraculous Medal originates.
On the front of the medal, around the Virgin Mary’s image, the prayer Our Lady bestowed from Heaven appears: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” These 1830 apparitions also predated and anticipated the request of the U.S. bishops, identifying Our Lady as the Immaculate Conception.
Very possibly, the Miraculous Medal, which was originally called the “Medal of the Immaculate Conception” — the moniker “Miraculous Medal” was informally bestowed on the medal only after widespread miraculous healings became associated with the medal’s influence — played an instrumental role in gaining popular support for the truth of the Immaculate Conception.
Our Life, Our Sweetness, Our Hope
It is important to recognize that for 180 years our nation has been under the express patronage of Mary, the Immaculate Conception. In this year of the 250th anniversary of the country, let us renew devotion to our nation’s Patroness. And there is no better way than renewing devotion to her Immaculate Heart. It is a precious Heart that is wounded by the sins of humanity and ingratitude toward her Son’s suffering and love.
Let us return love where it is most neglected, where it is most deserved. Through the daily prayer of the Rosary, through the offering of sacrifices, both fasting and the sufferings we cannot avoid — let us offer all of these to console Our Mother’s pierced Heart.
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