My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph

“Through Mary we drink of the wellspring of salvation”

– From “The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary”

I few years ago I was enrolled in the brown scapular and I began reading The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary as part of my morning prayers. Since starting this devotion, the Lord has been showing me the connection between Holy Mother Church and our Blessed Mother Mary. What I have come to realize is that this truth can be discovered even more fully through the mass, the divine liturgy. I want to share a few of these discoveries here, as these things have enriched my understanding of the mass and have also drawn me closer to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Holy Mother Church. 

Our Savior came through Mary. So too, the Sacraments, which are Jesus’ presence here on earth until the end of time, come through the Church. Our salvation is from Jesus, which is manifest on earth through the Sacraments and can only come through the Church, the Bride of Christ. 

Mary brought forth Jesus to the world and she holds within her the mystery of the Church, which was yet to come, from the Annunciation until Pentecost. Just as she holds Jesus in her heart as His mother (also in her womb for nine months), Holy Mother Church holds Jesus in her heart, which is the tabernacle. So every time the Blessed Sacrament is taken from the tabernacle, it is the opening of Mary’s Immaculate Heart, the heart of the Church, given to us freely as a gift from the mother’s heart. Both the Church and Mary give this gift to us, both are our mother, both are the mother of Jesus. When mass is completed, our Savior Jesus goes back into His mother’s heart, into the heart of the Church, which is the tabernacle, and it is there that Jesus remains, waiting for us to come to Him again.

When we draw near Mother Mary, we enter into the intimacy of who Jesus is. Without the mother, we can misinterpret Jesus. We can see Him how we want to see Him, how he best fits into our own story. But to see the mother and Her Son is to witness the great love for humanity that comes through their relationship and it is to be taken deeper into the heart of God. This mystery reveals to us the eternal relationship between God and humanity, which is played out in the Church, who is our Holy Mother, and her Sacraments, who is her Son, giving us the means to salvation. 

Just as Jesus only comes through Mary, the Sacraments only come through the Church. For Christians who do not honor Mary, Mary is still the vessel that brings forth the life of Christ into the world, both in Word and Spirit. Mary received the Spirit and was there as a Mother when the Apostles received the Spirit at Pentecost. At Pentecost, Mary birthed the Church. The mystery of the Church that was held within her from the Annunciation, was birthed forth into the world at Pentecost. The Church is the fulfillment of who Mary was and what she did. The Church is the fullest expression of our Blessed Mother and therein lies her Immaculate Heart.

So as Jesus remains with us until the end of time, He does so in a real way through the Sacraments of the Church. Mary too remains with us through Holy Mother Church. In Fatima Mary said that in the end her Immaculate Heart will triumph. With this we are called to trust that the heart of Holy Mother Church will also triumph. For it is in the heart of the Church that the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith, Jesus Christ Himself, lives and breathes. This living Jesus found in every tabernacle of every Catholic Church will not be defeated, He has already won the war.