INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW HEADING “IN MATRIS STRINGS”

With this first article we start the new column of Exsurge Christianitas dedicated to Marian training.

Why a “training“? Because, as the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquino teaches, you cannot love what you do not know. In turn, love is the perfection of knowledge. Faith does not deny, does not contradict reason, but purifies and transcends it.

Why “Marian“? Because, and this is precisely the subject of the first article of this new column, Marian devotion is necessary for salvation. We will understand better in what terms and reasons this statement that might seem risky or exaggerated, but only in the eyes and minds of those who are imbued with the dominant mentality and modernist pseudo-theology that today rages.

Why the title: “In Corde Matris“? Because the Heart he is a figure of man’s interiority, the center of his thoughts, desires, his spiritual life, the movements that lead him to act. A pure heart is the spiritual organ that allows you to welcome God and to see things with the eyes of God. “Blessed are the pure of heart because they will see God” (Mt. 5:8). The Virgin Mary realizes this reality perfectly because, being the Immaculate Conception, preserved from original sin in view of the merits of the Passion of Jesus, Her Heart is perfectly pure, Immaculate. It can therefore be said that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the synthesis of the whole mystery of Mary. In the Heart of Mary there is the fullness of Christ’s Grace. God entrusted to her the Heart of Jesus. This is the Heart that preserves the things of Jesus and the Truths of faith: “Mary kept all these things meditating in Her Heart” (Lk 2:19). It is no coincidence that an ancient anaphora exalted Our Lady as she eradicating all heresies. This is the Heart that has most conformed to Christ, the first pure Tabernacle and Monsoory in which God dwells. The Heart of Mary is a Eucharistic Heart: His Heart prepares the Eucharist, brings it into His Womb, for nine months the Hearts of Jesus and the Mother throbbing in unison, Jesus becomes flesh in her and, without that flesh that Jesus receives from Mary, Flesh of the same flesh, Blood of the same Blood, He could not have humanly died and made the Sacrifice with which we can be saved! There can be no real participation in the Eucharist, in Holy Mass, in Adoration, without passing through the Heart of Mary! St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe teaches, of the Heart of Mary, that It is “the most real peak of God’s Love (…) the maximum summit of created love.” The more we look and belong to this Immaculate Heart, the closer we will get to God. The venerable Mary of Agreda, to whom the whole life of the Virgin Mary has been revealed, writes in her book “the mystical city of God”, which a moment before even in Her womb, Mary conceived Jesus in Her Heart. What enters the virginal womb of the Immaculate Conception is sure to be purified and cannot be touched by physical, but above all spiritual, evil. For this reason St. Pius of Pietrelcina always encouraged to consecrate himself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary “because it is the only place in the world where Satan has not set foot and will never set you to take the souls that will have entered it”. We must therefore have unlimited confidence in Mary. In Fatima the Immaculate herself told Lucia that Her Immaculate Heart is our safe haven. St. John Eudes (1601-1680) great Marian Saint, among the forerunners of the spread of devotion to the Heart of Mary and author of the monumental work “the admirable Heart of Mary” writes: “live in the life of blessed Heart of Mary, make your own His feelings, His provisions, His inclinations, love what It loves, hate what It hates so that His spirit may , His grace sanctified you, His Charity incurs you, His zeal devours you. We must love and love Her Son in her, because that is how she wants to be honored.

But theThe Heart of Mary is above all a Heart of Mother:Mother God, of each one of us and of the Church. S. Curato d’Ars said: “not even in Heaven can Our Lady enjoy Paradise in peace, because she is like a mother who has children outside her home and awaits her return.” God has carved this truth that Our Lady is our Mother, in the heart of man. It is the Holy Spirit who, when he communicates jesus’ life to the soul, also instills in her this invincible love for Mary, His Bride: let us think of the spontaneity with which children and children are attracted by the images of the Virgin or enchant in the face of the prayer of the Hail Mary or how christian peoples have always honoured the Virgin with Shrines , pilgrimages, small majesty that adorn the streets of our countryside and our countries. This natural impulse towards the Immaculate Conception can be said to have been born with the very birth of Christianity and the Church has always supported popular piety towards Our Lady by multiplying the feasts in her honor, her worship and her titles and privileges.

Let us not therefore fall into the demonic trap of thinking that worship of the Virgin Mary is in some way an obstacle to a more “Christocentric” spirituality as if the Mother and the Son are competing with each other. If we turn away from Mary, we will also lose Jesus! On the contrary, we must love Mary as Jesus loved her. This will never be possible in this life, so our love and veneration to the Immaculate Conception will never be too much. The great Marian Saints teach us that “De Maria numquam satis”, mary’s will never be said enough. And it is precisely in the wake of this great Tradition of Marian Saints and the infinite spiritual patrimony (in terms of their life experiences and writings and teachings) that they have bequeathed to us, that we wish to place our column of formation which we wish to consecrate to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that she may use it as she wishes , to touch the hearts of readers’ souls, eliciting deep love for this good Mother. This we desire and this is the grace we ask of you for each of us.