The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Today, "the Saturday after the second Sunday after Pentecost", is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Pauline Rite.  In my occasionally humble opinion this is one of the few inspired creations of that rite in that it makes the feast of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart immediately follow the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  This year it follows on first Saturday immediately after first Friday.

A poem for Our Lady by Dante Alighieri, translated by Msgr Ronald Knox:


     Maiden, yet a Mother,
     Daughter of thy Son,
     High beyond all other --
     Lowlier is none;
     Thou the consummation
     Planned by God's decree,
     When our lost creation
     Nobler rose in thee!


     Thus his place preparèd
     He who all things made
     'Mid his creatures tarried,
     In thy bosom laid;
     There his love he nourished,--
     Warmth that gave increase'
     To the Root whence flourished
     Our eternal peace.


     Nor alone thou hearest
     When thy name we hail;
     Often thou art nearest
     When our voices fail;
     Mirrored in thy fashion
     All creation's good,
     Mercy, might, compassion
     Grace thy womanhood.


     Lady, lest our vision
     Striving heavenward, fail,
     Still let thy petition
     With thy Son prevail,
     Unto whom all merit,
     Power and majesty,
     With the Holy Spirit
     And the Father be.


Found in Collins's edition of The Divine Office.

More on Our Lady's Immaculate Heart:

from the Fountain of Elias

from Recta Ratio