Marian Devotion and Conversion of Heart
Marian devotion, giving honor and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is foundational in the life of every Catholic because it facilitates the Blessed Mother’s unique work of uniting our hearts to the Heart of God. All through Sacred Scripture God speaks of the value He places on the heart. The heart symbolizes affection, love and the desire to be united to the one who is loved. Consider Matthew 15:8 when Jesus quotes Isaiah saying, “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’” Or when God speaks through Jeremiah saying, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”1
Mary’s great desire and universal calling is to vivify and strengthen the hearts of her Children with the holy flame of charity allowing the Divine Indwelling to bear more fruit and transform her children into channels of God’s grace to the whole world. In Luke 2:35, Simeon prophesied Mary’s shared ministry with her son, that a sword would pierce her soul too so that the hearts of many would be laid bare. When we devote ourselves to her, she will lay bare our soul, revealing to us hidden wounds and patterns of sin that keep us from conforming completely to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Mary Magnifies the Lord
Having devotion to Mary isn’t meant to elevate Mary to the level of God. In Mary’s Magnificat given in Luke 1:46-55, Mary asserts that while she is nothing on her own, God raises up the humble and exalts those who fear Him. Far from detracting from God, Her exalted position magnifies Him.
To magnify means to make something appear larger or more significant. Mary, by her very life and actions, amplifies God’s presence and glory. Her acceptance of God’s will, her role as the Mother of Jesus, and her unwavering faith all serve to highlight God’s greatness and His plan for humanity. Through Mary’s “yes,” the Incarnation was made possible, bringing Jesus, the Savior, into the world.
Meditating on Mary’s life reveals her deep faith and trust in God. In her, we see a model of discipleship that is entirely focused on God. Her humility is revealed in her complete willingness to be an instrument of God’s will, and her Magnificat beautifully articulates her recognition of God’s mercy, strength, and providence. Mary does not seek to magnify herself but to point all glory and honor to God. She stands as a mirror reflecting God’s grace and love, teaching us how to live in a way that glorifies Him. Through Mary, we learn to see the greatness of God more clearly and to love Him more deeply.
Mary and the Interior Life
When the angel appears at the Annunciation, the angel does not address Mary by the name we call her. Instead, the angel calls her, “full of grace.” What does it mean to be so full of grace that Heaven uses this moniker as a title? St. Louis De Montfort wrote in True Devotion To Mary, “God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters, and He named it the sea (Mare). He has made an assemblage of all graces, and He called it Mary (Maria).”2 To understand Marian devotion, we must understand grace and how this fullness of grace became a fount of God’s mercy to the world.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines grace as: “The free and undeserved gift that God gives to us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (charisms, the grace of one’s state of life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation.”3
St. Louis De Montfort also wrote, “She was full of grace when she was saluted by the archangel Gabriel, and she was superabundantly filled with grace by the Holy Ghost when He covered her with His unspeakable Shadow.”4 Mary, in consenting to become Mother of God and our Mother, consented to this unique and elevated role to work in complete union with the Holy Spirit to form not just the head of the Church, but also the Body.
The Catechism states, “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation… Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”5
The Church honors Mary with the title Mediatrix of Grace. This does not mean she initiates grace, but rather that we receive the sustenance and care of God’s grace through her loving hands. Our Holy Mother shines the light of God’s grace into our hearts revealing where we most need His attention, mercy, and sustenance. These graces enlighten and strengthen us. They are the tools needed to cultivate a garden of virtues within our souls, to resist the encroachment of sin, and to respond wholeheartedly to God’s salvific plan.
Marian Prayers and Devotions
Understanding our human need to learn through all the senses, the Blessed Mother has appeared throughout the centuries in locutions, visions, and even apparitions to give us art, music, prayers, sacramentals, novenas, feasts, processions, and even pilgrimages. These devotions come with promises of special graces. She knows we all have different learning styles, different vocational paths, different vices to overcome, and different virtues to attain. She understands knowledge enters the heart through experience and longs for us to experience God. Devotions allow us this experience.
Marian Prayers
Prayers form the backbone of any form of devotion. The “Hail Mary,” “The Angelus,” “Regina Coeli,” “Hail Holy Queen,” and various prayers of consecration to Mary are some of the many prayers that devotees often recite. These prayers not only express love and veneration for Mary but seek her intercession.
The Holy Rosary
Mary appeared to St. Dominic in 1214 to give him the Holy Rosary as a weapon against the heresy of his day. Since then, in several apparitions, the Blessed Mother has asked for the recitation of the Rosary to make reparation for the sins of the world, fight heresy, and bring peace. The many miracles of the Rosary and the support of various Popes and Saints have brought the Rosary to the forefront of Catholic devotion to Mary.
The Rosary is not just a prayer of petition and intercession, but also an instrument for spiritual growth and transformation. It invites us to learn from Mary’s example of faith, obedience, and surrender to God’s will. Through this prayer, we are reminded of the power of Mary’s intercession, the grace of God, and the profound love and mercy of Jesus Christ.
The Seven Sorrows
Devotion to the Seven Sorrows utilizes its own special set of prayer beads similar to the rosary. Instead of five mysteries, there are seven meditations on the seven profound sorrows in Mary’s life. The devotion invites the faithful to walk with Mary through these moments and to unite their own sufferings with those of Mary, seeking her intercession and support in their trials.
The devotion can be used in conjunction with the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th or prayed as a special novena. This devotion was revealed to St. Bridget of Sweden in the 14th century but fell out of favor last century. Then, in the Apparition at Kibeho, Rwanda, the Virgin Mary urged Marie-Claire Mukangangous to spread the devotion once more and have the world pray it.
Marian Feasts & Processions
Throughout the year, the Church celebrates eighteen feast days dedicated to Mary. The readings focus on aspects of Mary we see in scripture and then we feast with her at the Eucharistic table. Three of these feast days are considered so crucial by the Church they are Holy Days of Obligation. These include the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (January 1), the Feast of the Assumption (August 15), and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8). These feast days provide a special opportunity for the faithful to show their devotion to her.
Processions, an ancient way of celebrating Feast Days, enable the Eucharist to process from the Church and bless our community, homes, businesses, and land. They often involve statues being carried behind the Blessed Sacrament, reminding us how Heaven lives among us. The primary statue or image following and protecting the Eucharist is always the Blessed Mother who never leaves the mission of her Son. Some processions express our penitence, build reverence and seek intercession, while others are jubilant, expressing our joy and gratitude for God’s salvific work.
The Feast of The Immaculate Heart of Mary
The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was declared a feast on May 4, 1944, by Pope Pius XII. On that day, he consecrated the whole world to her Immaculate Heart in supplication for “peace among nations, freedom for the Church, the conversion of sinners, the love of purity and the practice of virtue.”6 This feast is the culmination of devotional work by many Saints and Doctors of the Church through the ages.
In the readings7 for this Feast, we celebrate her heart’s one and only desire: to see God exalted through all the nations and the complete unity and revelation of her Son’s Kingdom. This victory of Christ’s Kingdom is referred to as the Triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart. Isaiah 61:11 promises, “For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”
Marian Iconography
Many people keep iconography of the Blessed Mother in their homes just as they would keep pictures of other loved ones. Iconography provides a focus for mental prayer. Many icons have particular stories and titles that help us understand Mary or celebrate moments she protected us as her children. The image of Our Lady of Good Counsel miraculously appeared on the Feast of St. Mark, on April 25, 1467. The 4th-century church had been undergoing restoration when funding ran out. The image appeared miraculously, was imprinted on something that should have deteriorated but miraculously did not, and miraculously survived bombings in WWII. This image reminds us how she always works to build Christ’s Church, unifying us to each other, and uniting us to Christ.
The Brown Scapular
According to tradition, Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite friar, in 1251, and gave him a brown scapular, a garment to be worn by religious orders, promising all the grace needed for salvation to those who wear it with faith. Eventually, lay people took the worn-out scapulars cast off by the religious, cut them into small brown cloths, attached strings to hold them over the shoulders, and wore them under their clothes as sacramentals. This devotion has been upheld in Marian apparitions including Fatima. The Brown Scapular has become known as the shield to Mary’s Rosary, the sword. It is also referred to as the garment of grace. Today, many lay people around the world wear the Brown Scapular, often embroidered with an icon of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel holding the baby Jesus, as a sign of their devotion to Mary and a reminder of her promised graces.
The Miraculous Medal
In 1830, the Blessed Mother appeared to a young nun in the Daughters of Charity who chose to remain anonymous until after her death. St. Catherine Labouré saw Mary standing on a globe, her foot crushing a serpent, and her hands extended outward dispersing rays of brilliant light from rings on her fingers. However, some of the rings did not shine. She told St. Catherine that these dull rings were the graces that remained unasked for and unclaimed. She asked St. Catherine, “Have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck. Those who repeat this prayer with devotion will be, in a special manner, under the protection of the Mother of God. Graces will be abundantly bestowed upon those who have confidence.”8
Known only to her superiors, St. Catherine worked within the church to have the medal made and distributed. Those who accuse the Church of stunts to make money off the gullible often point to necklaces of the Miraculous Medal, but they miss the fact that the Church distributed and continues to distribute millions of free medals every year. The devotion grows not from gullibility but from the countless and elaborate miracles, conversions, and healings that regular people have experienced since 1832 when the medal was first distributed in Paris.
Marian Apparitions
Throughout history, there have been numerous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, including John’s vision recorded in the Book of Revelations, like the ones mentioned above which led to significant devotions. She often appears to individuals or groups of people, usually with a message of prayer, penance, and reconciliation. She has even appeared in the United States. Her continued Apparitions have led to miracles, repentance, and conversion as she guides her children, and the pilgrimage sites where she has appeared continue to yield the fruit of conversion.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
One of the most famous Marian apparitions occurred in Mexico in 1531. Mary appeared to a native man, Juan Diego, and requested a chapel be built on the site. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe miraculously appeared on Juan Diego’s cloak as a sign to the local Bishop. Before the image appeared, the indigenous people of the Americas were uninterested in the religion of the foreign monks and priests. After the image appeared, ten million were converted. The priests and bishops of that era could not understand how Our Lady of Guadalupe had communicated and united the hearts of these people with her Son. Only in our century has archeology uncovered exactly how the people of the Americas understood and received her message communicated specifically to their culture through the image. Like the image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has miraculously withstood the march of time despite the frail fabric and withstood explosive attacks on the parish where it is displayed.
Our Lady of Fatima
In 1917, in Fatima, Portugal, Mary appeared to three shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, with a message of prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners and the peace of the world. She confirmed this message through the Miracle of the Sun in which the sun danced in the sky, witnessed by 70,000 people, including many atheists who immediately converted. This apparition led to the First Five Saturdays devotion as well as the Fatima Prayer being added to the Rosary. It is commemorated worldwide on May 13, the anniversary of the first apparition. As a pilgrimage site, Fatima is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year.
Modern Apparitions
In the last century, Our Lady has continued to appear to her beloved children and guide them through the dark times in which we are living. She appeared as Our Lady of All Nations to a young nun, Sister Agnes Sasagawa of the Handmaids of the Eucharist, in Akita, Japan in 1973. She appeared as Reconciler of Peoples and Nations to Maria Esperanza of Betania, Venezuela beginning in 1976. She appeared in San Nicolas, Argentina beginning in 1983 as Our Lady of the Rosary to an ordinary housewife with very little education named Gladys. From 1981-1989, our Blessed Mother appeared to a group of children in Kibeho, Rwanda, one of which later died a martyr during the genocide. Each of these apparitions came with dire warnings for their respective nations and the world. But the messages also came with hope. In every instance, the Blessed Mother called urgently for repentance, prayer, and penance. She especially urged daily rosaries and fasting to be offered as penance for sinners. As at Fatima, she frequently promised that in the end, her Immaculate Heart would triumph.
Living Your Life in Union with Mary
St. Louis De Montfort, in his zeal, developed a method of consecration to Jesus through Mary revealed in his writings True Devotion to Mary and Secrets of Mary. Consecration involves intentional prayers accepting Mary as mother with the goal of a life of union with Mary. On earth, Mary was a woman immersed in daily life, a mother who cared for her family, and a faithful servant who answered God’s call with courage and humility. Her life looked ordinary in many ways, and yet it was extraordinary in her perfect surrender to God’s will. As Queen of the Lord’s Table, her guiding hand and nourishment of grace allow her children to daily conform to God’s plan even when it’s difficult as she lovingly forms us into the Body of Christ. Mary shows us that sanctity is not about extraordinary deeds, but about extraordinary love.
In his book Life in Union with Mary, Rev. Emile Neubert, S.M. writes, “After a short time the soul notices that the Mother unites it more closely to the Son, and this realization strengthens its union with both of them. The soul will make a distinct advance in this double union when it discovers from its union with Mary that imitation of the Mother must consist not so much in reproducing her actions and virtues as in copying her interior dispositions.”9 St. Louis De Montfort emphasizes, “This devotion is an easy, short, perfect and secure way of arriving at union with our Lord, in which the perfection of a Christian consists.”10
Mary is not just a distant figure in heaven; she is a mother who cares for her children and intercedes for them. As we journey through life, let’s devote ourselves to Mary with trust and love, confident she will unite us to her Son. Just as Mary sat with the apostles awaiting Pentecost, confidently expecting the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, Mary now patiently waits for us to entrust ourselves into her care, and enable her to shower us with His Holy Spirit.
- Jeremiah 24:7 ↩︎
- Grignion de Montfort, Louis-Marie. True Devotion to Mary. American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family & Property, The (T F P), 2013. p 9
↩︎ - Catechism of the Catholic Church. Second ed., United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2000, p 881 ↩︎
- Grignion de Montfort, Louis-Marie. True Devotion to Mary. American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family & Property, The (T F P), 2013. p 16 ↩︎
- Catechism of the Catholic Church. Second ed., United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2000, p 252 ↩︎
- https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2024-06-08 ↩︎
- Psalm 95, 100, 64, & 24, Ps 71:8-9, 14-15ab, 16-17, 22, 1 Sam 2:1,4-5,6-7,8abcd, Isaiah 61:9-11, 2 Tm 4:1-8, & Luke 2:41-51 ↩︎
- https://miraculousmedal.org/welcome/the-miracle-of-the-miraculous-medal/ ↩︎
- https://knightlibrary.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/life-of-union-with-mary.pdf p 20 ↩︎
- Grignion de Montfort, Louis-Marie. True Devotion to Mary. American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family & Property, The (T F P), 2013. p 67 ↩︎
