J.M.J.
An excerpt from "Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Church and in the Carmelite Order" by Emanuele Boaga, O. Carm.
Devotion to the Most Pure Heart of Mary in Carmel
Devotion to the Heart of Mary is already present in Carmelite authors of the fifteenth century. For example, Arnold Bostius and John Paleonydorus speak of Mary’s heart as a symbol of clemency. In the various editions of the Carmelite Missal, from 1551 onwards, in the post communion prayer of Mary’s Presentation, there was a specific reference to Mary’s function: “May the sacraments we have received, O Lord, save us through Mary’s intercession, who with the devotion of her most pure Heart always made a sacrifice acceptable to you.”
In the constitutions of the Florentine monastery of St. Mary of the Angels there is a reminder to priests to preach a homily to the postulants that recalls the nails which pierced the Hearts of both Jesus and Mary and how this should nourish a grateful memory. St Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi lived in this same monastery and she also spoke often in her ecstasies of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. For example on 30th June, 1584:
“And Love followed saying: ‘Offer to the eternal Father the hearts of all creatures, together with the humanity of Jesus and the Heart of the Virgin Mary, which He accepted more than willingly’.” Speaking of the Incarnation and of virginity, “You had an anxious thirst that Mary should be followed by virgins, and each time you took Mary’s pure Heart to examine it, you desired a virgin’s purity so that you could not say of Mary’s Heart, ‘Daughter bring me your heart’, because you always had it and embraced it in your hands.”
In the notes on her “reports” of her ecstasies we read,
“We understood once again that in this night Jesus changed the heart of this blessed soul (i.e. Mary Magdalen de’Pazzi) and gave her that of the Virgin Mary. But we only extracted this secret from her with the greatest of effort and with many prayers for she only said: ‘Jesus has changed my heart’. But after when we said, ‘did he give you the Heart of the Virgin?’, she confessed it was true.”
We can find similar expressions in the writings of Ven. Matthias Labita (1612-1649) and of Ven. Serafina of God (1621-1699). Labita pleads: “Give me, sweet Mother, your Heart if you yearn for my love”, and Serafina recognizes that: “You saw me in the Heart of the Queen of Angels”.
In this we can see the influence of an environment of love which characterises Carmelite mystical experiences. Venerable Michael of St. Augustine in his Pia Vita in Christo (published in Brussels in 1663) indicated the advantages of living always “in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary”. In other words: sure spiritual progress, the absence of any anguish a life pure and innocent in the eyes of God and His angels, preservation from every scruple and every imperfection. In another of his works, Vita angelica, he describes the sweet reality of encountering Jesus and his mother in the hearts of the faithful:
“After a devout Communion, the faithful feel that they have within them the furnace of the most loveable Heart of Jesus in an incomparably more ardent way, and these flames of love have an affinity with those of the most loveable Heart of the beloved Mother. In this way the two Hearts of Jesus and Mary are brought together in a mutual and loving impulse; these interchangeable flames penetrate the heart of the faithful who have received Communion and are responsible for very intimate and loving actions. In fact, since these devout people are almost hidden in Mary’s Heart and through Communion they have received the Heart of Jesus, it happens that Mary’s Heart works in Jesus’ Heart, through the hearts of these persons who are contained in His Heart, and conversely the Heart of Jesus works inside Mary’s Heart. Thus the individual believer’s heart experiences the reciprocal actions of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who together bring about this union of hearts.”
In a typically sixteenth century style, Andrea Mastelloni, the famous Marian preacher from Naples, took his listeners to sublime spiritual heights speaking of Mary as the Queen of our hearts because she is the bride of the Holy Spirit:
“Virgin Mary, our heart and Queen of our hearts, may God save you: Hail! Hail Holy Queen. Queen of our hearts, we bow before your greatness with an act of profound devotion and delighting in being your vassals, with great enthusiasm, we voluntarily place ourselves under your most sweet sceptre. Let us make our home in your realm whose doors we open and to whom we consign a golden basin in tender devotion. Hail Holy Queen. Universal Queen of Heaven and Earth … Queen of all creatures … Queen of Holy Mother Church … how many are there, and who can count them? How many are the realms that you possess? How many are the titles that adorn you? But although we venerate them all, we put them to one side, and we only wish to call you by that title which is dearest and most tender to us, that of Queen of our hearts. Queen of our hearts we greet you. Hail Holy Queen.”
Among the other figures in the Order in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who make reference to Mary’s Heart, and that of Jesus, and whose devotion is attested, we can mention the following. In Italy many nuns chose the term “of the Heart of Mary” as part of their name in religion and towards the end of the seventeenth century novices were encouraged to revere and adore the Heart of Jesus for the Virgin and the Heart of the Virgin for that of Jesus. Many preachers also contributed to the development of the devotion to Mary’s Heart, among whom Andrea Ferraro in 1673, Vito Alberto Mustaccio in 1696 with his ‘The indwelling of the Heart of Mary in the heart of Messina’, and finally Giuseppe Antonio of St. Elias. In Spain we find Maria Escobar (1599-1634), Iago Aranz Gabriel Pons; in Portugal, Gaetano do Vencimento; in Germany, Giacinto of the Mother of God and Eusebius of S. Tiburius. Carlo of St. Teresa, in 1655, inserted a series of greetings to the Heart of Mary in a devotional book for the Confraternity of St. Charles and an anonymous Polish Carmelite, in 1669, added a short treatise in which the Heart of Mary is mentioned several time to the work Diva Virgo Cracoviensis.
We should also note that in the course of the eighteenth century devotion to the Heart of Mary is more and more linked to that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This can be seen in the dedication of altars to the “Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary”, such as that in the church in Syracuse in 1756.
Another detail in the spread of devotion to the Heart of Mary should be emphasised, particularly in the provinces of Upper Germany and Belgium-Flanders. It was the custom to make a heart with the initials “MR” on it, topped by a crown and sometimes underneath the phrase “Love of Carmel” doubtlessly indicating the heart of Carmel which loves the Virgin.
In his room in San Martino, Rome, Blessed Angelo Paoli made two rough mosaics, one a heart with the initials “HJS” and the other with “MR”. These were presumably visual aids to help in the Blessed’s meditation on the two Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Unfortunately, these mosaics were lost when the house of San Martino was refurbished.
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