Finding the Lord when we look for...

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

June 28, 2025: Remembering the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Isaiah 61: 9-11; Luke 2: 41-51

Following the Sacred Heart, we remember the Immaculate Heart - once again a genius of the meaningful and significant tradition, that we can be proud of as our heritage. The Immaculate Heart of Mary stands for a total dedication to God, as a response to the grand design that God has for the salvation history of human kind, so concretely manifested in the heart that we celebrated yesterday.

We observe and behold from the heart of Mary, three lessons to live by...

1. The heart was pierced by sorrows as Simeon predicted. No matter how much it was pierced, how deeply it was hurt, or how cruely it was tortured, Mary's immaculate heart always glowed for the love of God and beat for the fulfillment of God's will.

2. The heart of Mary was absolutely open to the working of the Spirit and it was at the beck and call of the Word. We see this right from the moment she heard the greeting from the angel. Openness to the Spirit is a matter of the heart and Mary exemplifies it to the utmost.

3. The heart of Our Blessed Mother was filled with 'God-thoughts' and that was because she kept everything that was happening, in her heart and pondered over them. She recognised, acknowledged and accepted interventions of God in her life, and found herself being moved and animated by the Lord, the Lord's Word and the Lord's Spirit.

In imitation of this heart of our mother, we are challenged to open our hearts to God, glow for God and for God's love, and allow ourselves to be guided by the Lord; thus we shall experience strongly the presence of the Lord in our hearts, and we shall never lose the Lord from our sight and we shall find the Lord whenever we look for the Lord!