Devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary
Our lady is the
mediatrix of all graces trying to pray without her intercession
is like trying to fly without wings.
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
On the Friday following the second
Sunday after Pentecost, June 15, 2007 the Holy Church
celebrates the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On
the following day June 16, 2007, the Church celebrates
the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Since this
devotion is of vital importance, we transcribe below
an exerpt from an article by Plinio Corrêa de
Oliveira in Legionario on July 30, 1944.
Real piety aims to give glory
to God and lead man to virtue. To achieve both ends,
devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a true gift
of Divine Providence to this unfortunate century.
Our Lady is the Mediatrix of all grace. To try to pray
without her intercession is the same as trying to fly
without wings, says Dante. If we want our acts of love,
praise, thanksgiving and reparation to reach the throne
of God, we must place them into the hands of Mary Most
Holy. It would be ridiculous to imagine that devotion
to Our Lady would be a deviation and that we could reach
God more directly by not addressing ourselves to her.
The opposite is true. We can only reach God through
her.
To try to reach Jesus Christ, without Our Lady, on the
false pretext that Our Lady is an obstacle between us
and her Divine Son is as stupid as trying to analyze
the stars thinking that the telescope’s lenses
are an obstacle between us and the stars. Let us look
for grace from the fountain from which it really springs
forth and, with its help, become fortified for all the
austerity that the Holy Ghost demands of us. Undoubtedly,
devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary holds a most
relevant place among these sources of grace.
In apocalypse, chapter 3, verse 8, we find: “I
know thy works. Behold, I have given before thee a door
opened, which no man can shut: because thou hast a little
strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied
my name.” This door, open to the weakness of contemporary
man, is the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
