10th Week in Ordinary Time : Saturday, 12th June 2021

In celebrating Mary’s Immaculate Heart, we praise her single-heartedness. It is sin that divides our heart between self and God, making us no longer single-hearted, no longer immaculate of heart.

But today, let us consider another dimension of Mary’s heart. A dimension that helps us realise that she is very much in our league, a dimension hinted at the end of today’s gospel reading, namely, her pondering heart: his mother kept all these things in her heart.

Mary faced a number of situations that she did not understand. We are told explicitly this much at the Nativity and in the episode narrated in today’s gospel reading. Implicitly we are told the same when she hears Simeon’s prediction; when her Son appears to be telling her at the Cana wedding, “this is none of our business”; when she hears Jesus say, “who is my mother?” and most of all at the foot of the cross. But Mary kept moving on without understanding, pondering in her heart.

Her steadfastness, her single-heartedness, was not based on external evidence but on trust. Mary was assured, even when she could not be sure. Being sure and being assured are not the same thing. Being sure speaks of understanding, which rests on evidence. Being assured speaks of an inner stance, which rests on trust.

Lord, I trust You, and I say with me, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your Word”.

End with a Prayer to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Immaculate Heart of Mary,
full of love for God and mankind,
and of compassion for sinners,
I consecrate myself to you.
I entrust to you the salvation of my soul.

May my heart be ever united with yours,
so that I may hate sin,
love God and my neighbor,
and reach eternal life with those whom I love.

May I experience the kindness of your motherly heart
and the power of your intercession with Jesus
during my life and at the hour of my death.
Amen.