[Rank]
Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary;;Duplex II classis;;5.1;;ex C11

[Rank] (rubrica 196)
Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary;;Duplex II classis;;5;;ex C11

[Ant 1]
My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, * and my horn is exalted in my God: because I have joyed in thy salvation.

[Oratio]
Almighty everlasting God, who hast prepared in the heart of Blessed Virgin Mary a worthy dwelling of the Holy Ghost, grant favourably to us that we may keep the feast of the same Immaculate Heart devoutly, and may be able to live according to thy heart.
$Per Dominum eiusdem

[Lectio4]
From a Sermon by St. Bernardine of Siena
!From sermon 9 on the Visitation
What man, unless secure in a divine oracle, may presume to speak with impure, indeed with polluted lips, anything little or great about the true Parent of God and of man, whom the Father before all ages predestined a perpetual Virgin, whom the Son chose as his most worthy Mother, whom the Holy Ghost prepared as the dwelling place of every grace? With what words shall I, a lowly man, give expression to the highest sentiments of the virginal Heart uttered by the holiest mouth, for which the tongues of all the Angels do not suffice? For the Lord saith: A good man bringeth forth good things from the good treasure of his heart; and this word can also be a treasure. Among pure mortals who can be conceived of as better than she who was worthy to be the Mother of God, who for nine months had as a guest in her heart and in her womb God himself? What better treasure than the divine love itself, which was burning in the Heart of the Virgin as in a furnace?

[Lectio5]
And so, from this Heart as from a furnace of divine ardor the Blessed Virgin brought forth good words, that is, words of the most ardent charity. For as from a vessel full of the richest and best wine only good wine can be poured; or as from a furnace of intense heat only a burning fire is emítted; so indeed from the Mother of Christ no word can go forth except of the greatest and most intense divine love and ardor. It is also the mark of a wise woman and matron to speak few words, but words that are effective and full of meaning; and so seven times, as it were, seven words of such wonderful meaning and virtue are read as having been uttered by the Most Blessed Mother of Christ, that mystically it may be shown she was full of the sevenfold grace. To the Angel twice only did she speak; to Elizabeth also twice; with her Son likewise twice, once in the temple, and a second time at the marriage feast; and once to the attendants. And on all those occasions she always said very little; with this one exception that she spake at length in the praise of God and in thanksgiving, namely, when she said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. But here she did not speak with man, but with God. Those seven words were spoken in a wonderful degree and order according to the seven courses and acts of love; as if they were seven flames from the furnace of her Heart.

[Lectio6]
!From ecclesiastical documents
The liturgical worship, through which due honor is given to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary, and for which many holy men and women have prepared the way, the Apostolic See itself first approved in the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Pope Pius VII instituted the feast of the Most Pure Heart of the Virgin Mary, to be piously and reverently celebrated by all the dioceses and religious families who had asked for it. Afterwards Pope Pius IX added an Office and a proper Mass to it. But an ardent desire and longing, which had arisen in the seventeenth century, grew day by day, that namely, the same Feast, given greater solemnity, might be spread to the entire Church. In 1942, Pope Pius XII, graciously acceding to this wish, and during the terrible war then ravaging almost the entire world, pitying the infinite hardships of men, and because of his devotion and confidence in our heavenly Mother, in solemn supplication earnestly entrusted the entire human race to her most generous Heart, and in honor of the same Immaculate Heart he ordered a Feast to be kept forever with its proper Office and Mass.

[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to John
!John 19:25-27
In that time: There stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. And so on.
_
A Homily by St. Robert Bellarmine, Bishop
!On the Seven Words of Christ on the Cross cap. 12
The burden and yoke which our Lord imposed on St. John, that he take care of his Virgin Mother, was indeed a sweet yoke and a light burden. Who indeed would not esteem it a happiness to dwell under the same roof with her, who for nine months had borne in her womb the Incarnate Word, and for thirty years had enjoyed the sweetest and happiest communication of sentiments with him? Who doth not envy the chosen disciple of our Lord, who in the absence of the Son of God, was given the presence of the Mother of God? yet, if I am not mistaken, we can obtain by our prayers that our most kind Lord, who became man for our sakes and was crucified for love of us, should say to us: Behold thy Mother; and should say to his Mother for each one of us: Behold thy son.

[Lectio8]
Our good Lord is not avaricious of his graces, if only we approach the throne of grace with faith and confidence, with a true and sincere but not a false heart. He who desireth to have us co-heirs in the kingdom of his Father, will certainly not disdain to have us co-heirs in the love of his Mother. Nor will the most benign Virgin herself take it amiss to have a countless number of children, since she hath an heart capable of embracing all of us, and ardently desireth that not even one of those souls should perish whom her divine Son redeemed with his precious Blood, and his still more precious death. And so let us approach with confidence the throne of the grace of Christ, and with tears let us humbly beg of him to say to his Mother for each of us: Behold thy son; and to each one of us concerning his Mother: Behold thy Mother.

[Lectio9]
How secure shall we be under the protection of such a Mother? Who will dare to drag us from her bosom? What temptation can overcome us if we confide in the protection of the Mother of God and of our Mother? Nor will we be the first who have secured such a great favour. Many have preceded us; many, I say, have placed themselves under the singular and really maternal protection of so powerful a Virgin, and no one hath been cast off by her with his soul in a perplexed and sad state, but all who confide in the patronage of such a Mother are happy and contented. For of her it is written: She shall crush thy head, and so those who trust in her shall tread safely upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shall they tread under their feet. Nor doth it seem that he can perish, of whom Christ said to the Virgin: Behold thy son, provided he is not deaf to the words of Christ: Behold thy Mother.
&teDeum

[Lectio93]
!Commemoration of Sts. Timothy, Hippolytus et Symphorianus, Martyrs
Timothy came from Antioch to Rome in the time of Pope Melchiades. He had preached the faith of Christ there for a year, when he was thrown into irons by Tarquinius, Praefect of the city. After suffering a long imprisonment he was brought to the idols to offer them sacrifice. He refused right boldly to commit this great sin, and was thereupon savagely scourged, and his raw body covered with quick-lime. He steadily persisted in his testimony under these and other tortures, and at last was beheaded, (in the year 311.) His body is buried upon the road to Ostia, hard by the sepulchre of the blessed Apostle Paul. On the same day, under the Emperor Alexander, and at Ostia, Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, on account of his illustrious confession of the faith, had his hands and feet bound, and was thrown into a deep pit full of water, and so received the crown of his testimony. The Christians buried him there. Also on the same day, ~(in the year 180,) under the Emperor Aurelian, and at Autun, the young lad Symphorian was tortured in diverse ways for professing the same faith. As he was being led to die, he heard his mother crying out to him My child, my child think of life eternal Look to heaven and to Him That reigneth there! thy life is not being taken away, but changed for a better. And so, for Jesus Christ's sake, he bravely offered his neck to the executioner.
&teDeum

[Ant 2]
O Blessed Virgin * Mary: thou Mother of grace, thou hope of the world, hear us, thy children, who cry to thee.