Building an Immaculata in the Heart
“When we speak of wanting to build an Immaculata in our hearts, it is nothing more than consecrating ourselves to Our Lady and living that consecration.”
When the first Mass was celebrated in the Immaculata in 1908 by the Jesuits, Fr. Kuhlman S.J. stressed in his sermon the importance of building an Immaculata in the heart – one that would last for eternity. What is an “Immaculata” and what does this request signify? A quick look at the Immaculate Conception, whose great feast we celebrate today, can help us answer this, but a short answer could be summarized by the word consecration.
When God exempted Our Lady from original sin by making her the Immaculate Conception, He consecrated her to the task of being the Mother of God. It was a dignity freely given but she still had to live according to that consecration with the help of the plenitude of grace He gave her. God removed her from the grasp of the infernal serpent and made it such that she only belonged to Him. That was a perfect consecration and perhaps the only perfect one that has ever existed apart from Our Lord.
So when we speak of wanting to build an Immaculata in our hearts, it is nothing more than consecrating ourselves to Our Lady and living that consecration. We want our hearts to be immaculate – free of sin, free of evil inclinations, repugnant to our wayward passions and constantly longing to do God’s will. This type of consecration perfects the free will wherein we determine the will to choose only what is good.
How many of us have made the consecration according to St. Louis de Montfort or St. Maximilian Kolbe? Do we live it or was it the mere result of a spark of piety? When we stop to think about it, it is very easy to do all in and through her who is our mother and who is so easy to approach. There is no reason why, especially on this great feast, we cannot reignite this consecration to her. We renew this consecration of all our thoughts, words and actions, even our recreations and enjoyments to her. We want that miraculous medal that rests on our breast so close to our heart to be a reminder that all of Our Lady’s dispositions must seep into our hearts and guide everything we do. This is how we will build an “Immaculata” in our souls as we rebuild her Immaculata – or – as Fr. Schmidberger asked when this project began decades ago: “the physical rebuilding of the Immaculata will be the outward sign of the spiritual rebuilding of our hearts.”
I wish you all a most blessed feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of our country as well as of this project.
